AIBU TO BE SHOCKED BY THIS INCREASE?!

[Kate0902900908]

So I’ve just gotten over the fuel increase, made some changes and become more aware of the energy I’m using both at home and car.

Went to Lidl today. I buy 2 tubs of cream cheese a week, Lidl Goldessa Classic Cream Cheese 200g. It’s been 65p for as long as I can remember. Today shop assistant was sorting shelves and organising labels ect. New label £1.19. I asked if that was the price of the 65p cream cheese to which she said Yh, it’s not changed yet it’s 75p now but will be £1.19.
HOW? How? Can something almost double in price? Also when I was it 75p 😵‍💫

I noticed the other cheeses all being marked up too some by 80p-£1. Add this increase to even 1/3 of a shop and it’s going to be unmanageable!
Has anyone else noticed prices on things they buy almost doubling?
What is the plan to keep costs down?
Where do we go from Lidl’s own soft cheese 😭

I just saw Luroack for £7.25 in Tesco 😱

I have stuck with delivery of organic fruit and veg from a local farm. It's 17.85 a week. Good selection and they haven't put prices up. I eat a lot of soups with pulses. Still have to buy dairy,meat and fish for teenagers and it's very hard to make the money stretch. Considering learning to fish might be useful

My husband thought I was a bit crackers when I started growing my own obsessively earlier in the year, but we haven't had to buy salad now this summer, eating it daily, and it does help a bit.

Not least from the fact that we prefer organic veg, and it helps to have a bit of genuinely fresh food every day.

@VeganVampire yes we've had half our subsidy early this year. But even more worrying is the drought, never known the ponds so low or crops struggle so much this early in the season.

Things like lurpack used to be a once a year treat though (Christmas) not an everyday staple.
I think more people will start to come around to older ways again. Some foods will go back to being occasional treats or only eaten seasonally.
I know the mumsnet chicken is a joke on here but the roast chicken Sunday, leftover chicken risotto/pie Monday and chicken & veg soup Wednesday isn’t done by many.
Also using all your oven when it’s on.
I have a weightloss Instagram and post healthy recipes and so many people are amazed by how much I cook but it’s just way my mum and grandma did. The baked oats I had today for breakfast got cooked Sunday when oven was on.

The reality is we have had incredibly cheap food for a number of years. We have been utterly spoilt with how cheap milk products have been and good quality meats.

I used to live in south America where the price of an avocado was more than it is for one here. This is not sustainable,where an avocado is cheaper half the world away from where it was grown! This was real pricing,not relative to wages. Relative to wages,avocados were 7 times higher than here.

We need to understand the days of overconsumption and reliance on cheap food is over. We need to completely rethink our diets and attitude to food.

We have to eat less meat,less fish ( as seafood is not sustainable) and concentrate on have good quality once a week instead of mediocre everyday

We also need to recognise that this is the future,not a blip. It will never go back to what it was as the environment and industry can not go back

Its utterly depressing for most. And I do not know how people will cope.

I expect you are right. Then our government needs to put some things in place. Like local food growing schemes, capping price on essential foods, at the moment there seems no plans and ever escalating prices.

Things like lurpack used to be a once a year treat though (Christmas) not an everyday staple.

butter used to be a once a year treat?

@1nsertusername has it right. Similarly with petrol. Its not going to mysteriously get better and I dont think the Govt will wave a magic wand. those on high salaries wont be affected but those on what were 'better' wages are going to get pulled down. Can see those CPC car deals and extra holidays being binned.

Supermarkets are arseholes. They’re totally exploiting the situation. Something needs to be done, capitalism is now out of control.

Yes. We weren’t poor at all. Semi detached house, working parents. 80s childhood. I don’t know anyone who had butter daily. It would have been margarine. Lurpack was a luxury brand for Christmas. Baking was stork.
Likewise we’d only have strawberries in season. Things were shared not buying children a cake or chocolate bar each etc.

I get buying things in season (out of season strawberries don't taste like anything anyway!) But I think it's quite unusual to only have butter at Xmas.

I don't mind eating things in season or sharing cakes (who buys their kids a whole cake each btw?!) But calling butter a luxury for Xmas is a stretch.

I think it's very sad that we should all work 40hrs a week and not be able to afford the basics, which butter is. Let's not dress it up as something special.

Food is the area where I have noticed inflation the most. Not individual items particularly as I haven’t needed to pay attention. But the total shop is up a lot - what used to be “ooh that’s a bit expensive - I suppose it’s because I’ve stocked up on x this week” has become the normal total. An expensive week now is £20 more than it used to be.

I’m going to have to start taking steps to cut down.

The other main area of increase for us has been broadband - I’m in a 2 year contract with BT which allows them to increase the charge by CPI +3.4% each April. Fortunately have not been hit with fuel increases yet due to having installed solar panels, driving an electric car and being on fixed tariffs for a bit longer. It will come in due course - although apparently the predictions for gas and electricity are for only a small increase in January, then starting to fall back from next April.

I believe the £400 help with fuel bills for every household comes in 6 monthly instalments from October to March.

Butter is not a Christmas treat fgs. It’s not 1939.

it’s much much better for you than margarine. What are we supposed to be using on our bread then? Oven drippings?

I find it amazing that there are still people out there saying this has nothing to do with Brexit. Yes of course Ukraine c19 etc. But we have it worse because of Brexit. Here people, from the government itself: committees.parliament.uk/work/1497/labour-shortages-in-the-food-and-farming-sector/

Some famous person I can't remember the name of had said, even when presented with evidence, people don't change their minds, you just need to wait until they die off, and so new ideas can find room. Hoping for the day when the percentage of sanity tips back in favour of the single market.

We use to eat really well, good balanced diet but now more and more beige/processed food is creeping in. I don't worry about me and my husband as we're making the choice to eat it but I feel guilty for my children. That's with both of us working, I'm worried for the next year.

Some people seem to be embracing this as if it is fine. It really is not.
If prices are going up, then wages need to be much higher.

No saying don’t eat butter but to me lurpack is a luxury brand definitely a treat not a weekly staple. I don’t eat butter or margarine though.

We weren't that well off growing up and we always had anchor butter.
The difference is that we didn't go through it that fast. We didn't have toast or sandwiches every day and a cake was baked once a week so a block of butter could last a week.

Bloody hell. I am from what some consider poorer EU country and even we had butter as an every day food...

I think more people will start to come around to older ways again
While I still find odd that cooking is considered luxury here, I find comments like that sad.
We shouldn't be coming round the older ways, we should be thriving forward. There will be a generation forever known as making life worse for the next one and telling them to shut it and embrace it....

But we have enjoyed the benefits of capitalism for a number of years,we can't be surprised when the other side of capitalism come to into play.

We have all benefited from the power of supermarkets to dictate pricing along the supply chain. Now we are seeing the way they have been treating suppliers all along. Supermarkets need stable profits,they cant squeeze anymore money from the down stream suppliers,so its the upstream users suffering now.

It's a perfect storm,everything has come at once. Food prices,along with fuel and interest rate rises.

People dont know what to do or how to do it. And the worst part,for me,is we dont have any leaders who can help get us through this.

The most useful person right now seems to be Martin Lewis as he is offering people genuine ways to manage household budgets so people can survive. That's the thing,survive!

This country is about to see a huge huge difference between those surviving and those thriving.

We have been let down by those we trusted with power,those who have the education and intelligence and opportunity that the majority will never have. Everyone should be angry,we deserve better but where are the people who and willing and able to make a true difference.

The immediate future is not a stable one,and we need to mentally prepare for this.

You can get frozen tuna steak in lidl for £3.29
Actually that’s the thing - I’m in the sticks and I don’t live anywhere near either a Lidl or Aldi. On the plus side I can use the local farm shop for a lot of fruit, veg and other things like bread, milk etc. which is good value

Maybe the price increases will make us all shop more wisely and stop food wastage. Over ⅓ of all food produced globally goes to waste. The UK throws away around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste in a single year – even though 8.4 million people in the UK are in food poverty.

Exactly. That is the trouble with the make do and mend approach. It's time for creative solutions,not meekly accepting a return to poverty conditions for the majority.

Don’t want to derail on butter point but butter is £1.75 250g in Asda. Lurpack is £2.50. So to me Lurpak is a luxury item not a weekly staple But yes I’m sure butter was £1.50 until fairly recently, I do buy it sometimes for baking.