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 😭

This is just the beginning. Cut another couple of holes on your belt before the Autumn.

Wish cream cheese was that cheap here 😞

The cause for the price hike is that the cost of fuel has doubled which impacts everything that has to be transported.

@Sirzy that's exactly what I thought with the sausages example.

That's more than my milkman charges!! That's my luxury.

I do scan and go at Sainsburys and spotted a couple of things came up dearer on the scanner than the shelf price. It was "only" a few pence, but they were my few pence, you can bet your life I mentioned it and got them changed!! When I told DH he seemed to think I was mad for doing so!!

East Croydon- certainly nowhere particularly affluent 🤣

I have stopped buying all the 'extras' like chocolate, crisps, anything nice basically. Just down to meat, veg, bit of dairy and bit of bakery. Going to help my diet of course, except when my partner decides he wants to smoke again as then I get chocolate too, but still.. oh and I am buying everything as cheap as possible. But it's going to get worse eventually.

If you're still able to buy in m&s though, you ain't struggling.

My supermarket shop is now £120-130 a WEEK. I don't know how we're all coping.

True. Food, including good quality, has always been cheaper here.
But also, my perception, in other European countries, healthier food is dominant. Unlike in the UK.
Mindset, cultural, no idea.
I'd like to hope cheap unhealthy food and soft drinks will gradually disappear but I fear, in reality, they will be consumed even more. Not good for the nation's health.

Fuel also has been cheaper here too. Not sure about household energy comparison.

So we are currently catching up on allocating a higher proportion of household funds to food and fuel.
However these two are also now rising in the rest of Europe (anecdotal evidence from friends).
Maybe spending on travel, days out and eating out, going to events etc will not be as popular with the British public and there will be an adjustment of expectations.

Agree we are just coming in line with other European countries, where its a given you pay more for food.

BUT those countries also have more generous social welfare to balance this. In Germany child benefit is 200/month and childcare is practically free.

Ukraine, Covid effects and Brexit are all ultimately driving this cost of living surge. It ominously feels like just the beginning though.

The knock on effects of this will see less disposable income for the majority of people which will result in a huge downturn in spending which will lead to many independent businesses struggling even more, particularly hospitality as they’ll face rising costs and falling customer numbers. Retail will take a massive hit, the breadth of choice we are accustomed to will dwindle.

As food becomes more expensive people will look at cheaper alternatives which are usually the unhealthy choices, also those already at rock bottom will start skipping meals or have the bare minimum so malnutrition becomes a bigger problem. Crime and theft will start rising as people struggle to get by, food theft especially.

Theres an article on Sky news about the government’s current approach to us ‘living with Covid’ and how there may need to be a rethink when we have an autumn wave, the impact of repeated massive infections to the economy and wages would be catastrophic, it has the potential to further damage supply chains and raises the question of how do we measure the effects both short and long term to our health and well-being. Something has got to give.

news.sky.com/story/government-may-need-to-rethink-its-strategy-on-living-with-covid-if-summer-surge-continues-12643966

Once our finely tuned economic cogs start to grind to a halt it’s going to become very difficult to map out a recovery, so what exactly is the answer? Universal Basic Income for everyone?

There will have to be shift to more if a mainland living. Because pps are right. The prices won't come down, at least not considerably.
I have family and friends in number of Eu countries. How can they afford the food which was always more expensive than in UK? They live in spaces that allow it. It's notmal for kids to share until one leaves, if getting extra space would mean no food budget. Many of my friends had/have sofa beds in living rooms if kids needed seperate spaces. It's not viewed as a poverty, it's just different priority. Of course if someone could easily afford all the food AND all the space they did, but teenagers sharing and parents in living/sleeping room was just never some massive deprivation in my circles.

I guess, people might have to start preparing for things like this here?

I'd rather go without.There won't be anything good in those sausages.

I know the price increases are really hard to swallow, but food prices have been artificially low for so long now, we have forgotten that in the past they used to be a much higher proportion of household budgets.

Doesn't help, I know.

I think people are just going to really narrow their palates and range of items 😟

Butter. I've been paying £1.49 for ages, then suddenly there's nothing under £1.99 and most are over £2.

I thought I got a bargain by buying Polish butter in Morrisons, "MASLO" for £1.75 then at home noticed it's 200g instead of the standard 250g.

Leftbutcameback · Today 08:34
I'm sure I remember hearing that people used to spend a third of their income on food, but pay a lot smaller proportion on housing / utilities.
I can't understand these massive price jumps - what's the cause or have they been holding back all of the costs / normal price rises and now they are catching up?

The increases are a consequence of the disruption of the last 2 years - you cannot close down global economies to that extent and then open them up and expect everything to go back to normal overnight. The war in Ukraine has exacerbated an already bad situation - Brexit hasn't helped either.

Some horrible attitudes out there aren’t there ? Next time remind them that benefit claimants are tax payers too and how you spend your money is your own business.

Yes I've noticed this too. We have now culled every single small luxury off the shop, including the 33p Tesco value chocolate 🍫 which I used to keep in the cupboard for low days.

I've shifted gears slightly and decided now is a good time to lose weight so I'm sometimes having soup for dinner and just cooking for DH and DCs which lowers the amount of meal ingredients I need to buy.
We never bought lots of processed stuff but the hardest bit for us is needing to buy gluten free for DH which was already expensive, so the price increase on everything else makes a big difference.

Our shop used to be around £45 a week and had shot up to around £70. Managed to get it back down to £56 this week. Last week I had to put shoe polish and black tights back at the till even though I really needed them for a job interview. Cancelled the interview in the end as I would have turned up looking a state and couldn't afford the train fare after the food shop had worked out so expensive.

DS badly needs a pair of trainers for home. Poor lad is having to hide his PE trainers in the bottom of his bag to bring them home every day as he said everyone asks him why he's bringing them home/why doesn't he have home trainers. I cannot afford to get him some until after rent day. My bras are all fucked, with wires sticking out and stabbing me in the side all day but I can't afford to replace them right now.

And to top it off I'm about to sit down and try and negotiate our electricity debt repayments down as we can't afford to clear the debt until Sept when I can up my work hours again.

It's really tough at the moment and it's keeping me up at night.

Salmon. Bloody hell. It was mine and DD's weekly Sunday dinner treat.

Exactly this.
input costs have rocketed. Fertiliser, fuel, vets cost (drugs & medication up in price) etc all way up in price this year.
We are yet to see an increase in the sale of our livestock. Prices are roughly the same as last year. The farmer is not benefiting from the Increase in supermarket prices. It’s going to be a tough year for many.

While I appreciate that costs have risen I think some manufacturers are just jumping on the bandwagon. Especially those lower priced goods that have gone up 50% or so. They think we won't notice. We do.

Done my weekly shop yesterday that usually sets us back around £55. Was just shy of £80 and literally the only treat I bought that wasn’t on my usual list was a pack of pineapple fingers and a pricier loo roll as they didn’t have the usual one we get.

I came home and said to my partner that I couldn’t imagine how difficult people who earn less than us must be finding things, single parents especially, if we’re struggling and we have two incomes.

Sadly I don't think many of the farmers are benefitting from this price increase as their costs have skyrocketed e.g. fuel for tractors doubled, cost of fertiliser tripled, animal feed costs increased...
www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/25/dairy-farmers-milk-production-inflation-prices-costs

But the lower priced goods will have less margin for absorbing the increases. When the profit margin is bigger as it will be on a lot of the premium products they have more wiggle room

Yes Heinz tinned macaroni cheese which BB loves has gone from £1 to £1.80 and I may have to end my long term relationship with Lurpak as it's now an eye watering £7 for a tub. I also noticed the other day that Dorothy Perkins have banged their prices right up. I got a pop up on my phone for a pair of sandals that I bought in spring for £28 (not in the sale) that are now £40!

Food prices are utterly ridiculous! We’ve noticed it lots too - recently I went to the local shop for a few bits and noticed the dog food which has been 75p a can for years, is now £1.15

I do wonder if it is actually inflation or if this is just a huge ploy by food retailers to profiteer off there being rising costs

We are a family of 6 and our weekly shop was around £80, it’s now over £100 and we are buying the same things. How on earth are people who could only just manage before, managing now.

We used to donate to food banks, just buying a decent meal and a couple of treats weekly and popping them in the food bank trolley, but now we can’t afford to……