In thinking I’m going to need to make food quality sacrifices due to cost of living

[PinkyU]

My shopping bill has increased by around £24-30/week (family of 5, 3 adults 2 dc, 1 cat), for the same items as we rotate meal plans 3/4 weeks.

we have dietary restrictions and already use at least 2 supermarkets to make the most of bargains, our local cheap supermarket has run out of our usual (85p) oat milk the next one is 30p more expensive and not the right kind.

I can’t buy less, we don’t have much food waste, and now I’m back to school packed lunches for the dc which will increase things again, it feels inevitable I’m going to have to buy lower quality foods. We’ve just had to increase our gas&electric by another £150/month.

How are others coping?

Most of those are not taxes on higher earners, and some are taxes on companies, and the big one that is, income tax, you are wrong about. It was 40% under nearly all of Labour’s time in power and is 45% now.

Higher earners can put a maximum of £4,000 per year into their savings now, so yes, one of us is financially illiterate, but it isn’t me.

Why don't we grind up the poor for an endless supply of cheap nutritional food pellets? Not for human consumption or most humans obviously but grouse season has just started and those birds don't feed themselves you know.

Obviously they would need to be humanely stunned first. Trudging towards the slaughter room in their ghastly Sports Direct clothes while listening to inspirational speeches from Liz Truss and that also-ran Rishi Sunak ought to do the trick.

Some of this though is a reality check.

Many of us now are buying own brand because branded is expensive, but the truth is that branded has always been expensive by comparison, and yet we’ve shied away from own brand because we could afford more expensive.

I bought a bottle of own brand ketchup, brown sauce, mayo and salad cream all for the same price as the bottle of Heinz ketchup would have cost. And then I ask myself why the hell have I been wasting money on branded stuff all these years? Not all, but definitely some.

In terms of saving money I would say: buy frozen over fresh. Chicken has gone up in price but frozen chicken is about a 3rd cheaper than fresh chicken. Ditto frozen veg, and the reality is that the benefits aren’t lost as the veg is frozen soon after being picked.

Batch cook where possible, and freeze. I’ve just bought an instant pot duo crisp which is an instant pot and air friar combined which saves energy.

I would say that home baking is a thing of the past. With butter at over £2 a packet it really is just cheaper to buy a packet of biscuits than it is to bake them, given butter, sugar, flour, and then the energy usage.

And IMO wonky/imperfectly tasty veg is a false economy unless you’re planning to use them same day. IME they don’t last more than a day or two and the quality is definitely reduced. I’d say carrots are the exception but onions and potatoes definitely are not as good and you’ll end up paying more by comparison, and throwing out more.

The inflation baskets are weighted so that the common items account for more than the infrequent ones.

And, again, minimum wage has not increased by inflation, it’s increased by much more than that, as has the tax-free allowance.

And Aldi isn’t that much cheaper they just have good marketing.

I did an Aldi shop recently to check the difference, and when I got home I did a tesco/sainsburys/Mmorrisons comparison and there was only about £3 difference. And as it’s virtually impossible to buy a whole weekly shop in Aldi and you’re going to end up driving to other supermarkets to pick up what you can’t get there the difference is made up in the fuel used to drive between shops.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/790910/20_years_of_the_National_Minimum_Wage_-_a_history_of_the_UK_minimum_wage_and_its_effects.pdf

Page four in particular

@shrodingersvaccine

Complaining that you pay more taxes than you did under Labour is missing the point fucking spectacularly.

But nobody did complain. I corrected someone who made a false claim about taxes.

Your username is a common anti-vax trope; is that why you have it?

I'm not asking anyone to sympathise with me. Apart from offering a tip to others re sharing groceries I've said nothing about my own circumstances.

But I am not feeling sorry for myself, just a bit bemused at others raging about the governments policies on tax which they’re basing on bogus information.

As you’ve now agreed, we can’t put more than £4,000 into our pensions annually, down from £40,000.

On the corporations point, your insinuation that they are owned only by high earners is wrong.

Additional rate tax has gone up from 40% under most of Labour’s term to 45%.

And stop being so infantile with your violin comment, I’m not moaning about the tax.

Is that you Liz Truss?

Actually the super rich don’t earn much in the way of income like most of us on PAYE. They have a lot of wealth which allows them to generate cash to live on.

So it’s a little disingenuous to focus on income taxes. There aren’t many high wealth individuals but there are enough such that they’ve sucked so much out of the economy - and this leaves the rest of us having to foot tax bills.

governments need to tax wealth, not income more.

The OP started this thread for tips on saving on groceries. Does it really have to descend into two posters trading personal insults? Can you take that off the boards and do it in DM’s instead?

It kind of is about the root cause of the mess we are in.
If we only focus on individual’s saving pennies then we lost sight of the broader mess that brought us here (personally I put it down to the increasing wealth divide since the 1980s, much of which is out of sight).

@shrodingersvaccine · it was ever thus.

It’s like those threads where someone posts that they’ve lost a parent and someone comes on and says “I’m so glad my parents are still alive, we went round theirs on Sunday for a roast.”

People can be tone deaf sometimes.

Where are you finding Oat milk for 85p?! I was chuffed last week when I spotted that Tesco's own brand was only £1.20, I've been paying £1.80 for as long as I can remember.

@Believeitornot · it’s a relevant discussion in a different arena. Reality is that the need to make cost savings is something which needs to be addressed in the here and now.

We can argue about taxes and the root cause etc into infinity, but it is not currently within our power to change that, it is however within our power to look at how we as individuals can make cost savings. Here, today.

Eliminate / cut down on meat.
If you are in a city there is an app( oli?) And you can source almost out of date food from.rhe likes of pret!.i dont live near one but someone I know does and we had panninies which you heat up .. all free.
Lentil dahl
Make own hummus
Batch cook
.get a free slow cooker off fb / low cost one? Ours was £5 off fb .

NO. You are probably eating the wrong food, cheap food because good quality protein and fruit and veg is more expensive. Parents feeding their children and then 'making do' with a bowl of cereal or a cup of tea and a biscuit and malnourished and likely to end up overweight.