AIBU to find food prices bewildering?

[GuyMontag]

Like I think most people I've tended to always keep a weather eye on food prices, buying here and there, near work, near home, maybe a wee top up in b&m/home bargains from time to time, kind of aware of shelf prices, getting things cheap when I can.

But fuck me, not any more. Prices are all over the place now. Massive increases, but really uneven across the shops, so that I don't know what to do or how to buy . All I know is that everything is scary expensive compared to even a few months ago and I can't shop around it.

Anyone else?

[Crikeyalmighty]

@hangingbagger I totally agree. I'm buying 2kg of top notch steak mince from good farm shop at £11.95 and dividing it into 4- no different to sainsburys etc but better quality. I do all my shop at Waitrose and M&S with a bit of farm shop for veg and lots of yellow stickers and freeze and am spending no more than people on here seem to who shop at Tesco's and sainsburys - I guess one difference is I don't have kids at home anymore and I don't buy snacks/cakes/lollies etc (never did) - I do cook but don't bake . I am lucky though that I have flexibility to shop post 6pm , have a good freezer and good shops that are easily accessible and I know that's not the case for everyone . I have been down the route of using Lidl/Aldi but found whilst some stuff was fine, other stuff was poor quality and not much '3 for £8' etc- M&S and Waitrose are no different- some things are actually good value, other things aren't- anyone who has flexibility though I urge you to go yellow sticker shopping at the posher stores post 6! And buy a cheap freezer if you don't have much freezer capacity .

[PeloFondo]

@IamTheBridge it's crazy. But then other stuff will be cheaper. The only way to get the best prices is a calculator, and shopping in about 5 different places as the prices seem to randomly change daily
So M&S for pizza, but Tesco for Aldi price match, but Aldi for conditioner, b&m for toiletries.. until next week when it all changes

[quiteinfuriating]

@PuppyMonkey

We like Anchor spreadable butter in our house and I put it in my shopping basket for Prime Morrisons delivery as usual last week - £4.25.

For a tub of butter?

Lurpak spreadable is now £5
I'm buying Aldi Norpak. Seems to be the same stuff!

Also I've ended up doing 2 supermarket deliveries this week. Dog food and Diet Coke is so much cheaper in Asda that it's worth paying the delivery charge, when I have a Tesco pass!

[Arenanewbie]

We started cutting on cheddar, mainly for health reasons so I’ve discovered that pasta with vegs and Aldi’s soft cheese actually tasted equally nice. Frozen vegs are staple for a while, it helps to reduce waste enormously. I also weight portions, mainly to reduce waste again but it’s also good for financial reasons. Luckily DD is not keen on pizza, she prefers pasta. I do shopping all over but we are very lucky to have different supermarkets near places we visit anyway like work and college.

[sóh₂wl̥]

I've got hundreds of unripe tomatoes on my plants outside that just stubbornly won't go red 🤣

Have you tried old method of warm window sill in closed bag with apple or banana ?

[WimbyAce]

It is madness, toilet rolls, butter, cheese, baked beans, ridiculous prices! A pack of 4 Branston have gone from £2 to £2.75 and then were £2.99 last week. Cheese is just horrendous, Morrisons savers were charging over £3 wtf?! Butter morrisons were doing a spread for £1 but never in stock. Toilet rolls they had a pack of 9 of their own brand for around £3.30 which I thought was good but they are now over £4. Gonna switch to Lidl for toilet roll. Also trying out Lidl washing powder this week as Daz is now £5.

[the80sweregreat]

I bought Six loo rolls out of Morrison's for 1.95 ,it's not the quilted posh ones, but a plumber once told me cheaper the better as the thicker rolls can block up the drains where I live!
They don't last as long.
Savers are cheap , but they tend to stock the perfumed rolls and they are horrible
Going into town involves car parking fees or bus fares home, so it's not always cost saving not using a supermarket.

[MrsFezziwig]

@Darcy101

Found a great app to check prices - easy to use.

trolley.co.uk

Thanks for that - I used to use MySupermarket until it folded, didn’t realise there was an alternative.

[MrsFezziwig]

@sóh₂wl̥

I've got hundreds of unripe tomatoes on my plants outside that just stubbornly won't go red 🤣

Have you tried old method of warm window sill in closed bag with apple or banana ?

Even just putting them in the fruit bowl works pretty well. I think it’s a bit late to hope they will ripen on the plant.

[Lovesplasticstraws]

I wonder if there is up to date international price comparisons to support the believe that UK is still cheaper than rest of Europe.
The way things have risen by 20-50% any stats from last year would be obsolete.

[verdantverdure]

I tried to do a big shop in our local Sainsbury's yesterday but half my list is still outstanding because of the number of times I said to myself "I'm not paying THAT!" I can try Lidl and Asda later on today, but this will involve petrol and also possibly parking costs. (I'm unfamiliar with their set up.)

I think I've only been keeping anywhere near budget up to now by running the cupboards and freezer down.

I can't remember anything like this before.

[the80sweregreat]

My friend went to Australia five years ago ( long before covid anyway) and she was moaning about the cost of food over there back then.
That's when things here food prices wise was not as bad.
I think we are just not used to higher prices for basics and what with everything else it's all come at once.
I feel for young people with babies or children to feed. It must be a nightmare.

[itwasntmetho]

My friend gets a lot of things on the Olio app.
I haven't used it because there are only 2 of us here and I'm a vegetarian so I haven't noticed as big a difference yet (apart from my Lidl hash browns which I almost didn't buy).
She often gets bread and fruit on there.

[FrancescaContini]

@quiteinfuriating

Lurpak spreadable is now £5
I'm buying Aldi Norpak. Seems to be the same stuff!

Also I've ended up doing 2 supermarket deliveries this week. Dog food and Diet Coke is so much cheaper in Asda that it's worth paying the delivery charge, when I have a Tesco pass!

Aldi own butter is £1.90 for 250g.

[Crikeyalmighty]

@Lovesplasticstraws it's relative to wages too and other social factors, so it's a bit more complicated- when we were in Denmark food was indeed more expensive (just) but wages considerably higher and for those with childcare (which is minuscule compared to uk) -

Strange thing though was that booze ( from supermarkets ) was cheaper than UK as were a lot of toiletries and also utilities cheaper (just) and no council tax

[AlwaysGinPlease]

YANBU

We get ours delivered weekly. Never seen such small deliveries cost so much. It shocks me every week.

[fyn]

@Lovesplasticstraws The Grocer is reporting that our food inflation prices are pretty average for Western Europe and much less than a lot of the world that is facing 20% inflation on food

• www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg-prices-and-promotions/uk-food-inflation-vs-the-rest-of-the-world-how-britain-compares/669057.article
  
  In early 2020 households spent on average 8% of their income on food in the UK where as somewhere like Spain was already spending 15% of total income on food.

[Twillow]

I work in food retail. I don't actually know who is responsible for the increases - whether it's the manufacturers or the shops themselves. I suspect it's mainly manufacturers as all the raw ingredients are certainly being reported as higher e.g. butter has risen 13% this year, oil, wheat etc. And fuel to run factories and deliver goods. But I definitely see prices regularly increasing - Stilton from £2.15 last week now £2.30 for example. And also pack sizes decreasing - if you see a fiddly 135g for example, you can bet it used to be 150g!
My tips - ditch brands, don't impulse shop (menu plan), look at the price per 100g etc. And there's a shedload of cleaning stuff that's unnecessary - fabric softener for example (you really don't notice the difference without it and most is made of evil stuff, look it up!). A lot of what we buy is conditioned into us, either by family traditions and/or marketing.

[verdantverdure]

@AlwaysGinPlease

YANBU

We get ours delivered weekly. Never seen such small deliveries cost so much. It shocks me every week.

I know, you go "Is that it? Is that al my £100 bought?!"

[girlfriend44]

@Arenanewbie

I was at Aldi today and 4 pints bottle of semi skimmed milk was £1.55. I came back home and googled Waitrose - £1.50 WTF????
New potatoes and beetroot are both currently on offer at M&S and they are the cheapest in town.

That's cheap for milk.

[Helenloveslee4eva]

@LunaLoveLemon

That’s it. Cloth wipes for all wees from now on. Toilet roll is for poos only!

But then you have to wash them and laundry costs go up !

[AlwaysGinPlease]

@verdantverdure yes! One week a while back I actually thought there was a pallet missing. I asked the driver and he said no that's it. And it was. Half the shopping for the same bloody price 🙄

[Bubblebubblebah]

@Lovesplasticstraws

I wonder if there is up to date international price comparisons to support the believe that UK is still cheaper than rest of Europe.
The way things have risen by 20-50% any stats from last year would be obsolete.

Compared to wages etc, it still is at least where my family is. Yes, chicken in Tesco is 30p kg cheaper currently (which I think it's because of the range because they don't fully correspond on cheap ones and it used to be more there than here) but nmw is like £3.50. and no. Property isn't super cheap there😳

[Bubblebubblebah]

@Twillow it's bit of snowball effect isn't it.
Raw materials up, costs of processing up, cost of transport up, cost of selling it up. Everyone has to add a bit and it just snowballs

[Furrybutts]

It's the same at Costco too.
I've always bought bulk of loo rolls, laundry tablets, Pepsi Max, Orange Squash, anti bac wipes, dog food etc.

This week it's all gone up so much that it's not worth buying most of it!

Only thing I found that was still cheaper in there was wild bird seed.