Anyone else want to scream 😱 about prices

[Cupcakeicecream]

Anyone else feel like screaming 😱. The smart meter is now the enemy. I'm constantly topping up the meter. Yes it's prepayment they won't change it I've tried and tried. The budget just keeps getting tighter. It's hard to find cheap food no offers things constantly out of stock. You need a bank loan for just to buy toliet roll 🙄 I don't have the heating on constantly I try to just heat one room with a heater. Radiators are barely on an hour here and there to keep away damp. Dryer needs to be used in in emergency since the house is colder so clothes aren't drying properly. I use an airer and it's constantly raining and windy to use the washing line. Food budget is through the roof food is smaller and more expensive and always out of stock honestly what a joke.

You can freeze dough. We usually make double or tripe batches at a time. You can freeze grated cheese.

Take dough out the freezer in the morning. Roll it out in the evening. Put on some ready grated cheese direct from the freezer. Takes 5 mins to make with a bit of tomato sauce. Seriously. Its less faff than lots of other food. If you prep everything and shrove it in the freezer it saves masses of time in the evening.

Its one of the quickest meals we have regularly. I think the only thing that tends to be less effort is hotdogs in a jar, with tinned chilli.

My local shop is a Waitrose, they take the absolute piss with their prices 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️🤯

Hmm. Something to do with supply and demand changes perhaps?

I dunno. Its difficult to work this out, what with loads of people complaining about price increases.

You don’t need baby wipes! Go eco friendly and use a flannel with lotion/antiseptic wipe on it then wash weekly.

What do you think people did before baby wipes were evented?! hmm

My local shop is a Waitrose, they take the absolute piss with their prices

So's mine. The sandwiches are a ridiculous price and the salads have got smaller while the price goes up. And that's noticeably smaller, not just a few grammes.

Waitrose is not a budget supermarket. If you want to pay someone to make you a sandwich, package it and transport it to a shop locally to you then of course it's going to cost more - fuel prices are up, price of foodstuffs is up, wages are on the rise...

Thank you @SpidersAreShitheads (wholeheartedly agree with the username by the way, as well intended as they are😝) I'm off to look at Tails now for our dogs!

PP upthread who mentioned organic butter. I switched from Sainsbury's own brand to Waitrose when Sainsbury's went up to £2.95 and Waitrose was still £2.55. Went to buy some yesterday and it had shot up to £3.15 - 60p in one week! Have just seen that Asda sell Yeo Valley organic for £2.25, but they don't have the unsalted one. Wonder how long before that shoots up too.

Markies ketchup good. 85 pence their brown sauce not very nice

their baked beans lovely 45pence

their butter £1.75

their tomato soup I think is 55 pence. Better than Heinz

I also use TooGoodToGo app

sainsbos Hubbard tinned toms are very good

the six veg and fruit at Aldi very good

Also use company store. Anyone can join. It doesn’t cost to join

most big supermarkets put their goods there

markies Ocado Tesco sainsburys dale farm

I used to cook from scratch but it’s so hard to cook from budget ingredients on a time constraint, everything hearty takes ages. It’s frustrating being time poor and poor poor at the same time. I’m out of the house 7:15-6:45, single parent, not a great wage, and everything that costs less in money costs more in time. I don’t have time to take longer over every chore and cooking!

I hate it, I have a stoma and I have cancer. I can’t afford fresh fruit and veg! I need to eat properly and I need to use the washing machine and tumble at least three times a week. It’s terrifying.

Freeze the dough and the grated mozzarella. Take dough out in the morning, it'll be defrosted by dinner time.

@GonnaGetGoingReturns
What do you think people did before baby wipes were evented?!

Why do you think some children were dirty and infested with lice? Its because they didnt have mothers who could spend all day boiling water and doing the laundry by hand.

There are reasons why people today need disposable wipes; they include things like living on the top few floors of a tower block where they get charged more for water, because of the cost of pumping it to the higher floors.
Not having access to a working washing machine or laundrette.
Not being able to afford the energy to run the machine they have more than twice a week.
Not being able to dry clothes - at least when women had to heat water using a coal fire it also provided the warmth to dry the clothes.

I've about cut back as much as I can. The only thing I don't skimp on is meat but I buy in bulk from a local butcher and it lasts us ages and I really bulk it out in our meals.
Our problem with food bills is that we have two kids with intolerances, so bread and milk alone for them is £25 a week. That's without anything like sandwich fillings, cakes, that all have to be dairy free and gluten/ wheat free.
I've found myself going without now apart from evening meal, or trying to get a meal at work (left overs so free)

I get round that by batch cooking, using a slow cooker, or cooking later in the evening for the next day/few days so you only have to do things like rice/pasta straight after work when you're hungry and need to eat but can't face or don't have time for proper cooking. Or eat quick things like omelettes or stir fries.

I don't like most ready made food so it seems like a good solution to me.

Lidl do fruit and veg boxes for £1.50. Asda reduce their bread to 10p at the end of the day. All the supermarkets have yellow stickered items in the evening. At this time of year there are still apples and sweet chestnuts to be collected. We're a vege household and eat lots of dahl, stir fries, soups and stews which are all cheap, nutritious and filling. If you're able to grow some of your own food and keep chickens this will keep the cost down too.

mini could you give up bread and milk? No one drinks milk in our house and bread although a very cheap filler is not necessarily essential

I think people will have to do what my mum did as a single mother in 1970s:

• Made her own bread from scratch (no bread maker!)
• vegetarian apart from the odd chicken. She used to get a vegetarian loaf thing in a can, granose etc?
• we did have biscuits and fruit but had an apple tree so she picked and puréed that into Kilner jars.
• camping in UK or staying at friends/relatives houses in countryside:seaside when they were away
• no central heating, gas fires and calor gas stoves
• no showers!
• pay phone
• letting rooms or top half/almost half of 4 bedroom house
• museums, art galleries and parks but free of these for entertainment.
• made my school summer dresses (checked)
• cakes were a rarity - birthdays and made and we did make Queen fairy cakes/gingerbread men, pancakes for Shrove Tuesday. My mum did make her own cheesecake, lemon meringue pie, a Len Deighton biscuit cake with cream and booze (ask me for recipe, no cooking!).
• treats like toys were treats and either gifts or bought from second hand shop! There’s a local charity pop up kids clothes and toys shop! I bought my nephew a huge snapping shark toy there, virtually new!

we did do other things where you paid! The local adventure playground in our big park was free or very very cheap (10p?!) but on a hot summers day DM and or her friend made picnic and let us play there, almost all day!

Oh bullshit @TheInebriati No one in any income bracket needs overpriced bits of damp plastic in order to keep their kids clean and healthy. Poverty causes real problems and disadvantage, this isn't one of them.

OMG you are so ignorant. Pray you never have to live in a hostel.

I am sitting working from home in the cold. Going to have to put my heating on. Travel costs to the office are also prohibitive.

Re: Branded products being 'better quality'.

I think you actually need to have a real think about what brands spend money on that isn't spent on own brands.

Brands spend money on advertising. They spend money on tv product placement. They spend money on premium positions in supermarket aisles (thats why they are the ones at eye level and end of aisles). They aren't just put there for free by supermarkets.

Brands will also charge more, because it plays to this psychology that they are somehow 'better' and a more premium product in terms of content. Its not necessarily true

Once you wrap your head around the fact that your literally paying to not look down, and a huge percentage isn't going on whats in the product, it makes it look like a very different prospect.

If you actually look at ingredients, it can be surprising in terms of what you actually pay for.