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.

We dont buy fish or meat much anymore. One pack of chicken thighs a week and small mince. We have a lot of homemade soups and currys in slow cooker.

Cat food is expensive and the frozen bags of veg ive always bought for £1 and used with everything are now £1.20 or £1.50.

Im only buying oats for breakfast and having this with banana and raisins which are still ok to buy and filling. I throw oats in with the mince and grated carrots to bulk up and allow me to freeze half or use for my lunch in work.

We are eating more pasta which i dont enjoy and i have tea not coffee now. Im not enjoying cheaper tea bags but ill get used to it.

Im worried sick about keeping warm. We already have started with layers and blankets constantly and its not that cold.

Showers only now. No bath. Bar soap and cheap aldi own shampoo and toothpaste.

Things that still exist in hostels: flannels, toilet roll, cotton wool. Wipes aren't magic, they don't do anything that other things can't do, they are just convenient.

I get them but bulk it out with veg potatoes pasta and lentils so it lasts a few weeks. There's just me and adult DD at home now though. Luckily she's not picky. Prefers home cooked meals to convinience foods.

@RedToothBrush agree. I stopped buying branded weetabix a couple of years ago. The ingredients are identical to own-brand ranges. There may be slight differences in taste, but I don’t care. Tesco Stockwell ones cost 74p for 24. This prices hasn’t changed in months.

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

See also, things that you're paying for in Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's etc that you don't get in Aldi and Lidl:

Choice of dozens of different types of tinned tomatoes etc, products on display that are not in the box they arrived at the store in, staff such as greeters, trolley collectors and lots of tills, home delivery, large and consistent non grocery offering, cafes, toilets (although some newer ones have toilets).

Things that cost money that are nothing to do with the quality of the food on sale.

Thought experiment for you all.

I've looked at as many different baked beans you can buy in a tin today as I can find online. Here is a list of them, without the brands just with their ingredients listed.

Listed are: Corale Premium (Aldi Own Brand), Aldi Essentials, Asda Own Brand, Asda Just Essentials, Branstons, Heinz Organic, Heinz, HP, Morrisons Own Brand, M and S Organic, M and S Own Brand, Mr Organic Organic Baked Beans, Rakusens Kosher (available at Sainsburys) Sainsburys Own Brand, Sainsbury's Hubbards, Tesco Organic, Tesco, Tesco Stockdale, Waitrose.

Can you spot the Heinz, without cheating?
Which is the best value per 100g?
Which brands come out best for bean content?
How do prices compare between the most and least expensive?

I am not expecting anyone to be able to necessarily answer this, but I do think its worth getting your head round. There ARE clear differences, but not necessarily where you might think, and it does get more interesting when you know the pricing.

Brand 1:
Beans (60%), Water, Tomato, Cane Sugar, Corn Starch, Sea Salt, Spices

Brand 2:
Beans (44%), Water, Tomato Puree (6.3%), Sugar, Sea Salt, Modified Maize Starch, Onion Powder, Bean Seasoning (contains: Sea Salt, Spices, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder), Mustard Flour, Paprika, White Pepper

Brand 3:
Beans (49%), Water, Tomato Purée (20%), Sugar, Cornflour, Sea Salt, Rice Flour, Dried Onions, Chilli Powder, Coriander, Black Pepper, Dried Garlic, Nutmeg, Turmeric, Flavouring

Brand 4:
Beans (52%), Tomatoes (33%), Water, Sugar, Cornflour, Salt, Spirit Vinegar

Brand 5:
Beans (51%), Tomatoes (34%), Water, Sugar, Spirit Vinegar, Modified Corn Flour, Salt, Spice Extracts, Herb Extract

Brand 6:
Beans (47%), Tomatoes (35%), Water, Sugar, Salt, Spirit Vinegar, Modified Cornflour, Colour- Plain Caramel, Natural Flavouring, Spice Extracts

Brand 7:
Beans (51%), Tomatoes (38%), Water, Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Reduced Sodium Sea Salt, Spirit Vinegar, Salt, Paprika, White Pepper, Spices, Flavourings

Brand 8:
Beans (53%), Tomato Puree (21%), Water, Sugar, Maize Starch, Salt, Onion Powder, Rice Flour, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Paprika, Chilli Powder, Garlic Powder.

Brand 9:
Beans (51%), Tomatoes (33%), Water, Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Onion Powder, Paprika Extract, Paprika Powder, Flavouring, Onion Oil, Garlic Extract.

Brand 10:
Beans (52%), water, tomato purée (20%), sugar, modified maize starch, salt, onion powder, paprika, flavouring.

Brand 11:
Beans (49%), Tomatoes (36%), Water, Sugar, Modified Maize, Starch, Salt, Paprika, Onion Powder, Paprika Extract, Flavourings

Brand 12:
Beans (49%), Tomatoes (33%), Water, Sugar, Cornflour, Salt, Vinegar, Dried Onions, Paprika, Paprika Extract, Flavouring, Onion Oil, Garlic Extract

Brand 13:
Beans (53%), Tomato Purée (24%), Water, Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Onion Powder, Paprika, Rapeseed Oil, Clove Extract, Cinnamon Extract, Paprika Extract, Flavouring, Capsicum Extract, Garlic Oil

Brand 14:
Beans (49%), Water, Tomato Puree (20%), Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Onion Powder, Paprika, Maltodextrin, Colour (Paprika Extract), Paprika Extract, Clove Extract, Capsicum Extract, Flavouring.

Brand 15:
Beans (51%), Tomatoes (34%), Water, Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Spirit Vinegar, Rapeseed Oil, Onion Powder, Paprika Powder, Flavourings, Paprika Extract.

Brand 16:
Beans (44%), Tomato Puree (27%), Water, Sugar, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Onion Powder, Paprika, Maltodextrin, Paprika Extract, Clove Extract, Capsicum Extract, Flavouring.

Brand 17:
Beans (45%), Tomatoes (32%), Water, Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Salt, Onion Powder, Paprika Extract, Paprika Powder, Flavouring, Onion Oil, Garlic Extract.

Brand 18:
Beans (45%), Tomatoes (27%), Water, Sugar, Glucose-fructose Syrup, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Onion Powder, Paprika, Maltodextrin, Flavouring, Spice Extracts.

Brand 19:
Beans (45%), Tomatoes (32%), Water, Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Salt, Onion Powder, Paprika, Flavourings, Paprika Extract

And yes I will post up the differences in a bit.

One post from the OP?

I know everything's gone up, but I'm shocked TBH at how much processed crap food people are buying here and saying it's 'gone up'.

It seems like no one makes their own soup and has to buy tins.

Things like squash, crisps and biscuits etc seem to be 'essentials'.

My family was really poor when I was a young child. Really poor. As were my grandparents.

My parents knew how to save (and eventually bought their own small house.)

BUT they also knew how to live as cheaply as possible.

Most food was homemade.

Take soup- you can make a huge pan of soup from red lentils, carrots, onions and whizz it all up. Costs next to nothing.

Eggs are cheap and can be made into all sorts of main meals.

Rice, pasta, potatoes - all basic staples.

Cake and biscuits are not essential ( I never buy them) but you can make a batch of scones for next to nothing.

I can't help laugh at some posts here complaining about the cost of organic butter (FFS) and smoked salmon.

I hope it's some kind of parody.

@RedToothBrush You've got far too much time on your hands.

Well even if brand 1 is Heinz, I don't like them, so won't buy them, even if they're cheaper. We get Branston, because I like them. We generally look for multipacks on offer and are currently working our way through a 24 tin slab from Costco.

I suspect we will get quite a shock next time we have to buy beans!

I have tried own brand and not always liked them, probably because some of them try to position themselves as an alternative to Heinz.

I do remember on a previous thread about fish fingers that Sainsbury's fish fingers contained a higher percentage of fish and less salt and breadcrumbs than Bird's Eye, and were noticeably cheaper.

I'm not well atm. Again. Stuck in bed.

It's like the whole nation is obsessed with ketchup and baked beans.

A bottle of ketchup lasts us about a year. What the heck are you putting it on?

Get well soon.

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

I think theres a couple of interesting things that show up in that list above: the bean content, the balance between water and tomatoes or tomato puree, and the really glaring one to me which is Glucose-Fructose Syrup which isn't a good thing.

This list has come out with a couple of surprises for me in terms of quality and price point.

Exactly. If I was really struggling to put food on the table, I wouldn't be buying ketchup at all, likewise things like squash, but I'd spend money on actual food.

We have a half used bottle in the fridge that is about 18 months out of date, that's how fast we use it. We sometimes have it on fish and chips, or put some in things like sweet and sour sauce.

I do remember going on a group diving holiday where some people seemed to drown all their meals in ketchup, which I thought strange because it was mostly freshly cooked food, meat, fish, veg, salad, rice etc, with appropriate spices and sauces so not the sort of thing you'd normally put ketchup on.

Which brands come out best for bean content?

I don't want the highest bean content. I want the tastiest sauce. To my taste buds, this is Branston (brand 7). I'd be happy if they slightly reduced the bean content and had slightly more sauce.

Even if you are poor you sometimes want nice things

Absolutely no idea @RedToothBrush but yet another reason why I love you!

I think it's just a big adjustment. I'll admit that in 'the time before' we did used to live quite free and easy, put the heating on whenever we liked, bought pretty much what we wanted in the supermarket, popped out for dinner midweek because we couldn't be bothered to cook etc etc.

I think the thing that's annoying me most about the whole damn thing is that I earn a decent salary, we have more money coming in than we ever have and yet my life is worse. I'm cold WFH in the day, we have more budget style food, we go out for dinner about once every 6 months, it's bloody miserable. I thought the whole point of working hard and earning more money was so your life would be better, or at least it should be, but in fact it seems like you have to work harder but still go backwards. Why - because of Putin, Brexit and this bloody government.

I know I'm lucky to have a job, and a home, and to actually have money to pay for stuff, but it's all just rubbish. Apologies for the rant!

Nice things don't have to be expensive, plus I'd rather not be hungry.

It’s a real pain that salaries aren’t generally rising with cost of living or they call them “cost of living increases” rather than “salary increases”.

factor in increased utility/food bills and it’s sometimes cheaper to be in work! Our company is global so often has lunchtime talks with free sandwiches or if there’s an over order for a client lunch meeting you can take extra food, same goes for breakfast croissants 🥐 for meetings.

I refill my water bottle and make tea from hot tap for my journey home (approx 1 hour). If you cycle to work you can use work showers and I suppose in theory if you got up early you could wash in the showers too. I do charge my phone at work, nail salon or hairdresser.

It is all a bit shit isn’t it?

things I’d like to do like sew on sewing machine I have to think about!

one friend can’t afford to retire early (she has epilepsy).

Tempting to buy a cow isn’t it and DIY?!

Kenco millicano is lovely and usually 3.50 in B&M vs £5.50 everywhere else.

Oh that's really reasonable! Thank you

I think Brand 1 is Mr Organic because I remember it had the highest bean count when I looked.

Don’t know about the rest, though. I hate baked beans AND ketchup. They make me physically sick and I can’t even cook them without feeling ill, so I’ve no idea about taste.