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.

Might be the bird flu as well as general rising costs with chickens.

Tough but tomato is not baisc ingredient grown in uk so it shouldn't be basic soup 🙈 joking! Joking.
Tomatoes went up in wholesale few months ago.
And went down in quality few weeks ago....

oh this was all soups in the range. The same brand and brand level. From lentil to the tomato. So every soup having an approx 30% rise in just a few weeks.

I get some ingredients and what not are scares due to the droughts but I can’t help feeling some things are getting an increase just because iyswim.

Well yeah. BTW bird flu, increasing feed prices, increasing energy costs and loss of slaughterhouse/processing capacity it's not a great time to be in the poultry business right now.

Cheese I am finding prohibitively expensive. I’ve cut out cheese sandwiches and jacket potatoes because of it.
In fact own brand cheddar is now the same price as Parmesan so I’ve bought that instead for flavour. I use mozzarella to top stuff or with because that’s initially cheaper even though it’s really only single use.
Wine and coffee still seems available at the same price offers as before.

I happened to be in the baking aisle at Tesco and was shocked to see a small bottle of vanilla extract was £7!

Bloody hell. Was the vanilla grown in moon rock and watered with Chanel No 5??

That is a posh one though!
Normal ones are stil around 1.50

Wow, think I’ll be on the cheaper essence stuff when mine runs out. Used to be £4.50 in Sainsbo’s.

Tesco Plant-based soups are really nice and not too expensive, it is probably the cream and butter (and meat) content of other soups that is pushing the prices up so horrendously.

Tin of cheap canned tomatoes for about 30p, tin of white beans for about 50p, tomato puree, onion and peppers and some harissa spice makes a good soup you can batch cook and freeze for about six lunches.

Milk has gone up again in Sainsburys now £1.30 for 2 pints.

We never buy milk at less than 4 pints at a time due to cost, why pay £1.30 for 2 pints when you can get 4 for about £1.50 or so?

We almost always use it before it goes out of date, and it would probably last a few days longer than that anyway, but when it's just me (DP works away quite a bit) I buy a 4 pinter and freeze some of it in plastic tubs, old pop bottles or similar if I don't think I'll use it in under a week or so.

How much do you think it should cost?

In my local Co-op:

1 pint £1.05
2 pints £1.45
4 pints £1.85

i cannot fathom how they can justify this type of pricing structure, which directly discriminates against single person /small households who may not be able to get through 4 pints before the use by date

Used milk way past its date. If we see cheap we will freeze it till required usually get @ least a week or more out of of it.

As I said above, I just buy the larger bottles and freeze some of it, as does DM, who is a widow living alone with quite a small fridge freezer, to pre-empt all the 'not everyone has a 'massive' freezer' comments.

Considering the generally affluent demographic, it's strange how aspirational Mumsnet seems to view a fridge freezer. I'm not sure I know anyone who does not have one, and just about everyone I know is a pauper by MN standards.

We've used milk way passed it's date.And not to oh this is ok ish but should we sniff testing..nope absolutely fine a week or more later.its criminal they can get away with those dates for turnover.

And cost isn't going up just on scaresity foods or based on droughts or ingredients.its ALL foods.

i have a freezer but I just don’t have the room for batch cooking or freezing milk. It’s full of higher value items and homegrown/foraged seasonal items than milk.

milk buy 4 pints and just plan my meals around it. Which is the most cost effective way to do it. Single person only use 1 pint a week for tea. Use some lemon or vinegar and turn another pint or two into a soft cheese you can flavour with lemon zest, salt and pepper etc make a white sauce for your Sunday meal instead of gravy. Etc etc.

Yeah and to make profit on stuff they can while keeping other loss leaders lower. Not s fan of profiteering but can see why they'd hike some more than others. Packet of hobnobs £1.85 in our coop sadly Aldi ones continually out of stock.

I rarely buy milk as I prefer oat milk but cow's milk needs to be at a price which gives our farmers a decent profit.

I do a lot of baking cakes so have been stocking up on sugar was getting a load at 65p a kg until recently and Lidl went up another 10p from 75p to 85p.

I stock up on items like sugar during Eid, at the local international supermarket. They have basic items like flour, sugar and lentils on special offer. This year I got a couple of 4kg bags of golden granulated for £2 a bag. It has a stronger taste than white sugar so wouldn't suit everyone, but DS likes it in his porridge as well as in baking.

Sugar today in sainsburys 95p.

don’t buy the milk 🤷🏻‍♀️ it’s not essential and there are better moral alternatives

£7 is for the most expensive vanilla extract. Standard one is £1.45.

I've been buying Tesco's Stockwell teabags (56p a box) for the last few weeks and no-one in our house has even noticed, so that's a couple of quid saved every month anyway.