To be appalled at the cost of food?

[pinotnow]

I know this has been done to death and we are in a cost of living crisis, but listening to the news they are intimating that it is slowly levelling out and the worst is over. Yes as far as I can see it's spiralling out of control.

I did a Lidl shop this weekend and bought absolutely nothing for main meals as I have a Hello Fresh box for three days coming, boys are going to their dad's for the weekend on Thursday and I have store cupboard stuff in already.

Therefore all I bought was stuff for lunch boxes, snacks, fruit and breakfast cereal. No cleaning stuff, oil or pet food needed this week and one bottle of wine. I thought it would be a bit less than I usually pay (only the second time I've used Hello Fresh) and certainly the trolley wasn't as full.

It came to £78!! Maybe £5 or so less than I have usually paid lately. It's out of control. How on earth are people supposed to manage and when will it stop going up all the bloody time?

Exactly. Ours used to be around £100 in 2019/20, now it's £140.

(Sorry, quoted the wrong post before).

We found when ours were teens that it paid to buy a large block of cheese eg 1kg, and use a food processor to slice it, then store it in the fridge in clip lock or glass equivalent. It meant they weren't cutting off massive hunks for sandwiches. We also kept in plenty of eggs and Tuna. Home made hummus is cheap too, and easy enough to make.

Obviously you need a food processor to benefit, but oh my god it's worth it with a family. Ours has saved us tons. They all can even whip up biscuits in less than half an hour start to plate 🙂

I also think things sound cheap in UK. (I am in SA)

I am off to do a bit of a food shop in a bit, perhaps I should upload my receipt. I know fruit and veg is a lot cheaper here, but its all the rest of the things that are so much more expensive. I only wish to buy Babybels. I have not bought these for many years, but I will price them today. Let me not start on things like washing powder, toilet rolls etc.

There are much cheaper ways to fill yourself up than what OP is buying though!

With two teens that's a six pack of eggs a day. Price asude I know that would be difficult to buy in my area right now. I bought eggs yesterday abd the area looked blitzed. I would have felt bad taking more than a dozen.

Haven't rtft but same here OP. Family of 4 here, one DC is autistic and only eats (branded) beige food and the other diagnosed with ARFID and severely underweight. She doesn't eat meals, only snacks, and again these are specific brands. I regularly spend around £150 without meat/meals. There is a specific thing we buy a lot of that can only be got from Asda, and I just don't have time to go to multiple shops. So we are spending an obscene amount. We are fortunate to be able to afford it but I do worry about the many families in similar situations to us that don't have our income.

I know the current situation is very sad. !
But they’re not caged at the moment, technically they are barn eggs.

This is the 'hungry season' in terms of fruit and veg. There is little in season other than rhubarb.

This time if year a lot of the 'fresh' fruit will be coming out of cold storage or traveling from the other side if the world. It will tend not to last long, will be poorer quality.

Frozen or tinned is your best bet.

Buying blackberries doesn't compute for me. They are always ridiculously expensive and taste of nothing much.

Once the growing season gets going we will start to see more locally grown stuff in the shops.

We have an allotment so are probably more aware of seasonality than people who don't. I wouldn't say that it is an economy but it is a cheap hobby which gives us access to the freshest produce at the lowest price with the fewest food miles.

@LiveAHappyLifeBePositive It's just the same as the minimum spend for delivery, so £25. The voucher has appeared from nowhere as I've not actually done anything other than download the app.

My basket has currently 3 things in it. £18.28

Patak's Tikka Masala Sauce 450g £2.29
Morrisons Skin On Fries 600g £1.99
Shazans Chicken Breast Fillets 1.8kg £14.00

Do you live near a farm? I've stopped buying eggs from the supermarket if you go through loads it's easier and cheaper to go to source.

Thanks for coming back with this.
We do our main shop at Aldi but spend just in excess of that at least twice a month. As we were spending so Lidl 🤣I thought it wouldn’t be worth it.
So thanks

That's because Aldi and Lidl are price matching Tesco and Sainsbury.
People are misled by the mechanics of price matching, thinking they'll be paying less. Actually, it's the reverse, meaning greedy profit taking for those shops taking part.

As an aside @Okunevo when JAs are growing you get sunflowers at the top of the storks. So they’re a win win for wildlife too

*Therefore all I bought was stuff for lunch boxes, snacks, fruit and breakfast cereal. No cleaning stuff, oil or pet food needed this week and one bottle of wine. £78."

You must be buying a lot of fancy processed snacks and "lunch stuff" to run up a bill that size.

Yes but eggs actually fill you up! Whereas fridge raiders - about 5 tiny chunks of processed chicken-flavoured sponge in each small pack - do not!

I've been shocked by some of the price rises.

For example, my daughter loves the Homepride Tuna Bake sauce - the change in price is outrageous

I've looked back at my online receipts - it makes it clear when it's an offer and when it's not. We've been buying it at full price, not a discounted price.

7 May - £2.80
16 April - £1.75
6 April - £1.75
25 Feb - £1.75
18 January - £1.25
10 December - £1.25

So that's a 124% price rise on one single item from January to May.

Even if we went from 2 weeks ago, it's a 60% price increase on an item that we've been paying full price for.

That is absolutely outrageous and absolutely not caused by market demands. Thats clear profiteering.

I think they've whacked the price up for 30 days so they can reduce it down and say that its half price.

if you think the price hasnt risen, then the amount/weight is less

What incentive is there for them to lower the price if you keep buying it at the increased price?

If people were more selective about what they bought, the prices would not be rising so much.

good idea about farm eggs. just need to have the cash

I think this is what Anchor butter/ Tesco have done. The price kept creeping up until they found the plateau/ top accepted price (£2.50). Now they’ve reduced the block size and kept the £2.50 price point.

Pure profiteering imo.
Just feel like I’m being constantly tricked.

Like a lot of people, I buy free range eggs. I'll go without if battery eggs are all that are offer.

However, I feel guilty when I eat anything with egg as an ingredient because I have zero idea of the source.

Not sure I can forego all foods with eggs as an ingredient, but it does bother me. 😕

If you are buying branded can I recommend the trolley app. It’s free and lets you compare price of branded products. I mainly buy store own brand but it’s worth checking it shows where cheapest and if it’s long life you can buy a few.
I’m a big yellow sticker buyer. I go deliberately at reduction time and have a chest freezer. I’m actually finding more reductions as people simply won’t pay full price for organic meat, fish so it’s heavily reduced. I find Waitrose and Booths about 6pm ish reduce heavily. Virtually all meat we have is yellow sticker. My co op also reduces heavily about 7pm - posh ready meals 75p, pasties 15p, expensive fruit and veg down to pennies, vegan sausages 15p.
If I’m out and about at reduction time I’ll stop and look and I deliberately walk up to co op for reductions.

Whether posters like or not, food was far too cheap in this country for far too long.

Chicken, milk, eggs and lots of veg all to cheap and farmers getting a terrible deal. Of course, I am not sure that even now they are getting a fair price for their work but they surely must be getting more than they were.

A whole chicken for a couple of pounds was disgusting and cheap eggs the same. Those poor chickens have an awful life. Can't afford dearer ones then go without. No one has to eat chicken.

Large free range Farm eggs are £2.60 a dozen nr me. We have several honesty boxes/farms. The chickens are roaming about. Appreciate it’s probably more rural areas but lots of people around here don’t realise worth keeping an eye out.

The warbutons soft wholemeal pittas were 5 for £1 until recently. Now they are 4 for £1.35.