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?

I shop online. I've tried hard to make cut backs this year but when I look back to a year or so ago I'm still spending at least £30-£40 a week more, even when choosing more economically.

Those loaded chips sound amazing

@AuntieMarys I agree. OP, I have children and spend a maximum of £10 a week on snacks for them. I almost never buy the sort of processed stuff you’ve listed. a) it’s not healthy and b) it’s really expensive! They have an apple/banana/orange for snack at school and they have carrot and hummus/ oatcakes/ a homemade cake/ cheese cubes (cut from a block of cheese)/nuts etc after school.

Yes food is ridiculously expensive. But all those “snacks” are a bit much, surely?!

Have you tried giving them toast to munch on?

same as the above. I honestly don’t know how to cut back any further

Yes, I get I'm paying for convenience, but a few weeks ago I could have bought this and a couple of packs of fresh meat/fish, some veg and maybe some cleaning stuff for around the same price. It's the speed at which things are going up that is scaring me.

You will pay a premium for all the convenience food items as they have really increased in price.

I’ve noticed this too re things like fruit and veg going bad really quickly, and other food coming with a very short date.

With you op, it’s awful & Aldi are definitely rising (profiteering) more than the others. For me, it’s now more economical to shop at Morrisons & Waitrose. Aldi have reduced the weight/size but upped the price. At least the others have just reduced the price.

I can’t see it levelling out, prices are still increasing each week.

I wish posters would stop trying to gaslight the op and make out that she's buying extravagant items or has a greedy family who eats too much processed food.

Food is going up in price at a very fast rate. It's a fact.

I live in NZ and am in UK for a month as my Mum has had to move into Residential Care. I cannot believe how cheap food here is compared to NZ.

A few examples:

Celery 59p here NZ $5 which is 2.50 GBP
Cherry Tomatoes 99p for 300grams NZ$6.00 which is 3.00GBP
Eggs 1.40GBP for 6 NZ $5 or 2.50GBP

and don't get me started on tissues, meat, cooked meat, fruit, pasta, cosmetics etc etc

Honestly, we are so lucky to have competition in the UK which keeps food prices low. We have hardly any competition in NZ, just 2 supermarket groups who pretend to compete.

@pinotnow I have a lot of teenage nephews. They snack on toast, cereal, fruit. They know how to make themselves some pasta or an omelette. Beans on toast is the favourite - much, much cheaper than all the convenience snack foods

It doesn't seem to matter much what shop you go into nowadays, the prices are going up each week. The last time I saw this was in the late 1970s.
There's definitely a lot of greedflation going on and I'm wondering when it's going to stop.

Where they have higher wages.

Are you kidding?

@Comedycook I take your point. But the OP is buying a lot of convenience snack foods that are not actually that filling. Babybels are a good snack for a toddler - not a teen. The teens in my life would eat the whole pack and then ask what’s to eat….

Sheesh, bloody daylight robbery😞

I buy the same pack of 4 Greek yogurts from Lidl every week. A year ago,they were 99p,this week they were £1.69.

How old are they? Mine used to eat like that too but not anymore at 14 and 16. They also like quorn nugget and veggie sausages, but I already had these in. It's a MN cliche but both are very slim but are just at that age when they are bottomless pits. I but a pack of fridge raiders - that's 3 small bags each per week, not a huge amount, to give an example.

Yes, not all the food is going up at such an alarming rate. I mean it is all going up but you might find the convenient stuff is going up at a faster rate. It's sad we have to shop around but we've had to and sometimes that means the kids miss out on their favourite snacks here.

Brexit bonus, innit.

I feel like I'm coping fairly well with the price rises but this is because we have a great range of supermarkets locally to us and I don't work so am able to make numerous trips and just buy what we need, when we need it. So although veg seems to have a shorter shelf life, I'm generally eating it on the day.

But mainly its having the time to be able to cherry pick offers across a range of supermarkets.

I think I'd be noticing it and struggling a lot more if I couldn't do this.

Because it’s spending days sitting in lorries at the border instead of in the shops.

I'm not trying to have a go, but processed food will not fill them up. Or if that's what they like/want can you get to Iceland? You can get big packs of frozen mini sausage rolls, sausages, cheese & onion rolls etc much cheaper. You could cook them whilst the oven is already on and stick in the fridge. Or cheap snack of choice here is endless rounds of toast or the occasional cheese toastie...

If they are teens they should be more than capable of making their packed lunches the night before if you are busy.

Or could they take leftovers? We often take leftover chilli, Bolognase, dahl, shepherd's pie, soup in a thermos. Whenever I cook something like that I always keep extra for lunch the next day and sometimes one for the freezer. I fill the thermos up to heat while I make my tea in the morning. Then microwave the food while I'm doing my hair/makeup.

If they snacked on omelettes that would cost a fortune - have you seen the cost of eggs.