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?

Adult DS and I were discussing this earlier and I agree 100%. We live together, buy our own food, but share a tescos delivery for convenience.

6 months ago my Tesco’s would include a weeks cigarettes (20 per day) and we all know how expensive they are! Average price for a weeks shop, 2 adults plus my cigs, £170.

I am no longer buying cigarettes at Tesco. We did an order today. DS didn’t even need a full shop. Mine was I guess average. £140! How can that be??

For me it’s not even food as such. I can eat cheap. Pasta, jacket potato’s etc. it’s all the other stuff. I have 2 cats and food, litter etc is now costing me approx £15 a week. Toilet roll, washing powder, air freshener (indoor cats and litter trays!). I’ve already spent £30/£40 before I even add food.

I earn a reasonably decent wage. But I am eating like I used to when I was on single parent benefits. I don’t think food getting more expensive is anything to celebrate. Not when energy prices have shot up, Council tax has increased, my rent has gone up. Oh but my wages haven’t increased at all.

Too cheap? What is too cheap? Who decides that? You?

Sainsbury's prices have spiralled upwards. I used to shop there out of convenience, but it was getting silly so I tried the other supermarkets in the area for a few weeks each (to get an average) as a comparison. I've found both Morrisons and Waitrose are consistently £20/wk cheaper. Morrisons is the closer of the two with easier parking (no long queues to get into the car park), so I now shop there if I need speed or random stuff such as a pack of socks for DCs, and at Waitrose for the better quality if I can get there during a quieter time. Waitrose has the added bonus of being in the town centre too, so I can further save by first walking next door to Superdrug for toiletries (or other shops/items). Sainsbury's have lost my custom.

Sorry but that’s a nonsense comparison. Utter nonsense. In fact this kind of uniformed nonsense misleads people.
Do you know how wages in New York, or US, generally compare to wages in the UK?

I struggle with this a lot.

im careful of food miles and choose high welfare. However I’ve had to cut out meat pretty much as I cannot bring myself to buy battery chicken. That’s my choices. I’m lucky in that I can cook with lentils cheaply.

Our online shop for 2 adults three children has been getting more expensive every week. We shop at Asda and every week the increase is ridiculous and that’s just the just essentials range, the very range that’s meant to be basic and cheap is now not much cheaper than other ranges. They’ve also been getting rid of certain items and replacing them with smaller and so more expensive overall choices. I despair every time it comes around to order. We’ve changed our shopping habits by meal planning and only buying exactly what we need to reduce waste, but we’re finding a lot of fruits / veg / meat are just out of our budget now.

Oh god yeah cat litter! We use wood based. This time last year could get 30 litres for about a fiver. Slowly crept up and now it’s £11 a bag!

You know all those pay rises being demanded to keep up with CoL?
It's got to be paid somehow..
The final cost of products in shops takes into account all business costs + profit.

@Swrigh1234 NYC wages are probably 3 - 4 times the salaries of equivalent UK jobs ergo it would make sense that they would be more used to paying insane prices for food.

Yes I was expecting some sanctimonious drip to comment on this and I wasn't disappointed.

Yes I'm a truly awful human being for feeding my family on a budget.

This thread is mostly depressing because some people’s attitude, more than the prices themselves. ‘Oh but no it’s no big deal because food has always been too cheap in this country’. ‘Oh but it’s the same in X,Y,Z country’ without taking at account of wages in that country. ‘Oh but you’re eating too much, just eat dust’.

If that’s your attitude, you have the government you deserve.

But lots of other things are much much higher. Eg petrol. So households are struggling.

Too true. You are an utter barbarian not worthy of living in a civilized society. You should know better and shop only at the artisan independent local grocer. Who probably lays the eggs himself. You know, in the interest of animal welfare.

Currently £3.99 for a bottle of Heinz ketchup in both Tesco and Lidl ! Own brands only from now on . .

Excellent post!

We don’t value home produced food. We want seasonal
foid all year round. We need to change and cook seasonally

Hey, here’s an idea. Why don’t we all eat turnips?

l hate turnips, swedes and sprouts. I don’t want to eat crap English veg all winter.

@BritWifeInUSA

well said.

Exactly. Hence why comparing food prices in UK with NYC is nonsense. Like another poster was doing.

Eating more and more pasta with basic mince and canned plum tomatoes.

I started crying in the supermarket the other day because I really wanted to buy a mango (which I used to buy before but just couldn't afford it). A kind man offered to buy me one, but I told him that I couldn't accept it. I think he thought I was some kind of loon, standing there, staring at it with tears streaming down my face... He told me to come back at 9pm on off chance that they might be reduced at the end of the day.

Several days later I overheard two young women with small children talking about food banks at the bus stop and I started crying again.

How has it come to this?

How dare the peasants move beyond a subsistence lifestyle.

My husband and I would spend around £85 before, that’s not including our meat shop as we go to a local butchers for that. Our shop is between £120-£150 now.

Just went back to my online click and collect Aldi orders and re ordered.
April 2021 shop was £173 - Now the same shop is £215 (is approx + £24%)
March 2022 shop was £184 - Now the same shop is £224 (is approx + 22%)

Thats shocking.

I think it's complicated because we are paying way over the odds for our housing etc. if you rent you're probably paying a fortune and leaving little for most people for non-rent expenses like food etc. So compared to Europe our standard of living when you account for food, rent etc is probably WAY lower. We have a right to expect a reasonable standard of living including money left over for some socialising, decent food etc etc. Would much rather live in France / Germany etc for the quality of life. Our quality of life is pretty shit in comparison because our outgoings are much higher for most things.

Very well said.