To think food prices are still soaring?

[Sooooup]

Two of us and a baby on the way. Even if we budget we can’t shop for under £100 a week
(including toiletries, laundry, cleaning stuff, toilet roll etc). This is wherever I shop and I shop around.

Any fresh veg I buy lasts for such a short amount of time. 2-4 days max. So can’t shop for the week, have to go a few times. I buy frozen where I can.

I am sure I could do it for about £60/70 a week only six months ago. How are people managing? We aren’t on bad incomes but it’s very much average I would say.

This is shocking!!!! Did they miss-label?

can I suggest Aldi for OO. It’s where I buy mine. I can’t do a full shop in Aldi but they do have good OO for about half that price.

Not only are prices going up where I am, but there's rampant shinkflation too. First the prices stay the same while the quantity is reduced. Then next week the price has gone up as well. There seems to be no end in sight to price gouging.

I shop in the reduced section to try and get some bargains but even that's gone expensive. I can't do my shopping all in one place I have to check where the offers are in advance and make a list. Meal planning and batch cooking help a lot aswell.

@KarmaCaramello

The juice we used to buy - gone from £1.20 to £2 - Buy supermarket own
Yoghurt - 2.50 to 4, goes on 'sale' for 3.50. - Ditto above
6-pack of apples from 1.80 to 2.30. - Buy loose
Instant rice from 1 to 1.25 - cook your own
Granola bars from 2.50 to 3 - You don't 'need' these
Brunch bars from 1 to 1.25. Ditto above
Poached salmon fillets from 3.50 to 5 - Frozen are cheaper or buy different fish

I've suddenly found myself not being able to afford little extras like digestive biscuits - £2.30 for a regular pack! - Get supermarket own

You can do it cheaper, you just don't want to or just don't look around

Yes food shop is significantly higher. To combat this I’m rotating where I shop between Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsburys (no Aldi near me). When I have shopped at Aldi, the fruit and veg has a very short shelf life, Waitrose fruit and veg lasts twice as long so less waste.
We are eating less meat, but buy it from Waitrose as their animal welfare standards are higher than other supermarkets. We don’t batch cook but we cook double whatever we are making and freeze leftovers like cottage pie, bolognese.
The cost of soup is ridiculous! So I’ve dusted off the soup maker and today I’m making cauliflower and ham soup 😋

Yes I find Aldi and Lidl veg does go off much quicker.

Climate change, energy prices and Brexit are all coming home to roost unfortunately.

Olive oil has been particularly affected by disease and very hot weather in Southern Europe.

I budget £200 per week for food. £150 Ocado, £50 Aldi. I often have to top it up with another £50. I do include wine or a bottle of gin in that too, but that’s not massively expensive. The food alone is expensive. 3 adults, one child. All big meat eaters. No way could I cut back on meat and give them vegetarian options. Overall I’m about £1000 per month on food. I use a separate card to buy food and petrol. It’s a cash back credit card and pay it in full each month so I know it’s £1300 per month on that. I do think it’s ridiculously dear but can’t see how to get costs down and still have meal variety and quality.

Came on here just to talk about olive oil! I went to three shops at the weekend as I couldn't believe the price, none of them had standard olive oil and the 500ml extra virgin was at least £8. More expensive than wine.

Also, tins of Heinz soup for almost £2 - crazy! Surely Heinz can't last long with prices like that.

Also, the medium sized jar of Marmite for £5. I think maybe they can put prices up more easily of things like marmite that you buy infrequently, as you can't remember what you paid last time.

People who are saying others are not shopping smartly are being a bit naive. It is possible to save, but very clearly prices are continuing to rise and saving often means cutting back or making choices based on price as opposed to preference/quality.

Not the point but having read several comments now calling into Aldi next time I go to the office for olive oil as that’s so much cheaper than tesco/morrisons

They had a really nice single origin one that was way cheaper than even standard ones elsewhere, it was at the end of a middle aisle with seasonal stuff so I grabbed two

Absolutely this. They made records profits in the pandemic and passed precisely 0% of it onto their slave like workers, who risked their life more than possibly anyone.else dealing with swathes of people daily and doing things not in their contracts such as policing social distancing etc. The supermarkets are a bunch of greedy, senseless twats.

But at the Tories are always telling us, this is the 'free market', the most efficient way of doing everything.

This. Absolutely this!

Do you have a Harbro nearby? See if they sell horse bedding pellets. Or wooden pellets for burning. Same thing as you buy for litter but cheaper.

I too have noticed this massively. Shop is never under £100 a week with very few luxuries. Also need to do top up mid week as my kids are like locusts when it comes to fruit. I’d estimate it’s around 1k a ninth just for food and petrol (petrol essential as school/nursery not walking distance - could get an elec bike I suppose)

Hey if you live in West London, there is a market stall in Portobello Road that sells 500ml olive oil for £5. It has expired though but it tastes great. I've been buying that. I cant use regular vegetable oils, I would rather go without.

Tesco is expecting operating profits of £2.6bn in 2023

They have 4,074 stores, but lets say 4,000 for ease.

That's £650,000 profit per store.

Each store gets £1,780 profit per day.

Now, consider the amount of people visiting a supermarket in any one day.

The profit per shop is pence. Literally pennies.

They're not making huge profits because they're engaged in a racket to rip off customers, they're making profits because they have so many sales.

I don’t understand why OP’s fresh veg are only lasting 2-4 days. Ours all lasts well (mostly from Asda) but you do need to take it all out of any plastic wrapping, and limit any damp in your veg/salad drawer - I line mine with an old tea towel. Anything left in plastic gets wet and starts rotting very quickly.

If you have storage , buy a bag of wood pellets or straw pellets from an agricultural/horse shop.
About £10 for a bag that will last you a month or more

I buy Nutella in large jars off Amazon. Was 1kg for about £5. Now is 950g for £6.

You are a peach!!

The poster is talking about her experience.

Our Aldi fruit and veg lasts for weeks and weeks. It doesn’t ever seem to go off.

must be to do with storage at the specific locations or something. We don’t see to live near a Tesco That essentially froze its fruit and veg, resulting in it going mushy and black working 3 days.

Where do you buy veg because they should last longer than a few days? I buy mine at a Tesco Superstore, and veg lasts in the fridge for 7-10 days, including salad.

I only shop once a week, so we'd be stuck if it was any less.

I buy for two adults and currently spend about £60 a week, but I don't have to buy nappies etc. No brands, plenty of fruit, veg, meat & fish but I don't buy the most expensive cuts of meat.