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.

If I was a peach, I'd be looking around for a cheaper alternative 🍑

I was just in my local Co-Op and I nearly collapsed when I saw a standard box of Rice Krispies was £4.15….. absolutely insane

Poundland was selling tins of Heinz soup for £1. Sainsburys and Tescos have their own brand soups (I like the Be Good to Yourself) for under a £1. I also make my own (made Butternut Squash and sweet potato soup yesterday) but then you have the issue of where to store it and how much the fresh ingredients cost.

I'm on about £150 for 2 adults, 1 young child and many pets. Dd gets a hot meal at lunch 4 days a week, me 3, so we tend to have tea rather than dinner at home those days, with dp fending for himself. Have to buy fresh veg for guineas and rabbits but I've been buying them more of the cheaper veg. Their dry food and cat food I buy online.

For those saying pp could shop around and get food cheaper it's nit always the case. The only physical supermarket within 100 miles is the Co, which is expensive, and fresh food doesn't last. I mainly do a Tesco order, but the price of that has soared. I tried Asda delivery, which was significantly cheaper, but had problems with every order. The last one was delayed due to a lack of staff, and I'd have needed to be 20 miles away at midnight to collect it. I think not.

5 years ago, I budgeted roughly £70 a week for a food shop for 5 (2 adults, 3 children). £30 a week for school meals. £50 a week fuel and cheap to park at work for the day.

Now I'm budgeting £140 a week for the main shop and another £30 for top ups. Add an extra £45 a week at school for meals (always do hot school meals during winter and packed lunch in spring/summer).
We're spending over £1400 a month to eat, get to work and park.
It's nuts.

How do you have all the time to shop around, because the cost of petrol/bus fares and time do not make it worth it for some.

This thread is about costs going up not putting people down.

Rice Krispies at £4.15 is expensive - Co Op has never been cheap really, but it's our local shop opposite the big council estate so lots of people from there buy from there for convenience.

Certain things I don't buy anymore, e.g. Twinings Everyday Tea, too expensive.

I mean how sustainable is it for supermarkets to have higher prices. Yet if Tescos is making a profit then people still shop there. I'm lucky that I work and most people I know do, but can see how some have to resort to food banks.

My current boss is growing fruit and veg in his garden though and stepdad has an allotment and any spare stuff, like chard, cabbages, he gives to me and DB. When DB buys his house he will grow fruit and veg. I do try to grow it in my back garden but it does require time and skill so can't do all of it. Things like lettuces, runner beans, peas (shelled) and tomatoes and peppers are all on my list and planted so far.

I normally shop in Aldi which has just gone up and up but yesterday got a Tesco delivery for convenience. There were only basics in it: fruit, veg, bread, tea, a few packs of cheap chicken and cat food. No wine, no steak, no expensive (free range etc) meat as we can’t afford that any more. It was £210.

Neither myself nor my husband’s wages have gone up to match this so we have to compensate by not eating out, telling our kids they can’t have extra-curricular activities… It all has a knock-on effect on the wider economy.

i blame supermarket greed, the fact that we all get our shopping from about five stores in total (so a bit of a monopoly), Brexit, a poor government, global warming and foreign wars in that order. But essentially a decent government would be really trying to take care of this.

The supermarkets are making record profits and capitalism is going to do what capitalism always does. A government should be taking care that people can eat as it’s number one priority.

I used to spend £70 a week (2 of us) but I also used to buy supermarket meat in that budget. Supermarket prices are ridiculous now, particularly the cost of their meat - which we won't eat anymore (you do know Aldi are selling Lab-grown bacon now don't you 🙈) I buy from Tesco and have a delivery pass (7-day anytime one) and now never shop in Aldi.

I now buy a monthly organic meat box and my freezer is permanently full. Between Tesco and the organic meat order I now spend between £100 and £120 a week - up from the £70 I used to spend.

Everything in Tesco has shrunk. Aldi looks like a junk shop, not appealing at all, even if they didn't sell Lab-grown meat‼️

I do bake all my own bread, mainly sourdough but I've become expert at baking everything from muffins, crumpets, rolls, brioche loaves/rolls etc. over the past 12 months. I buy 14% protein bread flour from a mill in 16kg sacks and always have at least 2 in. I've virtually eliminated all processed/UHP food from our diet. I cook everything and I mean everything from scratch. We've never felt healthier or looked better. No processed food, lots of home/made sourdough bread, organic meat and lots of it.

I look in the trolleys of people shopping in Tesco as I pass by on the odd occasion I pop in and I'm horrified at the amount of crap in their trolleys. Junk food, most of it and that's where these huge shopping bills are coming from.

Amazon - I buy in bulk, save a fortune. I also make my own washing liquid, totally natural and washes better than the Fairy pods I used to buy. Costs me 0.3p a wash‼️

There are two of us, I won't go into how much my 2 big dogs (GSD) and 3 cats cost, as I had to move away from what they used to eat when we realised what poor quality it really was and filled with junk. My cats eat premium human-grade food now and my dogs don't touch the fast-food crap supermarkets sell xx

The olive oil thing is partly due to bad harvests and diseased trees. Climate change is an emergency when it comes to food and this is really just the beginning. It’s very scary.
Brexit is also a factor in the quality and price of fresh veg ( and did anyone else notice the irony of no longer being able to get British grown green beans or apples last year when they were in season?)
The supermarkets control the farms and will squeeze producers, customers and staff until our pips squeak to get the most profits.
The best way to be able to eat properly in the future is to grow your own, use local butchers and markets so that supermarkets don’t have the monopoly and do whatever you can to lobby for legislation that tackles damage to the environment. In fact attempting to grow your own will open your eyes to the wonkiness of the seasons now ( weeks of rain/ weeks of drought) at least that’s what I found.

on the subject of climate change and food emergency, we did install a large polytunnel and lots of raised beds (and already have a large greenhouse) last year and have been growing our own. DH grew so many tomatoes then made batches and batches of sauce which went in the freezer and which were still eating now.

when we were looking for a house, growing land was really important to us. Realise not everyone can grow but if you have the space I’d recommend it

@Cluborange666 surely that's not for a week? I only ask as I do my shopping at Tesco and it's normally around £80 a week, used to be £60 about 2 years ago.

I buy meat, fish, fruit & veg, milk, yogurts, cheese etc. We are certainly not depriving ourselves. We don't buy alcohol or dont really buy what you could say are 'luxuries' like cakes and biscuits for example. It doesn't include toiletries either as I get those separately . Over £200 , if that's a week seems extremely expensive, what are you buying ?

Did you miss 'used to' in my post?

Also, lots of basic own brand items have more preservatives, thickeners, and sweeteners than better quality versions.

Finally, the issue is with the TREND, not with my anecdotal list. You can be superior and twattish all you like, fact is, defending price gouging will hurt you too as long as it continues and gets more extreme. Then I suppose you'll be berating other posters for not collecting ants from their garden and eating them for a bit of protein.

Food prices are shocking but it is the basics that you can't do without that make me wince, especially if you have dietary requirements.
Over £8 for olive oil,
Quilted toilet paper £9+,
Bisto best gravy nearing £4,
Sanitary towels almost £2

As a family we are definitely using more frozen veg and cutting back on fresh fruit to accommodate the rises. It kills me to hand over so much per week for food.

The only thing there that strikes me as essential are the sanitary towels - and I buy Tesco own brand for 45p per pack. And even that could be reduced by using a mooncup or equivalent (I used to, until mine was too old, and I'm perimenopausal now so won't need something that lasts ten years)

Nobody needs their toilet roll to be quilted, or to buy the 'best' gravy granules.

@MassageForLife True but the issue is with having to scrap by. Why can't i have a little luxury and use quilted toilet paper and sometimes the cheaper sanitary towels are not available but there is not an option to not buy any.

Sorry should have added Bisto best is gluten free the original is not. Those people who can not choose the cheap option are being screwed over. I am not convinced it is all down to production costs. There seems to be a rise in all essentials gas, electricity, food, toiletries, rent/mortgages and not just a small rise but up to 50%. It is unsustainable.

That’s a week. I had a look at my list to see why it’s so expensive. It’s for four of us (2 teenage boys). One son is autistic so only eats certain things eg precooked chicken for lunch so that’s expensive. Also I buy him fancy drinks to encourage him to drink otherwise he just doesn’t. Other son is a pescatarian so that’s expensive. Likewise, 3 of us are dairy free so all those things are more pricey (double usually). I did buy some biscuits and sweets for the kids and I don’t buy the cheapest fruit and veg always. I buy expensive tomatoes and oranges as the cheaper ones are not nice to eat. Everyone eats at least two pieces of fruit per day. Also cat food is £15 per week. I tend to eat quite a lot of cheap homemade vegan food (Dahl, soup etc) and husband eats hummus sandwiches for lunch so we do try to balance it out.

You absolutely can have luxury items, if you choose to. Nobody is saying otherwise. But you can't then claim they are essentials!

Tesco do gluten free gravy granules for £1.50. Yes, it's more expensive than the normal own brand, but it's less than half the price of bisto best.

You are right though, people that have dietary restrictions do have to pay more, unless they choose to stick to ingredients that are free of, eg, gluten. It is possible to do that, but it is very limiting. I don't see a way around it, unfortunately, because the more mass produced something is, the cheaper it is to make.

We switched to white vinegar (diluted) as a much better, less toxic and cheaper alternative. Works great for cleaning showers, baths, windows, surfaces, spills, all sorts. The vinegar smell doesn't linger and is very good at eliminating odours.

@Cluborange666 gosh that is so expensive, it is ridiculous. I can understand now though as with dietary requirements unfortunately you do pay double the price. I have noticed dairy free options are usually twice the price as I sometimes buy Alpro products because I like them, but only when they are on offer rather than a necessity. I imagine 2 teenage boys eat alot too, I've got that to come in the future.

Cat food has gone up a lot too! I buy one of those large boxes with 40 packets and its £16 every week.

@Sooooup we are also 2 adults with one on the way. We shop at Sainsburys and I try and pick the Nectar price offer items and work out our meals from that, as well as looking at what we have in already. We tend to cook from scratch, but usually have a couple of quick things in like ravioli or frozen breaded fish. We don't eat much red meat, eat chicken probably once a week, otherwise it's fish or vegetarian.

Just because inflation is down doesn't mean prices are going down. They just aren't going up as fast as they were.

True but the issue is with having to scrap by. Why can't i have a little luxury and use quilted toilet paper and sometimes the cheaper sanitary towels are not available but there is not an option to not buy any.

Exactly this. We shouldn't have to scrimp and go without because businesses have become greedy.

The attitude of the people criticising comments like this, or berating people for complaining, only worsen things for everyone.

In some countries, people rise up against unfairness and force change.

In ours, people would rather stick the boot in to each other than actually work for a positive change.

"We shouldn't have to scrimp and go without because businesses have become greedy"

Which businesses are you referring to?

Minimum wage has gone up by 28% since 2021.

That affects businesses from the ground up - from the farms to the processers/manufactures to the transport companies to the warehouse to the retail stores.

Which of these businesses are the ones that are profiteering?

It all gone a bit crazy we shop across multiple
places now. Freezer stuff / toilet roll is all farm foods or meat from an online supplier so not shop front costs. Homebargains for all the shower gels and deodorant. Then the rest split between Aldi and Sainsbury’s.

All it’s done it make us more focused to grow even more than we already do. A new grow house is going up and most things we grow are going to be doubled in the amount we plant.