Anyone else noticing a drastic increase in their food shop costs already this year?

[user11290]

Hi,

Has anyone else noticed a drastic difference in the cost of their food shop already this year?

I certainly have noticed a difference.

These price increases are a direct result of the increases in minimum wage and NI. This is a consequence of the last budget. And from what I have read today, everyone expected inflation to either stay stable or rise slightly, so I don't think the drop is as a consequence of Mrs Reeves' masterful economic nous.

But neither of those increases have happened yet and wont be happening until April so that doesn't explain the current increases at all.

Yep. Spent £90 in Lidl for 2 people last week! That includes lunches but still. Used to be £60.
Recently noticed lurpack butter and halloumi have gone from 250g to 200/225g

@Elise72 ah the days of a whole cucumber being under 50p

My shop at Aldi today came up surprisingly cheap.

For less than £15.00 I got:

5 bananas
4 avocados
1 bag beansprouts
2 bags coriander
1 packet of wiltshire ham
1 large bag white potatoes
4 pints organic milk
1 tub double cream
1 tub creme fraiche
2 cartons soya milk
6 sourdough crumpets

I was pleasantly surprised, since shopping in sainsburys all the time - that little lot would usually come to over £40 easily

Bloody hell!. 60 quid for dinner for 3 or 4 people and 2 x lunches for 1 person.

60 quid!!!

As the increases wont happen for another 3 months, any increases are down to greed.

Lets face it, they all charge the same across a basket of goods, so there is no competition at all, we all need food, they can charge what they like as no Govt seems to want to confront their rampant profiteering

See what happened with Car Insurance, last year when premiums rocketed, they were then threatened with an inquiry into prices... what happened? premiums now have dropped.

This.
It's crazy.

That's 50p less than it was six months ago then...

Not overly. But I try and avoid supermarkets as much as possible and don't eat that much prepackaged type food.

I use Rapeseed oil and even sunflower oil now. I can’t stomach the cost of olive oil!

Worth making sure you buy cold pressed rapeseed if you want to minimise the health costs of switching from olive oil.

Ordinary rapeseed oil is produced at high temperatures (same as all other non-virgin seed oils, like sunflower, 'vegetable', safflower etc) and that negatively effects the gut microbiome, which is associated with inflammation in the body, which is always a bad thing.)

Cold pressed rapeseed is still much much cheaper than olive oil. I alternate between the CP rapeseed for high temp cooking - crispy frying, air fryer etc - and cold pressed (ie extra virgin) olive oil for lower temps. .

Yes, absolutely noticed and it's shocking; and although it's felt all over the developed world (anyone shopping in the US can vouch for that), in our case the impacts of Brexit are finally starting to really bite (we were 'eased' into it so that people wouldn't notice too quickly, but what an ongoing shit show!). Cutting ourselves off from the customs union was truly for the clinically insane!

Lets face it, they all charge the same across a basket of goods, so there is no competition at all, we all need food, they can charge what they like as no Govt seems to want to confront their rampant profiteering
See what happened with Car Insurance, last year when premiums rocketed, they were then threatened with an inquiry into prices... what happened? premiums now have dropped.

Such a good point @Alexandra2001

I think this could be it, I don't have kids and haven't noticed any price increases.

Yes, although I think a lot of it is the fact that nothing I usually buy is on offer post Christmas and very little in general seems to be on offer in the Tesco I shop in. Even clubcard promotions don't seem very common at the moment.

I don't know how much more people can take financially.

There's only so much cutting back you can do before either becoming malnourished from a poor diet or skipping meals.

I've not seen a significant increase in the last few weeks. However, beginning of 2022 my maximum weekly shop budget was £80 (including toiletries and cleaning products) to include some 'luxury' items- ie, lamb. Now it's easily £140 for basic items with no room for treats.

I wish it was also because my DC are older, as a PP (sensibly) pointed out. My eldest practically lives on air (although puberty will hit very soon so that will change) and youngest is at nursery full-time so predominantly eats there.

No they’re not, it’s Brexit starting to bite.

My shopping list is very similar week on week.

Walkers 6 packs have gone from £1.60 to £2 in the last year.

Tescos microwave meals have gone from 3 for £6.50 to 3 for £8 in the last two years.

Squash also gone up but can't remember the exact figure.

Rustlers sausage muffins (my sons weekend breakfast treat) from £1.25 to £1.85.

My cat passed away this year but Tescos food pouches had significant rises in 2023, early 2024.

If prices are going up now in response to the minimum wage and NI changes ... is that not really profiteering as the changes don't hit till April ?

www.statista.com/statistics/537050/uk-inflation-rate-food-in-united-kingdom/

And yes I haven’t noticed either -£90 a week for everything from Sainsbury’s for 3 adults the first 2 weeks this year.

I think its the new packaging laws, thats says suppliers are responsible for household packaging recyling and recovery costs so the ni costs are yet to come.

in order for food shopping not to increase, we would need to have negative inflation.

In my years on earth, I don't think that has ever happened.

Inflation at 2.5% just means prices, in general, are rising at that rate. The fact that inflation had dropped this month (well, last month, to be accurate) cannot mean prices are going down, just that they are going up at a slower rate.

Quite a few online tho