Food prices skyrocketing again!

[cookingthebooks]

DH disagrees, says it’s all stabilised out now and slowed down but he’s not actually done the shop in forever.

This month I’ve just been walking around the supermarket aghast. The price hikes that are going on, my favourite bar of ‘cheap’ dark chocolate has gone from 65p pre Christmas to £1.10!!! Fishcakes from £1.80 to £1.95 and the kids mini pizzas from 45p to 65p all pretty much overnight. There’s lots more and fruit/fresh food have all risen too. I’m really struggling to do the full week shop for our family of four for less than £150 a week now (everything included, pull ups, all work/school lunches, cleaning and toiletries)
Some weeks it’s closer to £170 and I’m very frugal I hate it!

tell me this isn’t just me?

Yes, spot on

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2024/11/tesco-national-insurance/

Just to add - previous rounds of inflation, in 2023-early 2024 were global driven by covid and war, it was actually less steep here than in Europe. This round is very UK specific, there isn't much inflation in e.g. EU, means current spike is a direct consequence of Labour budget.
And this is still before farmers start responding to their taxes.
Well, UK voted for both Brexit and now this government, it's only fair after all.

Tesco's profits increased during Col crisis. This would suggest they are taking advantage. Profits of nearly £3bn. They can afford the NI increases. They can afford not to redund staff. They can afford to pay their staff more. They've made a choice not to. Which is fine, but don't blame everyone else.

It's not the same anyway now it's full of horrible palm oil. It seems to be getting harder and harder to find a brand that doesn't use it. I'm not a lover of Lindt.

The thing that did cause me to do a double-take was the price of olive oil. The first thing I noticed that there were none of the old, larger-sized bottles on the shelves. A medium-sized bottle costs about £11!

The sizes are shrinking too! Never mind the 3% wage increase! growl!!!

@Reetpetitenot

They exist to make profit. It's the only reason - not to feed the nation, not to provide employment, but to make profit to return to shareholders. Exactly the same as their workforce go to work to get paid. No shelf stocker will work for free, not 10min of free overtime.

You may hate it what you like, but to make policy decisions like this is just stupid. To vote for party expected to make such decisions and then complain about consequences is stupid.

I mean, the fact the CEO is on £5m a year isn’t helping

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65828000.amp

M&S baked beans are quite good, the small tins are 30p.

I agree with you and with OP's husband. They haven't gone up in almost half a year, some have even gone down.

5 years ago when my partner and I first got together, I remember we did the massive Christmas food shop. Everything was sliding off the top of the trolley and it was £120 and I commented I'd never done a food shop over £100 before and was shocked.
Now, a basic weekly shop, no treats just essentials and only half a trolley comes to £100 every time 😔

I noticed the same yesterday. Quite a few of my regular buys have gone up in price since Christmas. Butter is up 10p, chocolate 25p, DC’s milk 25p, grapes 15p and it all adds up. Our grocery bill is about £100 per week and we almost never have meat, don’t drink and our treats are shortbread biscuits and one own brand chocolate bar per week.

My strategy now is to check what’s on offer in Tesco and meal plan around that. Last week we had cauliflower three ways 😄

With utility bills, insurance and all the other things going up too I don’t know how people manage.

Sorry, where am I complaining about policy decisions or their consequences ? I don't think you read my post properly.

I don't 'hate' that Tesco care about their profits - I just think it's disingenuous of them to blame the government for these decisions. Tesco have been squeezing suppliers 'till the pips squeak for decades. They don't have the high ground.

I work in a shop and buy toiletries when it's double discount week for us, which is twice a year. Haven't had to work in the toiletry section for a couple of months, but when tidying it up the other day I noticed quite a few things had gone up noticeably in price.

You can buy a litre of olive oil in M&S for £9, many other products are comparable or often even cheaper than other shops.

Unless it's impossible, it's really worth shopping around as you can save loads this way.

We've always done this as have struggled badly in the past so simply didn't have the luxury of shopping week to week in the most convenient supermarket, regardless of the cost. We had to make our money stretch by buying what was cheapest and it's a good habit that's stuck.

The past couple of weeks I've noticed lots of price increases.

That cheap chocolate you mentioned op, I always buy for baking...it used to be about 30p...it's now over a £1...may as well buy branded stuff.

I had my Asda order delivered yesterday. Without the delivery cost (£1.50), I ordered the minimum which is £40. I received seven items for that.

When I first lived alone, yes, six years ago tbf, I'd get a 'proper' full shop for that including fresh stuff and brand names. This time was washing capsules, dishwasher tablets, three ready meals, shampoo and spray cleaner.

Yes I was surprised before Christmas, needed butter and I was in town where the easiest option was the big M&S. I was expecting to pay more than our usual Tesco own brand which was £2 at the time for 250g, but it was only £1.70 I think for same amount. I stocked up!

Kitkats in a multi pack are now almost the same size as original fun size bars.

Exactly what I was going to mention

They've done it because of the NI on employers contribution I would hazard.

I noticed it straight after Xmas - suddenly every item was at least 10-15p more than when I'd last done a proper shop. Maybe they thought we'd not notice so much after all the irregular shopping we'd done during the holidays. It's depressing af.

Yes I have noticed increases in our groceries too, and not just a few pennies here and there, big jumps +20p, makes a huge difference on our weekly shop. I do think it will get worse too, with the amount of theft and the NMW & NI increases. A friend of mine works in a supermarket, she said leavers haven’t been replaced for sometime, so more pressure on remaining staff.

Why? it's actually not that high for this level role and all responsibilities it involves. Or do you want him to be paid proverbial £100k? He pays his income and other taxes.

Oh, and one more - those ones not happy about shareholders profits. Do you realise that each one of us with private pensions (I have no knowledge of public sector pensions) are most likely to own some shares of Tescos, Sainsbos etc? that the main shareholders of FTSE100 are pension funds? so if you want your pensions to grow, at least at the same level as inflation, then you really want these business to make a lot of profit.

Orange juice has shocked me in tesco. Gone from £4 for 4, to 1.75 each and £1.05 for the cheaper brand. Its also more expensive than apple juice for the first time I can remember so I wonder if a supply issue is related.

Chocolate - that is a well known problem called climate change

Fresh fruit and veg - yes this time of year it's all imported - and a lot of it from countries affected by climate change