Cost of food

[Sadless]

I have just been to asda and can't believe the prices. How are people supposed to be able to manage like this. I haven't had my heating on since the 1st of April and electricity is about £7 a day on prepayment and I switch off all appliances at Wall now when not using.
Why do the government think its OK to let people struggle and some how think they will manage to get votes next week.

Sal

I've been shopping at Lidl for years as it's been the cheapest option locally, but not anymore. Things have gone up by as much as £1.00 (dog biscuits for starters), and everything else has gone up by between 20p and 30p. The prices haven't all been changed on the shelf though yet so when I add up going round to make sure I only spend what I brought with me, I'm having to put things back when given the total because of this lack of changing price labels on the shelf.

Ha! I've thought the same sort of thing.

Supermarket chickens have been fed on inferior stuff and plumped up with water based filler for a while now. Corn fed chicken was always expensive and deeper in colour and flavour. I think we will be biting the Americans' hands off for chlorinated chicken at inflated prices by next year.

Lots of great vegetarian recipes in here. Bargain at £6.

www.whsmith.co.uk/products/500-greatestever-vegetarian-recipes-a-cooks-guide-to-the-sensational-world-of-vegetarian-cooking/valerie-ferguson/paperback/9781846815683.html

I love a chicken curry. I usually buy skinless, boneless, chicken thighs, 1 jar of patak's sauce (when on offer only!), and basmati rice cooked in my Ninja (225g rice washed, any whole spices you like, a bit of butter, 250ml water, pressure cook on hi for 3 mins, slow release for 10 mins).

Beans on toast have always been a great way of having a nutritious meal at low cost. Lentils dhals are great too. With enough spice and flavour you won't miss the meat.

Ahh. 400 ml of water!

Food is historically cheap. Compared to the last 1000 years as a percentage of income food is cheap with a huge negative knock on effect on the welfare standards of chickens. Perhaps we should be spending more on food and wasting less.

You can't without terrible welfare conditions for the animal. I would set a minimum standard of living (basically free range) for any animal in the UK. If you can't afford that then meat isn't essential and people survive happily and healthy on vegetarian or egg based diets

Sainsbury’s have shareholders, Asda used to be cheap, price matched items limited to Aldi

Only if you can, lots can’t

If anyone has space to grow things, certain crops take little space, and you get a huge saving.

tomatoes and green beans - £1 seeds get ££ return in fruit and veg.

any berries. They all are basically buy plant once then it lasts years and years. And they cost a lot from shop.

herbs - any supermarket herb plant or from b and q type places. Plant in individual large pots so they don’t smother each other. Most wilt in winter and regrow spring so again buy once. Mint/ oregano/ rosemary/ chives. All then help liven up cheap basic meals.

Meat is very expensive where we live now. It’s always been higher than uk, but I think 5 years ago a whole chicken was about €8. Two weeks ago when I last looked it was €16-19 depending on size.

Food waste is a big issue too. I never waste anything. Leftovers get turned into something else or eaten the next day. Wonky veg in the fridge goes into soup. That kind of thing. I also don't live and die by use by dates either, never have. Raw and packet meat is my only exception there, as it's not worth the risk. But things like cheese, yoghurt, milk, eggs, as long as it looks and smells fine it gets consumed. I believe the co-op is one of the supermarkets removing use by dates on things like this, and about time too.

In case this is useful Iceland have these monthly £10 off online codes- the good thing is there is no minimum purchase, but delivery is free over £35..the one for this month is ICEMAY.

I just paid over £2 for a small bag of red lentils. They used to be about 80p

Where? Too much

We are actually paying less now we've started planning - family of 5. Our shop this week was £82 but my DH didn't buy alcohol (I don't drink) and we didn't need nappies this week. Used to be around £120.

We're both trying to lose weight though so what we have started doing is buying 1 fresh meat or fish in big packs for the whole week (apart from pizza Thursdays but we make our own with leftover veg/salad/lunch meat from the week) and we use veg, rice, homemade wedges etc to make a diff meal each day but same meat. This week we also made a large batch of soup which will do a couple of days and bought less of the meat. We all eat the same.

Every couple of days I check fresh produce and make something to freeze with the things that might be going off soon. (Banana loaf/pancakes with bananas/fruit or make homemade frozen yoghurt bar/ice lollies with the fruit/yoghurts), sauce for pasta with any tomatoes/veggies etc.

I also like others have turned to making nice picnics instead of eating out especially in the holidays.

I shop at Aldi full week shop for 3 adults and a child £60-£80 including alcohol, cleaning product and toiletries. I went to Asda other day as it was convenient got the usual stuff £120!! Nearly double, won't be going back!!

Weirdly I read an article from him today.
Hes a tory lord now and used to run m&s.
The bit about him personally cutting back made me chuckle as if he's loaded and gets stuff discount presumably.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/asda-boss-warns-food-prices-26843520

But tesco did dame same thing few months ago .

I seldom shop at Asda its a distance and last time did not seem that cheap.
Jack Monroe said they had reintroduced more value lines and the news said last week they were rolling back prices.

Things that have helped me reduce my food bill last 6months

1. batch cooking and freezing
   Cottage pie in foil trays as once defrosted can cook in oven.
   Spag bol, chill , casserole and currie in zip lock bags.
   Home made soup in plastic tubs.

2. ensuring we use leftovers or keep checking fridge to use up stuff that's seem better days.

3. looking for reduction and freeze i seldom ever buy full price bread.

4. meal planning
   More simple cheap meals so baked potato or soups and roll with a dessert.
   Omlette and chips.
   Eating less meat.
   More pasta
   Less snacks brought cut back on crisps
   
   Less soft drinks brought.

Aldi is annoying me the most big rises all time on coffees/ cheese/ choc spread/ carton drinks for lunchboxes.
Actually finding if buying value items tesco and morrisions is cheaper than aldi on grocery items.
Morrisions have loads of value items in stock and few items cheaper than aldi or lilds plus big 3for £3branded frozen and sauces.

Definatly eating out less and less takeaway.
Trying to take snacks and drinks out with me at all times.

£7 a day? What energy company are you with?

You can plant tomato seeds from the ones you eat from the supermarket. They grow exactly the same and you get to eat them.

My big bag of French bean seeds has lasted since 2019! They have all come up again this year which surprised me. Sore seeds in a cool dry place and they last for years.

I cannot believe that even my cheap-as-chips fruit and veg market has now reduced the quantity inside the scoop to around half to two-thirds. You used to be able to buy five times more than the supermarkets for the same price. I really miss those days of abundance and I don't believe they will return. Certainly not for several generations.

I can't get that code to work at all.

OK, I used the April code and it was fine? Sorry about that. Not sure why it isn't working.

@JoeGoldberg I believe the co-op is one of the supermarkets removing use by dates thanks for the heads up, a shop to avoid health is more important than saving a few pence.

Considering yoghurts aren't 'a few pence' and common sense is a thing, you'll find the use by is to cover the back of the supermarket just in case anyone is daft enough to eat food that's clearly gone off. But if you apply a little common sense to what you eat it's pretty obvious when something isn't edible anymore! However, yogurt is usually good to eat for up to 3 weeks after its use by date. If it's gone off (smells weird/separated/mouldy) then it's pretty obvious you should bin it. But so much food is being wasted because of arbitrary dates printed on cartons.

www.eatbydate.com/dairy/yogurt-shelf-life-expiration-date/

With Aldi and Lidl - they use a lot of continental brands- I did wonder how they would make that work post Brexit without increases . We've got the reverse now in Copenhagen-- tons of Irish stuff, very little coming from the UK.

We are back to UK in 10 days, the only bonus (apart from family and friends) is to me it will seem quite cheap. I've never paid less than £12 for a decent chicken here, and good sausages are at least £7 a pack. Makes M&S look extremely reasonable.

Things I have done here though on monumental food bills is twice a week at night we have good quality soup and something on toast or cheese on crackers. I've cooked bigger portions and saved at least 1 portion for the next day. I've learnt that a plain cheese roll is rather a nice snack lunch and I've cooked more and not bought ready meals - as there aren't many ready meals and what there is just aren't very nice. I've planned better, not bought 'snacks' , not bought non nutritious shit etc. Good Yoghurt comes in milk carton size and will last all week and works out way cheaper and I think a biggie is actually saying to older children, teens and any young adults at home-- no you can't just empty the fridge- you ask .