I just spent £101 on a week's shopping for two people

[Henerlo]

... and it feels like a tipping point.

Admittedly it included cleaning bits and bobs, two bottles of booze and some fresh fish for the friends we're having round tomorrow but still having friends round is a fairly normal activity. No other luxury items, no ready meals, no extravagant deli snacks etc, just a normal shop.

I don't need advice on budgeting, I can do that. I wasn't shopping to a budget today. I'm just noting that for me at least I've reached the point where I can spend £100 on a weekly shop for two without even trying and it's pretty worrying.

That's because you're shopping from Ocado. Do that same shop anywhere else.

Without booze ours is around £60 for 2 of us but we are trying to loose weight also we have a veg garden which helps a bit and replaces carbs with veg. Meat is the big cost, buying the family packs for the freezer helps, then using leftovers in a curry or sweet and sour

Two adults here. No pets. I just spent £52 in Lidl on the absolute basics for this week. No toiletries, cleaning products, wine, treats. No 'store room' stuff and nothing to go in the freezer. One piece of pork which will do for Sunday lunch and two lots of sandwiches for work in the week.

I know that will need some topping up with bread and milk in the week.

That same shop would have been £37 just a few weeks ago. I know I am spot on the money becuase my basics shopping list hardly varies.

How much more is it going to go up is the worry?

I used to donate a monthly dd to the food bank, and buy a few extras to throw in the donations box. I have had to stop doing that now.

I am serious ly concerned about those people who are really struggling. I think we are gong to have been who are not likely to go hungry, but will be malnurishe - especially growing children and the elderly.

We have cut back on everything we can now. I have stopped having fish, we never have takeaways. We have not had a joint of beef for months. We never have lamb. The only other way we could cut back is to give up meat entirely.

I think the issue is that we can see it increasing each week and certain items are ridiculous prices. Even cutting back and shopping at cheaper places, it's not knowing when it will stop.

I have started buying every meal from the reduced section so ready meals for around 50p to £1 per person. The same with fruit and veg. I know it isn't always possible to buy stuff from the reduced section. I have also had to stop eating so many treats. I don't drink so no alcohol. I used to buy expensive fancy fruit teas, but I have had to stop doing that for the time being. I have started eating beans and toast and soup a lot more too. My weekly shop is around £18 for just food and the occasional toiletry.

You don't say where you're shopping, but the point is - you've got the money to be able to spend £101 on 2 people for a week, which is more than a lot of people can afford

That's the point. OP knows she's ok. She also knows how much her shopping has increased for just 2, so she knows bigger families will struggle more.

Yes, we do that every week

I’m not that bothered and I like the quality and convenience.

I was just pointing out for some people 100 quid is chump change

What insight

Yep, it's not just 5p here and there, it's 50p, £1 and up
My shop came today, £58 for me (single)
It did have toilet rolls in but I mean that's hardly a luxury item!
Stuff like tuna pasta bake, corned beef hash that used to be cheap meals... not any more

Thanks @girlmom21 that's exactly it. The bill sort of crossed a psychological line : shopping for a week for two people now costs £100 without too much effort/luxuries.

It shows just how much food has increased in price. And this is a problem for anyone on a fixed low income - ie any employees on less than £25k and anyone fully reliant on state benefits. It's particularly a problem for households with children where nutrition now has lifelong impacts on future health, for households with elderly family members where poor nutrition can precipitate rapid decline, for households with disabled family members who already have increased costs in other areas.

I do think it's worrying. I don't think it heralds starvation levels of poverty because our country is not particularly structured that way. But I agree with a PP that these rises could see more people with nutritional deficiencies. Also higher levels of personal debt, defaults and bankruptcies. All of these things are catastrophies for individuals and also very bad for society and the economy. And this is only June. There's a long way to go yet.

Would you mind giving me an idea of what you buy? I'm struggling to keep my shop so low and there is only 2 of us.

If you don't want to go in to detail here I would really appreciate a pm.

Ocado isn’t that expensive. Depends obviously on what you but, but I do the weekly shop with Ocado and I buy their own brand stuff and it’s good and cheap.

As a PP mentioned butter with Ocado is the cheapest I’ve found for ages and I’m slightly obsessed with the cost of butter. It’s own brand but I can’t taste the difference.

I buy the French Normandy butter with sea salt / think it’s m and s

2.45 for a block

Yip, everything is becoming so expensive. We use quite a lot of milk in our house and it's massively shot up to 40p more for 2ltrs ham is another one. I've made a point of reducing snacks and I'm always on the prowl for a yellow label that I can freeze.

I spent that in ALDI for 2 people for 2 weeks. Every conversation I overhead was 'ohhh that's gone up in price!'

I do get what you mean. I keep ours on £65-70 only because we mostly don't drink and I buy frozen fish like once a month. Plus I switched from branded stuff to Lidl and Asda own ones. Crazy.