This is shit!

[Rayn22]

Tend to do my shopping between Asda and Aldi.
Was going to do an online shop at Asda and priced it up to £101.
Decided to go to Aldi and bought the same and it was £93 so wasn't much difference. I also had to factor in petrol to get there.

Made me realise that there aren't really any 'cheap' supermarkets anymore. Looks like we are all eating less.

Was hoping to have a holiday this year but no chance. We have good money coming in and still can't afford luxuries.
We used to eat out, holidays and buy clothes.
It has gone crazy and just can't see an end to it!
By the time we have paid bills and food hardly anything left. Trying to be positive and look at what I have- not what we haven't but think tough times are going to be here for a while.

This year holiday a caravan up north we found a caravan at a holiday park for a week in the summer holidays for £300.Its nothing fancy but its something fun .

I don’t think we are going on holiday this year either.

I have stopped eating meat. It's made no actual
Difference to our weekly shop.

We're not either

Camping with kids and weekend yha hostel stays in lakes with girls. Abroad or city breaks are out the question

I don’t go out for a mooch around the shops anymore as we would have a coffee, but don’t want to pay for that anymore. And we aren’t going away either.

Yes I think the cost difference between shops has shrunk in the last 6 months. I have just entered my metre readings ( have a smart metre but gas wasn't taken for 6 weeks). I owe £400 on fuel bills. I'm just trying to buy less now, colder house, less food ( no snacks, no pop, no alcohol, only buying a few bags a few times a week as we need things, using up everything in the freezer and cupboards. I'd rather go without my hair cut and clothes too. I can't ever see myself going back to not counting each £1. Greedy profiteers like British Gas and their massive profits. I hope they all shoot themselves in the foot.

An online Asda shop that would have cost me £70 this time last year cost me £150! That’s with lots of asda essentials items 😔

No holidays planned, doubt we'll get one.

Finding food very expensive

It's so so miserable. Food is my biggest expense after the obvious ones. Tied into mobile phone contracts and fuel bills are mahoosive. Two decent earners on paper but struggling

I hate doing the food shop as it costs so much and you get less. Noticed today that toilet rolls are shorter not sure when that happened. Even seems depressing in the stores. Noticed less people taking kids to shops too whether thats to stop them putting items in the trolley.

That is unbelievable!

We'd usually go away for 4/5 mini breaks a year - that's our thing. Luckily had a break precooked last month with a double discount and 3 nights prebooked for camping camping with friends. DD is graduating this year and I've booked the cheapest room I can find in a guest house, no choosing nicest in the best location.

There's only two of us and still managing to do weekly shop for £50 pw, but probably not for much longer. I tend to shop on foot to avoid petrol for car, so go to both Lidl and Tescos for pick out whats cheapest from each.

I do have a fair amount of clothes (all fairly old). Both if us are only going to buy clothes if we really need replacements

DH should be a 2% pay rise in April, which is better than 0% he got this year, so hopefully that'll help.

It will the chicken I bought last week was double the year before. Could even look at lamb, beef or pork.

I've worked out that Tesco is the cheapest place for food shopping - I was so shocked. But I've got Clubcard plus for £7.99 a month and that gives 10% off two big shops per month. I buy as much as possible on Clubcard offers and try and make two a month all the non perishable things and whatever can last. I have tried asda, Aldi and Lidl but Tesco still comes out the cheapest.

@NCTDN this is what I do with Tesco plus also the f&f constant 10% off with it is useful for DS basics, underwear pyjamas etc.
You then get the bonus of clubcard points to use for days out/trips to pizza express, we even used them to pay for a Eurotunnel return when we went on holiday last year, saved us a few hundred pounds.
I do feel like I've sold my soul to Tesco but economically it makes sense for us. Last time I shopped in Aldi it cost just as much, no ten percent off, no clubcard vouchers and much more limited choice of products.

@JennyDarlingRIP it seems crazy doesn't it? DH didn't believe me till he came shopping with me. I used to avoid Tesco because it was one of the most expensive!
We also buy all our fuel from there which builds up the points.

I’m doing Ocado at the minute as they’ve offered me free delivery for two months but the prices just keep climbing don’t they? We’re not penny pinching but noticed the weekly bill rocketing recently and I’ve swapped out so much on price per gram or packet. This is what I really like about online versus in store but I think I miss out on those passing bargains.

Also worth mentioning that Nationwide has a cash back offer giving up to £10 per month for supermarket shopping for three months you can double up if you have joint account with two debit cards too.

www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/cashback/?cmpid=ngba_dba%253aaccounts%253aaccountlist

We do most of our staples and wine shopping at Aldi but there are quite a few things they annoyingly don't sell so still have to go to Sainsbury or Waitrose as well.The prices have gone up so much. I was shocked this week at the little jars of mango chutney in Sainsbury had gone up to £3.50 (I think they were around £1.79 last year).

I haven't had a holiday for 4 years. My husband is on £99 a week SSP (last 3 weeks off sick) and I get £350 or so PIP every 4 weeks for a long-term disability. We can't get UC because he gets £800 a QUARTER from a personal pension. Luckily, our mortgage was paid off a few years ago (we're in our 60s). Life is a struggle.

It is shit, you are correct.

The headline 10%(ish) inflation includes some massive price rises on basic foods and of course fuel bills.

I agree we are in for a bad few years.

I read something the other day about the health impact from people eating less/worse food, depressing.

About 3 months ago I went to buy my usual Aldi Softer loo roll 9 pack, it was £2.99, "Soft" was £1.99 so I switched, noticed no difference.

Last week I had to buy a pack and realised Soft paper was now £2.35. It's gone up by over 10% in the last couple of months. It's madness.

A lot of aldi products have gone up 30/40% easily over the last few months. 10p added on and then next time you shop it’s gone up again. It’s defo not the cheap place it was. Products are also smaller too.

Im hardly buying food anymore, easy to do as no kids.