To be annoyed how much groceries cost?

[justkeepswimingswiming]

10 years ago I could do a full shop for 4 people with £50 for a week & a bit.
Today I spent £70 for 3 dinners, a little bit of fruit & veg and a box of cat food!
My wages haven’t gone up, my bills have increased by a ridiculous amount. My child benefit went up all of 1 percent.
I can’t even scrimp on food as I have a diabetic in the house and need to have food in the house!
😟 I just can’t afford to live anymore, yet the goverment are handing out millions in forgein aid and taking away from the poor. What do they expect us to do?
can’t use food banks, there’s a limit of 3 times in so many months.

I am more annoyed about rents and utilities going up.

Food needs growing, picking, moving around etc. Proportionally we spend very little on food in the U.K and the profit margins on food are tiny.

Farmers deserve our money, landlords and energy companies don’t

Honestly, it's crazy
I thought we were charged wrong at Tesco yesterday when our bill was £70
It was about 3 dinners, 5 lunches, kitchen roll, a big tub of peanut butter, cheese, eggs, a few kid's snacks like babybel and mini cheddars, salad items, and some non alcoholic drinks

For 12 organic eggs it was £5.05 !!

You lost me when you started whining about foreign aid. The UK is reducing spending on foreign aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income, compared to about 10% on benefits.

YANBU to find groceries too expensive.

YABVU to think money is being taken away from the poor to spend on foreign aid, or that this is the reason your groceries are expensive. YABVVVU not to do some basic research before posting, but why let the facts get in the way…

I’m not sure why foreign aid is linked to food prices.

Yanbu to be dismayed at the cost of food. Hopefully a lot of the price increases is going to minimum wage workers like the delivery drivers and supermarket staff (I agree with minimum wage going up annually ) as well as food producers rather than shareholders and executives.

I blame the lack of action on energy prices on the government (and previous ones) though !!

Can you share a general weekly shop e.g. a receipt and an idea of the meals you make/like? People could make suggestions on better deals or tips on bulk cooking.

YANBU to be stressed, but don’t fall down these ‘foreigners getting my money!’ rabbit holes or you’ll never be happy.

I find it infuriating too.
Using the same time frame as you - 10 years ago I had 2 DC in nappies and was buying one DC baby milk, also had all of the extra expenses like them growing out of clothes quickly etc. Yet we really didn’t need to think about money the way we do now. We felt we were more than able to afford things, even had meals out and lots of day trips.
Now we hit zero most months.
10 years ago our food shopping was generally around £85 - £100 and that was with some luxuries, now it’s £140 for a very basic shop.
Back then heating was taken for granted too and we put it on whenever we wanted. Now we rely on jumpers and blankets on cold days.
Im sick of the cost of living crisis too, and I’m sick of all the rich people trying to justify why it’s fine and we should all just suck it up. Easy for them to say.

Foreign aid isn’t really aid, but the government can’t morally refer to it as “The foreign bribe budget”.

Yeah your right it’s not forgein aid, it’s the government and their buddies thinking they deserve a pay rise when they’re smashing this country into the ground further & further each day.

I have a child on the spectrum who only eats certain foods, and a child whose diabetic so needs more decent meals so it doesn’t chuck his blood sugars up to high but I just can’t do that with the prices now.
we tend to have things like pizza, pasta, salad, jacket potatoes, roast dinners, chicken nuggets, chicken & veg. Nothing special at all.
I remember I could go into Iceland and fill my massive freezer under £70 and it’d last me months now I can’t afford to shop in Iceland. 😕

£5.05 for 12 eggs?! We got 12 eggs today for £3 and I thought that was dear.
Even ham has gone up, £4.50 for two packets… for bloody ham that’s mostly reclaimed meat. 😒

Food in the UK was very cheap for a long time.
Brexit was always going to make food more expensive.
Covid and world wide inflation added to that.
Food in the UK is actually still pretty cheap compared to many developed nations I think? Eggs in the USA have been around $9 for a dozen recently.

Have you tried making your own ham? It's been a revelation for me. Just buy one of those round gammons, about £4 and boil it for an hour in plain water. Then you have loads of ham.
I boil mine for 40 mins then bake it in the oven for 20 mins with a bit of honey drizzled on it. Yum!

£3 for 12 eggs is a lot??

the hens need to be housed, fed, checked on, medicated against salmonella, the eggs packaged, transported and put on shelves and sold to you. I despair at what people think food production should be valued at

Eggs are £2.75 a dozen in Lidl.

Depends where and what you shop?

The UPF is usually pricier.

We went to Tesco yesterday and it came to £172 😩🫣 and we stick mainly to Tesco branded stuff. It was a “big shop” so laundry and cleaning stuff included but oh my god I could have cried. Thank god for club card as £20 was knocked off of that

food in the uk is very cheap, the problem is not food. Every other country like us has much more expensive food.

its all the other bills (housings the main one) that are the problem

YANBU about food prices , but the rest of what you spouted - pure drivel

So now its MP's pay rises? They got 2.8%, I got 6.7%

"The National Minimum Wage (NMW) has increased by varying percentages depending on age and type of worker, starting from April 1, 2025. The National Living Wage (NLW), for those 21 and over, increased by 6.7%, while the NMW for 18-20 year olds saw a 16.3% increase. Additionally, the NMW for 16-17 year olds and apprentices also increased by 18.0%"

Civil service - between 4.45 and 6%

Public Sector Pay:
In July 2024, the Labour government accepted the recommendations of the Pay Review Bodies (PRBs), meaning that public sector employees will receive a pay increase of between 4.75% and 6% in the 2024/25 financial year, depending on occupation.

It makes no difference what the Government is doing with the funds available to them. It serves no purpose what you have said here, about aid foreign. Do you think that the Government would have given people in your situation the money instead?

Dear lord, remind me to never rant on mumsnet. What a horrible forum! Ugh.

You’re doing your bit to contribute to the negative atmosphere yourself, with all the digs about foreign aid and politicians’ mates.

You are absolutely entitled to rant OP. But neither aid or Mp’s salaries have anything to do with rising food costs.
You might as well direct your ire to some of the actual causes of your distress.

YABU. You have a pet, which is a luxury. Whilst I understand that you can't get rid of them, it means that your money has to stretch further.

I'm sure you would rather keep your pet and feed them but that means you will have to live on a tighter budget.

Totally agree that food/farmers are worth paying but not so much dividends to foreign utliity owners and landlords.

A Tesco Clubcard doesn’t really knock money off. Tesco puts the prices up to then say oh it’s cheaper with a Clubcard

We still have the cheapest groceries compared to other countries