Crazy Price Rises

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So we’ve been in this ‘Cost of Living’ crisis for a while now but has anyone else notice some insane price increases for everyday items more recently. Today a deodorant I have usually bought for £2.50 is priced at £4.75, toothpaste £7.00 and a pack of throat lozenges £6.50 pretty sure the last time I bought these they were around £4. Yes I know I can probably shop around and find these things on offer somewhere but they are just an example of items in a high st pharmacy that I would have previously purchased without a second thought. Don’t get me started on food costs even buying some sweets for trick or treating tonight had me wincing, it’s just really frightening and I don’t know where it will end or how people are just accepting it.

Please share some more of your Crazy Price stories so that we can see how mad this is all getting.

Yeah, it's getting a bit grim now. Food prices are soaring. Most of our evening meals are already based around canned chickpeas or lentils (a habit that stuck after the last financial crisis), but DH has trouble maintaining his weight and needs to add meat really. We're cutting everything to the bone.

I paid £12 for four of the ingredients for a chocolate cake I was making. In Lidl.
Huge difference to a year ago.

It is alarming, op.

Yes Fairy is not what it was

I used to work in a pharmacy and one thing you can do is not buy brand name pharmaceuticals.

Nurofen is no different to the Tesco 89p ibuprofen

Piritize can be purchased as Tesco own brand cetrizine

Strepsils are no more effective than a tube of halls soothers

Calpol is also so much cheaper when you buy the supermarket version.

I buy Sensodyne pro enamel. It’s often on offer on either Tesco/ocado or it’s cheaper in savers or superdrug. I bought it for about £3/4 the other day in savers for 100ml. Never paid 7 quid.

The only thing I can’t abide by as a supermarket swap is heinz ketchup.

prices are obscene at the moment

Are people missing the point? Sellers put the price up but they sell it at a discount (at some places) before people get used to the new price.
Offers are not a forever available option. Shops are either clearing old stock or just gradually increasing (smaller discounts) until people get used to the new price.

I have never in my life. I bought toothpaste at a pharmacy.. you don't need to shop around to get better prices, you just need to shop in the supermarket.

I was washing up at my dads and he had fairy…. couldn’t believe how rubbish it is these days. We use a cheap one!

I’ve been seeing £7 toothpaste a lot. I saw a normal tube of Colgate for £8 in Tesco Express. Minced beef is now £5.50

Some of the price rises at the moment are because the shops legally have to sell at the higher price for 28 days before claiming a special offer or reduction.

Christmas offers (that aren’t really) require high prices in late October / early November,

That’s not to say prices aren’t permanently increasing for a lot of things, unfortunately.

I feel like branded toothpaste and deodorants are listed at massively inflated prices because they are almost always on sale.

I found this too. I switched almost everything to the Tesco brand equivalent a couple of years ago and mostly it’s been fine but we were getting through Tescos washing up liquid at such a pace that we had to switch back to Fairy. The home brand dishwasher tablets weren’t getting the dishes clean so we went back to Finish and it was such a relief. Some swaps are a false economy.

It’s not just the price rises, it’s the shrinkage of products too … a standard large supermarket chicken now looks like an average sized blackbird

I noticed just this week that some items that I buy every week (toilet rolls, tissues, eggs) have just increased with 20-25%. How come?

I have noticed instant coffee has shot up. I always have a jar of Kenco on the go for wfh days, been buying it for years. Not only does it suffer from shrinkflation and cost hikes, it is now tasting odd with strange gritty dregs at the bottom of the cup. I used up a small pouch of it, glad to see the back of it when I finished, bought a big jar to replace it (it was smaller than normal)and again, it tastes odd with the gritty dregs. Just looked it up, there are lots of complaints about it, they have added 10% grounds in the instant coffee, can only assume to cut costs. It is now undrinkable to me, and loads others. My one was the big standard red jar, but it seems all the Kenco range is the same, including Millicano. I have just chucked near enough a whole jar.

What irritates me is how quickly people jump in with suggestions for cheaper, non-branded alternative. And when they’re being dismissive of someone who chooses branded products.

OP isn’t saying there are no cheaper alternatives. She’s saying that the products she regularly buys have gone up to what she considers excessive prices…that’s why she’s included a rough guide of what they used to cost.

I don’t know why people suggest that anyone paying more for a branded product has simply fallen for clever marketing, as though they’re incapable of deciding for themselves what they like. Of course marketing affects prices, but that doesn’t mean all products are the same. But you can’t deny that there are real differences in ingredients, taste, quality, and how well things work for many branded products. Sometimes branded products are better, sometimes cheaper alternatives are better, and sometimes there’s very little difference.

People are perfectly capable of trying different products and deciding which they prefer. Just because someone chooses to pay more for a brand doesn’t mean they’ve been fooled by advertising. Equally, choosing the cheaper option doesn’t automatically mean someone is making a smarter choice.

OP isn’t asking how to save money by buying different products. She’s pointing out how much the things she actually wants to buy have increased in price. That’s a perfectly fair complaint, and I don’t understand why some people feel the need to criticise her choices rather than address what she’s actually saying.

I have changed so many things to stick within budget but I won’t change my deodorant and a few other things, it makes me rage every time I replenish it because it just keeps going up!
I haven’t had a wage increase for 3 years so it’s getting tight and I haven’t been able to save much or anything the last few months. At this rate I’ll be eating beans on toast but at least I’ll smell nice!
shopping around is a false economy. Any money I save on the product is eaten up by petrol driving to the different shops. I stock up when it’s on offer but offers are happening less and less.

Our local Tescos express was asking £4.20 for a small tub of Bisto gravy granules !

I’m with you on deodorant - I won’t change that unless they stop making it.

I’m the same with toothpaste, they don’t sell it here anymore so I bulk buy in Spain or order online to get it imported.

Sensodyne toothpaste ranges from £2.75 to £3.99 in Home Bargains depending on the variety.
YABU to pay £7.00 for it. If nobody buys it at that price they'll soon reduce it.
I buy all my toiletries, household goods and OTC medicines in Home Bargains and groceries in Lidl. Whilst even their prices have gone up, I won't pay extortionate High Street prices. I'd rather do without.

But why does it irritate you? If someone is complaining that things are too expensive, it's fair enough to point out they don't have to be.

It doesn't even have to be a cheaper alternative, but just planning ahead and buying the items in multipacks, when on offer or from cheaper shops. Deodorant is something you know you will always need, so if you're determined to stick to Dove rather than trying a cheaper version, get 1 next time you're in B&M, or when Tesco has them on offer rather than waiting for your current one to run out.

I'm not pointing this out to be pedantic, but to indicate that if Home Bargains, Aldi etc can sell the exact same (or very similar) items at half the price, the big stores could do the same, but are instead making huge amounts of profit.

If we're not happy with it we're the only ones that can change it by foregoing convenience for cost, and refusing to pay the higher prices. If you'd rather moan about it but not take the most simple, easy action (nobody is suggesting you milk your own cows or boil fat to create your own soap) then that's on you.

Because I find it dismissive. Someone can be perfectly aware of cheaper alternatives, offers and discount shops and still think the price of their usual products has become ridiculous.

There’s nothing wrong with suggesting ways to save money, but there’s a difference between offering helpful advice and implying that someone only has themselves to blame because they choose to buy particular products.

And you’re rather proving my point with your suggestion that people would rather moan than take simple action. You don’t actually know where OP shops, whether she buys things on offer or whether she’s tried cheaper alternatives. You’re assuming she hasn’t considered any of those things simply because she’s complaining about prices.

I also don’t agree that consumers should have to change their shopping habits before they’re entitled to criticise rising prices. If a product that used to cost £2 now costs £4, that’s a perfectly reasonable thing to complain about, regardless of whether you can find it cheaper elsewhere.

And if your argument is that supermarkets are charging excessive prices and making huge profits, surely that supports OP’s complaint rather than undermines it?

I remember seeing the christmas radio times at over £5, that was 3 years ago, & pizza, frozen.pizza £5. I used to work on sainsburys and I recall some of us warning customers to check prices before picking the items as it was frightening workers who worked 16hrs a week on not far off minimum wages.

It's going to get worse. Living standards in the developed world are set to fall.