I am spending a fortune on food!

[Idaho]

I do shopping for other people, and recently I did a few shops in m&s. Surprisingly it's no longer particularly more expensive than the usual supermarkets for three basic stuff.

 

[Petcha]

I shop at Tesco and spend about £120 a week. But that's mainly beer and wine. Probably about £20 on food. Who fucking needs that shit.

 

[Karl Masks]

I shop at Tesco and spend about £120 a week. But that's mainly beer and wine. Probably about £20 on food. Who fucking needs that shit.

Me, apparently

 

[Monte]

I did the monthly shop at Lidl and Tesco on Friday.
£65 for me at Lidl and £40 for the cats at Tesco.
It really helps to know how to cook meals from scratch and not eat meat.

 

[Epona]

Iceland?

View attachment 416380

Horrendously expensive for most things, more so even than Morrisons.
Also very limited range of goods outside of the freezer section.

 

[Throbbing Angel]

Horrendously expensive for most things, more so even than Morrisons.
Also very limited range of goods outside of the freezer section.

Really? Was unaware, but am sure that anyone here placing an order would notice this.

 

[Epona]

Really? Was unaware, but am sure that anyone here placing an order would notice this.

My nearest supermarkets are Iceland (3 branches), then Co Op (where I've had bad experiences with off veg so I don't shop there), and then a Morrisons.
So as a frugal shopper I am quite well up on the relative pricing of goods, and Iceland is only a good deal for certain things on their 3 for £3, 3 for £5, or 3 for £10 deals - most other stuff they are shockingly expensive.
Goodfellas margarita pizza is £3 in Iceland (although they sometimes include it in offers), and currently £1.50 in Morrisons.

 

[Epona]

Just to give some examples - a whole non-organic cucumber is 89p in both Asda and Morrisons, while it's a whole 10p more expensive in Iceland at 99p.
Fresh broccoli is sold in different weight packs (I am comparing shrink wrapped as not all places offer loose, so comparing like with like) but Asda comes in at £2.19 per kg, Morrisons is £2.26 per kg, and Iceland is a whopping £2.50 a kg (same as Waitrose).

Do not shop in Iceland unless something is on a special multibuy offer, it used to be a cheap option, but now is more expensive than most other supermarkets for many items.

 

[hash tag]

I gather it's a bit of pot luck but people at work are getting bags of good food for pennies via Join Our Food Waste Movement

 

[Epona]

Also, I mention being really frugal, and I am - but prices of stuff have gone up so much, did shopping split between Lidl and Morrisons over the last couple of days, needed to stock up on a few bulk food items and have spent £120 on food - I mean that is all stuff that will last for a while and only a few luxury non-essential sort of items (some cheap sweets and crisps, couple of jars of things from Lidl's Italian week), basically a store cupboard top up plus fresh goods type of shop - but a couple of years ago the stuff I bought today would have been £60-£70. Our income has not gone up by anything like that.

 

[Spandex]

Also, I mention being really frugal, and I am - but prices of stuff have gone up so much, did shopping split between Lidl and Morrisons over the last couple of days, needed to stock up on a few bulk food items and have spent £120 on food - I mean that is all stuff that will last for a while and only a few luxury non-essential sort of items (some cheap sweets and crisps, couple of jars of things from Lidl's Italian week), basically a store cupboard top up plus fresh goods type of shop - but a couple of years ago the stuff I bought today would have been £60-£70. Our income has not gone up by anything like that.

This post really gets to the heart of why people are spending a fortune on food.

The price of food has rocketed over the last two years. The graph bcuster posted on the last page, showing food price inflation coming down last year doesn't really show what's been going on (and that's inflation - only dairy & meat have started to slightly drop in price the last couple of months, and that's after cheese jumped by 50% in price).

This graph better shows how much the price of food went up in 2022 and 2023:



My wages certainly didn't go up anything like that. I've really noticed the hit.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

apropos of nothing.

It's just extraordinary when I think about it. It's all whole foods, no junk/choccy biscuits and creme eggs. No takeaways.

I eat a lot of nuts and have an avocado a day as well as fish and poultry (I can't really make vegan work for me).

Just frightening to think how expensive things are these days. I order from Morrisons, whom I suppose are not wildly dearer than anywhere else. If I need something quickly I have to go to the local corner/convenience place. Sadly that's now a branch of the COOP who seem to be three times as expensive, for some reason.

I mean eating well is expensive. It's cheaper to eat processed crap sadly if your cooking it yourself.

And if you stop eating avocado toast you could probably afford a house or something.

 

[nogojones]

apropos of nothing.

It's just extraordinary when I think about it. It's all whole foods, no junk/choccy biscuits and creme eggs. No takeaways.

I eat a lot of nuts and have an avocado a day as well as fish and poultry (I can't really make vegan work for me).

Just frightening to think how expensive things are these days. I order from Morrisons, whom I suppose are not wildly dearer than anywhere else. If I need something quickly I have to go to the local corner/convenience place. Sadly that's now a branch of the COOP who seem to be three times as expensive, for some reason.

I don't know if you have a local food pantry... Home

They tend to be community run and you get a decent amount of shopping for around a fiver generally. Anyone can use them as well, so you don't need to be referred, just rock up when they're open

Pantry Listings

View details of all the Pantry in our network across the UK.

www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk

 

[Karl Masks]

I don't know if you have a local food pantry... Home

They tend to be community run and you get a decent amount of shopping for around a fiver generally. Anyone can use them as well, so you don't need to be referred, just rock up when they're open

Pantry Listings

View details of all the Pantry in our network across the UK.

www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk

Sounds like a great idea, but sadly not. Not even close. I'd never even heard of these schemes

 

[Karl Masks]

I mean eating well is expensive. It's cheaper to eat processed crap sadly if your cooking it yourself.

And if you stop eating avocado toast you could probably afford a house or something.

I realise eating avocado is the sign of a wanker, but I want to eat healthily. The real scandal about foodbanks for example (aside from their needing to exist) is that the food they offer is terrible. No doubt donated with the best of intentions by good people. But the nutritional content is awful and I would struggle.

 

[moomoo]

What about going to the shop when they’ve done their final reductions? At Tesco it is at 7pm so you’d get some good bargains.

 

[Karl Masks]

What about going to the shop when they’ve done their final reductions? At Tesco it is at 7pm so you’d get some good bargains.

for reasons of mental health travel to town is difficult. I'm not sure lugging big bags of shopping is conducive to my hernia either. Delivery costs are ok anyway so I'd rather pay that and get something for certain than spend the same on a bus trip to find they don't have stuff because everyone else has the same idea. We have a local tesco express but they are dearer than the supermarket version, i've never really understood why. Sometimes the local coop has bargains in the same fashion so I avail myself of those. It's just unfortunate that shop chose to go with a very expensive brand

 

[mwgdrwg]

I did the monthly shop at Lidl and Tesco on Friday.
£65 for me at Lidl and £40 for the cats at Tesco.
It really helps to know how to cook meals from scratch and not eat meat.

Give us some suggestions for easy cheap meals? Trying to reduce my meat meals.

 

[heinous seamus]

I realise eating avocado is the sign of a wanker, but I want to eat healthily. The real scandal about foodbanks for example (aside from their needing to exist) is that the food they offer is terrible. No doubt donated with the best of intentions by good people. But the nutritional content is awful and I would struggle.

I imagine this is exceptionally rare but there's a CIC near me that grows fresh food exclusively for local food banks. No idea how they funded.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Anyone else noticed the horrendous hike in the price of cat food?

Our two refugees (which we didn't have the heart to tell to bugger off) started off eating anything, but now seemingly, only the very expensive end of the range meets their needs. I'm talking Purina and Sheba here.

 

[The39thStep]

I'm not sure what the alternative is, Sainsburys?

Waitrose was the choice of some on here for a while.

 

[Mumbles274]

This app is quite useful if you have participating shops near you. Food that is due to be thrown, lucky dip bags of food as it were

Join Our Food Waste Movement

The app that lets customers rescue unsold food from shops and restaurants to save it from going to waste. Try it today.

www.toogoodtogo.com

 

[sojourner]

I'll just mention again that all Lidl stores do a 'Waste Not' scheme. 5kg of fruit and veg for £1.50. You have to get there early to get them, but well worth it. You can even get avocados in there sometimes

Too Good To Waste - Lidl Great Britain

Too Good To Waste

corporate.lidl.co.uk

We spend about £250 a month on food for 2 adults and 1 cat, but the humans don't eat meat. I buy lots of dried pulses/legumes etc and pressure-cook them, and make sure my herbs and spices are stocked up. I always buy fruit and veg from Lidl because they are cheaper than everywhere else. Asda regularly offer 1kg Skyr for £2, which is a massive saving. Tesco are only really good for their own-brand ginger beer, and cheeses such as halloumi, feta and paneer.

 

[sojourner]

I mean eating well is expensive. It's cheaper to eat processed crap sadly if your cooking it yourself.

And if you stop eating avocado toast you could probably afford a house or something.

I disagree with that. Bulk buying pulses, legumes, stuff like that, not eating meat, buying own brand stuff - it's really not that expensive, and so much better for your health.

 

[sojourner]

Give us some suggestions for easy cheap meals? Trying to reduce my meat meals.

A bag of red lentils and some herbs and spices could give you several different types of dhals and lentil soups. They cook really fast too.

Bean chilli - if you haven't got a pressure cooker to cook dried beans/chickpeas with, tins of them are quite cheap at about 45 - 60p per tin depending on the bean. Beans of all types can totally replace meat in meals. Leek and bean gratin is a fave of mine, don't need cream, just use the water that's in the bean tin, full of starch so it thickens.

Bean soups - use different herbs for different flavours. Some with toms, some not.

Paneer/feta/halloumi - all much cheaper than meat.

 

[trabuquera]

Avocados are treats not daily staples! Also summon a host of moral dilemmas - they're likely to be fuelling either Israeli settlements or Mexican narco-and-deforesting cartels, and sucking agricultural water away from other food crops where they're grown. (I'm not as much of a killjoy as I sound, honest - and still eat 'em myself now and then - but really, they are a luxury item on many levels)

 

[skyscraper101]

https://www.marcus.com/us/en/resources/heard-at-gs/the-cost-of-groceries?&cid=hags

Great no context chart there. It relates to retail food prices in the US so doesn't bear a lot of relevance to this thread.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I disagree with that. Bulk buying pulses, legumes, stuff like that, not eating meat, buying own brand stuff - it's really not that expensive, and so much better for your health.

True. I do bulk buy those bits, wish I could get away with eating more of them.

I was going more from the examples in the OP.

 

[Brainaddict]

I find it hard to work out how to cut back. We think about cutting back on some luxuries, like we buy salmon most weeks. But if we didn't buy salmon for 4.50 we'd buy basa or some other cheap fish for 2.50. So we can save £2 a week and never buy salmon but it hardly seems worth it. Where we could save is in ready-made or almost-full meals we buy, like quiches or pizzas or pies, but the reality is we buy those because some days we literally don't have the energy to cook, and they are much cheaper than takeaway. So not being in a phase where we can cook from scratch every meal, it feels really hard to meaningfully cut back at the moment. We could definitely cut £10 from the budget with less luxuries, but it's not the difference between £100 and £110 pw that's making us feel poor, it's that a few years ago it was £60.

 

[sojourner]

I find it hard to work out how to cut back. We think about cutting back on some luxuries, like we buy salmon most weeks. But if we didn't buy salmon for 4.50 we'd buy basa or some other cheap fish for 2.50. So we can save £2 a week and never buy salmon but it hardly seems worth it. Where we could save is in ready-made or almost-full meals we buy, like quiches or pizzas or pies, but the reality is we buy those because some days we literally don't have the energy to cook, and they are much cheaper than takeaway. So not being in a phase where we can cook from scratch every meal, it feels really hard to meaningfully cut back at the moment. We could definitely cut £10 from the budget with less luxuries, but it's not the difference between £100 and £110 pw that's making us feel poor, it's that a few years ago it was £60.

Batch cook? If you make veggie soups, dhals, stuff like that, you can just take them straight out of the freezer and microwave them if you have a microwave, or warm up in a pan on a low light. I have two big stock/soup pans because I have always cooked big and frozen portions.