Apparently this is the figure the experts have come up with according to my neighbour who was watching TV (we don’t have one).
To be honest, I can believe that on a family shop.
Regular readers will know I’m a miser when it comes to food shopping, and I will get the best value for money wherever possible. If prices don’t suit, the goods stay in the shop.
Not that long ago, everyone was going on about how costs would rise after BREXIT.
Now we have a new kid in town which has knocked that into oblivion and prices are indeed rocketing.
The old adage of Supply and Demand comes into play, and things that are high in demand and hard to come by cost the earth, or you can’t get them at all.
In the past, Hubby and I have had the luxury of having the time to shop around, make mental notes and when composing the monthly shopping list, know where to go for the best deals. That has all gone for a bucket of chalk with the Coronavirus outbreak and the country in semi lockdown. I say ‘semi’ because our ports, airports and The Tunnel are still open.
Shopping is no longer a pleasure, we don’t browse, and want to be in and out as quickly as possible. Our monthly shop is but a distant dream, and we now ‘shop’ for whatever we can get when we go.
And yes, we have seen price increases, and refuse to pay what is being asked in some instances.
This was a typical list of our shop last year compared to 2015, which I modified somewhat in preparation for a Brexit post.
I’ve used that to show increases we have seen so far (block colour) and for what we buy, it is not that bad actually (but then our weekly food bill is only about £30 anyway)
Obviously we do not buy this every week, or every month for that matter, but you get the idea.
The saga of the toilet rolls has been interesting, not being able to get any anywhere for weeks, but now sense has prevailed and they are available, though no special offers. We are currently buying 9 rolls of another brand for £3.09, which are 3 ply compared to the usual 2 and have 170 sheets per roll. We are actually using less as it is more padded, though this brand do a 2 ply pack of 9 with 220 sheets per roll for £2.99, so for an extra 10p a pack, we are actually getting more (510 compared to 440 ‘ply’).
Baking potatoes are a rip off so I don’t buy them as such, just a 2.5 kg pack of spuds for about £1.25 and use the largest as bakers.
Rice is in short supply in our town, and we can only buy huge catering bags for £10 compared to the single kilo bags we can get elsewhere. This is another reason why we travel out of town where there are four supermarkets to choose from as we stand a fighting chance of getting what we want at a fair price.
I don’t buy Flora or the equivalent now, and rarely buy flour or sugar so those aren’t on the list, neither are cakes, crisps, canned drinks which we don’t have anyway or biscuits other than gingernuts. We did buy others, which vary in price up to about 43p if chocolate coated but as Hubby isn’t eating biscuits anymore, we don’t have them now.
The biggest increases we’ve seen are in fresh fruit and fresh meat, especially chicken and pork. I buy a kilo of 5% fat minced beef and divide it up into 5 packs for the freezer, one of which will make a two day chili. We also buy stewpacks for about £1 so that’s three meals for us.
So far, the spreadsheet is showing around £10 less than April 2019 and we are unlikely to be buying anything big between now and the end of the month so hopefully will stay within budget as we have every month so far.
The way things are going, our basic diet isn’t going to change very much, neither is our expenditure (until TPTB cotton on and tax everything, then we will see a big difference), but little luxuries like biscuits or the fresh fruit I prefer may well be off the menu if prices really take off. I kicked the raspberries and blueberries into touch when they went over £2 a pack.
pensitivity101 
Yep prices definitely on the way up. I’ve found that across the board. It’s harder to find things like 3 for 2 offers. Also not helped that the cheaper brands we normally get our often sold out and we are having revert to named brands.
Some stores are only stocking the named brands in large sizes, and the special offers are nowhere to be found. It’s difficult enough to cater for someone on their own or when it’s just the two of you, and having a freezer certainly helps. There is no way I would pay £10 for a sack of rice when I have nowhere to store it once opened. We eat a lot of it yes, but we do have other things!!
It is nice to see how the world and grocery shopping changes so fast. Me and my husband learned to live doing grocery shopping every other week, instead of every week.
Hello! Noticed your follow the other day, welcome!
Our food bill works out at around £33 a week for us and the dog, though our norm was to do a monthly shop to restock the freezer and cupboards which would set us back about £40, then top up every week for about £25. It’s not working out like that now, but our freezer is full and our cupboards well stocked and we’re spending about £20 a week, so surprisingly saving money! Keep well and safe..
We’ve cut our grocery bill by more than half. We would regularly spend $70 (£55.96) a week but now it is barely $25 (£19.98). The pantry is a little sparse – no luxury items but we are eating well and are able to find fresh fruit easily. Bought a honey dew melon for $2 and got a big fresh pineapple for $1.77.
Melons and pineapples are pricey at the moment. Hubby can’t eat a lot of fresh fruit, and I only like certain things, lately sticking to grapes and bananas, even though the latter are iffy and sometimes rot from the inside before the skin turns yellow. We eat well though. and certainly don’t starve.
In Florida milk prices have risen this past month, and local dairy farms are still milking, and flushing most away. Locally grown fruit is not being picked, and I can’t afford the high prices.
Know exactly where you’re coming from. UHT milk is still 52p a litre, but if we can get fresh red top (skimmed milk which is what we have) a 2 litre bottle can be anything from 90p to £1.30.