Signs of the Times

[Deleted User]

My local big Sainsburys have a reduced cabinet but rarely put anything in there until past 7 .p.m. and one of the girls told me that quite often food is dumped rather than reduced and the staff can't even buy it .

oldtractor

Good thread. i have noticed more things whoopsied, coleslaw and other unnecessary things, how long will this last I wonder? Will they start ordering less? I have also noticed more "posh" people in our local independent supermarket and Aldi. I have also noticed people checking prices and buying the best value or cheaper item more. We have changed our shopping habits. We grow fruit and veg and have plans to increase variety and quantity next year. We are also eating more lentils,eggs and vegetarian meals more ,more soups and stews and stretching meat. We have drasticalyly reduced spend on breakfast cereals,having moved down a brand we have now ditched most of that and have porrige or home made granola,eggs or kippers. Full english on a sunday has gone out of the window. I buy more basics,flour,sugar,etc and bake all my own bread cakes and biscuits. infact at the supermarket we by-pass about 80% of whats on offer,buy the makings and make stuff ourself.

FairyPrincessk

I've also changed similarly to some of the above. Im making more of effort to rotate where I shop, and have pretty much sworn off buying any full price meat for the term, apart from the frozen things I get at Ald*. OH has figured up the cost of his breakfast, bought a giant box of wheatabix and seems determined to pay no more than 50p per breakfast. I don't eat wheatabix, but it seems like a reasonable goal to me so I've looked for deals on yoghurt/granola, and will switch to porridge when the weather is cooler. I might raise the limit to 60p so we can include half a grapefruit each as we both really enjoy it and I like to start the day with some sort of fresh fruit. I don't really buy any pre-made cakes/cookies/puds anyway. OH will sometimes pick something up, particularly if its reduced, but hes stopped doing that as much.

We've also changed where/how/frequency of going out, and this is the first year I've done a serious winter prep for keeping the flat warm, its always just been food and other stock ups.

pinkmami

Old Tractor - I've noticed the "posh" cars in Aldi, lots with private reg ones. I though my car was fairly new with an 04 plate!!

FairyPrincessk

oh...and just thought of this. I'm not proud of this, but I'm buying a lot less locally. Whereas I'd make it a monthly treat to get something nice at the local butchers or the cheese shop or fish mongers, I can't really afford this in the shopping budget anymore. It makes me a bit sad as I do think those places are worth the quality and suspect some of them will really struggle, but I simply cannot afford the luxury of that quality anymore.

Blue_Elephant

I was discussing things with a friend recently, and they made an observation that ?I thought was telling.

Porridge suddenly came back into fashion because it was cheap. It then became trendy because it was popular. It being trendy made chains like Pret a Manger sell it inflating the prices, as it was trendy and popular the supermarkets raised their prices, and suddenly something people were doing because it was cheap became exponentially more expensive because folk were doing it...

Sign of the times.. *sigh*

davsidipp

ive been using my local butcher and tried as much as i can to keep out of the supermarkets as much as i can often using my local coop as it stops me picking up stuff i dont need and if i fancy a treat i will knock up a cake or scones instead of buying shop ones.

CurlyTop

I meal plan and try to stick to what's on the list, although I've noticed the prices creeping up. When I looked in my cupboards, there is a lot of named branded stuff there so will look this month to downshift a brand and see if I can lower the costs more.

abaxas

pinkmami wrote: »

Old Tractor - I've noticed the "posh" cars in Aldi, lots with private reg ones. I though my car was fairly new with an 04 plate!!

It's where the 'old money' shops :P

katieowl_2

FairyPrincessk wrote: »

oh...and just thought of this. I'm not proud of this, but I'm buying a lot less locally. Whereas I'd make it a monthly treat to get something nice at the local butchers or the cheese shop or fish mongers, I can't really afford this in the shopping budget anymore. It makes me a bit sad as I do think those places are worth the quality and suspect some of them will really struggle, but I simply cannot afford the luxury of that quality anymore.

Fairy Princess...go back and see if you can find the bargains there instead. I used to do that in Borough Market when I lived in London. There was a stall there that did rare breed meat, the prime pork was expensive, but the haslet was cheap as anything and to die for!!! They also did pork hock joint really good value.

Our local butcher, and farm shops here are comparable with the stuff in the supermarkets (at full price, although I confess I tend to only buy meat if it's marked down) but I've discovered that there are bargains to be had in the local butcher, if you get past the window, inside he sells gammon offcuts really really cheap!


Kate