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Mrs_Chip

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this!

When I go shopping I have certain 'ceiling prices' in my head - I won't buy butter unless it is £1.10 for 250g for example, as that is the cheapest I can currently buy it at. Milk is at 99p for four pints currently, and I only buy cheese at £5 a kilo or under. But I have no idea what price I should be aiming at for things like dried pasta or sugar.

Am I the only one who buys this way, and what are your ceiling prices? I think a list of the normal staples like this might help us when shopping to compare products/offers/ across the various outlets.

And it would be a indication of the general trend of prices to note when those ceiling prices have gone up - when items are no longer available anywhere at the starting price.

So what are your ceiling prices, and which shops currently have them?

mmmsnow

I think it's difficult to compare because the price of food varies so much from region to region. I've found Lidl to be good for staple prices pretty much across the board - 89p for 4 pints of milk (although sometimes the date on it isn't as good as @sda), sunflower spread is 89p (£1 in aforementioned supermarket) and carrots are usually around half the price.

I do my weekly shop at the weekend in @sda and leave out anything I know is cheaper at Lidl then, during the week, I nip into Lidl and buy the things I skipped. It only works for me since I walk right past a Lidl on my way to uni every day.

I don't really have a "ceiling price" in my head - it's usually a gut reaction. We love Sharwoods Biryani stir in sauce and recently, it rocketed from £1 (or on the 3 for £3, 2 for £2) to £1.90 in @sda :eek:. I'll wait for it to come back down in price and stock up!

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

I do this too. I calculate price per gram/mls such as pasta is a penny a gram so when I saw it in lidl yesterday at 49p for 750g I bought 8 packs

I used to keep a price book suggested by Amy Dacyzyn (Tightwad Gazette) with lowest prices for basics and referred to it whenever I went shopping but that was before the price hikes and it is now sadly way out of date.

It is a very good idea though to have a price in mind whenever you go shopping. I think this is what it must be like to be a stockbroker in the city, buy low sell high etc! and to be fair, 'investing' in food long term is a good way of beating inflation.

Mrs_Chip

Thanks DH - so dried pasta is 1p per gr - easy to remember!

Our Lidl/Aldi milk is 99p for 4pts, so there is obviously a difference there!

Living_proof

My thing is with Flora. I won't buy it unless the small tub is £1 or the big one £2 or a multi-buy offer which equates to this. Right now the small one is £1.70 practically everywhere so once I have used the stocks in the freezer, I will simply stop buying it and use an Aldi sunflower spread which seems pretty similar. I buy few branded goods, with Bonne Maman jam being one of them, and again, if it's not on offer we go without. I have always found it easy not to buy something if I think it is unreasonably expensive, which makes OH laugh, and he feels if we want something we should buy it. The marketing man's dream!

Eliza_2

I agree - I do this for staples too. I'm finding it hard to get butter cheaper than £1.10 and suspect I may have to revise my threshold for that. I wish it was easier to get the 500 g sized packs of butter but never see them these days, they might work out cheaper. And for milk and a few other things I have a mental price in my head. I rarely buy veg but when I do, I look at the Aldi cheap veg offers on things I don't grow, (so less than 50p for broccoli head) or in local cheapy shop which does veg as well as lots of other stuff. (Home & Colonial if you know Leek!) I also have thresholds for things like washing powder though that can be a minefield!! Washing up liquid - 40p though you can still get it cheaper so may have given myself a bit of leeway there.

But non staples are harder, things like pasta and sugar are non-staples as I don't buy them a lot. When I need them I always look for offers in places like B and M and Home Bargains, they can be good for dried.

The most difficult for me is pet food, I constantly have to revise my threshold upwards, it's been really difficult. At present it's £1 for a large tin dogfood (Tesco's have this) and £4.50 for 10 tins catfood. Getting harder all the time and I don't live near a town and can't shop around a lot.

I'd be interested too to hear of others' limits too. I am finding more and more that when something shoots too high above my limit, like cheese and most decent meats recently, that I just stop buying them and look for alternatives, am consequently nearly vegetarian now.

Linda32

I don't exactly have a ceiling price, but I certainly compare costs per kg.

Take cheese this week in Sainsburys, best price per kg including the pre-packed and deli counter was £6.60per kg. Not including the basic range that is.
Which to my surprise, was Sainsburys So Organic cheese, which was nice.

Did the same for Bacon which was cheapest pre-packed.

Unfortunately, I can't bring myself to stock up when I see an offer for someting I buy, like Bacon - its nearly always 2 for £4.00 or about £2.40 for one, yet I can't bring myself to buy two packs at a time as I only need one a week, perhaps less.

tigerfeet2006

I use my iPhone. I have it on mySupermarket.com and check the other SM's. But as I tend to do most of my shopping on line with odd faray into Ald! and Lid! it is quite easy.

tracey12_2

Linda32 wrote: »

Did the same for Bacon which was cheapest pre-packed.

Unfortunately, I can't bring myself to stock up when I see an offer for someting I buy, like Bacon - its nearly always 2 for £4.00 or about £2.40 for one, yet I can't bring myself to buy two packs at a time as I only need one a week, perhaps less.

I buy two packs and then freeze into portions of 4 rashers and then cook in the pan from frozen.

Mr T have Lurpak butter, salted or unsalted at the moment 2 for £2, so a saving of £1.20. Normally would not buy it as too expensive.

HTH

Tracey

LittleMai

I was just thinking about this earlier today whilst in the supermarket, so its a good idea to make a thread Mrs Chip.

- Cheese, I say about £6/kg
- Tins of chopped tomates - 40-50p a tin
- Butter - £1.10 for a 250g block, but I have noticed in the last week that in both Te$co and A$da it has gone up to £1.19. Either I need to up my ceiling price, or find another cheap place to buy it. I'm a bit funny though, I dont like spreads, it has to be proper (preferably english) butter.


I have other ceiling prices for meals, so for example, i try to make a lunch for less than 50p.

Eliza_2

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

I use my iPhone. I have it on mySupermarket.com and check the other SM's. But as I tend to do most of my shopping on line with odd faray into Ald! and Lid! it is quite easy.

Morrison's doesn't seem to be on there - and that's really the only store we have locally, apart from the Co-op. All the others are really only small versions of themselves.

I rely too much on whoopsies to be able to shop online, my once a week shopping foray into town is carefully planned.