It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

Effician

Sems like false economy at the moment to run down the freezer & store cupboard whilst a lot of food stuffs are still at a fair price, we're still shopping as normal (£20-£30 per week for 2 of us) & putting items away for when & if things really get tight & expensive or in short supply..

Elisheba

Oh @Deleted_User slow cooker brownies.  They sound lovely!  

London_1

But I am economising at the moment as I have a large builder bill to pay

in_my_wellies

Effician said:

Seems like false economy at the moment to run down the freezer & store cupboard whilst a lot of food stuffs are still at a fair price, we're still shopping as normal (£20-£30 per week for 2 of us) & putting items away for when & if things really get tight & expensive or in short supply..

I agree. I normally do 'no shop January' (and a bit of Feb) to empty the freezer, defrost and take stock ready for the summer but this year I've stocked up on anything which will keep, both freezer and cupboard stuff. 

Milk at my local shop at Christmas was 2 for £2.20, then £1.15, then £1.25 and yesterday £1.30. It goes up with every delivery, frightening! 

Auntycaz

I totally agree, a 4 pint semi skimmed milk at tesco is £1.15  same 4 pint at my local co op is £1.50. It's worth shopping about if you can but I know but not everyone has this option.

annieb64

We only have the Coop but if you buy two four pints it's £2.60 . 

Auntycaz

I have a waitrose and co op near me, both expensive, so  I often choose the 25p money off coupon from  the co op offers
 My daughter stocks me up from Tesco when she comes down and I put some in the freezer for when I can't get out, but she lives 3hrs away. I've also noticed prices are more expensive in my local co op in S.Norfolk than in hers in Derbyshire.  

ladyholly

I think at the moment delaying shopping may be false economy as if you wait to buy it is likely the price will have risen. I am old enough to remember massive inflation in the1970s not to mention the 3 day week when we were lighting our shop with oil lamps during the power cuts. 

luvchocolate

I'm doing what I did with shortages during lockdown. Keeping freezer añd cupboards  well stocked and buying whatever fresh food there was, thus saving for worse times ahead. 
Also picking up any reduced items if I can fit in freezer. 
Trying to keep heating low to build up a little credit. 
Scarey times 

YorksLass

We're using items from the freezer and cupboards so they get rotated rather than running them down and we're also continuing to shop pretty much as normal in order to replenish stocks, around £20 per week for two, so not excessive.  As others have mentioned, prices are on the rise, almost daily, and will no doubt continue well into the future.  I'm concentrating on long life items that we use regularly, especially if they're on promotion, and YS items for freezing or sometimes I'll change the meal plan to use them straight away.

I agree, the Co-op is pricey but I tend to use them for stuff I can't get from my usual SM and always take advantage of the weekly membership offers - usually milk and F&V - that can save up to £1 a week.  Not sure if I mentioned on here or another thread that one of our local Co-ops has changed to a Nisa.  They do stock some Co-op items but I'll not be using them as their prices are even dearer than the Co-op.  Last week I noticed they had 250g boxes of dried peas that elsewhere cost 65p - they are charging £2.    Same brand, same size box.  Words fail me.

Annual bills are starting to arrive so I'll be updating my budget spreadsheets and then much head-scratching will follow to see where we can make cuts.  I'm not sure how this will work out as it's pretty tight already.  We're still on a fixed price plan for gas/electric until the end of August but I doubt there will be any better deals then than the new price cap.  I'm dreading it as our DD will be going up more than the 50% (more like double) so all I can do for now is to squirrel away any spare cash as a buffer.  We do have a small credit balance and I'll be trying to build that up over the coming warmer months too.  Our usage has gone down compared to last year too.

I sometimes feel as if I'm on a permanent economy drive!