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

happydenial

linz said:

YorksLass said:

There are very few branded items that I buy nowadays, in fact I've used basics for quite a long time but they're being targeted as well so it makes shopping within a budget even harder.  I'm just glad I'm a competent cook and have the luxury of time to shop around.  It must be really hard for those who don't have the skill or are time poor.

I mustn't have a good palate as I can't tell the difference between most basic items and branded I'm perfectly happy with basic brand beans versus Heinz. One thing I won't compromise on though is decent teabags. Tried the basics ones once from Sainsburys - never again! I still get them at a decent price tho, normally Typhoo or Tetleys from Farmfoods or Home Bargains.

Completely agree re teabags - as I’m the only one who drinks tea in my house (heathens!!), I buy the huge bags of Yorkshire tea from Costco and they last me about 6 months. 

London_1

Morning chums , I had a panicked text from youngest DGS at Uni yesterday bless him,.
He had gone to get his food supplies as he does as he is in Halls and because he's been 'losing' food from his supplies in the communal kitchen. He had his normal £30.00 which he budgets for to cover his shopping and having got his usual bits and pieces he got to the till and it was £37.00.
Bless him he was so worried so I sent him some extra cash to cover it with a couple of extra quid to help out a bit. When he got  back to Halls he video called me and said
 'I can't believe how much stuff has gone up Nan  how on earth do people with children cope .'  He will be home at the end of the month thank goodness and I said had he got enough food to last him and he said yes but he will only keep perishables in the kitchen and everything else he will keep in his room. its made him a bit wary of his fellow students. luckily he will be going into a shared house with some friends for his next two years but he said 'If i'm broke whoever is pinching my food supplies must be really broke ' He's a lovely kind hearted lad, and he's worried about who ever is pinching his food going without !!!. He said if they asked he would share and he's sad because whoever it is won't just ask
So the CoL crisis is hitting everyone, even students who are notoriously hard up most of the time . he's been quite good and has managed quite well this past year. I send him a set amount every 1st of the month so I think I shall have to increase it a bit to help him out. Not a lot of jobs around where he is at the moment and he's been applying for everything he can.

Its sad when he should really be enjoying his uni life, and he's worrying about food  

JackieO xxx

Longwalker

Everyone is struggling now Id say

I use to pride myself on feeding the three of us really well for £40, £70 barely covers it and less and less is being bought, cutting back everywhere I can

Had the shock of my life on Sunday though, we like a drink me and he, we like the pub, we used to be in after work most days pre pandemic, then we got out of the habit during the lockdowns and its normal weekends now. Prices have been slowly creeping up - pre pandemic, the two drinks were £7.50, last time we were in £10.10, Sunday - £10.40 !!!

I double checked we were in the pub and not Tescos

Place was pretty empty for a Sunday. A good few in eating but the bar was empty, and Ill not be seeing the inside of it for another month at those prices . The joke is, its not the booze thats going up so much - its my mixer - £3.30 now for a 300ml bottle of coke !!!! Was a time when a hip flask was taken to weddings, Ill be taking a case of coke

Anyway now Im feeling better, physically and mentally, Ive been making some positive changes. Im back exercising and Ive given in and joined SW. I need 20lb off and I cheat myself when I try do it alone. Its £6 a week for the weigh in and group , half the price of a round for two, so its worth it to me. Weight is coming of slowly and surely, and Im eating a lot better then I have done in years - Ive been living on a diet of crisp sandwiches for longer then I can remember

Is it possible to eat healthy on a budget? was a discussion here a few months ago, and I can say yes I can now Im doing it for real and not just thinking I was eating healthily

My veg bill has doubled, totally off the scale actually lol.Im still buying wisely ( expensive rocket gets mixed with cheap iceberg to stretch it out ) but I am eating loads of the stuff.  But then theres no junk being bought, Id buy for myself crisps at £2 a bag - maybe 3 a week before  Bread is limited ( and actually the wholemeal is half the price of the white I used to buy ) , Im using more pulses as protein and we are eating less meat because meals are really filling. Im also switching where I can to frozen veg which really does work out cheaper as there is no waste.And pickled veg, roasted peppers gherkins etc One big expense Ive lost is dairy, Im limited to how much of the real stuff I can have and I refuse to eat spread and low fat. So A pound of butter a week is a thing of the past, two blocks of cheese - a distant memory. I miss butter, but Id slice it onto bread not spread, and the cheese I still have but a weighed amount, as part of a meal, not just with a plate of crackers for a snack. I make my own yoghurt and quark so now making my own hummus and pate as well.

So for now, yes the pinch is getting tougher and Im under no illusions that its going to get worse but muddling along

-taff

rocket is very easy to grow and tough as old boots, you can grow it in a wide pot, long pot,window box, hanging basket, bit of  garden - wherever, and the snails and slugs tend to leave it alone. You can get a packet of seeds for the price of a packet of rocket and scatter them all where yu have space. In two to three weeks you'll be eating your own...

London_1

Freebie coffee with my loyalty card this morning at my local Dobbies

Their food hall is a Waitrose one ,but they have some decent reductions fairly often. Today I snaffled
2 litres semi skimmed milk ,
a small wholemeal sliced loaf  ,
a bag of organic carrots  there were 12 in the bag  
 and four slices of best Wiltshire ham for a total of £2.47 
very lean, very pleased with that .

The milk I shall use half to make some custard this afternoon, and the other half in tea/coffee
The ham, two will be eaten today with a salad and two tomorrow with some scrambled eggs.
The bread has been portioned up to the freezer.
The carrots I will turn into carrot and coriander soup.
So pleased  with my shop as if full price would have cost a total of £8.25 !

Ham    £4.50 reduced to  £1.35
Milk     £1.30  reduced to    .39p
Bread  £1.10 reduced to     .33p
Carrots£1.35 reduced to     .40p

It's well worth a wander round before coffee on a Tuesday morning

JackieO xxx

YorksLass

I'm glad we're fine with SM own brand teabags since I can get a box of 240 for under £3 and they last us (2 adults) for just under a month.  

Re basics/own brand products vs branded, for some people there may well be a difference in taste/texture etc that puts them off and I understand it's their choice as to what they spend their money on.  For me, if I can't tell the difference - or if it's minimal - then I'm happy to go with the cheaper version to stretch my budget.

I'll be interested to hear what comes out of today's Farm to Fork Summit between Rishi and farmers, supermarket bosses, food manufacturers and consumer group reps.  I won't be holding my breath though, since food price inflation isn't something that can be solved overnight.  Like Longwalker, I'm prepared for more pain and belt tightening.

@London_1 - Well done on your Dobbie's haul today, some good savings there.  And commiserations to DGS with his missing food stocks.  DGD used to have the same problem when she was in Uni halls and she too resorted to keeping non'perishables in her room.

A bit of a food use-up day today.  I grated up a smallish piece of cheese for sandwiches at lunchtime, DH had a dollop of chutney on his and I had half a thinly sliced apple in mine.  Tonight we'll be having egg & chips with the last two rashers of bacon followed by the last of the h/m rice pudding.  That leaves just a small piece of red pepper and half a tin of chopped tomatoes in the left overs bit of the fridge but I'll dispense with those at breakfast in the morning with a poached egg on toasted breakfast muffins.

London_1

I use the bottom shelf of my fridge for left over odds and ends, that way as I open the fridge door its right in front of me to remind me to use it up

On there at the moment is a portion of Heinz veggie spag hoops (I had half a tin last night on toasted cheese for tea)
I had a dented tin of the hoops I bought a few weeks ago reduced to 40p which was quite nice actually, three rashers of bacon, three quarters of a red pepper and a small bit of cucumber.

So some of it will be used up tomorrow, I may have the hoops with some bacon and scrambled egg for tea tonight .

Tomorrow the cucumber will go in a cheese sandwich sliced I think at tea time.
Some of the red pepper will go into tomorrows salad, and the rest of the it maybe in an omelette on Thursday, sort of Spanish one as I have some diced onion in the freezer as well. 

The best bit is using everything up as I go along so nothing gets wasted.

I made the custard from the reduced price milk this afternoon ,and I have peeled and diced a couple of pears and cooked in a little water to soften them up a bit with some honey and a good sprinkle of cinnamon I did this a day or so ago and it was really nice.

It will be interesting to see if the big supermarkets take any notice of the meeting today re the high price rises. I know our farmers really often get quite a raw deal from them, and so many farmers are giving up because of struggling to make any money at all.

All of the seed potatoes that DGS Ben planted at the bottom of my garden  have come up and I send him photos of their progress He lives and works in north London but will be home at the end of the month for half term from school .He's really got the gardening bug and is growing lettuce and garlic in pots on his windowsill.

He shows the children in his year 5 class how they are growing and has got the children interested in growing things as well.  

Onwards and upwards chums we will get through this CoL nonsense, and life will get easier. I have, like many of you, lived through many a boom and bust time over the years  

Utilising every bit of anything edible will help  

Cheers JackieO xx

Slinky

Good grief, we're off on holiday soon and didn't want to pay the nearly £200 extra it would have cost to take our little cases that fit in the overhead lockers on the big orange airline (Ouch). I ordered a smaller case that fits under the seat, for me, from the big river site and asked OH if he wanted me to order one for him, now he's had a chance to have a look at it. He decided he would like one, but in the 6 days since I bought the last one, it's gone up £12! Blow that, did a search and found I could get it for the same price on the manufacturers own website.

sammy_kaye18

Prices are getting ridiculous arent they. 

My husband keeps mentioning every time I do a food shop that it doesnt seem to be much and Im convinced its getting less and less. 
I recently used our CoL payment and put some of it towards a new fridge, our fridge freezer was well and truly on its way out , defrosting when it wanted, door not staying shut etc - and instead of a fridge freezer I just brought a fridge. We have a chest freezer in our back porch so made sense but its really making me see how much space if there when the food shop is done. :-/ even my MIL commented today when her food shop came that it looks like barely anything and that they are having a hard month....She keeps a small stockpile or her war shelves as she calls them with a few extra tins and bits and pieces and we live right across the street so she knows if we have it. so does she but its so unnerving to see them struggle. 

Keep fingers crossed too that husband has a job interview on Thursday for a job within his company but higher up so hoping that comes through because then he will be on an extra £500ish a month in wages. We aren't well off but hoping that it will mean we can actually put some into savings and have a bit of financial stability. 
Also applied for a job myself for the first time in 5 years too to try and get my out and helping with my social anxiety. It is literally across the street from my house and helping in a childcare daycare type place so fingers crossed. 

@Longwalker
My kids and I eat a lot of veg so last year we tried growing our own. 
One cucumber plant gave us about 15-18 cucumbers, we had lots of rocket and lettuce which was a pick and grow again and didnt take long to grow at all. 
Also radishes if you like them are really easy. 
Courgette grows quite quick too and I like it spiralised and in place of pasta. 
We also had peas, tomatoes and carrots. 

It wasn't a lot and we used it as a tester for growing this season. I had a few strawberry plants from my MIL as well and they have put out runners now and are all flowering so hoping to have plenty of strawberries this year too. 

We currently have potatoes, peppers, a windowsill full of herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, runner beans, cucumbers, peas and radishes. I still have plenty to plant too so I am hoping for a good harvest this year. I still have cucumber frozen from last year that I'm putting into smoothies and stews! 

ellenvan

Or on the airline front we find that small squashable rucksacks are easier. Just roll the clothes you can still get plenty in the new size carry on. If you run out of clean clothes a few cheap T-shirts or a launderette is still a cheaper option than paying for cabin suitcases.