Grocery Price Increases - What's the Biggest Hike You've Seen?

London_1

As YorkLass says and I agree with her its now a case of either doing without, or finding a cheaper alternative for the stuff we buy. I too won't pay silly money for a tin of corened beef

I have since January kept a list, and price of everything I buy on my food shopping. In the quarter between Jan -Mar I cam in well under budget, and managed to stash around £68 odd away in my tuck-away cash from the three month budget

It sounds a lot ,but to be fair I did have quite a bit of stuff given to me to use up as my youngest DD's family came down with the virus just before Christmas, and a lot of the stuff she had bought in she passed on to me to use up as I was unable, because of underlying health issues, able to spend a 'normal Christmas and New Year with them.
So my cupboards had a lot of spare left over bits which came in very handy,especially with the bad weather.

At the moment my April budget had about £4 odd left over which has gone to my tuck-away cash.

May has started and so far its not been too bad ,although I have noticed how the prices are creeping up on an almost daily basis.I'm pretty sure that it may even be a bit of a squeeze to have much left by the end of this month, but I have my fingers crossed and my purse almost padlocked

Definitely shopping from my existing stuff in the cupboards and freezer and hopefully need no more shopping now for a good fortnight at the very least. I did manage to snaffle a good few tins of stuff this morning from the dented tin shelf in my local tesco that have been stashed away for future light lunches this month so fingers crossed.

I'm hoping by the end of June I will be able to defrost my freezer and use the tuck-away cash to restock it

But the other day in the big shopping centre I noticed how few people were having stacked up trolleys and when i spoke to the very pleasant lady on the till she said that it was very noticable that people are definitely buying a lot less than they used to and being more aware of what  they are buying. She said that one of the managers in the store was bemoaning that the ready meal stuff had slowed down considerably in the past month and people were not going for the quick fix food as he called it as much as they used to.This was in a large Sainsburys so possibly its all across the supermarkets they are feeling the cold draft of recession looming. 

Onwards and upwards chums belt tightening is the order of the day and very careful shopping I think  

JackieO xx
 

WeegieWumman

YorksLass said:

We're all noticing grocery prices creeping up (more like galloping up) because of various reasons but how many of these increases do you think are genuine as opposed to greed?

Yesterday I went to our local Post Office that's situated inside a Nisa store that used to be a Co-Op until last November when it changed to Nisa.  Apparently they are part of the Co-Op group but their stores are independently owned on a franchise basis.   I had a quick browse of the shelves while I was in there and saw the following:

A 9-pack of Co-Op branded toilet rolls was £4 two weeks ago, now £5.45 (Co-Op price was £4, now £4.50 so yes, they have gone up - but an extra 95p on top of that?)
A branded box of marrowfat peas costs £1.20 (60-65p elsewhere)
A bottle of Co-Op branded lemonade is 80p (Co-Op price 60p)

I think the owner of this store must be on a get-rich quick scheme, judging by their prices.      Needless to say, I'll not be shopping there and will vote with my feet.

What price hikes have you seen lately?

Three weeks back, a neighbour asked me to pick up a packet of U***e B**'s microwaveable rice from Nisa.  It cost £1.75. It was £1.10 in T***o and 99p in Lidl.  .

Spendless

I can't swear to this because maybe I just looked wrong but....... Over Easter DD and myself accompanied Mr S on a trip to America. He was working, we got to enjoy a hol. DS and his fiancee came home to look after our dog. Both were skint as DS is a Uni student and his last loan instalment wasn't due till he returned to his studies. His gf was looking for work. Anyway as a thank you and to help them out, I went food shopping for them (at Aldi) but then I like putting all the groceries in those large reusable bags that they have by the tills at T8sco. I like them because they're roomy and sturdy. Anyway I'm sure I looked and the cheapest was 60p. I only ever get the cheapest because I like them for their size not the design on front! When I popped back a few days later they were 70p. Now ok I might have just got it wrong, but if I didn't then these are items that barely sell. It's the same stock. They've not replenished and had to pay more to the supplier. I left them! 

peewhyeff

I often grabbed Nescafe 230g in £stretcher during my lunch break for £2.99.Sometime around February it increased in one fell swoop to £3.49,and then 1week later £4.49. Then 1week later they had the 50% off everything in store promotion but shelves were empty.   Then that changed to 50% off when you spend £5, and still no sign of it.  It isn't just the coffee though that had a massive price rise, lots of stuff saw inflated price increases.  Just wondering how long their 50% off promotion runs for, and if their older prices return.

njm123

njm123 said:

Iceland Naan Bread is the largest "increase" I've seen.

Gone up from 50p per pack of two to 89p.   Although like a lot of Iceland increases it's still available at buy 2 for £1, so if you can buy in bulk you get the old price.

Just noticed that these are now £1 each or two for £1.50, that's the third increase this year and none of them small.

Unless there is a specific offer I want I might stop nipping in Iceland when I'm around that shopping area as they seem to be putting up their prices more frequently and by much larger amounts than other stores.   

Add to that they seem to be adopting a buy in bulk model to get reasonable prices and the fact that most of what I used to pick up there regularly they've either stopped selling or raised the prices several times so they've moved from the good value option to an expensive one.

I'm fortunate that other than Waitrose I have all the supermarkets (in some cases two large branches)  and multiple convenience variants within comfortable walking distance do I can pick and choose where I shop as I do my daily exercise.

Rosa_Damascena

I noticed the standard LL orange juice at Aldi was 75p - up 10p since I last bought in bulk, before Christmas. There were no bog standard value juices available. Ketchup is also a few more pence expensive. These pennies are really mounting up - I was surprised that I spent nearly £40 on groceries and domestic supplies last week, just for myself! Although they are likely to last me 10 days (translates into they had better last me 10 days because I have no plans to spend more).

Katiehound

Rosa_Damascena said:

 (translates into they had better last me 10 days because I have no plans to spend more).

That I like! Clearly you have a mantra... hope the cupboards aren't quite bare by the time 10 days have elapsed!

London_1

I my local Tescos Rowntrees jellies strawberry orange rasberry etc are now 80 p each quite a hike from the previous price of 45 at Christmas ! and both Tesco and Aldi seem to be very short of tinfoil, but managed to get some for £1.50 in the Poundshop

clearancer

Not grocery but bags of compost in Wilko, £1 last year, £1.50 this year

doingitanyway

I  can't eat gluten so buy bread in the health shop. I already struggled to pay £6.29 for 14 very small slices. Yesterday it came up as £6.89. It was the lower price on the ticket but they changed it and gave me the 60p back. I won't buy it anymore...