Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

rtandon27

Definately coffee - even the cheap ground stuff has doubled, we buy whole beans more and more as they are marginally cheaper and OH grinds them up in small batches as we need it. His instant is about 1/3 up as well and again it is only the cheap stuff!

I've all but given up chocolate, even the one dark square a day habit as the price is eye-watering!

daisy_1571

I've spoken on here before about the shampoo coming in a smaller size of bottle and my soap that once you open the now rather too large paper wrapping theres a big scoop out the bar

Makingabobor2

Yes @foxgloves, definitely a lot of shrinkflation. You really have to read the labels. Even our instant coffee we always used to have on standby, is now only a 90g tin.

@rtandon27, definitely agree about the chocolate. I used to have 2 squares a day for all the health benefits, but as you say, even 1 square is expensive now. L*d! seems to be the cheapest dark one & often get 15% off vouchers on the app. 

foxgloves

Yes, a standard ground coffee bag was always 227g, wasn't it? Nearly all 200g now. Mr F stands in the shop working out how many coffees he has lost from that missing 227g. I would find it far more honest to maintain the normal size & put the price up. The price is increasing anyway.....but for less product. Double whammy of expense!
F

KajiKita

The thing that frustrates me most about shrinkflation, is that the product disappears for a while whilst they mess about setting up the new packaging format on their automated fill lines, so as well as the greater expense when the product reappears, I actually can’t get hold of it at all for a while … 🙄

KK

MrsCatz

Shrinkflation is a bugbear. I am starting to see it with some cheeses too. I refuse on principle to purchase any of those biscuit made with minimal chocolate brands. 

Humdinger1

Yep, I'm reverting to student cuisine and it's delicious!  We're mostly pescatarian; meat is a treat - it has to be.  We buy the occasional piece of organic meat from R*ver*ord (I have a £15 discount voucher code if anyone would like it and I get the same discount too if used).  I've been able to spend less as some prices have reduced and DD is now living independently.  So veg from there and a little fruit though we grow and freeze a lot of both.  Blackberries are free! Am I the only one to find that loose-leaf tea is weaker? But how can that be? We have one large cup of coffee a day so are prepared to have to good stuff (we grind) but are yet to find the perfect one.

Pulses are the great go-to.  Casseroles and soups are endlessly varied by them.   Just off to investigate the pantry and make a list of what we need.

Thanks as ever for the riveting discussion.   Happy Sunday everyone love Humdinger xx 

joedenise

Took us a long time to find a coffee bean for our bean to cup machine that both DH and I like.  We tried all the SM ones, all the Tall*rs ones etc and stand any of them.  We then tried other branded ones and finally settled on Lavaz*a blue which is a trade one we then hunt around for the cheapest and buy 6 Kg at a time.  We can get it from the big river company if we can't find it any cheaper elsewhere but we usually do.

foxgloves

Evening all,
Thanks for all your comments about food price inflation to which I shall return & answer properly. I've enjoyed today, which began in the garden as we both wanted to tackle a few tasks.
I picked the last of our cayenne chillies, the last 3 peppers & a basket of carrots, (last of the) beans & kale - that's tonight's veg sorted (Mr F is roasting a chicken). I've frozen the green & red chillies but have put the semi-ripe ones on a warm sunny windowsill to see if they will ripen further.
Also chopped up spent pepper & chilli plants for the compost bin, except for 1 jalapeno plant which I've pruned back, repotted & put on a bedroom windowsill for overwintering. Sometimes I've been successful with this, sometimes not, but it's a free endeavour so who cares?!
Sowed the sweetpea seeds I collected at the end of summer. I always sow 3 to a re-purposed big yoghurt pot, then pot up successful plant babies in individual pots when they're big enough.
Bath, hairwash, home pedicure & applied a free sheet mask....very appropriate as Mr F & Ash were watching 'The Invisible Man' at the time 😀
My mojo is returning & I foresee quite a productive week hoving into view.
See you there!
F x

Makingabobor2

Glad you are getting your mojo back. I love reading about your productivity.