Trying really hard to OS but the prices keep going up

cestlavie

tesco own label pure lime juice used to be 27p... two weeks ago it went up to 54p. since the jif version in another aisle was 45p i bought that. indicative of sneaky increases by tesco on all sorts of odd items.

caroline1973lefty

it perhaps doesn't sound moneysaving at first glance, but i get a weekly organic fruit and veg box (£10 a week, enough for two adults eating in most evenings). this saves me money in a variety of ways - 1) always having something fresh in means i don't have to go to the supermarket so often so avoid impulse buys (top up on basics in lidl and the local turkish shop which is cheap). 2) the taste is so vastly superior to even organic supermarket produce (and miles cheaper than supermarket organic, too) meaning that i can make appetising simple veggie-based meals like soups and salads without the need for expensive meat and dairy (i rarely cook meat these days). 3) what you get is always what is in season locally, so you always get the best value produce without having to think about it.

also looking at the bigger picture, a major part of the reason for rising food costs, is that non-organic agriculture (including heavy use of fossil fuel based fertilisers and pesticides) and transportation of food long distances all use large amounts of oil. So as oil prices continue to rocket upwards breaking all previous records, buying organic, seasonal & locally produced food will continue to become more and more cost competetive compared to non-organic, oil hungry food - and will also help ensure that the whole planet can afford to feed ourselves.

tenuissent

"I've used the value Tesco Marg to cook with and to make bread and its been fine"

I make bread every week, and never put fat/marg in it. Why do you? It seems perfectly good with only flour, salt, yeast and water. Plus a few seeds for extra flavour...

chardonnay_2

hi, while shopping in asda tonight i noticed they had a smartprice chilli sauce 30p - this was not with the mexican food but across the ailse,on the bottom shelf, under the packet mixes. we normally buy asdas own hot chilli sauce then add more herbs/ spices etc when cooking, so i've suggested to hubby we try this next time and just add more of our extra hot chilli powder to it - might save us a bit.

this made me think, as we are quite savvy shoppers and buy reduced items to freeze etc, only buy brands when a good offer and most items are own or value. however realised there are still some items that we have never tried the value range of - so we intend to try these the next shop we do.

System

On Monday whilst compiling my weekly shopping list on Tesco online i put in my basket 1ltr of Tesco vegetable oil, i moaned that since i last bought some it had gone up from around 60p to 98p. I notice this evening that that very same bottle of vegetable oil has gone up to £1.19. I am really battling at the moment keeping the costs down.:mad:

cathodetube

beckstrous wrote: »

This is something I have been thinking a lot about recently, too.
OH and I have just signed up to a Riverford veg box. This will come fortnightly and we will also get fruit and salad delivered once a week. We roughly tried to work out how it would compare, price wise, to Tesco, and I think it would be about the same or even cheaper if you're comparing like for like (i.e. organic with organic). We didn't really do this to save money - it was because we are getting sick of the supermarket and the quality of the produce (quite often the fruit and veg is just tasteless).
I've noticed some quite sneaky things going on in Tesco, though. We use quite a lot of spices and I have noticed that things like coriander seeds and fennel seeds are no longer available in Tesco's ordinary spice range (they used to be) but have moved to the fancy 'ingredients' range and are more expensive for the same thing. I was in a local deli at the weekend and found that they were selling spices in bigger packets (but not enormous packets, just slightly larger jars) which were cheaper than Mr T's for lots of things. I also went to a Thai supermarket the other week and got some lemongrass, later finding out that the same thing in Tesco was nearly twice the price. We also bought a shoulder of lamb from the butcher. It was £11 and we had got a rolled shoulder (slightly smaller, so not a brilliant comparison) from Sainsburys for about £7. We got a whopping 8 portions of meat and 5 portions of soup from this shoulder so it just goes to show you that maybe the supermarkets aren't always the cheapest (I wouldn't have been able to make soup from the rolled shoulder as there was obviously no bone!).
Where I work we keep getting below inflation pay rises so I do worry where all this will end up. It is effectively like getting a pay cut I guess.

Re spices, try Asian stores. In London there are loads. You can get huge bags for a pound or so. Decant them into smaller containers and have lots of spicy food! Turmeric and cinnamon are good for the digestive system.

cathodetube

mummysaver wrote: »

Argh! Just nipped into Mr T's to buy some oil whilst collecting dd2 - and a bottle of wine, purely for my own enjoyment, lol - and it was over a £1, I'm sure the last time a bought it it was 68p - no idea why I can remember that price. It's just normal sunflower oil, nothing special, not organic or anything even. I just can't believe it, flipping bio fuels I guess, or that's the reason we'll be given, nothing to do with Mr T trying to take more money off me than he pays me!

DD&D - can I just ask what you use your cornmeal for, I use it for pizza and polenta, but was wondering what else I could do with it as I looked at the four bags in the cupboard this morn!

You can also use cornmeal for cornbread and corn muffins. Just Google the names and you will find loads of recipes from both here and the US. Some of them call for buttermilk which you can make by just adding lemon juice to milk if you can't find it. Corn bread is delicious with bacon and eggs and also with chilli and soups. It is the main bread served in the southern United States. Some recipes have sugar in them but you don't have to use it. You can substitute sweetener if you like. Lots of the recipes have low fat versions and low or no sugar versions. Some of the recipes say to add tins of sweetcorn as well. All in all a very versatile bread. A good place to buy cheap cornmeal is in Asian supermarkets. You can make the bread in loaf pans, muffin pans, square pans and iron skillets.

shirefairy

metherer wrote: »

I suspect we may get more visitors to the OS forum, as people realise they have to change the way they shop, cook, and eat.

Metherer

You're so right...I am new here and quickly becoming addicted to reading all of the fantastic posts. Defiantly on my way to saving money on my weekly shop. I was shocked at how much I'd been spending without being conscious of it. All of those trips to my local coop to get a loaf of bread and end up spend £12-15 !!!! Not any more.

Anyway...I wanted to share a baking tip...go Vegan! No eggs, butter or milk and still great cake. I recently made a spiced carrot cake which to my surprise turned out really well. Ok it does use veg oil but I reckon overall it works out better value - especially if you're like me and want your eggs from 'happy' chickens. Veg oil in asda is 9.8p per 100ml at the mo. The recipe I used was from http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/recipes/cakes.php I didn't bother with the icing and it was fine. All of the other recipes need some special vegan marg so I wouldn't bother with those. Also I made mine using stuff I already had so instead of wholemeal self raising I only had wholemeal strong in the cupboard so I used that and just put a teaspoon of baking powder in.

tasty!

guidarufino

So I've been wondering about how to cut down my food bills and was wondering, in general terms, what food is cheapest to eat and cook? I only ever eat food that I've prepared, i.e. I never buy rubbishy pre packaged, pre cooked ready meals type food but am finding that buying fresh fruit and veg is getting ever more expensive. I am growing some rocket on my windowsill, which is really easy to grow by the way as it's a weed! And am going to grow some other stuff once I get settled in my new house tomorrow!

But my question to fellow money savers is, in general terms what's cheap to eat? My instinct is to say that meat is expensive and in my student days, I lived on beans, spuds, veg stir fries etc but it seems that everything is getting more expensive, even rice and pasta. I'm thinking maybe beans, chick peas, that sort of thing but have never really gone in for that sort of thing so am not sure about what to make. I like to make enormous batches of bolognese and freeze it and am wondering if I could use less meat and bulk it up with something else?

It's a difficult time for everyone but with reference to people saying their salaries should go up in line with inflation, I have a dim memory from my economics degree that excessive wage increases can actually cause inflation to get even worse and cause a wage lead inflation spiral. I think it goes something like, if all wages increase, then companie's costs increase, which causes them to put their prices up, thus causing even more inflation. There are no simple answers to this problem as it's caused by global factors, bio fuels being one of them in my opinion. At least we live in a fairly affluent country. I think we should count ourselves lucky that we're not living somewhere like Somalia where people have been rioting about food. Or even worse in Burma. Things are bad but they could be a lot worse.

marsha8

Yes, it's scary the way food is going up in price.I have a regular email from
http://www.fixtureferrets.co.uk/ & here you can look for special offers at all of the major supermarkets before visiting them.For a small premium(about £6.00 a year I think) they will give the savings of over a pound eg £10 reduction on a bottle of champagne for example, & without paying the premium you get to know of savings of £1.00 or less only.Hope this helps.