#12 Hitting our pockets

So for the last five years this recession has been hitting us hard. Ever since the ball started rolling with Northern Rock we have been constantly told our lives are going to get harder and our finances tighter. Well it seems as that may possibly be now happening with the the survey released today taken out by Which the consumer watchdog that 84% of people are worried about the cost of food in line with their income and that third of people asked had said they had reduced their spend on food. One thing that worries me a little though is that apparently 1 in 3 families are giving up there fruit and vegetables off their shopping lists to save money.

All this and on top we have the news that food is expected to rise above 5% inflation this year it doesnt seem to look like its going to improve anytime soon. An example of an average price hike is Sainsburys cornflakes rising 37% in one year and TESCO own vegetable oil rising by a huge 43%

Obviously every part of life has taken a battering in this recession the public and business. However surely prices going up are not going to help anyone are they?

For example the supermarkets put their prices up, what will the customer do to counteract that? They will reduce their shopping as i mentioned earlier or the other thing they will look at doing is to look to save money in other ways. Cheaper and own brand items. One thing this recession has taught us is to become cleverer shoppers. We no longer let the big shops bully us into buying what they want us to buy. We have all become a lot more savvy and just buy what we need to buy.

We now go where the best value is it seems after it was announced that budget supermarkets such as ALDI have increased their sales by 20.2% and LIDLs are up by 15.6% Which between them is a 6.1% share of the market. Compare that to the big ones and they only increase by small numbers such as 0.1%
However its not just those discount supermarkets which appear to be increasing sales. Waitrose also increased its share of the market from 4.1% to 4.3%


They say we are £9 a week less better off than we were a year ago. With increase in bills. So how can we save that money?????

Well it looks like we should try these low budget supermarkets either that or the own brand labels that the supermarkets offer. However as I mentioned earlier even going down that route may not save money

Aldi gets a bad name as a cheap supermarket however i have heard some reviews saying some of their products are actually as good, if not better, than the better known supermarkets


With the economic future unknown. Take your future in your own hands. That extra money you save from your food shopping by being savvy. Save it and treat yourself. We all deserve a treat.