Tighteniing the Belt

I went grocery shopping at the weekend, I didn't want to but I really needed to get a few basics. My mum was just back from two weeks abroad and had to stock up as well, so we went together to take advantage of any offers. Boy did she get a surprise. My mum is a very habitual shopper and she's quite brand loyal, so there we were in middle of the shop with my mum dropping her usual brands in the trolley and me price checking, fishing her selection back out again and replacing it with something cheaper. Even with me doing this her bill was £30 more than it was three weeks ago and she'd bought less this time around.

We were convinced it was wrong, yes prices are increasing but surely not by that much, we must have been overcharged, something rung in twice. Right. Wrong.

I'd been double checking prices on my own shopping and catching things in my mum's but I hadn't realised just how much fruit and vegetables were in there, not to mention deli meats for my father and brother's lunches through the week. I couldn't believe the prices. £3.49 for 2.5kg of potatoes. This is Ireland, we should be given those for free. Well maybe not, but they should at least be cheaper than this. They were local potatoes as well so petrol prices has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Does anyone else get the sneaking suspicion some shops are just "sticking the arm in" raising prices across the board because everyone understands the current financial climate, we understand we have to pay more .... for everything. Maybe, maybe not.

You'll have to excuse me, my head is perhaps still reeling from he realisation that plain flour was 800% more expensive than it is in Lidl. It must be organic. Nope. Fairtrade then, someone has to be benefiting from it. Sorry, no again.

So it's time once again, deep breath my friends, and pull that belt in .... one .... more .... loop. *much sweating and gasping for air, ooh and I'm light-headed again*

I'll be posting over the next few weeks about the things I'm doing to save money here. If anyone has any ideas or links to their older posts I'd love to here from you.

L.