I was looking through the sidebars on all my blogs yesterday, both this current one and my old ones ... Our New Life in the Country, A Smaller and Simpler Life, Challenging Myself and My £2 a Day Food Shopping blog, (which was the most recent challenge I think and the shortest lived blog).
The reason for my searching was to try and find 'new to me' blogs to read or ones that I had previously read regularly but then stopped. Instead I found that I have been quite loyal to the same list of blogs over the years and they nearly all appear over and over again on all of my own blogs.
Then somehow I ended up falling down a rabbit hole on my Challenging Myself blog and read the whole of a challenge I did in 2021. The £3 a Day Challenge.
I went out three times a day and spent £1 for each meal. The prices were an eye-opener, in fact I really doubt I could do the same again. Of course I lived directly across the road from Sainsbury's when I did this challenge, so nipping over three times a day on foot was not a problem.
While I was very tempted to do this again, I don't live as close to the store now and it would mean getting the car out three times a day. So I decided a quick online comparison would suffice. 😀
This was my Day One shopping basket, a total spend of 78p.
Pitta breads - 35p, onion - 15p, and tinned tomatoes - 28p.
Todays prices in the same store are - pitta breads 50p, onion 11p, tomatoes 45p. This can't be a perfect comparison as the onion was weighed out and the current shopping basket could be showing a lighter one. But even so at todays prices the same three items would now cost me £1.06, a whole 28p more.
Now this doesn't sound a lot, but if you're living on a tight budget and this was the rise in price for just for one meal, it's a pretty big increase when wages and benefits here in the UK have not risen at anything like this rate.
And I'm still looking for 'new to me' blogs to read, challenge ones if possible ... any ideas?
Sue xx
I enjoy the Old Style Money Saving posts on the Money Saving Expert Forum, especially Fashion on the Ration.
ReplyDeleteI've never really got on with the MSE forums, but I know a lot of people that love them.
DeletePrices have gone up here, too, and they will probably increase even more when more tariffs go into effect on August 1.
ReplyDeleteAnd August is almost upon us isn't it, July went by in a flash!!
DeleteI like when I find new blogs through others like yourself. I left it too late to have a blog I think and just use FB instead. Catriona
ReplyDeleteIt's never too late to start a blog, just click on the Blogger button or find Blogger via Google. You would get a lot of support from the blogs that you regularly comment on. :-)
DeleteIt's almost a third more, and when you look at it in percentage, its an huge increase.
ReplyDeleteIt really is isn't it. The people that can least afford to pay more are having to, thanks to the most basic of foodstuffs shooting up in price.
DeleteI think you already do this, but I have found some lovely blogs by reading the comments left on ones I already subscribe to and clicking through on those comments which interest me. If someone has left an articulate & interesting comment on a blog then my logic says if they have one of their own it is worth a look.
ReplyDeleteAs for food prices, like you I keep spreadsheets of all our expenditure and the price increases since March 2020 are horrendous. I agree with Marlene - reckon we are spending 25%-30% more on food than five years ago and we are not eating particularly differently (other than much less meat).
Yes, that's how I find most of the new to me blogs that I start reading. I'm just glad these days that my appetite is much smaller, I doubt I could afford the amounts of food I used to eat ... although I was working a lot harder back then on the land, so I guess I needed it. Thank goodness we grew such a lot of our own fruits and vegetables.
DeleteI'm doing our food shopping online at the moment as we are now almost 10 miles from supermarkets.
ReplyDeleteI think we eat fairly simply but find it shocking seeing the cost of basics in black and white.
Alison in Devon x
I'm lucky now this is the closest we have lived to supermarkets for years, so it's nice to go in person and it not take well over half a day just to get some basics.
DeleteIt is truly shocking how the simplest of foods have gone up in price. There doesn't seem to be an end to the rises either,
ReplyDeleteAngie
Sadly it's the most basic of foods that seem to have seen the largest price increases and almost never have any special offers on them. :-(
DeleteI like this blog. Toni has a lot of interesting info.
ReplyDeletehttps://simplefrugallife.org/
Have a nice weekend. It feels like 104F outside Philadelphia today. UGH!
Bun
There are definitely some good recipes on her blog. Thanks for the link.
DeleteMany of the blogs I began reading as I started mine in 09 have stopped entirely, sometimes moving to other platforms or ceasing entirely. Most of the "frugal" blogs I read came from the UK and I am on fixed income and living in US, so I am glad you are still here and thank you, Sue. My thanks also to Bun above for the link. It is 93 here today.
ReplyDeleteYes, I had to delete quite a few blogs from my Blogger reading list and some of my sidebars as they had either been deleted or hadn't posted anything for over five years.
DeleteThe prices have skyrocketed just about everywhere including here in Montreal, Canada. You have a nice blog, thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for reading. :-)
DeleteA little fact, we very nearly relocated to Canada back in 2009 when Alan was offered a job there with a really good relocation package, but he decided to stay with the company he was with as they were paying more. We were tempted though!
I started reading blogs 15 years or so ago when I retired and found people at a similar stage of life.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately two or three of these have since died.
One lovely lady in Montana I would have recommended has suddenly decided to stop - I miss her!
Yes, we have sadly lost a few really lovely bloggers, one taken far too soon. :-(
Delete