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- Rising food and utility costs have created a cost of living crisis in the UK.
- An insider spoke to a Briton who is replacing dinner with protein shakes and batch-cooked pasta.
- Apps offering unsold food grew 100% month-over-month in the first half of the year.
“The rising costs horrified me at first,” says John Jr., a mental health activist and speaker from Cheshire in northwest England.
Junior, who is nonbinary, went viral last year when he shared how an episode of the soap opera Hollyoaks saved a life by featuring a storyline about suicide.
Insiders asked Junior and other Britons how they are saving money on groceries amid the cost of living crisis.
UK grocery prices rose 14.7% in October, adding £682 ($780) to food costs for the year, according to data firm Kantar. This is the highest inflation since Kantar began tracking prices in his 2008.
With costs rising across the board, the government stepped in this winter to cap energy prices after official regulators said they would nearly double the price cap to £3,549 ($4,158) a year.
Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt told The Times that billing assistance would cost the same as the entire National Health Service.
Junior says utility bills were his biggest concern in the five-bedroom home, so he cut costs on other essentials like groceries.
“It’s very expensive to live here. But my father died here, so I had no intention of moving.”
Batch cooking and freezing pasta sauce is Junior’s main way of saving, making meal plans and switching to affordable supermarkets like Lidl.
“It costs £1.80 per meal. I used to spend £20 per meal per day, so that’s a big savings for me.”
fish head and protein shake
HyperJar, a banking app that allows users to set different budget categories, said 42% of its customers plan to reduce their spending on both food and energy in response to the cost of living crisis. increase.
Two-thirds also buy more from the supermarket’s own-brand price range, like juniors who said they used to buy branded products.
Jenny Holden, who runs a PR firm in Staffordshire, told an insider that she started eating a pea protein shake for dinner once a week.
She said it’s “nutritious and filling,” but it also means one less mouth to eat at home. I think it’s fine without me.”
HyperJar CEO and founder Mat Megens told Insider that more customers are moving from high-end to budget supermarkets and traveling more often.
“People shop like chefs, shopping more often to get just what they need and to reduce waste. spending is higher,” he said.
“Grocery shopping is one of the biggest daily expenses for most people, and it’s taking an increasing chunk of their budget,” added Megens.
This year, the supermarket chain Tesco has doubled the price of its lunchtime menu, popular with office workers. That’s over $1 more without the loyalty card, which was £3 ($3.53) over ten years. Meals are currently £3.90 ($4.79).
Upscale supermarket Waitrose has seen sales of fish heads and spam increase by more than a third, according to its annual report.
About 72% of those surveyed said they care more about their grocery budget.
Waitrose executive director James Bailey said: “The events of the past year created a difficult situation for many people. Like any supermarket, we had to judge our moods and respond. You can see a big change in
More Brits buy unsold food on apps
More and more people are using apps like Too Good To Go. The app reduces food waste by enabling unsold food to be purchased as a “magic bag” for one-third of the retail price.
In the first half of the year, the number of food bags stored in the UK increased by 100% month-on-month. It also said users are increasingly turning to household essentials over takeout and snacks.
Sophie Truman, managing director for the UK and Ireland, told Insider:
“We are very proud that our model can support people during this difficult time,” added Trueman.
One user of such unsold food apps is Penny Moyses, founder of the Clean and Tidy Home Show, which provides tips for managing your home. She also encourages cooking in bulk and sharing food with others, as she does with her neighbors on her WhatsApp group.
Moyses works with home organization influencers like Kaya, who has 34,000 followers on her Instagram account Mrs Peachy Clean.
She told Insider that she uses the supermarket’s click-and-collect feature.
It is clear that things are changing in the UK as the cost of living crisis has pushed most people to find new ways to save money.
The Trussell Trust, a charity that supports over 1,200 food banks, has launched an emergency appeal after it began giving more food than was donated for the first time.
Jeremy Hunt, the UK’s fourth Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2022 alone, recently announced a fall budget to cut costs. The energy price cap has been extended for him by a year, but from April 2023 he will be raised by £500 ($613).
The country also has a new Prime Minister, but with the Bank of England predicting the country’s longest recession in 100 years, Britons will have to find even more ways to cut costs.
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