Almost everyone in the UK is trying to cut all household bills, while daily we hear of increases. Kitkat, Unilever and Primark are the latest of to say they have no choice but to put prices up again. The ONS says that grocery prices are increasing by 6% year on year. But we should not just accept the increases. It takes time to save money, but it is definitely worth it. Remember Tesco made £2.2 billion last year and predicts it will increase profits to £2.4 billion to £2.6 billion. Sainsbury also doubled profits. Lidl and Aldi say they are […]
Category: Food
Beware stealth price rises
As you make a shopping list for the Easter supermarket shop this weekend remember two things. Supermarkets are increasing prices by stealth and that could be why Tesco could report a 30% increase in profits this week. While milk and bread are likely to be the same as last week and the week before those items you buy infrequently could well cost more. I reckon that for every reduction there are two bigger increases in other aisles. Then there is the regular yo-yo pricing that has everyday items such as loo rolls or mayonnaise moving up and down week by […]
Beware supermarket vouchers
We are in Advent. The trees are up and the Christmas shopping lists are made. And every time we go to a supermarket we get another voucher offering great riches…or not. You need to be wary not to be conned into spending more than you would normally and to understand how little you will get with some of the offers and how many hoops you will have to go through to get any cash at all. And the stores are probably hope that the lure of points will take your eye off the price of the food on the shelves. […]
A tale of two supermarket vouchers
The latest inflation figures showed that food prices are rising – along with petrol. This is no surprise to Money Fight Club. Part of our job is to monitor the tricks being played on us, every single week, by the supermarkets. A batch of supermarket vouchers currently doing rounds demonstrate the latest wheeze that’s designed to get us to spend more. At the till, when paying for my last weekly shop, I received a voucher that promised me five times as many points if I spent £60 or more in the following week. In other words, if I spent £20 […]
Blue Monday – good news about the most financially depressing day of the year
Blue Monday is coming up and so named because December’s pay cheque is often paid a day or two earlier and then January is a five week month, with many of us not seeing another pay cheque reach our bank account for another couple of weeks. When we worked out which day was Blue Monday we felt it fell on January 26. But the growing concensus is that it will actually fall on Monday, January 19. Sheeesh! You wouldn’t think people would be so keen to get there sooner, would yah? Why so blue, Monday? Credit card bills have landed […]
Supermarket snores – Morrisons’ loss is not our gain
So supermarket chain Morrisons has posted a £176 million loss but promises to turn things around, including pumping money into savings on the shelves, according to reports on BBC breakfast television this morning. Here at Money Fight Club HQ we tend to take everything that supermarkets say with a pinch of salt (considerably in excess of the recommended daily limit). Supermarkets are not in the business of feeding our families but in the business of making money. Whatever they may say about savings, or online shopping, or convenience stores the only people who grow fat at senior managers and shareholders. […]
Supermarket special offers. No more two-for-ones on sneaky please!
Supermarkets are as sneaky as they ever were and, in our opinion, getting worse. The good news is that you’re all getting sick and tired of it. The fake discounts and multi-buys that are more expensive than buying individual packs are finally catching up with them. A survey by Netmums for the Sunday Times found that 80% of customers want better regulation of supermarkets. At Money Fight Club we agree and say you need to go into supermarkets armed and prepared to be ambushed if you don’t keep your wits about you. A basic supermarket self defence weapon is the […]
How to use money off vouchers the MFC way
Supermarkets and shops don’t give us money off vouchers out of the goodness of their hearts. The idea is to get us spending more or buying things we don’t usually go for. Follow Lindsay Cook’s top tip and become a voucher ninja. Read how Lindsay almost got caught out by a voucher… […]
Price hunting
Horsemeat scandal aside, the biggest thing that drives our food shopping tactics is the need to keep within an overall budget and the most recent UK recession has taken its toll in this respect. Figures from the Office for National Statistics in April 2013 showed food sales down by over 4% compared with the previous month and nearly the same amount down year on year. The cold weather hit so-called summer foods but people were also pinching pennies from the table as the long winter and rising fuel prices hit their energy bills. Food prices have also been steadily increasing. […]