Half of people buying less food as prices soar

Some 49% of people surveyed by the Office for National Statistics say they had purchased less food than normal between 22 June and 3 July. This was up from 8% of those polled last September.

Another 48% said they had been forced to spend more than usual on their food shopping. Overall, 91% of 2,300 participants said their cost of living had gone up over the past month.

Other reasons given were skyrocketing energy bills (83%) and fuel prices (79%).

The most common step taken to deal with this was spending less on non-essentials (reported by 62% of people), using less energy at home (53%), cutting back on non-essential car journeys (46%) and shopping around more (38%).

Commenting on the findings, Sarah Coles, Senior Personal Finance analyst., Hargreaves Lansdown said “We’re going off going out, cutting back on food, and wearing our clothes to death. The cost-of-living crisis has forced us to spend so much on bills that we’re cutting back all over the place. However, there are some things we refuse to give up.”

“In some ways it’s incredibly positive that we’re taking the hard decisions in order to cut back spending – rather than falling into borrowing habits that will come back to bite us later. However, for any business relying on us filling our baskets and wardrobes on a regular basis, it’s a far more worrying sign that demand is dwindling. There’s every chance that the sombre tone of retailers’ results is unlikely to get much cheerier in the near future.”

“In the early months after restrictions eased, we were keen to get out and spend money, but the cost-of-living crisis has changed all of that. 62% of people say they have cut spending on non-essentials, and although social spending recovered as restrictions eased, it is falling again. This may be because after paying the bills we don’t have any money left for fun.”

“One of the most striking changes is a cut in the amount we’re spending on food. 49% of people are buying less food, so we’re buying less at supermarkets than before the pandemic. The supermarkets have reported that people are trading down to own-brands and budget ranges, so we’re clearly trying to find ways to make our cash stretch as far as possible.”

“We’re delaying all sorts of spending we don’t desperately need today – which covers things like household goods and cars. It feels like the wrong time to be splashing out on expensive items when we can just run our existing washing machines and family cars into the ground.”