{"id":206305,"date":"2025-10-17T10:24:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T10:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206305\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T10:24:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T10:24:30","slug":"how-the-100-weekly-shop-became-a-viral-trend-and-reveals-the-true-cost-of-living-crisis-in-the-uk-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206305\/","title":{"rendered":"How the \u00a3100 weekly shop became a viral trend \u2013 and reveals the true cost of living crisis in the UK today"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, \u00a3100 would fill a trolley. Now it barely fills a basket. Across social media<\/a>, shoppers are posting photos of their groceries with captions somewhere between disbelief and despair. \u201c\u00a398! At Aldi<\/a>, no booze included and only meat is sliced for a sandwich and a chicken to roast. Six months ago, this would have been \u00a370!\u201d read one viral post.<\/p>\n

The so-called \u201c\u00a3100 weekly shop\u201d \u2013 once shorthand for a manageable middle-class routine \u2013 has become a symbol of how far our money<\/a> no longer goes. What\u2019s replaced it is far more chaotic: bulk-buys, frozen finds, endless top-ups and a growing sense that food<\/a> shopping<\/a> has turned from a domestic ritual into an act of survival.<\/p>\n

For Kimberley Coke, a working mum of two in Hertfordshire, the notion of a single weekly shop now feels impossible. \u201cOur routine has changed as we\u2019re out so much with busy family commitments and kids\u2019 football,\u201d she says \u2013 she commutes to London<\/a> while her husband works in the next town over. \u201cThe food<\/a> shop is sporadic for four. We tend to do one massive, expensive shop a month, but then we\u2019re constantly playing top-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI tend to shop at Sainsbury\u2019s but do top-up shops at Aldi<\/a> and Asda and get frozen stuff for the kids at the Food Warehouse,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey do a good, healthy frozen protein<\/a> range, which lasts for ages in the freezer.\u201d Even Costco, once her way to stock up and save, can backfire: \u201cIt\u2019s amazing for bulk shopping<\/a> \u2013 high quality and super nice stuff. But, God, I end up spending a few hundred pounds in a flash!\u201d<\/p>\n

What Coke describes mirrors a wider national trend. According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), families are returning to a hybrid routine of smaller weekly \u201cbig\u201d shops followed by multiple top-ups.<\/p>\n

According to the Office for National Statistics, the rate of food and non-alcoholic drink inflation<\/a> rose to 5.1 per cent in August, up from 4.9 per cent in July \u2013 the fifth consecutive month of rising prices<\/a>. Vegetables<\/a>, milk, cheese, fish, beef and pork were among the biggest climbers, reflecting a mix of poor harvests and supply-chain disruption. Figures from Worldpanel by Numerator show supermarket prices<\/a> remain 4.9 per cent higher than a year ago, despite months of so-called \u201cprice wars\u201d between the major grocers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany families are switching to supermarket<\/a> own brands to save money<\/a> where they can,\u201d says Kris Hamer, the BRC\u2019s director of insight. \u201cAnd while customers moved back to large weekly shopping trips during the pandemic, many have returned to a smaller weekly \u2018big\u2019 shop followed by small \u2018top-up\u2019 trips through the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

That splintering of the \u201cbig shop\u201d is echoed by Tom Zahir, a chef who lives in east London<\/a> with his partner and their new baby. \u201cWe do one big shop every 10-14 days, which will be online from a supermarket \u2013 in that we have boring stuff like toilet roll, toothpaste, breakfast cereals, cheeses, milk and eggs,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll buy basic meats from there too \u2013 chicken breasts, some mince, etc, for staple meals. That shop might run \u00a370-90.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest, he says, is made up of smaller, more spontaneous trips. \u201cLocal shop for items for specific meals \u2013 good value bunches of herbs, tomatoes, salads \u2013 or to a slightly larger independent shop nearby with a butcher counter.\u201d <\/p>\n

Every couple of months they bulk-buy meat for the freezer, but \u201cin recent months (we just had a baby), we\u2019ve found ourselves using delivery services like Gopuff and Zoom for last-minute purchases of protein in a pinch \u2013 this is usually down to poor planning without set meals in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

5.1%<\/p>\n

Food and non-alcoholic drink inflation as of August 2025<\/p>\n

He estimates their spend at around \u00a375 a week, \u201cbut it is super-noticeable how much less it sometimes feels you get for that, especially when buying things like dishwasher tablets or laundry items in a shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zahir\u2019s household \u2013 like many urban families \u2013 now buys across several ecosystems. \u201cThe variety of places we get our household essentials from has increased massively,\u201d he says. \u201cWe buy more in bulk now for savings \u2013 especially with household cleaning stuff \u2013 it can be from Amazon, Costco or even subscription services for things like cat litter and baby formula.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRetailers are grappling with an additional \u00a35bn in costs from April\u2019s increased employer national insurance<\/a> contributions and national living wage,\u201d says Hamer. \u201cThe result is that food inflation<\/a> has been trending upwards over recent months, expected to hit around 6 per cent by the end of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Food Foundation also points to what it calls \u201cclimateflation\u201d \u2013 the ripple effect of extreme weather events and disrupted harvests driving up prices for core ingredients. The organisation warns that as long as food systems remain vulnerable to climate<\/a> shocks, affordability will stay precarious.<\/p>\n

\"Meat<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Meat is among the products rising fastest in price, with shoppers forced to rethink how \u2013 and where \u2013 they buy their weekly essentials (Getty)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the market has tilted quietly towards value. Own-label products now account for 51.2 per cent of all supermarket sales, up from 50.9 per cent a year ago, as shoppers reach for cheaper alternatives. <\/p>\n

The Treasury, for its part, has denied that government policy is to blame for supermarket price rises, pointing instead to global commodity pressures. But for shoppers, that distinction is irrelevant when the till flashes over \u00a3100.<\/p>\n

In other words, supermarkets<\/a> aren\u2019t inflating prices for sport; they\u2019re juggling an expensive equation of wages, regulation, climate<\/a> shocks and supply chains. But for households, those incremental rises \u2013 30p here, 50p there \u2013 accumulate into real lifestyle changes.<\/p>\n

Zahir says the fallout is tangible. \u201cMeats and dairy are up massively and there is no chance we will buy any cleaning stuff in the supermarket now as it\u2019s all so expensive. Household medicines are also so expensive now \u2013 a box of Lemsip is \u00a37?!\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no chance we will buy any cleaning stuff in the supermarket now as it\u2019s all so expensive. Household medicines are also so expensive now \u2013 a box of Lemsip is \u00a37?!<\/p>\n

Tom Zahir, shopping for family of three<\/p>\n

Even for those with comfortable incomes, small costs now dictate habits. \u201cA lack of planning can seriously push the cost of your shop up,\u201d he admits. \u201cWe\u2019ve also trialled quite a few online supermarkets and will make sure we utilise things like \u00a325-off vouchers much more than we used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rising prices have created a generation of hyper-strategic shoppers. For Coke, frozen food and Costco runs are now core tactics. For Zahir, it\u2019s meal planning and what chefs call \u201ccross-utilisation\u201d: buying ingredients that can serve multiple dishes. \u201cThis week I bought a chicken and used the breast for a salad plate, the legs to chop up into a topping for tacos and then used the wings and carcass to make a stock which will turn into a soup,\u201d he says. \u201cI also tend to buy and freeze items more than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even ideas of indulgence have changed. \u201cBuying a premium cut of meat at a supermarket \u2013 or going in at the fancy Waitrose cheese or deli counter \u2013 is definitely a huge rarity these days,\u201d he says. \u201cIf we do this now, it will only be from an independent deli, cheesemonger or butcher where we know the quality is higher and it\u2019s only marginally more than buying it from a supermarket.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many households, this kind of strategising isn\u2019t optional. It\u2019s survival. The Food Foundation\u2019s Food Insecurity<\/a> Tracker found that 7.3 million adults \u2013 nearly 14 per cent of UK households \u2013 experienced food insecurity in January 2025, rising to 17.9 per cent among families with children. The charity\u2019s Basic Basket tracker shows that a nutritionally adequate weekly shop for one man and one woman now costs over \u00a3100.<\/p>\n

The weekly shop once stood for something bigger than a receipt \u2013 a symbol of control, of being able to fill a fridge and plan a week. Its disappearance tells a story about the fragility of that stability. The ritual that once anchored everyday life has become a test of endurance, proof of how much responsibility for affordability has shifted from government and industry onto households themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few years ago, \u00a3100 would fill a trolley. Now it barely fills a basket. Across social media,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-206305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}