When asked who or what may be the cause of the cost of living crisis, oil companies (42%) and Vladimir Putin (44%) were high up our respondent’s lists, while one in three of us blamed the companies or brands themselves, and a quarter considered supermarkets or retailers to be responsible.
However, the top answer – with almost half of respondents apportioning blame – was the government, with a third choosing to be more specific in picking Boris Johnson.
Who should help?
The UK Government have announced a support package to help with energy bills, address heating bill concerns and have either cut or froze fuel and alcohol duties. This is alongside issuing payments for those with disabilities, pensioners and those on benefits.
While electricity was the area where most people – 81% – noticed an increase in cost, food was in a close second place with 79%. It’s therefore unsurprising that over half of people express that grocery shopping is one of their greatest concerns, but is this a nationwide problem, or something more specific?
According to food retailer Iceland, some need more help than others.
Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons have all reported to be cutting prices in response to the rising cost of living however, Iceland is the first supermarket to introduce a brand new initiative to help ease the pressure – at least, for some of its customers. Announcing a cost of living discount for the over-60s, Iceland’s programme will hopefully help the half of over 55s that are saying they are not able to live comfortably amid the cost of living crisis.
However, is it this age group which needs more help? Our study found that while the majority – 73% – of under 55s are noticing an increase in their food costs, a massive 88% of over 55s said they were feeling this way.
Seemingly, it’s this group who are feeling the pinch more when it comes to the cost of the weekly food shop, although it’s quite clearly an area where cost cutting would be beneficial to all.
So how can we all trim down how much we spend on food?
According to our recent survey, the majority believe that shopping at discounter stores is the most effective way to save money in 2022. 38% of those asked had already changed where they do their grocery shopping, and 83% of us either have, or plan to, change to a discounter store instead of our usual supermarket.
However you look at it, with 54% of people saying they don’t believe the cost of the living crisis will end before 2023, and 92% of us saying that we already are, or are planning to make changes to our spending behaviour in relation to the current cost of living, whatever measures are taken seem to need to be at least medium-long term in order to have any meaningful impact on the consumer.
