Well I checked with my friends from France, Germany and UK and all of them accepted that the inflation is pinching them hard. There are salary corrections, but it doesn’t absorb the impact. May be you are financially well off not to feel the heat
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My French friends claim they are doing relatively well compared to Brits
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Regarding US, I can confirm the inflation in grocery, restaurant prices and other household items is much higher that official numbers. The grocery and restaurant prices have gone up by 50-100 % in 2022!! The impact is so much that we were forced to change our life style!!
Sofinscope - Les Français et le budget alimentation 2023
Sofinscope - The French and the food budget 2023
Food: faced with inflation, the French consume differently so as not to blow up their budget
While inflation is in full swing, the average French food budget has increased only slightly since 2017 (+7 euros). The reason: the French are adapting and making the necessary trade-offs to keep it under control. Thus, 68% of them have changed their food shopping habits and there are many tricks that allow them to avoid price increases as much as possible.Infographie_Sofinscope_Budget_alimentation_Mars_2023
A food budget that is not increasing much despite inflation
The average monthly food budget in February 2023 was 392 euros. This is only 7 euros more than in 2017 (the date of the last Sofinscope dedicated to the food budget), which can be explained in particular by the fall in food consumption. According to INSEE, over the whole of 2022, this has fallen by an average of 4.6%. The IRI also notes that the shopping basket has been emptied of 5% of products over the last 52 weeks.
Despite this stability, the average food budget covers disparities according to household profile and age. People with children declare a monthly budget of 472 euros, i.e. 200 euros more than single people. French people under 35 years of age report a monthly budget to fill their fridge of 289 euros, compared to 436 euros for people aged 65 and over.
To limit the impact of inflation, the French use a variety of techniques...
To continue to eat well despite the crisis while keeping their budget under control, the French are rationalising the way they do their food shopping by using a number of strategies. 76% of them say they systematically draw up a shopping list before going to the shop, in order to limit unexpected additions. Half of them say they set a precise monthly budget for their food (51%), and 23% prefer to shop on the Internet to keep track of the amount in their basket.
The hunt for the best prices is also a practice that is becoming part of French habits. In order not to cut back on pleasurable food purchases, the strategy of favouring products on special offer appeals to a majority of consumers (84%). More generally, systematically comparing the price of products according to brand has become standard practice for the vast majority of those interviewed (84%, +5 pts since 2017). In this logic of searching for the best prices, another change in practices is emerging: discount food shops are a real success (49% say they prefer them). And for good reason: for 98% of French people, the price of products is an important criterion for choosing a food store.
The fact of having a loyalty card/customer account on which to accumulate points is also a primordial, even determining, criterion in the choice of a food chain for 85% of respondents.
... and make trade-offs
With increases of over 40% in one year, the prices of meat products are soaring. As a result, two thirds of French people say they are buying less meat or fish (67%), an increase of 12 pts since 2017.
