There's no getting away from the cost of living crisis and more and more families are struggling to put meals on the table.
The demand on food banks has soared, with those on benefits needing them more than ever. But the current crisis is affecting people across the board, even families with two full-time incomes, and many are turning to so-called social supermarkets to make ends meet.
Unlike many food banks, these places are open to all - no matter what their income - and they're proving a lifeline for the many people who are now struggling to pay their bills.
This week I visited one such supermarket in Wigan and was amazed by how far my money stretched. Fur Clemt is a charity organisation that makes edible surplus food available to the community through its shop and on-site café.
A quick glance around shows labels from all kinds of places, including Waitrose, Tesco and Morrisons and there are big brands such as Heinz, Kellogg's and Warburtons. It works using a traffic light system so anything with a red sticker costs £1, yellow sticker 50p and green sticker 25p.
Anyone can shop there - you simply pay £5 annual membership and can do two shops a week there, sometimes a third shop on a Friday if there's surplus stock (they use their Facebook page to update members).
With fruit and veg you can pick up five portions of anything there and it costs just £1 for the lot. I picked up a broccoli, a cucumber, some potatoes, a bag of spinach and a couple of bananas.
The majority of stock was in date - or had been frozen before reaching its use-by date - and anything past its best before date was mostly just a few weeks gone, certainly still edible.
Demand for these places has shot up just as much as food banks and on a busy Friday lunchtime it seemed a new customer was arriving every few minutes asking staff how the pricing system works.
No doubt Fur Clemt's spot on Sky News earlier this week has helped pull in a new crowd of savvy shoppers and the car park was full outside what is an old community hub building at the side of Westfield Community School, in Montrose Avenue, Kitt Green.
There are some restrictions on products to make sure the goods are shared round and shoppers are asked not to buy more than two of most items.
That goes for the free stuff too. Yes, you heard right. Loaves were stacked up near the till area - Warburtons, Hovis, the lot - and shoppers can take these free of charge, along with frozen milk if needed.
The freezers are full of other stuff too - from puddings like apple and raspberry crumble and sponge and custard, to roast beef dinners, ice creams and even bags of Nando's chicken.
Current opening hours are 11am to 3pm Monday to Friday, but the charity is hoping to open one Saturday a month soon to help those who can't get there during the week. It's run by paid staff and volunteers but will need more of the latter to open longer.
Here's what I managed to get for under £10
- 2 x croissants
- Tiger bread baguette
- Wholemeal Hovis loaf
- Warburtons Toastie loaf
- Spinach
- Cucumber
- 3 x potatoes
- 2 x bananas
- Broccoli
- 2 x Heinz Beanz
- 2 x Richmond sausages
- Nutri-Grain bars
- Krave Stix
- Tony's chocolate eggs
- Tea bags (160-pack)
- 2 x sparkling water 500ml
- Pepsi Max 1.25l
- Milk 4-pint
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