Prices won't be going back down again...will they?

[blahblah56]

Seems to be a lot of "grin and bear it" or "things will get better" posts around but I'm wondering if this is it now?

Our shopping has jump up so much, a lot more than the 12% or so they say shopping has gone up. I'm not going to go into Tesco one day and be surprised that my shopping is £50 cheaper am I?

Likewise my electric has gone up from £100 in a month in 2021 to £330 a month in Feb 2023. That's not ever going to go back to the lower price.

So is this it now? Is life going to be pretty shit in the long run with little chance for most people to enjoy themselves?

the prices won’t go back down but a few things will happen-

prices will stop going up as fast and slowly (in some cases VERY slowly) wages will rise and narrow the gap- making life a little let shit as it happens.

we’ll get used to things and adapt and care less about what would have really upset us before.

I doubt food prices will go back down, fuel is supposed to drop this summer. I think food sho3rtagrs will continue all year and the demand for veg will push inflation back up.

I was thinking this. Trying to be optimistic I was thinking maybe more things will be 0on sale" or "special offer"? Probably wishful thinking

The price of food is highly unlikely to come down significantly because sharply increased wage costs throughout the production & distribution chains are now baked in. What may well happen is a marked reduction in the rate of price rises. Prices will probably go back to rising much more slowly, as has been the norm for the last 30 years.
Energy prices are different because they are determined less by the cost of production & distribution and more by trading / speculation on global markets. Prices went through the roof last years because markets reacted to European countries aggressively buying up supplies to fill the gap left by the reduction of supply from Russia. Now, they have largely weaned themselves off Russian energy so market prices have fallen significantly. This should work its way through to consumers in time, assuming there isn’t another supply shock…

Fits in a bit with the thread I was reading yesterday about stop changing the recipe eg crisps, fizzy drinks, ready meals. Part of it we will get used to, part of it will be things will be for special occasions only, some will respond to customer demand like happened with "new coke" (so a few prices might come down) and then they'll be new cheaper options, and some things will have the illusion of being cheaper.

I know that some people are genuinely struggling to feed their families, and that is disgraceful in what’s supposed to be a rich country, but it’s still worth asking a question:
Is it really such a bad thing that the era of ridiculously cheap food (eg £2.99 for a chicken or £1 for 4 pints of milk) is now over?

The chicken might be more debatable but is milk a luxury though? Are people buying 4 pints of milk because it costs £1? If people need 4 pints of milk they need 4 pints of milk mostly? Or is the debate about waste? If you need 4 pints of milk it's not a luxury is it? Or is it?

People used to think that life would get better for people decade by decade; our children would be "better off" than us etc. this doesn't seem the case in many ways. There's a greater divide between rich and poor.

What a depressing thread. I really hope things get better otherwise what’s the fucking point.

i would agree with you for the most part, but the prices of lots of basics are already coming down in Waitrose.

No…

Wages will go up, it will all even out and then begin again. Well, if we’re still here. 🥴

I can’t imagine most people’s wages will go up at any sort of rate that will counter-balance the rises in food prices and bills.

No, they won't.

Fuel & electric/gas is going to come down, but there are food shortages and unless the government sort their shit and support our British farmers food will never go back down.

Indon't remember things like foodbanks being around in my childhood. I think food used to be expensive though. We have got used to food being very cheap -
meat especially. Even now you can often buy a whole chicken for around £3.50. I'm sure it cost more than that in the 90's.

That said, if you have a garden use it. Learn to plant your own fruit & veg. It really does help.

It's not that its a luxury. It's that when you think about the process, the cow, the milking, the transportation, the bottling, the transport to supermarket, the shelf stacking, the checkout....how can that be worth only one pound? Someone is being shafted somewhere in that supply chain.

What about mortgage rates? 😬😬

Didn't Martin Lewis say interest rates will never return to what they were 5 years ago?

So, where does the money come from to raise wages?
If you have to pay more to the staff who collect the food, the staff who clean it, process it, and package it, warehouse it, put in on shelves, and check it out at the counter, and you have to pay more to those who administer all those companies, and those who operate all the back office tasks, and those who clean all those fascinates, who pays for all those pay increases?
You do. It gets added onto the price of everything you buy.
Pay rises will accelerate the rise in food prices.
If you want to slow the increase in food prices, you need to shorten the supply chains, encourage people (selective stocking) to buy more locally produced goods, and put a moratorium on pay increases.
If you don’t, it’ll happen anyways, but it’ll be a good bit more painful because we weren’t willing to deal with the issues when we had the chance.

@Somanycats Exactly, and the people being shafted were the farmers. £1 for 4 pints didn’t come close to covering the cost of producing & distributing the milk. Today’s price of £1.65 is more realistic, assuming some of that is being passed on to the farmers…

I think my point is that I'm starting to think for a lot of people there is no point

We're lucky that we are not penny pinching but having to be careful, I thought by this stage of our lives with older kids things would be easier.

We have a car each but need both as we work shifts in opposite directions. Public transport is nil for getting to work and since moving to a "cheaper" area (hollow laugh) two years ago we need a car for the school run.

I'd say in the last year the cost that have gone up monthly off the top of my head...

Elec- extra £230
Oil for heating- extra £100
Petrol- extra £100
Food- extra £250

So that's an extra £680 per month or £8160 per year for basically bugger all, imagine the fabulous long haul holiday we could have every year with that money enjoying life but it's all just working for paying the basics these days.

Hate to break it to you but growing veg is extremely labour intensive and not always very high yielding for the uninitiated.

If families are already struggling working 2 jobs, keeping home, caring for children, heaven knows how they'd be able to tend to veg in the garden or allotment. Saying this as a very keen gardener. Veg growing is very rewarding but unlikely to feed a family.

For those who say wages will rise when will this happen?
I know min wage is going up in April and benefits are too but what about those not on min wage or claiming any benefits?
Our annual pay rise is agreed at the end of the year then starts in the Jan of the next year but doesn't start being paid until the March. We've got 2% which is pretty much the same as every year. Usually close to inflation but no where near this year!

No. We've had cheap energy for decades. Past that now

I don’t get higher wages unless I charge more (self employed), but if we all do that it makes life harder still for those paying for services

I'm finding fruit and veg about the only thing that is still affordable
Got apples and satsumas on offer for a £1 each today at Tesco and a bag of carrots was 49p. Not worth the time and effort to grow it myself

I do my shop in Sainsburys and have noticed it was a little cheaper this week but I think that's due to so many offers (I took full advantage of these!!)

I had to stop going to Lidl, they have become bloody expensive! I was shocked.