A thread for moaning about the cost of everything

[FlyingSoap]

Just 4 years ago I could get my hair done and nails done for £70 all in all.

It’s now £135 for both of these. Double.
(I understand cost of living drives up the prices for people who are self employed, and I’m not blaming them individually for it)

Bills are up so much this month. The price of everything is just horrendous and I don’t know how some people manage!

Me too, it used to be the opposite. Prices have shot up.

The average salary is quite a bit higher in America though

The price of drinks, including soft drinks. A glass of Diet Coke or J20 in our local restaurants is pretty much £5.00! And desserts! A portion of rhubarb crumble £7.00 😲

That was likely down to the exchange rate. I remember a time when there used to be almost 2 dollars in a pound

Really? Wow.

My NZ mil has spent the last twenty years coming here and marvelling at the cheap cost of food...until last year when she shrugged and said it was about the same.

I can’t afford hair dresser or manicure. We used to go coffee every morning, it’s gone from £2.50 to £3.45, and that’s just a simple black coffee.

I rarely drink and I haven’t bought a G&T for years. Attended a wedding at the weekend and thought I’d get into the party mood with a wee G&T. Nothing fancy - basic Gordon’s and tonic water from a gun - £6.80 🤯🫨🫠

My buildings and contents insurance has gone up 25%.
Better than quotes I got online though which are more than double what I paid last year. Think I last made a claim in the 1990s…..

Clothes are very expensive now I think
I know it may be an age thing with me as I can remember it being much cheaper for a top or a jumper , but it does seem extortionate these days for basic every day clothes.
( primark don't do my size very often , so I can't shop in there )
Eating or drinking out is a lot of money
( I know I sound a moany old gimmer !)

That's true. Family member was talking about how much their reen gets for a part time job and it's £15 ph. Not bad at all!

We have just got back from a premier inn. We stayed for a few nights and it cost over £500!!!

It must have been last minute or right next to an attraction surely?

We're frequent flyers in PI's and I've never paid over £50 a night for a family room...and often quite a bit less. There's usually one within a few miles at a decent price wherever you are.

I've really noticed a non fancy cuppa going up in price too.

I Never order any desserts in a restaurant as it's always basic catering packs cut up into smaller portions and a sprig of something green on top or icing sugar and that'll be over seven quid ( in most chain restaurants)

I couldn't find one under £100 last time I looked .

I can understand why some things have gone up...food for example, as raw materials are more expensive. Grain from Ukraine etc...
I understand why services requiring premises have gone up... electricity bills at hairdresser for example...but why have insurance costs rocketed...I've never made a claim, not moved to more risky place and drive same car...yet insurance renewal was nearly double...why...what is causing this ?

Weirdly, I like going for a blowdry even if I am not that in love with the result (yes, I know this sounds weird. I like the luxury of doing absolutely nothing for 30 minutes and having someone else wash my hair and the nice smells of the salon) but it feels so expensive now, even though the cost hasn't increased that much, the cost if everything else had so instead of a little luxury it's really a one-off expense.

Tights are also fucking expensive which annoys me to an unreasonably large extent.

I would like to know how those who were barely getting by a year or two ago are doing now because just when you think things can’t get any more expensive, they do.

The people at the top must think ‘hey everything is getting more expensive and everyone is just accepting it, so we should put our prices up too!’

Companies that jack up their prices lose our business:

Diet Coke - Went cold turkey, saving a fortune (and our teeth).
Heinz - Get all our condiments from Lidl now.
Disneyplus and similar - Set up an account in a foreign country for less than half the price.
TV licence - Cancelled, use torrent or IPTV for any extra programs.
Hair - Use a mobile hairdresser who has kept her rates the same.
Takeaways - Not worth the price. We sometimes get chinese mains and make our own rice.
Gym - We bought a used treadmill and weights and work out at home now.

We still spend on stuff like holidays, high quality clothing (but buy less), nice gifts for our loved ones.

More expensive to fix claims as garage costs have risen. Is one reason I have heard.

Increase of thefts of luxury vehicles.

It might not be your actual car but we all pay for all claims in a roundabout way.

I can understand why hair salons charge a lot as it's the cost of the water / electricity/ business rates which a mobile hairdresser hasn't got to find ( maybe petrol to get around , but it can't be as much ) plus the wages too
Lots of people are having salons / beauty parlors built in their back gardens , although I guess they have to pay some kind of taxes?
Can't be as much though ?

The tax the government charges for insurance premiums had increased , so that gets passed on to us

I met some friends in a pub the other day and ordered a pint of shandy as I was driving .... £5.50!! 😮😮. A full pint of beer is less than that is some places.

You can eat white food in America cheaply but anything non gmo, pumped full of antibiotics, battery farmed is extortionate. I've got family over at the moment and we were talking about it last night.

Shite not white!