Really fucked off with Euro exchange rate

[GrumpyOldBag]

We have been going on holiday self-catering to the same place in Europe for over 10 years.

This year everything feels prohibitively expensive - to the point where it is really inhibiting what we can choose to do.

We are here for 2 weeks and it's really hard as family of 4 (with 2 teenagers) to spend less than £100/euros a day on activities/eating out.

Not in a beach resort type place, so taking a picnic to the beach for the day isn't an option - nearly everything there is to do here costs money. 3 euros for a coffee, 3 for an ice-cream - it all quickly adds up. Even the 'cheap' food in the supermarket is expensive. Practically at parity with £.

Bloody Brexit!

Haven't read the 350 posts beyond this so just responding to the OP.

We've been married for over 30 years and have seen lots of swings in exchange rate. We have adjusted what we paid for in good and bad times. I remember one year where we were in the South of France at FF7=£1 (expectation of 10:1), and we simply cut out ice creams and coffees. We didn't buy stuff to take home.

My first ever trip to the USA had an exchange rate of 1.1 and this year it was 1.3. We didn't go shopping as such - just paid for food and transport.

On other years, we have had brilliant exchange rates. At 1.8, we upgraded to luxury accommodation and let the kids have whatever they wanted.

Is it the end of the world that ice cream is too expensive?

Never understood why people comment without reading the thread.

Bizzy it wasn't ice cream( mine never have those out anyway) but everything. It was insane. We were the equivalent of a £1 a peach,meat was ridiculous for a tiny tray of a cheap cut. £7 for BBQ sausages for 5 people i.e. 10 thin spindly ones. We were spending £30 Euros every couple of days in the supermarket. I took masses and we don't eat much meat. Haven't met a person who didn't say the same.

Our food prices are going to rise and be very similar here when we're out of the EU. How can they not?

Will it be ok then?

And as for holiday at home. You do realise holidays in the U.K. can often be more expensive.

Priced up my holiday I'm on at the moment (camping in Germany) vs one on the IOW.

This was cheaper.

Pitch fees €12 a night, we don't want fancy club houses or anything just somewhere to sleep. Ferry £160. Long drive but diesel is cheaper than home, food about the same. We're doing days out that average at €20 entry fees.

IOW worked out £40 a night pitch fees, crowded, heaving, busy. They wanted £300 for ferry and I don't think it's hovered around 30 degrees since the 21st has it?

This is a Dutch online supermarket. Interesting looking at the prices.

www.ah.nl/producten

1 euro for a pepper.

Can't seem to find a French equivalent

Found on - it's the Dijon Drive

www.casinodrive.fr/ecommerce/GC-catalog/fr/WE21834/

You can look at the prices there.

So glad I qualify for an Irish passport. Nay be taking this up.

I really shouldn't be looking at that - I REALLY want to go to France now

Moules

www.casinodrive.fr/ecommerce/affichageCatalog/WE21834/C-103919-coquillages-et-crustaces

6 Euro per Kg...£5.60

Is it the end of the world that ice cream is too expensive?

Interestingly in Croatia ice cream out is about £1, so is the one thing that is cheap.

over the 'people know nothing about economics'. I have a degree in it fwiw and the point is that there are lots of effects going against each other. I'd also have thought that people would have seen the article in the Guardian (mn's holy grail) about the Euro strength against the Dollar. Now that can't be blamed on Brexit. Or perhaps someone can find analysis that says it can.

Our food prices are going to rise and be very similar here when we're out of the EU. How can they not?

OK if it needs to be spelled out. For all the advantages of the EU it is a really negative, old fashioned protectionist organisation. It therefore controls imports of food products to maintain prices against (at times) world surplus. Outside the EU this surplus can potentially when it exists get dumped on the UK leading to a domestic surplus. What is less clear, other than the shitty exchange rate which is unlikely to be permanent and is the case at the moment anyway is why leaving the EU would make prices go up. The countries quoted as having lower prices are in the EU. It makes no sense and is internet scaremongering.

I dont care about ice cream

I care aboit the beer

Though one of our locals charges £4.50 a pint

So the EU won't definitely won't charge us tariffs when we're out? We're definitely not going to have farmer's subsidies put onto the cost of our food? There aren't going to be problems hiring food production workers many of whom come from the EU and are now leaving. There won't be shortages of products pushing prices up......?

Hardly scaremongering considering some reasonable scenarios and coming to a quite reasonable conclusion. One which others have come to too.

Tariffs would be set by the country importing ie us. WTO is 2%, which is frankly a drop in the ocean anyway in comparison to currency fluctuations as this thread kind of proves.

It is a conclusion based on no fact or economics at all.

Beer is cheaper here also Rufus but as you say that is just lack of tax.

Just Googling Croatian holidays at the moment...

Looks lovely.

Well obviously, but they weren't charging us tariffs when we were in the EU.

And the other concerns many have as regards the likelihood of foodvrices?

RuffReindear1

Thailand is a fantastic country to visit. They call it the Land of Smiles & with good reason their Beer was/is only £1 a pint!

TBH it would've been cheaper to fly all 4 of us to Thailand for twice the time than what we paid to visit Scotland for 10 days - 7 days SC cottage rental & car hired - I just priced it online.

Because of Brexit prices are higher in the U.K. Now & this obviously includes hols. Its not being negative or positive, it just is...

I also agree with I. Mountain:
Hardly scaremongering considering some reasonable scenarios and coming to a quite reasonable conclusion. One which others have come to too.

Hopefully the U.K. Govt. can negotiate a softer landing for us & as I inferred earlier we are in a crap position to negotiate... I love Great Britain, but the days of Empire are long gone

It is UK Plc who needs to export & if we are charged excessive import taxes into the EU holidays will be a thing of the past for many methinks...

We currently export more to Europe, just like the Skye fisherman selling his lobsters to Spain, than anywhere else - unless I'm very misinformed!?

Great thread this!

pride

Dh and i went about 20 years sgo but i would love to take the children this time (well the two not at uni)

You may have sold it on the beer

Ironing agree that UK holidays can cost more than going abroad, but can also be significantly cheaper. Did your £2k holiday include travel and food for the fortnight? We spent just over £2k for a fortnight in Cornwall all-in for four (2 teenage boys so no getting away with free child meals!). Ate out every night (sometimes cheaper pubs) so very little stress. Cheap cottage right by the beach, couldn't have had a better location; cottage was small but didn't matter as we were out most of the time. Weather not guaranteed to be sunny, but you can surf in the rain

It's not regressive to realise that globalisation is not really all that good for the planet. Food miles, eating out of season, the 'right' to have a family holiday abroad, all of these things are detrimental to the planet. We need to invest in domestic, seasonal produce (people managed to eat perfectly well before everything was available all year round), and educate our children to care about sustainability not just in food but travel too.

We have been lucky that prices domestically have become so much cheaper in recent years, but in mainland Europe prices have always been that 'high' for those living there; we were just cushioned by favourable exchange rates when we travelled. Do you think our European counterparts have spent the last 30 years bemoaning how expensive their lives are, and how they should have the right to travel to the UK but cannot afford to?

I love the philanthropism that (usually well-off) people demand from those who are experiencing economic hardship.

"Stop moaning about being poorer! It's good for the planet!!"

"It's good for you being poorer! It's good for you that the economy in the UK is shrinking and you are as poor as poorer people in other EU countries!!"

"Not being able to afford as much food is good for you: you'll eat less and lose weight!"

Personally, I'd have preferred to see green corporate taxes and legislative strategies, rather than such a dire situation, that hits the less well-off disproportionately.

No. I'm not buying this faux-ethical dimension of post-Leave vote straitening of the living standards for the less well-off.

It's also funny because another lot of leavers are clamouring for more trade deals with Australia, New Zealand instead of our neighbours in Europe. Hardly a great move towards sustainability and more environmental friendly practise but hey.

E3 Euro for a coffee?

If you're paying E3 then you're probably having a typically British Cafe au lait or a Cappcuinno, which only holiday makers drink. When I lived in and worked in France (Savioe) we were charging British punters E2.80 for coffee and that was in 2003

How much would you pay for a coffee in the UK?