Things that are inexplicably cheap

[ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal]

Inspired by the thread about things that are inexplicably expensive!

My pick is bananas. You can buy a huge bunch of bananas for a few pence - I'm always shocked when i get to the till and find I've got about 22 bananas for less than a quid exaggerating but they've been imported from halfway round the world - yet the British apples next to them are twice as much.

What do you find inexplicably cheap?

TVs. Just been looking on Amazon, 32" sets start at around £120. I remember buying a 14" portable colour( !) TV in 1984 for £240.
That was a months wages for me. We bought in on a Dixon's storecard and paid for it monthly.
I suppose the same is true for all electrical goods.

Mobile phone contracts. Unlimited calls and texts and 10gb of data chucked in all for £10 a month. I remember being a teenager and putting £10 credit on a phone and checking the balance after every call. A 2 minute call could eat up half your credit!

@GreyGardens88 I don’t think they’re letting non Spain residents enter the country at the moment unless it’s for essential reasons, so fingers crossed he gets in!

Petrol is cheaper per litre pure orange juice despite the cost of extraction, treatment and export and half of it is taxes

Food in the UK is amazlingly cheap. That families cannot afford to feed themselves is a disgrace. But wages have remained static for almost decades and benefits can be inadequate.

Carrots. The seeds for my plot cost more than many kilos of carrots in the shops . Don’t know how farmers make any profit at all on them.

I think milk is sinfully cheap. Farmers are paid a pittance for it because the supermarkets insist on selling it for such a low price.

Loose fruit and veg! A mango costs 59p!

"TVs. Just been looking on Amazon, 32" sets start at around £120. I remember buying a 14" portable colour( !) TV in 1984 for £240."

Yes, but a few years ago you could cheap ones second hand and that hasn't been possible since the digital switch. I find 120 quite expensive if that's what they start at.

"Loose fruit and veg! A mango costs 59p!"

I don't find fresh fruit and veg to be so cheap. Yes, the boring ones carrot, potato and onion, but if you want broccoli or aubergine it gets more expensive and then people claim that cooking from scratch is cheaper than a ready meal. Not true when a head of broccoli is 99p and you'd still need something with it, but you can get a ready meal for 1.25.

Anyone got a link to the expensive things thread?

@Gwenhwyfar

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3928837-Things-that-are-inexplicably-expensive?pg=1

Chimney sweeping, one open fire and one stove, both swept fro £80, 90 minutes work for 2 people.

A whole chicken for £3 but a pack of chicken breasts £5. It doesn't make sense to me.

production cost in paying someone to physically cut the breast from the bone, when you consider the people doing it are more than likely on piece work and they have to cut the chicken into wings/legs etc .

What is relatively cheap is phones/laptops etc, there is a reason why China is following the western world and outsourcing a lot of production to India/Africa

Thanks Trying.

Milk. How can it be cheaper than bottled water?!

Because it is sold at less than production price
But Arla, Waitrose, Co-op or Cravendale.

The benefit system subsidises low wage which in turn subsidises costs.

Bananas and cucumbers are deliberately sold at a loss by super,arkets. Everyone buys them so while picking up bananas they might buy avocado, some necatrines, salad, cold meat.

Wages.
I earned more per hour in 1987 (office job) than the National Living wage for over 24 year olds is now in 2020.

@Gwenhwyfar, if you bought a broccoli and other things to go with it, you'd get several meals.

Ready meals taste weird. I'd much rather eat fresh.

@themueslicamel

Property in London and the South East😂😂

I wish! £1000pcm for a one bedroom flat, not only that but the living room is also the kitchen. Shocking.

Nothing is inexplicably cheap.

Agreed.

Seems to me that food and clothes are way cheaper relative to wages compared to the 70s but housing is way more expensive.