Everything is so expensive!

[Fuckadoodledoo2]

Seen today:

£27.50 for a bobble hat 🙄
£300 for a two hour kids party at softplay, limit 20 kids 😱

Am I just right, or are prices rocketing?

If butter is the new benchmark, then it has hovered about £2 to £2,20 for the last few years. It is increasing in price with inflation. Welcome back the 1980s, when the babyboomers made their millions in property. Welcome back mortgage interest at 10 or 12%. It wasn't pretty then, and it will be very painful going forward.

@XingMing

If butter is the new benchmark, then it has hovered about £2 to £2,20 for the last few years. It is increasing in price with inflation. Welcome back the 1980s, when the babyboomers made their millions in property. Welcome back mortgage interest at 10 or 12%. It wasn't pretty then, and it will be very painful going forward.

What do you think will happen to house prices?

Everything is going up. I work in construction supplies. Some of our suppliers can only hold their prices for 24 hours. We’ve been advised that some key products are going up, some +20%, in November due to increases in production and transport. To give an example this year, a sheet of reinforcing mesh was around £30, the same sheet is now £130 and rising........

Re house prices, imo they shouldn't have been propped up so much after 08 & ly with the SD reduction. The problem is they are so inflated & so many people feel "rich" because their property has increased by X so carry on spending & so many gov props. I think there will be lots of stagnation, in many parts of London property had stagnated since Brexit pre covid.

We shall all be concerned about protecting our homes and families from the chill winds of economic reality.

Bit depressing but I can't see it getting better. We need to address & plan for the impact of an ageing population as we will have less workers.

£27.50 for a bobble hat- it’s clearly not cashmere then? Because I’d be asking where from otherwise. My Hermes beanie was £380 😳

😂

Just checked, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Lidl and Aldi own brand butter is £1.48, Morrison's is £1.49 (tut tut Morrisons) M&S and Waitrose is £1.60.

Exactly, nowhere is butter £1!

Food prices have really shot up over the last couple of weeks. I have already cut down on my food spends and I honestly don't see what else I could do to spend less, or even match what I was spending a few months back.

I do most of my shop in Lidl and I use the app to collect money off vouchers. I keep my eye open for money off vouchers in the newspapers and use those too.

Things I can get cheaper elsewhere I do. So at the moment pepsi is cheaper in home bargains, soup and beans are cheaper in Farm Foods.

I batch cook and freeze meals. I cook a lot of things from scratch rather than buying ready made. I stock up on things when they are on offer.

Despite all of this I can see individual items rising on cost week on week - bread is up 10p since the start of the year. Pepsi has become really expensive - and that isn't due to the sugar tax as we drink diet pepsi. Butter and cheese have gone up. The size of lots of packages have gone down but the price is the same.

The amount it costs to fill my car with petrol has gone up a huge amount. My energy bills are about to rocket up as my fixed price deal comes to an end next month. I have stopped buying new clothes unless absolutely needed. I recently went to a wedding and bought a dress from a charity shop as the new prices were crazy.

No shame in buying clothes from a charity shop- that’s what we could all be doing a lot more of, much better for the environment.

I was shocked at the prices of basic school stuff. Polo shirts and school socks seem to have gone up. Paid £9 for a pack of plain grey school socks yesterday in Next. Seemed an awful lot - thought they would be about a fiver.

A pack of 5 plain white polo shirts were just under £20 too. I know that’s not a massive amount per item but considering it used to be about £6 for 3, it seems a lot more.

I didn't say I was ashamed at buying from a charity shop. I used it as an example of how much more expensive things are. I would, in the past, have regarded an event like a wedding as a time to treat myself to something new to wear. This time I really could not justify the cost. I also had very little option - due to the death of our high street there are very places selling women's clothes - and certainly not ones suitable for my age and size.

Who knows what will happen to house prices? But I remember the early 1990s price crash vividly, and people selling houses at well below the prices they paid for them. Negative equity was very painful. A friend lost 25% on the first London flat she owned.

And then her job.

You can get multi packs of school polo shirts much cheaper than £20 in supermarkets, take the Next ones back😊

I've spent this week every evening going g thru literally all of our spending utilities etc etc.

It's taken hours of work but little time to see how much things have gone up since April and the last month or two food shopping

We were pummelled by covid financially and every month are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Two full
Time workers neither on minimum wage with a family and house to keep and it's hell.

In the first 12 months of covid we had a big car and recovery bill a vet bill washing machine,cooker and then tumble dryer cone the winter.

That wiped out our contingency account and more.

Our utilities is water gas and electric alone have increased by £95 in a month now

Our food shop has increased by another £120 a month

Travel pass for teenager is £100 per month

Rent council tax went up by £25 a month in April.

Car insurances and house insurance Another £15 per month and fuel bill up another £30 a month.

That's £385 a month more out than just before April and no pay rises as both wages were frozen.

Then the national insurance increase from next April.

I'm having to take an extra job to squeeze in some hours in the week around kids and full time job just so we have something left each bloody month.

We've budgeted and got our outgoing gs down to the bare minimum so there's no other place to squeeze from and certainly not nearly £400.

It's going to be a friggin hard couple of years now.

How the hell are families on universal credit going to manage with the drop?

It's a really worrying time

Took my car to be washed this morning to my usual place. Inside and out is usually £20. Got through the washing part and they asked me if I wanted the inside doing. Said yes and was asked "£35 or £40?" Indeed the price has gone up from £20 to £35 for the exact same thing. Won't be going back there!

Petrol - oh my word! Now more than £10 more to fill my car than this time last year, plus this new unleaded lasts less than half the time. I'm using a tank a week rather than one every 2.5. No idea how I'm even going to make it to work going forward

I buy almost everything clothing / homewares second hand or vintage. Great quality, one-off etc.
Food, utilities, petrol etc all skyrocketing. Not sure how this will pan out long term. Jack Munro good for cheap family meals. Finding stuff to do that's free / cheap. Taking packed lunches on days out etc. Cutting your cloth and just having occasional treats. Maybe we'll appreciate them more. I don't know OP but sympathise and feel your pain. X

@LampLighter414

Bring back Ed Milliban with his cost of living crisis slogan

A man before his time

I would have voted for Chaos with Ed Milliband

@HarrietsweetHarriet You realise it's impossible for many to cut their cloth any tighter? Thousands are reliant on food banks now, what else do you suggest they cut?

Yes OP I do realise completely. I've been made redundant and am in that exact boat. I was trying to be supportive. Clearly I failed.

All the deals in my Tesco have gone. Clubcard only now. Never really wanted a clubcard as I don’t like the idea of them, but as my weekly shop has gone up a lot I’m going to forget about being snooped on as I can’t afford not to now.

Many items the prices are increasing but we do have a lot more choices than many places to shop

I have travelled a lot and have family abroad food, toiletries and clothes you can shop cheaply (my family from Asia love the Pound Shop they stock up of kitchen sponges and other light items)

I was surprised at the costs in Aldi in Germany many things were more expensive. But housing is mostly cheaper

It will be a couple of hard years

Thought more about your comment just now. I feel quite hurt by it frankly. Can we not be kinder to each other?
I was going to do a long list of everything I can think of to save money but I think it's all been said before.
One thing....if you're fortunate to have plenty or even more than you need - it would be so nice if everyone looked out for each other a little more. If you know someone who's struggling try and find a way to support them. A chat over coffee with someone just listening...just caring enough to give you a bit of their time to listen can really mean the world. And some people are clever and can think of different ideas. Expand your network of friends and colleagues - trade a skill for a skill. Eg DH is teaching a neighbour's child who is struggling to read in exchange for some diy help. I hate the term ',think outside the box ' as it's so crass but really it's so hard to think of things that haven't been done. I'd love to devote time to a creative side hustle but everyone is doing it. You can already buy a zillion crafty things on etsy- why would anyone buy mine? How can I make cakes for a profit when you factor the cost of ingredients energy , presentation etc. Dog walking ... you need insurance. It goes on and on. I'd love an easy solution but starting with kindness, sharing and understanding is a good starting point don't you think?