To ask for your rising cost of living examples

[CervixSampler]

Inspired by another thread but mainly by my own experiences today.
In February it was 20p to use the public loos at our favourite seaside town. Today it has doubled to 40p! There are now contactless points incase you don't have any cash. 40p to pee!
Mr Kipling cherry Bakewells have jumped to £1.90 in Asda and I'm sure they used to be £1.40 or sometimes even £1 and that was only a few weeks back. Cake isn't essential I know, but peeing is. Things have gone up generally but the odd pence here and there isn't always noticed but these are huge jumps.

The price of meat and fish has really made our grocery bills go up, petrol is a concern too obviously.
Also finding activities for DC that were previously affordable have significantly jumped.
Local bowling alley is now £60 as opposed to £35 (does follow a refurb but seriously?)
Dreading winter with utility costs but trying our best to rake in some economising strategies somehow. Worrying times.

My kids have one bottle of Pepsi max ( small size) for sat night. Last week £1, this week £1.40.

@XingMing

My solution is never to pay for anything I can do for myself. So I don't have coffee out, because I make as good or better at home. I don't eat out, unless travelling, because I cook better. On the rare occasions I do pay someone else, I expect the standard to be WAY better than I can do personally.

This is the problem I have and food out/takeaways rarely impress me enough to be worth the money as I can't afford really good places and everything else is pretty crap and still costs £10+ per person.

We are going out tomorrow with in laws and instead of eating out fish and chips, as SIL suggested, I am cooking roast lamb for 10 of us when we get back (will prep most this afternoon). Cost me £30/35 for the ingredients and will be much nicer than fish and chips, which I'm not hugely keen on anyway and would have cost me upwards of £50 just for the 5 of us.

@TerraNovaTwo

Crisps! Need I say more? We all know how expensive they've become.

But life is all good as steak wotsits are back on the shelves of £land and they're still £1 for 130g!!! (been hunting since December for them!!)

I have a free bus pass as I am disabled. It expired on 31st March and the council are 6 weeks behind sending new passes out. I dont live far from the town centre but if I walk it means I can do nothing for at least 24 hours as I am in so much pain. In December the fare was £1.50. I knew it had gone up but didn't know how much. It is now £2.60. I couldn't afford it so had to walk.

@justfiveminutes

I can understand why the cost of many goods are increasing but why is it so much more expensive for things like soft play or using a public loo. Is it just that their energy bills have gone up? Why are car park prices increasing so much? Feels like everyone is just thinking that customers are braced for big increases, so they can get away with doing it too.

My dog food was £3.75 in January but £4.50 now.

Yes, their energy has gone up. Minimum wage just went up so they will have had staff coats go up. Employers national insurance went up. They may have voluntarily given staff a raise to help with the cost of living. The cost of food to sell in the soft play cafe will have gone up, likewise the cost of staff to prepare and serve it. If they have financed their business using debt, say to buy the equipment, they may have had an interest rise. They may have struggled to make the payments during the lockdowns. The costs of products they use, such as cleaning products, has gone up. The cost of new and replacement equipment and tradespeople to do repairs and installations, not just to the play structure but also to the air con, heating, toilets etc has gone up significantly. Many soft play centres are family businesses and need to factor their own personal household income into their costs. Their household expenses have gone up like everyone else's, therefore they need to take more money home, so they need to generate more profit while costs are increasing. Therefore they increase fees.

Sadly so much has gone up, and OP as you say not by a few pence, something i bought the other day had gone up 50p, and dont get me started on Tesco charging 30p for a bag to put veg in!
Went to the till the other day with 2 onions a handful of carrots a swede and 2 baking potatoes, asked for brown paper bags to put them in, no longer offering them, i asked why they are not damaging to the environment, staff just shrugged shoulder, its just another way to make you spend more, sadly i lost my temper, put them down on the counter and walked out saying ok will go to Morrisons where you can have a brown paper bag for free, still chuckle to myself seeing carrots ect rolling around. Supermarkets are just being greedy.

@Barney60, sorry but you sound a bit of a loser. I'm glad that supermarkets are charging 30p for a carrier bag. We should all know by now to take our own.

So something went up by 50p. That means nothing. Was that a 1% increase or a 70% increase?

SushiShopSearch why dont you learn to read posts properly, it wasnt a carrier bag i always take my own.
Regarding something going up by 50p if that happened to quite a few items it would certainly start to add up the total to a full shop, especially to those who shop to a budget!

Noticed yesterday. Our cat food used to be £13.99 each pack or 2 for £24.

Yesterday it was £16.99 each pack or 2 for £30!!!

Insane.

@Kate0902900908

I could fill up my car for £70 it's now £115 DD for British Gas was £150 now £260?! Quick shop was £25 now £40odd Premier inn stay always been around £50-£60 non-central mid week stay to see family this time £97 have to pay as for funeral. 🥴😭 Brekfsst on top always been £7.50 now £9.50. Small bags of gravel in bnm 3 for £10 now 3 for £12.

PI always have variable pricing, the closer to the date you book the more you pay. Holidays always bumps the price as does anything in a nearby venue. I booked 2 months ago for tonight and tomorrow and it is £80. I am fortunate that we have 3 or 4 in easy distance of my parents plus a Travelodge, so can be a little flexible.

We bought some skirting board (primed but not painted) and it cost us double what we had paid a few months previously.

Went to Asda today shopping came to just over £60 for hardly anything. The only meat was a chicken, frozen ribs and 2 packs of £1 salami. No toiletries apart from a Asda own mouth wash and no loo roll or kitchen towel and no cat food.
I did buy yogurts, milk, fruit, salad stuff and veg, Asda own squash, water, cereal, bread and 2 packs of Asda’s own biscuits. The highlight of the day was finding a bra in my size on the reduced rack for 10p. It’s a weird shade of grey but at that price who cares and did take the sting out of the cost of everything else.

@Crikeyalmighty

ITs an interesting thread for me as we’ve been in Copenhagen for last 18 months but back to Windsor next month — I’m actually going to find UK pretty cheap from a good aspect simply because I’ve got used to prices here - a coffee out (extremely good and much nicer interiors) is £5.50 - an average loaf of bread is £3 , a toasted sandwich out around £10, a decent chicken about £12 , you can’t get British cheese much but lots of Irish- smallish pack of cheddar about £6 ,— we do have Aldi and Lidl too but quite a bit more expensive than UK. The Danes are on higher wages than uk but much higher taxes (as they don’t pay NI) so take home about the same as UK on average— so relative to uk their food spend is quite a bit higher percentage of income — however childcare is 1/3 of UK, no council tax either—and far more excellent quality rented housing . I guess it’s swings and roundabouts. I’ve certainly found I shopndifferently— and waste far less and cook a lot more as they don’t do nice ready meals. Like the US they go far more for frozen, things in glass bottles and knorr make a meal kits. Utlities are slightly less and public transport better and cheaper .

It depends on where you live in Denmark though. I live on Fyn and general spend around 3 £ on takeaway coffee, my favourite rye bread costs around 1 £ and coffee and cake at a cafe is usually around 6 £. I've also lived in the UK so know Danish taxes are higher but we have a monthly tax credit so my take home compared to living in the UK is actually higher. I hope you have enjoyed your stay here

I went to the garden centre today last year I bought two spherical bush plants to look posh on the patio - I’m absolutely crap at looking after plants, any plants I touch them and they almost instantly die anyway wanted to replace them today. Last year they were two for £30 today 26 of your finest British pounds EACH, that’s ridiculous - I bought fake

[quote Dancer47]@peppapigforlife:
Iceland. Delivery is free over £35. I buy for 2 households and find Iceland is still the best value.

You can always get a delivery slot, unlike the bigger international supermarket chains.

Iceland's own cheese - mature cheddar - is on par with Tesco luxury mature cheddar cheese and half the price . Iceland Red Leicester is great. They sell various mixed frozen veg ready to throw into soups, stews, pasta and chill etc- £1 a bag - absolute bargain.[/quote]
@Dancer47 ooh okay great I'll have a look, thanks.

Bagels are £1.80 used to be about £1.20 but nearly always on offer for £1. Easter eggs were £6 each at coop and there were medium sized not flashy ones .

@LethargeMarg

Bagels are £1.80 used to be about £1.20 but nearly always on offer for £1. Easter eggs were £6 each at coop and there were medium sized not flashy ones .

I noticed this too. They only have the skinny ones at £1.25 !!

@Luxplus. Yes, lifestyle is great— lovely country and far more ‘ordered ‘ I feel than UK. I’ve yet to see much homelessness either, if any - You are right we are paying Copenhagen money (but earn British money) and I can see other areas are cheaper. In which case people would definitely be better off- are you in Odense? That’s a lovely small city. I think what makes a big difference is for those with children— childcare costs are 1/3 of UKs (even in Copenhagen) at nursery level and not having council tax etc - whilst taking home ‘at least ‘ UK levels.

We are going back for practical reasons really to do with work plus an elderly parent with ailing health and not much support. We also miss family and friends , I do find it a bit lonely if I’m honest, especially as we work for ourselves. In copengagen a lot of ups’ are very youth orientated— If you have a young family it’s an amazing place to be— we don’t anymore and our son is in London.

It annoys me a bit here as I can see the UK could be sooo much better if they adopted some of the mentality from here. Only things I won’t miss—- all those bloody digital IDs and memorising them, and some very tedious beauocracy - constantly using google translate , prices of coffee out , not enough staff in many places, no call centres open past 3pm and exceptionally tedious very very long bank holiday periods if you aren’t going away when absolutely everything is shut (like now!!!)

@Wrongkindofovercoat

I had a quick wander around the local charity shops the other day and definitely noticed an increase in prices in nearly all of them.

I got a Joseph jacket for £15 the other week and said I thought it was a very fair price to the lady on the till. She told me they'd reduced their prices because people didn't have spare cash to spend and things weren't shifting. Prices must be very area sensitive, I think.

[quote Crikeyalmighty]@Luxplus. Yes, lifestyle is great— lovely country and far more ‘ordered ‘ I feel than UK. I’ve yet to see much homelessness either, if any - You are right we are paying Copenhagen money (but earn British money) and I can see other areas are cheaper. In which case people would definitely be better off- are you in Odense? That’s a lovely small city. I think what makes a big difference is for those with children— childcare costs are 1/3 of UKs (even in Copenhagen) at nursery level and not having council tax etc - whilst taking home ‘at least ‘ UK levels.

We are going back for practical reasons really to do with work plus an elderly parent with ailing health and not much support. We also miss family and friends , I do find it a bit lonely if I’m honest, especially as we work for ourselves. In copengagen a lot of ups’ are very youth orientated— If you have a young family it’s an amazing place to be— we don’t anymore and our son is in London.

It annoys me a bit here as I can see the UK could be sooo much better if they adopted some of the mentality from here. Only things I won’t miss—- all those bloody digital IDs and memorising them, and some very tedious beauocracy - constantly using google translate , prices of coffee out , not enough staff in many places, no call centres open past 3pm and exceptionally tedious very very long bank holiday periods if you aren’t going away when absolutely everything is shut (like now!!!)[/quote]
Totally off topic but what is with the crossed out bits? Genuinely curious as I occasionally see this on other threads too. Is it supposed to be like putting things in brackets?

Lasttime we went to disneyland paris it was £2 for the week. Ive priced it up today and it is over £4k

@TracyMosby

Lasttime we went to disneyland paris it was £2 for the week. Ive priced it up today and it is over £4k

£2 for the week is an absolute bargain @TracyMosby 😂😂😂

[quote Crikeyalmighty]@Luxplus. Yes, lifestyle is great— lovely country and far more ‘ordered ‘ I feel than UK. I’ve yet to see much homelessness either, if any - You are right we are paying Copenhagen money (but earn British money) and I can see other areas are cheaper. In which case people would definitely be better off- are you in Odense? That’s a lovely small city. I think what makes a big difference is for those with children— childcare costs are 1/3 of UKs (even in Copenhagen) at nursery level and not having council tax etc - whilst taking home ‘at least ‘ UK levels.

We are going back for practical reasons really to do with work plus an elderly parent with ailing health and not much support. We also miss family and friends , I do find it a bit lonely if I’m honest, especially as we work for ourselves. In copengagen a lot of ups’ are very youth orientated— If you have a young family it’s an amazing place to be— we don’t anymore and our son is in London.

It annoys me a bit here as I can see the UK could be sooo much better if they adopted some of the mentality from here. Only things I won’t miss—- all those bloody digital IDs and memorising them, and some very tedious beauocracy - constantly using google translate , prices of coffee out , not enough staff in many places, no call centres open past 3pm and exceptionally tedious very very long bank holiday periods if you aren’t going away when absolutely everything is shut (like now!!!)[/quote]
I live about 30 km from Odense. Live close to the Storebæltsbroen.
We do have homelessness but not as bad as other countries I think. The councils are required to house ppl without a home so those that are homeless often is shortly or because they suffer from other mh making it more difficult to house them. But ofc there are some homeless ppl.
I think its great to get out and experience other countries, must admit having lived in the UK for 5 years makes me appreciate Denmark even more by no mean is Denmark perfect but overall we live better than in the UK. We pay approximately 200£ a month for 2 kids in childcare.
The funny thing is also a lot of the things you complain about regarding Denmark are things I enjoy- I think its wonderful that work life balance is important so business keep shof in holiday periods and are only open in normal business hours but granted that's also what I am use too
But overall I really hope you have enjoyed it here and go back to the UK with good memories. Although I moved out of UK voluntary, I enjoyed my years there. The UK is a great country with friendly people and lovely places to visit.

@Plantsandpuddlesuits as soon as i pressed post i realised I forgot the bloody k!