Am I just stuck in the past or are price increases recently out of control?

[newire]

I am late 40’s and so there is some change my idea of prices are stuck in the past but my DH had a day off yesterday and we went up to town to go to a film and then dinner at very basic but nice Greek place, we got up to town early so went to a café for a cup of tea and a bit of cake to share. By the time we got home we had spent £100. In 2019 we could have done the exact same evening out for half of that. Which does leave me feeling like the goal posts have been moved quite a bit.

Obviously, I know prices go up, that hospitality is under a lot of pressure but prior to this it took more like 20 years for prices to double and now they have doubled in the past 4 or 5 years and it shows little sign of slowing down. Same with anything you buy, a new paperback book can be £15! It feels like Tea is more expensive every week.

Like I say I know prices go up but am I crazy to feel that things have gone up excessively? Even though inflation is supposed to be falling the price of products and services never seems to fall. Or am I just getting old and stuck in the past?

I’ve always worked on the premise that prices double every 10 years, and on the whole that’s right. If I look at driving lessons, in 1997 I paid £12 a lesson (and that was one of the cheaper instructors). By that rule of thumb, 2007 would be £24, 2017 £48, 2027 will be £96. My son is looking at lessons and they are £78 a lesson, so it is in line with that rule.

other things though, like food, have seen much higher inflation so prices have increased a lot more. I work for a food manufacturer and we have said we are hoping we can drop prices again soon, so there is a chance some stuff will go down.

My colleague buys a meal deal every day at work and I’m “how?! And why?!”
we both earn 28k so it’s not like we can splash money about. I take lunch every day (sandwich, fruit or yoghurt, homemade cake etc) and it’s way cheaper

We went onto Gail’s for a coffee while waiting for a shop to open. £14 for a black coffee, a kombucha and a yoghurt.

Nope, you're absolutely right OP and I agree, prices are out of control.
Some reasons are ridiculously high energy charges easily double what we were paying 5 years ago, the national insurance raid, increased MW and scandalous food price increases. All of these add to the cost of almost everything else.
Unfortunately businesses can see that 😕 things are only going to get much worse in the next year or so and are charging whatever they feel they can get away with 😕

I love that!

Decimalisation was 15th February 1971 (the day I was born - I don’t just remember random dates!).

We used to eat out quite a few times a week now it’s too expensive and more than the customer service and quality of food has gone down. I didn’t mind paying initially, but grumpy staff and food where you can tell corners have been cut no thanks I’d rather eat at home. The feel good factor, which encouraged growth in the country seems to have gone which is a real shame.

Depends where you go. Paid £18 for Vue at Blackpool today. 3 adults. We're on holiday. Weather is awful so cinema it was 🙁 Took our drinks and snacks in!

You are right and despite the fact that my salary is higher than average and my pay rises have been higher than average over the last few years (specialist job), I’m not paying that to go out for a below average dinner and to see a film I can watch on prime in a few weeks. My view is that hospitality fucked over their customers during covid (Airbnbs) so they can suffer now 🤷‍♀️

Which parts of Europe? I’ve been to Prague, Greece and Criatia this year and they are not cheap anymore.

I bought a kilo of mince from a local butcher at the weekend as I can't stand the vacuum packed supermarket clumpy stuff.
It was £16!

I bought a kilo of mince from a local butcher at the weekend as I can't stand the vacuum packed supermarket clumpy stuff.
It was £16!

It’s not even about comparing things to ages ago… there are literally things I put in my trolley that are 100% dearer than they were just 2 years ago!
I’ve had to seriously change to unbranded food and shop in cheaper stores.
Trying to eat healthily and I literally can’t afford to buy food for the last week of the month and have to go through all the cupboards and try to scrape together a meal.
with electricity and gas increasing AGAIN I literally am going to have to knock out all luxuries! … not that there’s much I can cut back on!

Brexit is a major factor in this. But we aren't allowed to talk about it.

I was in Prague this year too. It’s cheap, generally speaking. You can get a good quality meal and an alcoholic drink for the equivalent of £10 - £15 at a lot of places. A coffee typically costs £2.

I have a Cineworld 10 mins walk away and it's £10/£11 for most movies. The Showcase is about a 15 min drive and it's £5.99 for all movies if you have free membership

I was in Berlin last month, had a lovely main meal with a cocktail for 30 euros, which I don't think I could get here

Where is live the vue is a fiver,and has been for years actually. But I think it's subsided somehow? The odeon is like 12 quid though,but has the fancy seats. We're in a poor area though

I'm in Sydney. There are tons of cafes/competition which has kept the price of an (always excellent) flat white at about 2.50 in pounds. It's maybe gone up 20% in 5 years. Was shocked to pay more than this last year in the UK for what, quite frankly, tasted like cheap instant coffee.

However at my local the other day I wanted a pice of carrot cake - 6 quid! I balke d at that.

Dunno about going out,
But my food shop used to be about £57 a week in 2022
Now exactly the same stuff costs me roughly £88
Thats insane
That's just 3 years ago
Before things used to rise slowly
But olive oil for example went high quickly
It was £3.45 in 2022 for 500ml
Then they put it up and up again
Costs £8 now
I don't understand it

I was at an event in London and I really fancied a bag of Tyrell's crisps.

When I went to pay and the lady said £1.85 I inwardly went 😱and outwardly went 🤔but I was in a long queue and thought I didn't want the embarrassment of putting them back, and after all the queuing I wanted my crisps!

Rip off Britain!

YANBU. A lot of places are going under because they are meh and not worth the money.

Prague is cheaper tgan here but it’s a lot more expensive than it was last time I went in 2019. You also have to take into account wages are lower in Prague. So the locals have the same issue that we have here.

Olive oil is expensive because of the war in Ukraine who were a major producer

Edited to say I quoted the wrong post ! 🙄

I was out with a friend yesterday and we went to M&S for lunch as there wasn’t really anywhere else. I was astounded to see a piece of chocolate cake was now £5.50, whereas it would’ve been about £3.50 not that long ago (and even then that would’ve been a treat for me, and my whole lunch). Tea is now nearly £3 in there too👀

I think, sadly, the restaurant industry is on its knees. A bit like when people started drinking at home rather than in pubs, people are choosing deliveroo rather than eating out. So I dont think its profiteering by the restauranteurs.

I think these are genuine cost pressures like the cost of space, rent, ingredients, energy, and employment.

We definitely live on an overpriced island though. "Rip off Britain " is alive and well in the form of ridiculous rental costs, energy costs, and post-Brexit, food and imported goods. 😫

I despair when I see Farage on the r9se, since his big idea was Brexit. Wtf catastrophic ideas has he got in store for us next?