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

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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?

Shopping and energy bills are just so expensive now. Even in Aldi. Wages haven’t kept pace with these price rises, I was paying £70 a month for my gas and electric in 2019, it’s now £170 (yes have shopped around for deals etc).

People have a lot less money for “fun” things now as the basics swallow up so much of people’s monthly wage. I’m sure that’s contributing to the general grumpiness in the population.

That must have been much longer than just pre-pandemic years, right? I don’t remember anywhere in the last 20 years coffee and cakes costing just about £1.

Totally agree with this. Also when you factor in the Labour government doom loop with all these ridiculous price increases, life feels far less enjoyable and expensive. 😒

Prices are definitely out of control.

We don’t eat out often but we did used to get a pizza/kebab type takeaway every weekend with the kids. Used to be around £50 (there’s 6 of us), it’s now around £70.

So consequently we don’t do this very often either with our shopping bill also increasing and now plan our own fakeaway nights at the weekend instead and put a bit more effort and expense into it. More expensive than a normal evening meal but far cheaper than a takeaway.

@Nagyandi I'm in the NE of Scotland and this particular cafe was cheap even by our usual standards.

Bang on Persephone. Besides inflation l think we are just now being milked to death by greedy retailers because they can away with it

We all have to eat, so we have little choice. I have stopped buying many branded products and either eat something else or look for a cheaper alternatives.

Even before COVID prices were becoming a bit of a joke in the entertainment and so called hospitality industries. Nothing to do with wage rises and inflation.Just greediness.

Having said all of this .. My neighbours still seem to be able to afford spending a fortune on take away food deliveries.

And NI? Even more costs. It was pointed out at the time customers would pay.

We’ve noticed this too. Even your standard hard veggies, carrots & parsnips, last barely a few days…..used to be nearly a couple of weeks. We last got our veg from a local farm shop….still only lasted a few days?

Some retailers have got us where they want us, that’s for damn sure. I just paid 75p at Poundland for a can of Coke. At Tesco the price for the same product is £1.20. The only way to get on top of it is by shopping around.

Unfortunately these are sold on a process similar to printers……
the actual unit is cheap to buy, but the consumables are very expensive, they’ve got their hands permanently in your pockets….

We used to get an Indian takeaway delivered for 2 people 3/4 yrs ago for around 20 pound,last i looked same order was 40ish. Who is affording nearly double the cost?

Shop around for sure, but a far more effective way is to stop buying it. Fill up a bottle of water at home.

Your not at all being ridiculous I don't hit the big 40 till next year but even I'm noticing huge differences in our grocery shopping, the most recent one was a 2 pack of asdas own baked beans cost £2.98!!!!!!!!! I near s**t a brick!!!!! They used to be between £0.35-£0.50 and were considered a cheap staple! Now there practically £1.50 per tin & not even a brand name! It's pure greed & it's really pisses me off- i understand inflation ect but this is miles past that- and it really is disgusting that more people than ever are having to choose between eating (or maybe feeding their children & them not eating) & paying electric bills or heating ect which has all ridiculously increased too! My son is 8 and I really really worry about what state the earth/life will be like for him (and his generation) as a young adult trying to make any kind of decent life, even driving lessons now are shocking prices! Dread dread & more dread is how I feel when I think about the future & the way things are/are moving & just the general state of the world today 🫩😳😱🥴🥴🥴🥴

Changes in trade policies and regulations following Brexit have complicated import and export processes, affecting the availability and cost of beef in the domestic market. Despite that demand remains high!

Food prices often increase hugely when there has been a problem with a crop. This is currently case with cocoa, resulting in a 50% increase in many chocolate products. However, I've noticed that when crops recover the prices are never reduced.

Jeez. I’m standing in a local hotel looking at their take away lunch prices - £9.80 for a take away baguette. They are just prawn or chicken or hummus salad and they’re about the same size as you get from Gregg’s. I’ll be waiting until I get home in an hour and I’ll have home made lunch instead. I’m in the north btw, not London.

Malteasers must use a special chocolate. Because their prices are just stupid now

Lidl's own brand chocolate digestives have gone from 49p in 2022 to 99p now, and the taste changed noticeably for the worse about 12 months ago.

I bought Mc Vitie's chocolate digestives and the layer of chocolate is so thin you can barely taste it.

What annoys me is the shrinkflation affecting my recipes. I have one that needs 3 Mars bars. This is from the day when they were a decent size. Nowadays you'd need about 10 of the pathetic little things to make the same thing.

Having read most of the comments on this thread it's clear that we're being royally ripped off, particularly with food and beverage products.
Obviously poor harvests and bad government policies don't help, also Brexit, but I'm beginning to feel that many of these issues are being used as excuses for price gouging and unfair profiteering.
During the last couple of years I've purposely shopped around as much as I can for best value groceries and dropped many branded items on the way. I've also completely stopped buying lamb, beef, olive oil, chocolate and as many manufactured products as I can to keep costs down. These retailers and manufacturers will finally get the message when they are affected by falling sales. Greed is not good for us consumers 😒

What do people think things ought to cost without any profiteering element, bearing in mind the various issues that have increased prices that businesses can't do anything about?

My hunch, but that's all it is, is that this is less likely to be an issue in sectors where customers can just opt out. So for example I doubt that most hospitality is doing anything other than passing on the unavoidable cost increases, since the sector is doing so badly generally.

I wonder as well what impact the popularity of WLIs is going to have on sectors that rely on comestibles.

Yes..sunflower oil in Asda went up 53p this week !! for the small 1 litre size so now its gone from £1.99 to £2.52.

Lamb and beef is an interesting one. According to the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board the deadweight farm gate price of a New Zealand lamb carcass in August was just under £4.50 per kilo, while British cattle deadweight price was just under £6.50 per kilo. Even once you've allowed for transport, carcass balance and higher slaughtering overheads NZ lamb is cheaper wholesale than British beef, so why is a pack of NZ lamb mince getting on for twice the price of British beef mince once it gets onto a shelf at Asda?

Hmm, this might be more price fixing than just gouging, so that domestic produce has priority over anything imported. Even so, this reduces choice for the consumer and isn't a level playing field for producers.

We just eat out much less now. I used to order a glass of wine. I just get tap water or cider now. But to be honest I don't enjoy eating out for more than I spend on a weeks shopping so I'd rather not eat out unless it's lunch. I'd only eat out for family birthday or our anniversary. I sometimes get a kids meal if all four kids over adult portions. Things I'd never do before

Dispite overheads going up etc if you can't afford the increase you can't afford it. I member my old child minder putting up fees by 33% I explained it didn't work out for me any more. But she was insistent her costs had gone up. She didn't understand that my wages has been frozen for four years and I'd be better off not working. Ie I couldn't turn a profit after childcare and transport so I'd be working to loose money.

Others overheads don't trump my overheads and if don't have it I can't keep your business afloat. My household is my business model. I'm not a service to pay others bills.