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?

Not food related but I was browsing UK holidays for next summer. We’ve holidayed abroad the last few years so I wasn’t prepared to see 2.5k for a week in a caravan!! Yes it was Cornwall in the school hols but even so. Who even pays that?!

Running at a loss in order to not "drive customers away" results in - more loss.

This is all why five pubs a day are closing in the UK.

@Glurgle well we can agree the situation is dire.

We’ve just stopped doing anything. Eat out maybe 3 times a year. Code out maybe the same. Most everything we buy except for groceries and hip use hood cleaning is second hand/free cycled.

Days oug are picnics and dog walking if window shopping gof a couple of hours

No holidays at all.

Hospitality prices have gone up a lot in the last year.

DH & I used to go out to lunch every week - modest places, eg Nandos, Wetherspoons, Lounge.

What used to cost £18 in Spoons a year ago is now £23. I think that is all down to staff costs (eg NI increases).

I agree, it’s depressing - mostly because my wages have hardly increased at all, and when I think about how many hours I have to work to afford stuff… I think we enjoyed a good few years when life was quite cheap, and now it’s expensive again. It’s the inequality that feels really hard - some people seem to have plenty of cash but the majority are struggling. I used to love a coffee shop visit but the prices now are insane. It feels wrong that one of their baristas is on £12-ish an hour while they sell drinks that cost £6.

A friend of mine runs an independent coffee shop & it's been very interesting talking to her about it. Her big costs are rent, energy, staff (minium wage) & food / drinks. All of these have gone up & up over the past few years - she either passes the cost on or goes bust (or passed the cost on AND goes bust). It's depressing.

I think this is a hugely underappreciated factor in the reaction to small boats etc. People who feel poorer and poorer every year aren't going to be welcoming to destitute outsiders unfortunately.

YANBU, the cost of eating out is beyond ridiculous. We just don’t bother with ordinary meals out any more. I don’t mind paying a lot for exceptional food, but it has to be very special.

You are right. Everything is so expensive. Went to see Jurassic World at the cinema with the DC and DH, and got coffee and cake after. Spent an absolute fortune. The cake was good though - and I have been thinking about it a lot!

There's nothing wrong with any of those things.

We don’t really go on uk breaks as such (cost) but often do a random Sunday somewhere- can still get a premier inn for £53- we stayed last week in the one right in the centre of Cambridge. Ipswich £36. Eastbourne £60 in a lovely hotel including breakfast. Appreciate not everyone can do Sundays, and it’s usually just me and my 3 year old looking for a change of scene as we live somewhere shite 🤣 but the lower prices are there just not at peak times. And I’ll only go where I can dodge absolutely insane train prices to get there, so not always easy.

Eating out is now a different story though! More likely to get a supermarket picnic or go to Wetherspoons and at least you know what you’re getting (still gone up a lot and they’ve done away with a lot of the menu. They’ve always paid their staff appallingly so I’m happy they’ve had to increase)

Agree with many points here. I hadn’t been out to eat for a long time- months- and was shocked to realise that meals like a pub burger are up from £12-13 to closer to £20. I go so rarely anyway that I’ll still go on those occasions, but it does sting a bit. I guess the best thing to do is make sure you put your money into indie businesses rather than the chains.

IMO a factor here is that even tea, coffee out was a treat, perhaps something to have during your Saturday shopping trip.
These days, such things are seen as essentials.
This is at least part of the problem.

Where I work it's £4 for cake, £3.50 for scone and butter. Its not pence to make believe me.
I suggest you make a batch of 12 scones.
Travel to the shops
Ingredients
make the scones
Cook the scones
Deliver the scones
Heat and light premises
Advertise premises
Internet for premises
Telephone for premises
insurance for premises
gas/electricity/water for premises
Serve the scones
wash up afterwards
At £12.50 per hour for your time

Add it up. You'll be astonished how much you have to make and sell to be able to run a shop.

On the one hand I get what you’re saying but on the other, a regular working person should be able to go and have a cup of tea without blanching at the cost. Same as how a lot of people used to have Friday fish and chips as a treat at the end of a working week, most people couldn’t do that now because the cost for that has gone nuts. It’s just all a bit sad!

If I'm eating out I want a meal that's as good as or better than I could make at home. Nowadays you're lucky to get a lukewarm offering of some bland remade rubbish and no change from £30.

@SixtyPlus I don't think we ever regarded those things as essential or daily / weekly things but they were an affordable treat. Now they are really expensive so much it's enough to put you off.

Always a better buy in bulk.

I don't think it's a dispute about how much it costs to run the café and more that things are going beyond, sometimes way beyond their natural, acceptable price point for customers these days.

Sent husband to supermarket at the weekend, have not stopped hearing about the price of beef mince and 7 quid toothpaste ever since.

Don't forget commercial rent, business rates, NI contributions, staff pension contributions, commercial waste collection, employer's liability insurance, public liability insurance, accountancy fees, payroll fees, etc etc...

Indeed. I’ve done most of those anyway, even though we’re not skint.

That said, they are habits from my childhood in the 80s, where we definitely were skint. See also…..(pic) 😆

Mince has shot up recently.

@newire you are absolutely correct that inflation has been high for the last 3 or 4 years, but for those of use old enough to remember the 1970s and 1980s it was much higher then.

last week humous was around 95 p or 89 p
yesterday £1.25
shocking