Everything has gone up

[coulditbeme2323]

Had a great weekend (one night) as family of five in London.

Just dawned on me paying the CC bill last night how expensive things have got.

Now London has never been cheap, but I think it cost us probably double what it would pre COVID and that was only 6 years ago.

We were only there 36 hours, and it cost quite a bit of money - not that I regret it.

No, most definitely not

Do you have debt? You seem to be naive to the rises in the cost of everything and happy to spend willy nilly without keeping track

Fine if you're happy with that but most of us probably can't relate

Agree. I wouldn't have paid the 2020 price for Michelin star dessert. No sweet tooth.

A better example is probably something like a latte and a sandwich in Starbucks or similar. £12 easy in London. Used to be about £9 less than 3 years ago.

Starbucks, Costa etc great examples.

Nearly £4 for a packet of chocolate digestive biscuits in my local co op. I didn’t buy them.

Sign up to Central Tickets and ShowFilmFirst - deals in advance

Theatre Week is fantastic.

Things have gone up and it takes a good bit of research and ducking and diving, looking for deals etc to get things affordable. Lots of restaurants do deals on fixed price and pre-theatre menus, the coupon websites etc. But it's an added job when you are time poor as well as cash strapped!

Agree. We used to go out on the kids or our birthdays for Pizza express or Zizzi. But it's so expensive now it just socks the joy when I'm thinking "this could bought three weeks worth of shopping" for a pizza joint.

I know people will say "costs have gone up" and I get that fully. But if you can't afford it anymore the reasons behind it doesn't then make it affordable iyswim?

Ie years ago my childminder told me she had made a mìstwith her fees and they would be doubled. I told her I could no longer afford her. She said her costs had gone up and it was unavoidable. But it didn't change the fact that I stayed with her, I'd be loosing more money overall than I earned. Ie some people can't magic up the shortfall. In the end the only viable option is to not use the service.

I was saying to my friend, my parents got more financially comfortable as they got older. For us it's the opposite. Then you get out of the habit of going out as prices never deflate even when costs do

Wow that’s a lot! And here’s me putting back a packet of £3.95 biscuits 😂

Agreed still some really good pre/post course theatre deals.

Not when kids are with us - but this is always cracking value for £21

https://j-sheekey.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/01609_JSheekey_-THE-POST-THEATRE-CLUB-16.07.2025.pdf

We tend to just go to a premier Inn when we go London that way we get a full up on their breakfast buffet to set us up for the day. It's food just general nibbles here and there that soon add up I find in London.

Even those aren't cheap if you want a central one.

London has always been expensive imo and of course, now it's everywhere. I used to live, work and drive all over London (and the rest of the UK) and even 20 years ago I joked the parking meters in central London earned more than I did per hour.

It's a fab city, if have money. Glad the cheesecake was worth it, lol, thats about £3 a bite! 😅

On the cheesecake theme, though… DH & I had two coffees, a slice of cheesecake and a single cannoli in Hampstead at the weekend. No price displayed on the cheesecake, (tiny) cannoli was £2.50, coffees normalish price. Paid at the counter and it was nearly £19! On querying this, and wondering if they’d double charged me, it emerged that this cafe now adds 15% service on at the till. While still prominently displaying a tip jar on the counter. And for no table service. Sneaky. Is this starting to be a thing?

also, the cheesecake was £5.95 and dry as old boots.

A couple of weeks ago (out of London) I was charged service charge for a coffee and cake I stood at the counter and ordered!

Same! It was a bakery with a couple of tables!

I didn't dispute it, because it was 15% on about 9quid, but probably sufficiently annoyed me enough I wont go back!

Prices everywhere have increased immensely .I noticed on the news that beer was now £10.00 a pint in London .Here (small sleepy market town south coast) pub price £8.00! only noticed as a "special price of £5.00) happy hour . Another restaurant is also putting service charge as well

I mean, I always leave a tip, so it’s not like I begrudge the 15% but I think it was the mental jolt of expecting the total to be ‘about £15’, which is what coffee and cake for two is, in my head, and then hearing it was nearer £20. Also, is this now a service charge, in addition to a tip?

BUT I’m very conscious that I’m now at the same age as my mum when she started to say things like, ‘Five shillings for a Mars bar?’ Times move on, and my mental price index is probably set to pre-covid levels.

I bought a flat white and a sandwich in Pret in central London about an hour ago and it was 8 quid

I've just checked a central Starbucks on my app and a small cappuccino is £5.20 and a random sandwich I chose was £6.30. Bump the coffee size up to regular and there you go.

I don't think Pret is as bad price-wise but I don't like their food.

Oh for this cheesecake they would!!,
youalright · Today 09:41
Well you have, nobody in their right mind would pay £19 for a slice of cheesecake

No way would I pay over a fiver for a pue e if cake and that is only on special occasions! 😆
I dont have FOMO over food!

I live near 3 pubs and they are so quiet now compared to just before lockdown. A lot of the kids have gone but even the pub that used to just have the locals in it is almost empty in the week, whereas it used to be thriving, especially this time of year as a lovely beer garden. Walked past it last night and just one person nursing a pint. Pints here are around £9, just out of London.

the weird thing is that everyone moans about this, yet clearly there are more than enough people able to pay it - coffee shops are usually heaving, theatre shows sell out completely week after week, vape shops, hairdressers and beauticians on every road...

Not to go all 'you could afford a house if you didn't buy avocado on toast,' but there is a certain amount of truth to the fact that £12 'coffee and a sandwich' or "a few glasses of wine" once or twice a week actually does quickly add up to quite a big amount IF you do it regularly (particularly if it's also teemed with "nails done every 3 week" "haircut every 6 weeks" "new car" "new phone every 2 years" - the other things where opinions vary between what are little treats/complete luxuries).

Or is it more like the 'lipstick effect' when large purchases are completely out of reach for many people so they treat themselves to smaller things instead? And if everyone around you is doing it then it just becomes a basic essential rather than a treat, and you'd feel like you were being needlessly tight if you didn't grab a quick coffee every day?

I agree with this some people (most people on here) are just really shit with money and then cry poverty.

You can't get cake for under a fiver!

Yes you can wtf