Cost of living.

[Myusername19]

Anyone feeling put off from doing things because of rip off prices now? I cant seem to get used to them. I have a family of 5 now and that combined with cost of living means that if i wanted to go on holiday in the uk, im looking at £200-£300 per night. A week abroad 5k. A ten year old car with 3 full seats for car seats 5k. A takeaway £30. A meal out £70. Hardly seems worth it!

You are not alone, I also feel like this. Especially with eating out! Imagine paying those prices only for it to be tremendously disappointing.

Fortunately I am a pretty good cook. That makes it even less appealing to go out though as I don't want to pay silly money for something that came frozen and I could have made better at home.

Crazy gold for 4 kids was £24 today and swimming for 4 was £32. We are very lucky to be able to afford it but I was thinking how many people couldn’t afford the simple pleasure of crazy golf!

My family are the same we have had to stop doing certain things. Our eating out treat used to be havester but that starting coming to around 170. So had to stop . Our eating out treat is now spoons.

I find it harder to find cheapish things that can last a day . Example swimming now has to be booked you only get 50 mins. Before all that you could go swimming for a couple of hours or so. Then to the park for an hour or so and that's pretty much the day gone .

It's hard if you don't drive to it cost me 53.00 train fare to get to the beach yesterday obviously that's life . But its 53.00 before we have done anything.

Cinema is 10.00 per person. So that would be 40.00 . I can't justify 40.00 to see a film
We have to do it at home. But it's really not the same.

Yup. Fairly basic eating out is now a day’s wages, at Spoons. Where the portions are about half the size they were ten years ago. The British public are being slammed with a double whammy: inflation AND shrink flation.

A takeaway here for 4 was £50. Cinema £40 without any snacks. Swimming £36 for 4. Bonkers.

I took mine to local NT place (have a life membership) and at least that then is free - total madness.

I no longer buy clothes unless they are in the sale, second hand or sainsburys tu with the 25% off deals they do sometimes.
Never eat out/ days out without some sort of voucher
Used to have cocktails or wine out, now on the rare occasions I drink out it's beer only
Used to have takeaway a few times a month now it's maybe once every 2 months. I get the spice tailor curry kits and do a fakeaway instead usually.

Welcome to rip off britain!

It's really frustrating how it varies by area as well. So here we have £5 per ticket for cinema, swimming today was £6 for me, £4 for student daughter, no time limits, free parking. It wasn't even busy!

First up, I am not expecting/looking for sympathy here. Merely posting in agreement, OP.

I'm retired. I have money I could spend on eating out and travel (but widowed - don’t start me off on single supplements). But the prices have become utterly ridiculous and I don’t think I’m prepared to spend what holiday let owners are asking for. I am more sympathetic to restaurants, but as a PP said, I’ve learned to cook most things how I like to eat them, so it’s not worth it to me to pay someone else.

We hardly go anywhere anymore! It’s too expensive for 5 of us. We only go to the cinema to see the cheap film - odeon and cineworld do £2.50ish tickets early morning to see the kids films which have been out a while. Big days out are over £100 just in tickets so we don’t do them. We have a National Trust membership but are going to have to start going to ones further away as we have been to our local ones so many times now it’s lost it’s fun. It’s been a long summer holidays so far!

My dad is considering moving to Thailand. You can't own property as a foreigner but he said who cares - it can be 300 pounds to rent a place. Maybe he has the right idea!

Are you in receipt of ay UC. Their are lots of places that offer UC / concessions discount like Whipesnade, London Zoo, Horniman Museum, transport museum, Hampton court, Kensington Palace, Cutty Sark, Kew gardens. It's not really advertised but definitely available so worth checking if you're eligible. I only do the cinema with meerkat movies (I got travel insurance to Scotland for £1) or movies for juniors (old kids films for £2.50 each).

We don't drink. We don't smoke. Food shopping is ridiculous. I'm spending £50 a week just on fruit and veg. I batch cook and freeze. I do fakaways. We can't afford takeaways or eating out.

I don't buy clothes or shoes for DH or I. I prioritise the kids. My oldest daughter has been telling people we are poor. She wants an abroad holiday, a Nintendo switch and a birthday party. I've said no to all of them. Thy don't realise that they are lucky. They have found in their bellies, a roof over their heads and the occasional activity.

I hate doing the online food shop these days. I fill my trolley with the things I used to eat and wish we could buy, then take them all out again by the time the day arrives to order it.
The really irritating thing is DH and I earned less back in the days I used to buy those things and we could more than afford them. Money goes no where these days.

This summer holidays haven’t been the best either. The DC feel too old for the free things like the park, we haven’t done much because we can’t afford it.

Something has to give because people can’t carry on like this. In the long run surely companies will go bust when so many people who used to pay them for things no longer can and their customer base has shrunk.

My dad’s done that, and he’s not daft. He was poor by our standards, had an ex council house he bought for 8k 30 years ago and a minimum wage job. He rented his house out and lives like a king over there. He’s had big house with a pool built. While you’re not allowed residential properties, you are allowed businesses. So he’s stuck a couple of old computers in his house and registered it as an internet cafe

I'm so confused about the profit side of things . Everything cost more . Days out , food , clothes etc . But they are still making loads of profit. But people have either had to stop altogether, downgrade, or cut right back. So if that's happening hoe ate they making profit

I've got to a point whereby whether I could afford some things or not, it just isn't worth the money and hassle. Eating out - poor service, high cost, substandard food. So many "days out" - high cost, queuing, too busy, surly staff. Free days out are sort of easier in a way, because at least there isn't the looming spectre of being ripped off which makes me cross. We're going for niche and esoteric this summer and it's working fairly well. Barrows and standing stones. Towers on hills. Walking along a river from source to (not quite the mouth) in stages two days a week. Plenty of friends (their house/our house) to break things up. Camping (fairly locally or in relatives gardens). Must be harder if you have kids that have "expectations" from sm or friends though.

You do have a large family so there will be a cost associated with this.

However some things have really sky rocketed - and I’ve stopped buying them even though I can afford them because I don’t think it’s acceptable to charge that much.

That said - I’m amazed all all the activities people seem to “do” with their kids now.

I used to get taken to the zoo or the museum once a year - always in the 6 week holidays.

Other than that it was trips to places with free play areas, picnics at the park, or maybe a trip to the pet store to see the animals there. Very rarely we might go the cinema - and we didn’t really eat out either. Only if we were actually on holiday.

Take aways were not really a thing - maybe the odd fish and chips now and again.

That's pretty brilliant!

I was £45 for takeaway fish and chips for 4 of us as a birthday treat a few months ago (DC are now teenagers so can't get away with children's portions anymore). I can't afford or justify that more than once in a blue moon.

I'm lucky and pass a big supermarket on foot most days around 5ish so I always pop in to see if there is reduced meat and fish and stick them in the freezer. What it would cost otherwise beggars belief.

I feel like I'm living in Scandinavia at the moment but without the wages to match. I don't know where we go from here.

Yes, I use to think nothing of grabbing lunch out if going somewhere...now I make a pack lunch box 😅

A weekly takeaway is now monthly and it's the chippie.
Restaurant evening is now only special events so 3 or 4 times a year. Such a shame 🫠

Our food shop alone buying the same things is 50 pounds more then beginning of last year...but my wages are the same. Really hoping something gives soon.

Totally understand that it’s tough when things are so expensive. I’ve cut back a lot too.

But I don’t think it’s fair to call them all “rip off prices”. The businesses are also facing increased costs - electricity, ingredients etc. So the increased prices reflect that.

Yes, costs have gone up. But service and quality/size of product has also gone down. It feels like cartoon dogs eating the spaghetti from both ends. And regardless of motivations behind cost increase and the reduction in offering, it is still more than ok for us (the consumer public) to say "this is not a trade that is worth making any more" and "this is feeling like a rip off". We live in a capitalist-based society and the market is speaking.

Hardly seems worth it! is definitely the vibe.

We don't even have kids and we've cut way back, focusing more on hobbies vs experiences. Exercise, cooking from scratch, learning a language, reading, game night.

Relatives who would never had asked before, have started asking for clothes as gifts for their kids, which makes me think things are worse than appear.

Of course it’s fine to say it’s no longer worth buying. I didn’t suggest otherwise. I was only commenting on the use of “rip off” which I think is a little unfair.

I was going to say this.

I live in a medium size town, near the border of 2 counties and about 20 minutes away from a city that I go to regularly, which is in a 3rd county.

The town only has 1 cinema, an Odeon 'Luxe' which charges £15pp for a film (more for 3D etc). The city has 5 cinemas, 2 of which do £5 tickets all day, every day, 1 which ranges between £5-8, the other 2 more expensive.

My local leisure centre charges £9 for a swim session, (bog standard pool)the one in the next county over (about 3 miles away) is £4, the other one is £3 per adults and free for under 16s!

The two and city both have branches of the same chain restaurant, but the city one allows various 50% or buy 1/get 1 free vouchers/tastecard etc while the town one doesn't, so a nice pizza is about £8-9 rather than £16-18.

bus ticket for a ten minute journey is £6 in the town, or a £1'short hop' for the same distance in the city.

Some council owned car parks are £2.70per hour until 8pm, others are a similar price but stop charging after 5, in the third county its £1 per hour or £4 for a day!

So a cinema trip, swimming, parking and food (in the same restaurant!) for 2 adults,2 kids could end up as as little as £62 or as much as £187, in locations about ten miles, max, apart.

Why do you feel that "rip off" is unfair? We are increasing paying more and more for less and less. But profits are still increasing.