Just done my annual financial reconciliation. Shocked at the increases over 2 years.

[Plankingplanks]

Every Dec I go through all my direct debits and standing orders to check where I am financially. I have a note book that I use specifically for this task. My mortgage is my largest outgoing at 40% of my salary (divorced and had to buy out ex) it is fixed so hasn't gone up in the past 3 years.

My average bills have now increased by nearly £1k since 2 years ago!! That is crazy. I always shop around for the best deals for insurance etc so. Know I'm getting the best deals that I can do, and I can still afford to pay it all (just). But it certainly shows why I feel that my standard of living has dropped significantly in the past 2 years!

Every bill has gone up significantly. For example I was paying £120 a month for gas and electricity and now pay £200. Car and house insurance has gone up by approx £40 a month.

Yes I have additional expenses like kids travel to college and DS3 contact lenses each month which together comes to £120 a month but still, it's crazy how much more expensive living costs.

Not posting for advice, just in bemusement at how long this can continue. I dread my fixed term mortgage coming to an end!

It was always going to be painful to pay for the costs of the covid lockdowns etc. You can't print money to throw at people and expect no downsides. We're having to inflate our way out of all that debt we ran up.

If that wasn't going to be bad enough, the Ukraine war has had a massive impact, especially on the costs of fuel and basic foodstuffs, with fuel especially hitting so many steps of the supply chain, so there's the multiplier effect.

I hear you OP. I know off the top of my head that our utilities, car insurances and weekly food budget have all gone up substantially. I might get DH on board doing a yearly reconciliation as I think there are probably costs we don’t budget for that we should and things we could get rid of but haven’t due to habit.

@D20 i like to do it so I know where I am at the start of the year. Also helps DH and I decide how much we need to put into the joint account each month to cover bills.

Genuinely shocked though. I knew things had gone up drastically, but 2 years ago my outgoings were £3,100a month and now are just over £4k. My mortgage is £2k so my monthly bill have gone up by nearly £1k. Crazy.

And you’re obviously someone who has a handle on their finances. For us it’s food, we are a family of foodies with 2 teenage boys, prior to covid I did a financial reconciliation of our supermarket spend. It was shocking then, I dread to think what it is now.

My figures are a bit less specific than yours, but broadly speaking, at the point when DC1 started school, and we moved from paying two sets of nursery fees to just one, we 'lost' all of the money we thought we'd be able to start saving, to cost increases. It's crazy.

And then our mortgage rate ended. I used another lump of savings to pay off capital to keep our monthly rate the same, but it means our rainy day pot is vastly depleted and we aren't building it up again.

I know we are far better off than many, but this doesn't feel at all sustainable.

@FoxtrotSkarloey i suppose that is how I feel. I've managed to absorb all the increased costs for now, but I've no pay rise in sight, and things just keep getting more expensive

food and energy shocks me- remember when I used to pay £60 a month and feel hard done by- now £175 and likely to go into debt this winter. Food shocking: big ado used to be £70 with nappies - now no nappies £120 small shop with top up needed!

No pay rise insight here either. I think that's the bit I find most galling. I work in an industry where costs have risen and we've raised our prices accordingly. Every self employed trades person I use has raised their prices, I hear about pensions rising with inflation. And so it goes on.

In real terms, I've had a huge pay cut.

@TheGander as a family of me, DH and 3DS who are all teenagers/early twenties, the food is the killer here too!!

It is really interesting to see. My dad has done a yearly summary of bills since the 1970s- you can really see the periods of high inflation over time.

I came across a bunch of old screen shots of a food shop from 7th Dec 2020 on my iPad last week, so out of curiosity I looked up the prices now on Morrisons. Things like pizza, macaroni cheese, pork chops, chicken Kievs etc.

About 2 dozen items all told. The majority of them have gone up by 80-110% in the course of those three years.

Yet the government keep insisting food inflation is under 10% per year.

Yeah. If you are living off dried pasta and milk. Just... Fuck off with lying to us.

Even then, their flavoured chicken noodles (like supernoodles) have gone up almost 100% from 30p to 55p.

I am so sick of being lied to by our government about how under control things are.

And I am sorry for your pain too OP. I am just hoping our local council don't go bust and we don't get a 15% council tax rise this year or next, because that absolute shit show is on the horizon for a sizeable number of them right now.

Here is my favourite ranty person about inflation lies. He has done several of these inflation related ones this year.

YANBU. It's absolutely appalling. I really resent energy bills doubling more than anything, it makes me so angry.

Energy in particular is galling when you look at the profits of the energy companies...there has been pure profiteering out of recent crises.

There’s always one!

IMO there is blatant profiteering going on across all sectors, in many cases unjustifiable. That’s the bit I don’t think govt wants us to see.

another example - we go to see the same show once a year and in two years since 2022 the prices have gone up by 60%. Now whether that’s because our venue is profiting or their suppliers I don’t know.

but isn’t it odd that we aren’t seeing businesses collapsing and jobs being cut, it’s almost as if the rises aren’t bothering them at all!

Profiteering absolutely is. it's rife. Last winter I was looking at x2 over 1k spends.

Range cooker. Priced up in December. Went up 10% in January. Looking at a really cheap basic one this summer, 450, now it is 525 in winter.

Cat operation. 2.5k in October, 3k when I went back to them in February. Our vet bills were absolutely horrific last year with two ageing cats. I had to ask every time I went in (every 4 to 6 weeks) how much this trip would cost this time because blood tests were going up that quickly. Injections for the other one every four weeks, £140-160. Guess what happened to our vet insurance renewal after about 4k in claims? Yep, 97% rise. They can do this because they know you can't move insurers when there is a pre existing condition so it absolutely is profiteering.

Then you also get stealth stuff, such as Boots emailing me saying if I don't use my points by February they will be taken away from me, because they now reset them annually. The only company who have ever done that to me is the past is an absolutely extortionate craft company whose loyalty programme and points get you as much as 25% off - theirs reset. But Boots, seriously?

Energy is the thing I'm most annoyed about . Electric used to be an incidental cost and now it's more than the mortgage .

I also feel pain about vets fees . I spent over £10k last year on a combination of routine stuff / virus and sadly an ill / passed away dog . I never seem to visit the vet and spend less than £300 . I don't have insurance as my breed are expensive to insure so I self fund . Luckily I can but every other cost spiralling means my savings aren't replenished as quick as they were .

Yep
It's shocking.

We are similar.
we have increased our monthly DD to the joint acc by £1600 (combined not each!) in the last two years and need to add another £200-400 pm total by my rough estimate to stay flat in 24 as we have needed top ups monthly since about September.

Also completely agree on the profiteering comments, half these rises are NOT cost to do business, just opportunism.

Cut and colour at hairdresser in Feb 2023 was £85 , in May it was £95 and in November I was quoted £125!! Didn’t go for it but I asked them how they could justify such an increase - apparently my hairdresser has been promoted and overall costs have gone up but that’s a whopping 68% increase. I also find shoes have gone up - I tend to buy a pair and then wear them to death - what used to cost £80/90 for decent stylish but sturdy ankle boots seems to have defaulted to £120. And who the hell can afford Doc Martens any more?

I’ve definitely cut back on meat and buy a lot more frozen roast veg to bulk out meals. Coffee is astronomical too.

It all adds up!

Omg yes coffee… 45p per nespresso pod now, and in coffee shops my americano is over £3 for a large one??

You haven’t seen any businesses collapsing or jobs being lost? Have you been living on Mars? 🙄

All the empty shops in the High Streets and the empty units in retail parks must be a figment of my imagination then if "we aren't seeing businesses collapsing and jobs being cut"!!!

They’ve been empty for years, that’s not because of inflation. Interest rises are starting to have an impact, but this is about price rises… which came before interest rate hikes. Redundancies are near a long-term low.

That’s good to know about the boots points - I’ve got about £100 saved up - will look to use them on an order today.

Some have, but not as many as there are now.