The cost of living.

Puzzled said:
Surprised people aren't noticing food costs going up, our shopping bill has steadily risen over the year while packet sizes seem to be getting smaller.
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It's hard to tell due to the variability of it. I did a quick report to see.

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Puzzled said:
Surprised people aren't noticing food costs going up, our shopping bill has steadily risen over the year while packet sizes seem to be getting smaller. Energy is going to be the big one though so hopefully we'll have a mild winter to counter some of the increased cost.

Don't know what the long term outlook is though, hopefully costs will calm down again once demand steadies but we also have increasing demand from other countries who are growing rapidly.
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One thing is for sure, food is mega cheap in this country. I have a brother in the US and one in Canada and you'd be shocked to see grocery prices over there. Honestly not really noticed it going up here, but then each item on a food shop is so cheap that i guess creep is hard to notice.
 
Jez said:
One thing is for sure, food is mega cheap in this country. I have a brother in the US and one in Canada and you'd be shocked to see grocery prices over there. Honestly not really noticed it going up here, but then each item on a food shop is so cheap that i guess creep is hard to notice.
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Yeah, i guess it's similar here too. Although i've noticed a lack of offers on Pepsi Max which has my wife concerned about shortages!

A 24 park used to drop to around £6 occasionally but it's never below £8 anymore.
 
The biggest creep for me is the push to go back to the office instead of permanent WFH - we moved much further away in lockdown, and though we obviously factored commuting costs in to the equation, it was still very easy to "forget" about that cost as even after moving we've been here 3-4 months without really needing to go in.

If we both go to our respective offices, and share a car to the station, it costs about £105 a day to commute (return ticket is £45 each and parking is a tenner, plus a few quid on fuel). This is ramping up to 2-3 days a week, and season tickets only become effective at 2.8 days....buying 8 packs of tickets saves a fiver each, so i guess just sneaks under £100. Extra £2-300 a week is definitely not nothing!

Completely our own fault and we absolutely are happy with the trade-off, and not posting for sympathy, but certainly blooming annoying.
 
rG-tom said:
The biggest creep for me is the push to go back to the office instead of permanent WFH - we moved much further away in lockdown, and though we obviously factored commuting costs in to the equation, it was still very easy to "forget" about that cost as even after moving we've been here 3-4 months without really needing to go in.

If we both go to our respective offices, and share a car to the station, it costs about £105 a day to commute (return ticket is £45 each and parking is a tenner, plus a few quid on fuel). This is ramping up to 2-3 days a week, and season tickets only become effective at 2.8 days....buying 8 packs of tickets saves a fiver each, so i guess just sneaks under £100. Extra £2-300 a week is definitely not nothing!

Completely our own fault and we absolutely are happy with the trade-off, and not posting for sympathy, but certainly blooming annoying.
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Not sure on the possibility of it, but could you not "share" a ticket and work alternate days so a season ticket could make sense?

Kind of ruins a lot of benefits of working from home through and having extra time together on the other days.
 
rG-tom said:
The biggest creep for me is the push to go back to the office instead of permanent WFH - we moved much further away in lockdown, and though we obviously factored commuting costs in to the equation, it was still very easy to "forget" about that cost as even after moving we've been here 3-4 months without really needing to go in.

If we both go to our respective offices, and share a car to the station, it costs about £105 a day to commute (return ticket is £45 each and parking is a tenner, plus a few quid on fuel). This is ramping up to 2-3 days a week, and season tickets only become effective at 2.8 days....buying 8 packs of tickets saves a fiver each, so i guess just sneaks under £100. Extra £2-300 a week is definitely not nothing!

Completely our own fault and we absolutely are happy with the trade-off, and not posting for sympathy, but certainly blooming annoying.
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Welcome to the sh8888 commute club dude, permanent WFH was never going to last too long. Worth it though as you have said, but then i have always been a country bumpkin.

BTW you may find it cheaper to just drive and then tube from the outskirts? For me that's my preferred way into the city, no changing right into the city centre as you just pick the right line, and you get a huge choice of seating every time on the empty train.
 
dacads said:
6 pack of crisps seem to have gone up to £1.70?

Not a major issue but I find it so unsatisfying

I know food has generally gone up anyway.

think I need to start shopping at Aldi. I usually avoid as find it cramped and not much variety. However you definitely spend less. Or the same as another supermarket because you have bought more for the same amount of money.
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I prefer Lidl. Problem with both Aldi and Lidl that their mixed cases are an issue- only seem to get plain of their own Philly - garlic and herb one is always out even with three cases in the chiller. Plus lack of flavours in some lines. Have used Lidl’s own shampoo and they are exactly the same as Elvive and Aussie but 70p-£1.40
 
Jez said:
Welcome to the sh8888 commute club dude, permanent WFH was never going to last too long. Worth it though as you have said, but then i have always been a country bumpkin.

BTW you may find it cheaper to just drive and then tube from the outskirts? For me that's my preferred way into the city, no changing right into the city centre as you just pick the right line, and you get a huge choice of seating every time on the empty train.
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driving and parking somewhere closer would be a huge ballache and take way longer vs just going to local station - first stop on the thameslink means always get a seat, so can at least get 40-50 minutes of work done on the commute before you start going underground and losing signal. The train terminates at the closet stations to both of our offices too, so it's actually logistically quite good, just remarkably expensive for what is a pretty short journey on a relatively low-rent train service in reality :D
 
rG-tom said:
driving and parking somewhere closer would be a huge ballache and take way longer vs just going to local station - first stop on the thameslink means always get a seat, so can at least get 40-50 minutes of work done on the commute before you start going underground and losing signal. The train terminates at the closet stations to both of our offices too, so it's actually logistically quite good, just remarkably expensive for what is a pretty short journey on a relatively low-rent train service in reality :D
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Oh that's very good...one train, nice, much better connected than Oxon!

It is in theory quite cheap tubing it though (although i claim everything so cant remember exacts) - parking in the suburb stations is under £10/day and the tube ticket about the same from memory.
 
200sols said:
Nice graphic although we can't see the values. You could be spending 50p or £500 more :cry:
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Figured it didn't really matter as the cost is all over the place. If someone can tell me how to work out the year on year % increase from a trend line then I'll do that, until then, I can tell you costs are going up on average.
 
We used to shop at Aldi a lot before the pandemic started, with a few bits from Tesco's/Sainsburys, but went completely online and have been having food deliveries or months.We have been planning to go back to our old routine so there will certainly be savings to be had there.
 
Haggisman said:
How does one reduce the number of takeaways below zero? :confused:

I think you may be underestimating the financial situations some people find themselves in. "Sorting out money management" is all very well to say, but when your essential outgoings are the same as your income, no amount of "management" is going to help. I'm sure that most people can do something about it, but there will also be some who can't work, can't retrain, can't get a second job, etc.
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You seem to have forgotten you are in GD where it is an established fact that poor people (especially the young) are poor because they:

Live on takeaways and expensive coffees
Own enormous flat screen TVs
Subscribe to the most expensive Sky TV and Netflix packages
Have at least two foreign holidays per year
Buy a brand new iPhone every five minutes
 
Proposed Bank of England base rate increase 0.1% -> 0.25% in response to inflation, will presumably hit mortgages / housing.
todays pound is getting stronger against euro ~84.4 in anticipation.
 
So they are trying to force everyone on to heat pumps now (because we don't like Russia). Which are rubbish, noisy and super expensive to retro-fit. Yay that will solve all the issues...
 
Trifid said:
Figured it didn't really matter as the cost is all over the place. If someone can tell me how to work out the year on year % increase from a trend line then I'll do that, until then, I can tell you costs are going up on average.
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They will go up, inflation. That's why the rise in your costs matters to see if they are above inflation or as expected.
 
Puzzled said:
Surprised people aren't noticing food costs going up, our shopping bill has steadily risen over the year while packet sizes seem to be getting smaller. Energy is going to be the big one though so hopefully we'll have a mild winter to counter some of the increased cost.

Don't know what the long term outlook is though, hopefully costs will calm down again once demand steadies but we also have increasing demand from other countries who are growing rapidly.
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Smaller packet sizes are generally down to the traffic light system and "servings"
 
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