How much? The price of what stuff surprises you?

I’ve been trying to get some work done on the hard scaping of our garden - paths and steps renovated & the drive laidmwith more chuckies.

The estimates began at £3000 and went up to £11,000, which was out of the question for us to pay. The expense was because none of the people I asked to quote wouldn’t stick to doing what I wanted. It was very much a matter of tooth-sucking from them followed by statements such as ‘If you want me to do this, I’ll need to do that and something else as well.’ One of them claimed that the patio needed completely re-laying (I just wanted it power washed) and another that the entire drive Needed lifting and levelling.

I gave up until lockdown when I was told about a chap who was looking for handyman work. He’s done a fine job, exactly what I asked for, wouldn’t let me pay a penny more than necessary for materials and it has cost £1500 tops.

The cost of having an extension built!

About four years ago, we had plans drawn up to knock our kitchen and "utility room" (which was actually bigger than the kitchen) into one, and add a small extension to square the room off.

My husband said it should cost about £6-7,000. I thought he was being a bit hopeful, and I thought around £15-18,000

The three quotes came in at between £28,000 and £32,000. Just for the building work. Add to that the cost of the actual kitchen, appliances, flooring, tiling etc, and it was an eye watering sum of money to improve the kitchen.

Needless to say we didn't go ahead

Nortsat

I know this is trivial compared with your astronomical car repair costs vegansrock but STAMPS !
I buy a book of 12 first class and they cleverly don’t say the cost of the actual stamp, they now just have ‘1st’ printed on them.

They are .76p each, that’s £9.12 for a book of 12. (That’s more than 15 shillings to post a letter).
At Chr***mas, I buy a couple of books of second class, well in advance, to send my cards.

There is no price on 1st or 2nd class stamps so that they don't have to be changed when the prices are increased, if you are on the ball you can stock-pile stamps just before a price increase (usually in the spring) and save yourself some money in December. I was a P.O. manager until recently and all my family used to get me to let them know when the price increase would be so that they could stock up.

Prescriptions. I have to pay and don't resent it, I can afford it. But still. A lot of money.

Totally the other end of the spectrum, but the prices people will pay for cars! They live in little shoe box houses or flats, then spend 20/30K on a car. Why?? Just to get them from point A to B. I've never been a car person and just think paying anything other than a sensible price is ridiculous.

I am always shocked at the price of eating out. Afterwards I always think what else I could have done with the money. I often think food is gone in minutes whereas if I spent the same amount on plants they might last for years.

I have an Epson printer and use cartridges from
www.firstcallinks.co.uk/. I’ve used them for years and the printer is fine. Their service is very speedy and every order comes with a 10% off voucher to use against your next order, They came out very well in the recent Which survey. Which also mentioned that HP have developed printer soft ware that can recognise when it’s a non HP cartridge and stop the printer working. It’s illegal at the moment in the
this country but apparently in use elsewhere.

I really would recommend these ink cartridges

How do you manage that Jaxjacky? I have psoriasis, and for years have had shampoo for it on prescription. However, I`ve been informed that as it`s available over the counter I have to buy it from now on, at over £7 a bottle. I`m 77.

Gaviscon advance £9 pounds plus, I now get it Free on my prescription as over 60.

I never complain about the cost of fish. I would not be out in the middle of the Atlantic in a winter storm in a tiny boat just to bring a catch in. I am just grateful someone goes and catches it for me.

DH came home with 8 pairs of M&S underpants and a receipt for £36 ?

The price of branded cereals, unless on offer, is one grocery item that I'm surprised by.

The price for prescriptions - is that per item or per prescription?

It’s £9.15 per item Welshwife and I know there are people who ask the pharmacy which item is the most important . Shocking .

I am having roof repairs done. You should see the price of lead. I might nip down to the Church roof tonight.

HI, Spangler,

Prescriptions can be a rip off. As you say, nowadays they are over £8, but when your doctor prescribes your treatment you are not given a choice, you have to pay the prescription charge. By choice I mean paying over the counter for the same treatment.

If you can purchase something over the counter for less than the prescription, what's stopping you just purchasing it?

Of course we have a choice.

Most GPs and chemists will point out if something is cheaper to purchase OTC as well

But just because you have a prescription does not mean you have to use it

The price of Lurpak butter. I will only buy it when it’s on offer. Some or other of the supermarkets always has it on ‘offer’ so I just buy 2 then and freeze one. My husband likes Kitkats but I refuse to pay a non-offer price and he just has to wait until they are on offer. Same applies to soft drinks

The price for prescriptions - is that per item or per prescription?
Here in France some of the prescription cost is paid for by the health service and the rest by a top up insurance. You receive statements every few months showing how much everything costs. I had one arrive today and each prescription I have had cost almost €100 - that is an average monthly cost - Blood pressure, a low dose heart meds (after effect of sepsis) - Oméprazle and a new type blood thinner. All things such as scans etc are costed too. Interesting to see the prices the health service pays.
On normal shopping I find cauliflowers and melons are expensive this year. - one type of melon is almost four times the price it was last year!

Do you manage ok without a mobile paddyanne?

Just curious, as I only have a really old one, DH and I ‘share’ his I phone, works well for us, but I wouldn’t have thought you would be without one, don’t know why I think that!

Everything seems to be going up in the supermarket, each week I notice something else has gone up.
Re postage stamps, the very nice woman at our village PO told me not to bother getting 1st class as 2nd and 1st are processed the same these days.

TV's Our first flat screen TV cost over £7,000 ,now I see bigger ones advertised on TV for a few hundred .Mobile phones though are still extortionate,we had our first "car phone" in the early 80's and it cost a lot.My GC all have I-phones and it 's scary how much money is spent on them ,our 9 year old GD had her Dads old one passed on to her recently and was quite miffed she didn;t get the new model the same as her older siblings .
I dont have a mobile now I got rid of it a couple of years ago and never regretted it

Daddima

I have just been looking at Jo Malone scented candles for a gift. £65!!!,! I know you’re paying for the name, but, come on.

I’ll stick with Aldi at £3.99 for myself, and buy a bottle for the gift.

It's not even Jo Malone these days, she was bought out by Estee Lauder.

We had to have one new tap fitted and we both thought 'Ow much'?

Dh bought a cordless hedge trimmer for £48 only to find it didn`t come with the charger,when he went to buy the charger the cost was over £90.
Suffice as to say he returned the trimmer.

Cath Kidston’s new carrier bags popped up on my Facebook feed. Made from a very attractive reinforced paper. £18!!

Of course I’m now quoting my frugal relative. ’Ow much? I could make that for next to nowt!-

If I hadn’t already got a surfeit of bags, I might even do that.

I am constantly appalled at the cost of nearly everything ??‍♀️but especially any work on the car, garage bills are astronomical and the smaller the part the higher the bill?

It’s £9.15 for a prescription in England these days . Extortionate and way beyond the reach of many.

As Elegran said upthread Printers are sold cheap and they recoup the money from the inks . I buy a lot of ink and never buy the branded names .

The cost of fish fingers and a box of cereal , just crazy . As my son would say “they’re having our pants down”

I have just seen the competition!