How Much????

Dickens

BlueBelle

Well many of us saw where this was going two years ago

Not food but yesterday as my Co worker and I left work there was a truck parked near my house with about a dozen trees in the open back the driver was out having a breath of fresh air or maybe a ciggy but he was near by
Being curious we had a closer look they were olive trees with price tags on each one they were £2050 each, yes you read that correctly I didn’t make a mistake
Who the heck would be buying them my town is considered a deprived area !!

... how big were the olive trees?

Are you saying they were over two thousand pounds each?

I'd better protect mine - they are around 1.1m tall They cost £14.99 each... KERCHING!

You can buy five mature trees - around 2.2m (7ft 2) - for £740.

those big olive trees are expensive because they are actually really old...some over 100 years! They are lifted from olive groves and new more productive trees are planted. The lifting, settling into growth in pots without killing them, and shipping them are expensive processes hence the price. www.olivegroveoundle.co.uk/product-category/olive-trees/ancient-olive-trees/

The Museum prices are not all that extortionate. Yes expensive compared to the price in shops but they always have been in such places.

Elizabeth27

I am sure many on here will remember the late 1970s when interest rates were 17% and prices were going up daily.

Yes but the Labour government at the time had a policy that when the consumer price index rose by a certain percentage everybody had a wage increase, I think it was 50 pence. I remember DH having several increases at the time. Harold Wilson or Jim Callaghan would have been PM at the time. One MP a few days ago said people should work more hours, such compassion.

AGAA4

^can you see where all this is leading^
Many of us can. Pity the government can't.

They don’t see the cause and effect because they’re cushioned from it. One more reason why millionaires shouldn’t be in government - they have no experience of how ordinary people live and their policies don’t address the things that are important to them in any meaningful way.

Jane43

Elizabeth27

I am sure many on here will remember the late 1970s when interest rates were 17% and prices were going up daily.

Yes but the Labour government at the time had a policy that when the consumer price index rose by a certain percentage everybody had a wage increase, I think it was 50 pence. I remember DH having several increases at the time. Harold Wilson or Jim Callaghan would have been PM at the time. One MP a few days ago said people should work more hours, such compassion.

Jim Callaghan was prime minister at the time - I remember it well. In 1979 - the year I was married, interest rates were 11% and prices were all over the place. The same year, the conservatives were voted into government and by February 1980 when we moved into our first house, the interest rate on our mortgage went up from 11% to 15.5% and didn’t come down again for quite a while.

Our village has, over recent years, grown in size with the addition of 2 large private housing estates. Population now circa 3,000. However, we have lost one of the pubs, two independent grocers, the only hairdressers and now have only a Scotmid small 'supermarket' Petrol station with an 'essentials' shop, a takeaway, one pub/restaurant. Until this week, we had a lovely cafe/ coffee shop, with a 'sitoutery' with a view for the better weather. The owner, who is a baker, has had to call it a day, having had to close during covid restrictions and exhausted his savings, then reopened, only to find that increased cost of ingredients and huge increase in fuel costs made the business untenable. He will be sorely missed by the village as the cafe was a favourite spot for a meet-up - several organisations used it for their informal or committee meetings, you could book it in the evening for a party or get together and also order some scones or cakes to take away - (more often than not to pass off as your own home baking).

This is just one example, but is, I believe. mirrored all over the country. Villagers now have to drive or use the infrequent bus service to town and carry their heavy shopping home or pay extra for home delivery. It feels as though the happy, relaxed Village life we chose has gone for good.

Franbern- i suspect maybe your daughter even 'put to' towards the fish& chips and said nothing because in most chippies these days you can't get fish & chips for 2(even smaller portions) for a tenner!

Haven't bought ice creams or lollies since pandemic started, unless its a carton/pack with a supermarket shop occasionally (but rarely)- but even those have gone sky high.Its like shops don't know where to stop now with their prices- who in fairness is going to pay seven pounds plus etc for a tub of ice cream when folk need to buy a main meal?A lot of places/vendors/smaller businesses will suffer, as people can't afford necessities, never mind the odd treat.?

I was shocked yesterday at the price of garlic bread. 99p when I last bought it £2.40 yesterday and I left the £5.00 Sourdough loaf on the shelf.
In response to the post about regular pay rises during previous inflationary times, I don’t recall that at all but I do remember the struggle when we bought our first home. Interest rates were 8% initially but within a very short period of time reached 15%. I learnt 1000 ways with mince and egg and chips was a regular tea as we tried to live within our means.

We were never able to take our two children into cafes or restaurants when they were young. Just didn't have the money (70 s/80s). Mortgage rate went up to 17% at one point and dont think it was ever under 10%.
Now we have a bit of savings our return is 0.01% , we have lost out both ways.

Had to get new tyres this morning and the garage was SO busy. A constant stream of customers, mostly women.They must be making a fortune with the prices they charge but that hadn't stopped the customers.Also the cars looked pretty top range.

Two new medium grade tyres for our small car this week. £200.

I think Rachel MacLean was on tv- when asked what those who cannot work should do (including those who are disabled but can't still work) she suggested they claim the "Household support fund" - i looked that up- its a one-off £144 grant from council (mainly paid in emergency/urgent situations, and currently martin Lewis is telling folk to claim it if they're home is not in A-D council tax band, for the £150) so if the council is paying it out for that reason, probably not going to fork it out for other 'lesser' reasons like not affording food then.('lesser' in their opinion,not mine)?

I’m dreading the school holidays. We haven’t had the heating on at all for the last two winters. Where will it end?
I think we will be going to the park a lot or doing crafts for the summer. Mine have seven weeks off! It will be more like hell than a holiday?‍♀️
I don’t think my disability benefit will rise to reflect price increases.
The powers that be are completely clueless to the struggles of poor families. I fear we may even need to use a food bank.

Personally I think we are being taken advantage of, everyone is using Covid to not only add a £1 or 50p onto everything but pretty much either doubling prices or at least adding a third on and I think eventually people will not and cannot afford to pay these extortionate prices and the shops, restaurants, pubs etc will come a cropper through their greediness. It was my birthday last Sunday and DS and DDL took us out to a pub for a roast dinner, I couldn’t believe my eyes at the menu, £18.95 for roast beef, pork or lamb with only hard cold Savoy cabbage with it. 3 small potatoes and a large Yorkshire, if you wanted any extra veggies it was another £4. The roast beef was supposed to be topside, it was awful, chewy and inedible and to cut a long story short both my DH sent our dinners back 3 times due to being cold and tough meat. In the end I decided to have the nut roast after sending mine back for the 3rd time (wished we had walked out at that point) the nut roast consisted of a handful of Paxo stuffing with a few cashews chucked in….yuk disgusting! I didn’t have desert as I wouldn’t let them pay £6.95 for a small desert each either. It turned out to be a disaster for us, luckily for them my DS & DDL had burgers so they said theirs was ok, but with all the messing about sending ours back they finished at different times to us and had to sit and watch us struggle to eat a vile expensive meal. My DH is right when he said not only have prices gone up but standards have gone down with a lot of these pubs. In future I’ll cook my own I think.

There is so much doom and gloom being talked about in regard of all the prices that are rising. I totally can agree as I see the prices in the shops every time I go in them. The thing is people seem to be spending money nevertheless. I see trolleys piled high with food in the supermarket. A friend of mine had her hair and nails done last week and was saying the bill only came to £140 pounds so that was reasonable. My dear brother went to view a tiny new born Yorkshire Terrier yesterday and gave the lady £150 pounds to secure the one he has chosen. The total cost of the puppy is £800 pounds and yet my brother is always saying everything is so expensive now. Next time I hear him say that I'll remind him
that paying all that money for a puppy is tres extravagant.

And i read other day that 'someone' had called on the cheaper shop/supermarket meal deals be stopped- (the ones where you can get a sandwich/drink/snack for £3.25--£3.45-ish) Who called on that exactly?It must have been the government,again, as how else will lots of working people, students etc be able to afford a cheap mid-day meal??

The 'trollies piled high" could have been folk buying more as soon as they've been paid (working or not) so they can buy them in before prices rise yet again! Also, folk on legacy benefits could be doing a big shop before being forced onto UC if they don't know how long it will be till they are paid again, or if they're money will drop in amount? Or the folk already on UC as they get paid once a month.?

The gov't will be having another go at the 'pasty tax' again soon maybe??

A good site to go on is toogoodtogo.co.uk/en-gb/. Lots of restaurants, coffee shops, supermarkets etc will put food on here that they have either cooked to much of or ordered to many.
We have had some nice bits from it and DS and DIL have had some lovely meals. You have to pay some but last time I used it, it was very little though I suppose they may have had to put prices up

They got rid of the "two meals for £8.99" deals they used to have in a lot of pubs then??(not been since before pandemic) Now the cheaper meal deals in shops-They are making it so we have no choice but to buy everything at dearer, higher prices- everywhere- no cheap 'deals' allowed at all- and yet they (gov't) said we must support shops, pubs, businesses- How do they expect us to do this exactly if we can't afford to???

Love it, Petera!?

My car cost £80 to fill a year ago - it is now £110. I saw a tube of toothpaste in the supermaket - just ordinary stuff, not speciality/teeth whitening, and it was marked as £5.00. A block of butter was over £5.00 too - it really is becoming frightening, and although I do have a 'cushion' it isn't very big. I feel for those who are having a real struggle right now, as we are told prices are going to be even higher. I read that the energy companies are being investigated for taking too much by direct debit in order to ease their cash flow; a friend has been told her debit needs to go up to over £900.00 each month, from £200. 00. She was beside herself, and cannot possibly pay this ridiculous amount.

I'm a bit confused whether we are talking about luxuries or just the every day cost of living here? If it is the treats like puppies, manicures, ice creams, coffee and cake, toys from the museum shop etc then people will have to factor those in. There will always be those who can afford them, (some without batting an eyelid).
Necessity items like food, heating, fuel are a different matter (and there have been a couple of threads about this).

Aren't we are doing super good after Brexit. Saving all this money we pay to Brussel. this is what Bozo are saying every day, it will be better. But it is not. Why all prices of goods, electricity, everything, are rising? Why we should pay more and more for everyday? This doesn't make sense.