How Much????

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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/

It has nothing to do with the current prices rising ,museums,events,airports etc have always charged extortionate prices …because they can ?

3nanny6

I often took two of my grand-daughters to a garden center with me which has a large cafeteria where you can sit inside on warm days there is seating outside all very nice. The bowls of chips were always hot and well cooked (freshly done in the kitchen) and only £1.25p. What I found to be so expensive was the large various cakes all covered over and fresh. The cake was £4.50p a slice and the grand-daughters were always attracted to it and wanted a slice each. That was the price before Covid came and I have not been at the center since then. I would like to know how much that cake is now I think I will pop over there without the grand-daughters and have a look. I would not pay that price for cake anymore much too expensive for a treat at the garden center.

I think that the problem with that kind of cake is the wasteage. It doesn't keep for long once purchased or thawed so the price has to reflect that.

An average size bag of pine nuts is now £5 in Tesco !!!
I've asked for them (tongue in cheek) as a birthday present as I shall no longer buy them at that price.
Scandalous

25Avalon

I notice the coffee shops in town and two farm type shops/cafes just outside are always heaving with people every day. Some people obviously still have money to burn.

I've just had coffee and almond croissant (£7) in a very busy café overlooking the sea. It seemed a lot, but they know there is a queue of people waiting.
I bought a crab yesterday which was only £1 more than last year. I thought that was fair considering the increase in cost of fuel for the boat and electricity for the steamer to cook them. I'm guessing the lady dressing them (4 crates full) isn't actually earning any more than she did before.

Or should I say need to work.

I think my casual staff (I have 8or9) may find they want to work instead of leaving me in the lurch.

25Avalon

Maybe I might be able to get casual bar staff then! I have empty shifts at present.

You probably will, but they will be people who were previously in full time work until the recession closed the place they were working before.

OTOH last summer we took elder Gdcs (then 5 and 6) into central London. At the Tower of London shop (visited against our instincts needless to say!) Gds was agog for a large plastic battleaxe. (!)

My initial reaction was Absolutely not! - vastly overpriced plastic tat, etc…

So I don’t mind admitting I was surprised to see a price tag of £4.99, when I was expecting £10 or even more.

Yes, I’m afraid to say I bought him one - he was gleefully brandishing it all the way home.

Maybe I might be able to get casual bar staff then! I have empty shifts at present.

The huge rise in prices disproportionately affects the poorest who cannot afford basis foodstuffs, never mind treats, but it will have a knock on effect on the comfortably off. Coffee shops, restaurants and garden centres will be closing, and many other businesses likewise, putting many out of work.

I guess the chancellor is waiting for a few to die of starvation before he makes a move

I notice the coffee shops in town and two farm type shops/cafes just outside are always heaving with people every day. Some people obviously still have money to burn.

Farzanah

The future does indeed look bumpy in so many ways and I guess we will gradually have to become more self sufficient, but it won’t happen over night that’s for sure.

The answer's simple, according to Rachel Maclean, safeguarding minister in the Home Office... she admitted the idea would not work for all households, but said the solution for some people could be to look for additional work. Or get a better paying job.

I suspect some will take on extra work - some already do. Better paying jobs are not that easy to find if you haven't any wanted skills.

I wonder what she thinks the households who can do neither should do?

... not very helpful. The advice given to the poor by those who are comfortable, usually isn't. Because it's hardly ever from a compassionate or realistic viewpoint.

The fact is, in spite of all the talk of levelling up and wages boosts - we are a low-wage economy. And we're expected to run even faster, just to stay in the same place. A two-income household should be able to earn enough to live on without one, or both, having to take on yet another job.

"Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.” (N.Mandela)

At the cinema, three bottles of water, three packets of sweets, just over £20.

On a side-note, I find it odd that you have restaurants at garden centres.
Garden centres here are pots and plants etc. By no means fancy.

But yes, treats out do cost an awful lot. It was a very rare treat for my children to have snacks while on an outing. They are more generous with their own children, but I think our budgets were tighter when we were raising them.

Inflation has been horrible; I put down a red pepper at the store when I saw the price. Silly because we like red peppers and it's not going to break us, but cumulatively the cost of food shopping has really gone up.

janejudge Yes it was originally about an ice lolly , which I wouldn’t class as the worlds biggest “ luxury”, but just using it as an example of the astronomical price rises of some products which have taken us by surprise. I don’t think treating a little one to an occasional ice lolly should be beyond the average person’s means.

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.

I realise this was about luxury in a cafe on a day out

a tank of fuel for a week is now the same cost as one full days wage per week at work now for a lot of people
wtf are people going to do?