'Big Brother’s flawed wealth test –a missed lesson' blog discussion 24 July 2009 at 2:32PM edited 24 July 2009 at 2:34PM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 12 replies 3K views

Former_MSE_Lawrence

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Big Brother’s flawed wealth test –a missed lesson" Blog.

Click reply to discuss below.

Willowx

That doesn't necessarily work even without the bread example. I don't watch Big Brother so I can only go on what you have said but surely they could have said something along the lines of a pint of stores own brand milk in a large supermarket for example.

BenL

What if the contestant got the milk delivered fresh in a morning? This would probably cost more still and then you have to factor in the milk-persons xmas tip divided by how many deliveries they make - maybe 313 times a year.

JimmyTheWig

Surely it's really a question of "what do you pay for a pint of milk?" Know that and you are then armed to spot a bargain.
It's all very well to be able to spot the best price milk in the shop you are in, but how do you know it's not cheaper elsewhere? It's impractical to go round every shop and then go back to the cheapest.
So knowing the absolute price of something is actually very, very useful.

For example, we aim to pay no more than 10p per nappy - i.e. when they're on special. Just seeing on the shelves that Tesco's own are cheaper than Pampers doesn't mean they're good value. If they're significantly more than 10p per nappy then we'll just get the minimum and hope for an offer elsewhere or next time.
If we didn't know the "10p per nappy" price we would be helpless.

smileygill

It's an outdated question. For younger readers; in the days of the Milk Marketing Board, milk came in one-pint glass bottles from the milkman or the corner shop and cost the same price everywhere. Supermarkets generally didn't sell milk; it wasn't discounted or bulk packaged so the price was common knowledge; I recall in 1975 or 6 it cost 5p a pint for "plain" full-fat milk.

I don't remember skimmed milk on sale, except dried in cans, and semi-skimmed was unheard-of. You could buy Gold Top and Channel Islands milk if you wanted more fat, though. Oh, and sterilised milk in a long-necked crown-capped bottle with that disgusting bit of "skin" lurking inside to float in your tea.

Enough from memory lane. Asking someone the price of a pint of milk made sense back then; it was as invariable as the price of a penny chew. If you didn't know the price, you either didn't shop for yourself or had so much money you didn't count your change.

It's just a dumb question nowadays for more reasons than you want to read.

HTH.

samizdat

smileygill wrote: »

It's an outdated question. For younger readers; in the days of the Milk Marketing Board, milk came in one-pint glass bottles from the milkman or the corner shop and cost the same price everywhere. Supermarkets generally didn't sell milk; it wasn't discounted or bulk packaged so the price was common knowledge; I recall in 1975 or 6 it cost 5p a pint for "plain" full-fat milk.

I don't remember skimmed milk on sale, except dried in cans, and semi-skimmed was unheard-of. You could buy Gold Top and Channel Islands milk if you wanted more fat, though. Oh, and sterilised milk in a long-necked crown-capped bottle with that disgusting bit of "skin" lurking inside to float in your tea.

I used to love that Gold-top milk - it was the only stuff I would have on my cereal but, then again, I used to eat Alpen only with double cream. Nowadays, I only have skimmed. I used to like removing the bottle tops with a karate chop. Happy Days.

mmillie

Does anyone even buy single pints any more. Isn't the other money saving point that it's better to buy a 2 or 4 pint bottle?

Martin

thisisace

mmillie wrote: »

Does anyone even buy single pints any more. Isn't the other money saving point that it's better to buy a 2 or 4 pint bottle?

Martin

Living on my own, I find that it's better to buy lots of single pints, as a given bottle is less likely to go off before I've used it up.

Bargainetta

thisisace wrote: »

Living on my own, I find that it's better to buy lots of single pints, as a given bottle is less likely to go off before I've used it up.

I live on my own too but I regularly buy 4 pints of standard skimmed which is around £1.60 therefore roughly 40p a pint.

Mobeer

If it was a wealth test, then to show their wealthiness, they should get the question wrong.

There is little point knowing the price of milk if it makes up such a small proportion of your wealth that you do not have noticeably less wealth after buying some milk. If you can spend your time more profitably working than comparing milk prices between shops then more wealth is to be had by working than by shopping around.

To be fussy, when the milk is just bought, you are just as wealthy as you were before the milk was bought, since although you have less money, you have more milk. You are only less wealthy when the milk is no longer available (through use or waste)

ThinkingOfLinking

I don't watch Big Brother but I agree with your point Martin. And in answer to the question, I buy soya milk, currently at 63p a litre from the shelf, or a fresher version for 80p from the chiller cabinet; both Tesco own brand.