Inflation and food prices

[Deleted User]

Just been reading on the BBC website how apparently food prices etc are lower now, and we are all better off, has anyone noticed that food prices have come down ?

I haven't but then I try to only shop 2-3 times a month.I have had my pension increase arrived today and its gone up by just over £2.00 per week.Yet in the same week my water bill has increased by £2.89 a month and my utilities bills seem to be creeping up again.I sometimes feel a bit like a hamster on a wheel, as fast as you get an increase then something else goes up so its been swallowed up. What do you think ??

[Deleted User]

Certainly not the type of things I buy regularly JACKIE, I don't often buy ready made things anyway but like you and many others of us, buy in raw ingredients and cook from scratch. I don't understand how these things are fathomed out but when the big supermarkets have their customer recruitment drives on the type of product they offer for £1 it is always crisps, sweets, fizzy drinks, snack foods,bisciut bars etc. and it doesn't mean a thing a we never buy that sort of product anyway. The things I buy regularly seem only to increase in price on an almost weekly basis.

Purple_kitten

It is so hard keeping track of prices, leccy bill has crept up I’ve noticed even thou our useage has gone down. Don’t start me on the water bill, we use very little but it doesn’t seem to matter as their surcharges are horrific.

It's hard to keep track of food prices they change so much, but my food habits have changed I mainly cook from scratch with a lot of fruit and veg

FairyPrincessk

I have noticed both butter and eggs going down a few pence, as has the mozzarella and I believe OH said the cheddar had gone down last week. Since we shop weekly and regularly buy the same things from Ald! who don't doo TOO much in the way of re-configuring packaging and moving things to end-cap shelves it is a bit more apparent. If we didn't shop as often or shopped in different shops each week I don't think we would have noticed as the difference has literally been a few pence total.

Cyberman60

Broccolli which I buy regularly is down from around a pound to 44p at Aldi. Bread (Hovis wholemeal) is down from over a pound to 75p at Tesco, as is milk which is a max quid for four pints everywhere. 6 good sized conference pears at Aldi was only 1.19 pounds today.

Sainsbury's keep sending me 6 quid off a 30 quid shop vouchers so that inevitably saves me a lot also !!

Many supermarkets seemed to have reduced their prices due to competition from Aldi and Lidl.

Butterfly_Brain

Prices are still rising especially food, public transport, council tax, water, clothing and shoes and energy bills, meanwhile wages have been stagnant for years.

I fear that we are going into a deflationary death spiral and that is a very difficult thing to get out of. It is what started the great depression and you only have to look what happened to Japan, thirty years on they are still stuck in a rut.

Cyberman60

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Prices are still rising especially food, public transport, council tax, water, clothing and shoes and energy bills, meanwhile wages have been stagnant for years.

I fear that we are going into a deflationary death spiral and that is a very difficult thing to get out of. It is what started the great depression and you only have to look what happened to Japan, thirty years on they are still stuck in a rut.

My council tax has been frozen for the past five years despite my council getting one of the lowest government subsidies, but then it is a Tory council !!

:T

GreyQueen

:T Nice one, political types, launch a happy story into the meeja with weeks to go before the general election and we're supposed to swallow zero inflation?

Pull the other one mate, it's got bells on it.

My rent goes up in April, as does my council tax. My landline has gone up, my water has gone up, my gas will be going down a teeny smidge at the end of next month. But costs are mostly on a one-way ticket towards more more more.

Re food, back in 2008 I could get basic butter for 58p, cooking oil for 79p a litre, 400g/800g loaf of wholemeal bread for 40p/ 80p, many tinned items were under 20p each. And many items have sneakily been shrunk, so you pay more and get less product.

These new reduced prices are still a lot higher than they were even a few years ago, years in which I have either had no pay increases (most years) or increases of such parlous percentage rates that I'm about a fiver a month ahead on my net salary.

Frankly, I don't give a four-ecks if laptops, computer games or books are a bit cheaper. Never bought the first two and no intentions of starting now. My library has raised its rental costs for stuff it rents and its reservation fees have gone up nearly 50% per item.

My busfares are higher, my everything-essential is higher, I reckon my personal inflation rate is pushing 10% a year. Lots of stuff, I just quit doing, like going to the cinema and on holiday and other such fun activities.

:mad: So the grubbyment can push off; I live in the real world and it's nothing like their massaged figures.

Floss

That's the thing - how many in the Cabinet live on their MP salary? And how many have private / inherited income?

As GQ said, we live in the real world with increasing utility bills, smaller packets for the same price and frozen pay packets.

Ches

Surely if food prices have gone down its because of the influence of Aldi and Lidl and nothing to do with the Government whatever they crow.

jk0

I was musing about inflation last night regarding capital gains tax. (Boring subject I know, but bear with me.)

If I sell a rental property, I have to pay capital gains tax on the difference between what I sell for, and what I paid. However, no allowance is made as it used to be for inflation. In other words, you are taxed on inflation.

Thus, you can see why the government is moving heaven & earth to prop up and increase property prices: They get a big chunk of 'commission' when they are sold in due course.