Inflation and food prices

meritaten

I don't see my weekly food bill going down - but, as a shop mainly at Aldees it hasn't gone up either.
wages haven't gone up either - and if OHs company has its way - he will get a small wage rise - but they want to abolish overtime payments and just pay normal hourly wage! oh and abolish 'call out payments'. and cut bonuses. which have already been cut to the bone so they wont actually get any!
before long they will expect OH to pay THEM! we are now at the level of wage of when OH started with them 20odd years ago. and the bosses pay has increased tenfold. so I get really 'P'eed off when the beeb keep saying wages are increasing, food is getting cheaper - we are better off! NO WE ARENT! not in the real world anyway!

Lynplatinum

maybe MSE should start a 'pauper's basket' of essentials such as: milk; butter; eggs; mince; bacon(?) spuds; brocoli; slad; toms; electric; gas; water; internet; phone (?); ladies monthly products; basic cleaning stuff - e.g. bleach, washing up liquid; personal hygiene - toothpaste; shower gel; de oderant

then we could really see if there was inflation on things that affect real people not just those with a disposable income.

I, and I am sure many people on here, live with great frugality in order to a) pay off debt and/or b) afford cheap and simple holidays (am going to Cornwall next week to stay with a friend and am saving up for the petrol money and possibly the cash for a meal out! Last of the big spenders!) and/or c) trying just to stay financially afloat and out of the red. Those who compose those baskets are not doing so for the 'mean average' person; nor yet for the 'modal average' but for the 'median average' person!!! This is not fair and is a manipulation of statistics!

maman

Ches wrote: »

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.

I think you're right. People have voted with their feet so other SMs have to sit up and take notice.


I think the same is happening with clothes and other things too. People are going for needs not wants so prices are coming down to attract shoppers.


The trouble is that however much switching you do there is still a cartel of sorts with fuel.

PasturesNew

The cheapest things increased considerably. Maybe some posh foods came down and some in the middle didn't change, but I've noticed that Mr S no longer does theiir 20p/4 cup a soups, 15p stuffing is now 20p and 15p cans of spuds are often now 20p. Instant noodles used to be obtainable (with hunting) at 8p a few years back, now it's a fight to find any at 5/£1.

I find, often, that the very cheapest foods are no longer stocked, not available at all, withdrawn ... or gone up 20-30%.

Remember 10p cans of peas/carrots? If you can find those tins now they're more like 16-20p.

[Deleted User]

Wow it seems to have sparked quite a debate. I too,like GQ give not a fig if computer games or lap-tops,cameras etc have gone down in price its the important everyday stuff that matter to most people.Its the incidious rise in prices by the reduction of sizes that irritate me.

Last week I decided to open a tin of rice pudding that I had in the cupboard.I use a couple of desertspoons on some fruit instead of cream after dinner.When I opened it I found that two thirds were actually rice pud the rest was the milky substance it was in.I was suprised to say the least

I have also noticed how tins are also reducing in size and what was once perhaps 425gms is now 400 gms or less.

Imagine going to buy a pair of size six shoes and sunddenly finding that they were only made up to five and a half !!

Everything seems to be shrinking and becoming lilliputian :)

I am trying to make light slightly of how we are all slowly being ripped off by manufacturers into thinking that things are OK, they're really not.

Today my cup really is half empty, and I am getting really fed-up with all the lies that are put out by the great and the good about how we are all better off , we're not, we are all having to tighten our belts whether we want to or not.
Politicians moan about 'struggling' on £67k+ a year and getting caught with their hands in the till trying to make even more money. Try living on a pension or the NMW like millions of people do.

Yesterday my DGS Ben found a student vacation job for 10 days in the Easter holidays He is thrilled to bits as he really is a penniless student.
Every bit he earns will be stashed to pay for his September accommodation as he will be moving out of Halls and into a private rented house.He doesn't get his grant until mid-September, but all his rent has to be in by July.

Both his parents work full-time and he has three younger brothers at school so money is streeetched to breaking point at times in their house.

Mum and Dad haven't got a spare £700 odd floating around.I will do what I can to help him, as will the rest of the family.

He has worked it out that once everything is paid he will have around £20-30 a week to live on and buy all of his food,clothes,books etc. He knows it will be tough, so he walks everywhere (luckily I bought him some sturdy walking boots at Christmas) But if he wasn't at Uni his chances of finding a job locally without any qualifications are not brilliant.
Hopefully it will be better when he finishes his degree. Everyone is being hit by creeping price rises, but the papers and media tell us we are all better off

I don't think so.Charity shops are booming, along with the pound shops Aldi's and Lidls are doing better than the big SM simply because we are all voting with our feet and our purses.
Look in any of the cheaper SM car parks and see how many cars are there that aren't old 'bangers' The Aldi's in Sittingbourne is always full of medium and top range cars.We don't all shop in Waitrose even if they do hand out free coffees or papers

I can live without the expensive gadgets I just would like to see the basic stuff come down,or at least not keep creeping up in price.

OK so you can buy milk at a quid for 4 pints, but how many of our farmers are struggling to make any money at that price when the big SM are forcing, by their buying power many farmers out of business just so they can sell milk as a 'loss-leader' to get people into their shops.

If the politicians want our votes they have to get out there and see how people are managing who don't 'struggle on £67k a year.

I just am thankful that my late Mum taught me how to cook and best of all how to make a shilling do the job of ten.

115K

I haven't really noticed the prices of food going down but then I shop online and don't really keep track as much as I should. I often think the "basics" range are good value as I can't notice much difference in the taste and I usually buy the fruit and veg that is on offer that week.

GreyQueen

Lynplatinum wrote: »

maybe MSE should start a 'pauper's basket' of essentials such as: milk; butter; eggs; mince; bacon(?) spuds; brocoli; slad; toms; electric; gas; water; internet; phone (?); ladies monthly products; basic cleaning stuff - e.g. bleach, washing up liquid; personal hygiene - toothpaste; shower gel; de oderant

then we could really see if there was inflation on things that affect real people not just those with a disposable income.

I like this idea, I like it a lot.

In the past decade, the rent on my flat has doubled. In the past 2 years, the rent on my allotment has doubled. The teabags I buy have had their weight but not number and packaging fiddled with (in two sneaky stages) so you have a 25% price increase at the same time as a 33% weight reduction (take a bow, Sainsbugs Basics).

If you look at the weights of many products, they're at funny amounts such as 114g or 106g or something, as they train our eye over months or even a year + to accept the shrunk sizing as the new normal.

As well as price hikes, and lilliputisation of groceries, you have the flat-out disappearance of many of the basics lines and the subsitution with inferior ingredients in many established products.

:mad: Look, grubbyment statisticians and meeja-types, We the People may not have your education but plenty of us can count, and can see the money in our purses going less far than it used to. About a third less far than 3 years ago. We're not daft, and telling us ridiculous stories doesn't negate our real world experience, it just brings the tellers into disrepute.

[Deleted User]

GQ I wish there was a 'pat on the back' smiley that I could pat several times .Perhaps a list of basics would indeed show us, even over a period of a month how the prices are going up.As another poster said even the value range are either going up or disappearing altogether, or being 're-branded' another word for upping the prices Grrr...

mardatha

There is an election coming up. I wouldn't believe the govt if they told me what day of the week it is.

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

There is an election coming up. I wouldn't believe the govt if they told me what day of the week it is.

If their lips are moving, they're lying.

I've just about given up mainstream media, it's so rubbish at telling it how it is. Bubble journos and bubble politicos one one hand and the rest of us on the other. One of my neighbours was laid off before Xmas and is trying to find work which will enable him to keep a roof over their heads of his g/f and babby and still let them eat. You don't do that on £6.50 an hour, pal, not even with a social rent.