Personal Inflation rate

callum9999

RG2015 said:

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

Marchitiello said:

If you change spending habit on basic food you are not calculating inflation at all but your response to it (you mentioned freeze and planning your meals better).

my supermarket spend (family with a teenager and two primary school children) has increased considerably and to ascertain this you need to compare your normal basket, even if only considering the main 10 items (for instance bread, milk, eggs, bananas, 1kg of fruit, 1kg Of vegetable (my selection here tend to be seasonal), pasta, etc).. price of milk and dairy product have seen probably the sharpest increase.

You are correct. I am not calculating inflation at all. I will leave that to the ONS.

I am saying that rather than blindly accepting the statistics, I am analysing my personal data and using this to plan my finances.

It is probably impossible to compare like with like, but I am using my data which is based on fact.

It's not impossible to compare like with like, that's exactly what the ONS does...

I'm in full agreement that you should be using your personal budget to assess your finances, but given the ONS (or anyone of note I've seen?) has never said you should be using their inflation figures to do this, I don't see where the hostility comes from? Their data is also "based on fact".

You might as well be complaining that the Bank of Ghana's interest rate isn't representative of your personal budget. Of course it's not, it's not meant to be!

I would say scepticism rather than hostility, but this is based upon the ONS personal inflation calculator not their official figures.

Any disparaging comments on the official inflation figures are more down to the way people appear to believe that everyone is affected in the same way.

Sorry I thought you were criticizing the national inflation rate, not their personal calculator.

I have no idea who you think believe that everyone is affected the same way though - who exactly thinks that? I've genuinely not spoken to a single person, nor seen a single person in the media, make such a claim.

RG2015

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

Marchitiello said:

If you change spending habit on basic food you are not calculating inflation at all but your response to it (you mentioned freeze and planning your meals better).

my supermarket spend (family with a teenager and two primary school children) has increased considerably and to ascertain this you need to compare your normal basket, even if only considering the main 10 items (for instance bread, milk, eggs, bananas, 1kg of fruit, 1kg Of vegetable (my selection here tend to be seasonal), pasta, etc).. price of milk and dairy product have seen probably the sharpest increase.

You are correct. I am not calculating inflation at all. I will leave that to the ONS.

I am saying that rather than blindly accepting the statistics, I am analysing my personal data and using this to plan my finances.

It is probably impossible to compare like with like, but I am using my data which is based on fact.

It's not impossible to compare like with like, that's exactly what the ONS does...

I'm in full agreement that you should be using your personal budget to assess your finances, but given the ONS (or anyone of note I've seen?) has never said you should be using their inflation figures to do this, I don't see where the hostility comes from? Their data is also "based on fact".

You might as well be complaining that the Bank of Ghana's interest rate isn't representative of your personal budget. Of course it's not, it's not meant to be!

I would say scepticism rather than hostility, but this is based upon the ONS personal inflation calculator not their official figures.

Any disparaging comments on the official inflation figures are more down to the way people appear to believe that everyone is affected in the same way.

Sorry I thought you were criticizing the national inflation rate, not their personal calculator.

I have no idea who you think believe that everyone is affected the same way though - who exactly thinks that? I've genuinely not spoken to a single person, nor seen a single person in the media, make such a claim.

What about Union claims?  Inflation is 10% so we need at least a 10% pay rise to stand still.

This site. With inflation at 10%, even  if your savings account gives you 2% you are losing 8%.

The media. Everyone is paying 10% more for things they buy.

callum9999

RG2015 said:

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

Marchitiello said:

If you change spending habit on basic food you are not calculating inflation at all but your response to it (you mentioned freeze and planning your meals better).

my supermarket spend (family with a teenager and two primary school children) has increased considerably and to ascertain this you need to compare your normal basket, even if only considering the main 10 items (for instance bread, milk, eggs, bananas, 1kg of fruit, 1kg Of vegetable (my selection here tend to be seasonal), pasta, etc).. price of milk and dairy product have seen probably the sharpest increase.

You are correct. I am not calculating inflation at all. I will leave that to the ONS.

I am saying that rather than blindly accepting the statistics, I am analysing my personal data and using this to plan my finances.

It is probably impossible to compare like with like, but I am using my data which is based on fact.

It's not impossible to compare like with like, that's exactly what the ONS does...

I'm in full agreement that you should be using your personal budget to assess your finances, but given the ONS (or anyone of note I've seen?) has never said you should be using their inflation figures to do this, I don't see where the hostility comes from? Their data is also "based on fact".

You might as well be complaining that the Bank of Ghana's interest rate isn't representative of your personal budget. Of course it's not, it's not meant to be!

I would say scepticism rather than hostility, but this is based upon the ONS personal inflation calculator not their official figures.

Any disparaging comments on the official inflation figures are more down to the way people appear to believe that everyone is affected in the same way.

Sorry I thought you were criticizing the national inflation rate, not their personal calculator.

I have no idea who you think believe that everyone is affected the same way though - who exactly thinks that? I've genuinely not spoken to a single person, nor seen a single person in the media, make such a claim.

What about Union claims?  Inflation is 10% so we need at least a 10% pay rise to stand still.

This site. With inflation at 10%, even  if your savings account gives you 2% you are losing 8%.

The media. Everyone is paying 10% more for things they buy.

I think you're missing the entire point of the national inflation figures. They represent what the average person is paying - I think it's blindingly obvious that a union couldn't possibly calculate an individual figure for every member and then campaign for them all to get individually tailored pay rises... I've also not seen the media say "everyone" is paying exactly 10% more - do you have any specific examples? Again, it's a generalisation - like literally everything to do with finance on a national scale is.

The savings account line is a good point, people have indeed been saying that on here. Though again, I doubt many of them actually believe that every single person has had the exact same impact - when you talk generally, you obviously need to generalise.

RG2015

For completeness, I have done the detailed ONS personal calculator and mine comes out at 11.7% compared with CPIH (their choice of comparator) of 8.8%.

This is comparing the years ending July 21 and July 22. But it is based upon a generalised basket of goods in each category where I spend, weighted by my average spend in each category. There are just too many averages for me.

  https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/howisinflationaffectingyourhouseholdcosts/2022-03-23

Regarding the perception of the ONS inflation figure applying to everyone, I will acknowledge that it is just my perception.

However, I can only report what I think and until I examined the issue more closely, I believed that my personal finances would be subject to the reported inflation figure.

I know now that my personal inflation is quite different anything the ONS is reporting.

jimjames

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

Marchitiello said:

If you change spending habit on basic food you are not calculating inflation at all but your response to it (you mentioned freeze and planning your meals better).

my supermarket spend (family with a teenager and two primary school children) has increased considerably and to ascertain this you need to compare your normal basket, even if only considering the main 10 items (for instance bread, milk, eggs, bananas, 1kg of fruit, 1kg Of vegetable (my selection here tend to be seasonal), pasta, etc).. price of milk and dairy product have seen probably the sharpest increase.

You are correct. I am not calculating inflation at all. I will leave that to the ONS.

I am saying that rather than blindly accepting the statistics, I am analysing my personal data and using this to plan my finances.

It is probably impossible to compare like with like, but I am using my data which is based on fact.

It's not impossible to compare like with like, that's exactly what the ONS does...

I'm in full agreement that you should be using your personal budget to assess your finances, but given the ONS (or anyone of note I've seen?) has never said you should be using their inflation figures to do this, I don't see where the hostility comes from? Their data is also "based on fact".

You might as well be complaining that the Bank of Ghana's interest rate isn't representative of your personal budget. Of course it's not, it's not meant to be!

I would say scepticism rather than hostility, but this is based upon the ONS personal inflation calculator not their official figures.

Any disparaging comments on the official inflation figures are more down to the way people appear to believe that everyone is affected in the same way.

Sorry I thought you were criticizing the national inflation rate, not their personal calculator.

I have no idea who you think believe that everyone is affected the same way though - who exactly thinks that? I've genuinely not spoken to a single person, nor seen a single person in the media, make such a claim.

What about Union claims?  Inflation is 10% so we need at least a 10% pay rise to stand still.

This site. With inflation at 10%, even  if your savings account gives you 2% you are losing 8%.

The media. Everyone is paying 10% more for things they buy.

I've also not seen the media say "everyone" is paying exactly 10% more - do you have any specific examples? Again, it's a generalisation - like literally everything to do with finance on a national scale is.

BBC at least have been very clear that inflation impacts everyone differently hence including a personal calculator on their website as referenced by the OP originally.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62558817

sevenhills

callum9999 said:

I think you're missing the entire point of the national inflation figures. They represent what the average person is paying.

But there is more than one type of average, there is the median and the mode.
Average pay used to be £25k, I am guessing it more like £35k now, that is not what how CPI inflation is worked out.
RPI inflation ignores the top 4% of earners, so RPI inflation is more likely to apply to those on average pay.

RG2015

jimjames said:

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

callum9999 said:

RG2015 said:

Marchitiello said:

If you change spending habit on basic food you are not calculating inflation at all but your response to it (you mentioned freeze and planning your meals better).

my supermarket spend (family with a teenager and two primary school children) has increased considerably and to ascertain this you need to compare your normal basket, even if only considering the main 10 items (for instance bread, milk, eggs, bananas, 1kg of fruit, 1kg Of vegetable (my selection here tend to be seasonal), pasta, etc).. price of milk and dairy product have seen probably the sharpest increase.

You are correct. I am not calculating inflation at all. I will leave that to the ONS.

I am saying that rather than blindly accepting the statistics, I am analysing my personal data and using this to plan my finances.

It is probably impossible to compare like with like, but I am using my data which is based on fact.

It's not impossible to compare like with like, that's exactly what the ONS does...

I'm in full agreement that you should be using your personal budget to assess your finances, but given the ONS (or anyone of note I've seen?) has never said you should be using their inflation figures to do this, I don't see where the hostility comes from? Their data is also "based on fact".

You might as well be complaining that the Bank of Ghana's interest rate isn't representative of your personal budget. Of course it's not, it's not meant to be!

I would say scepticism rather than hostility, but this is based upon the ONS personal inflation calculator not their official figures.

Any disparaging comments on the official inflation figures are more down to the way people appear to believe that everyone is affected in the same way.

Sorry I thought you were criticizing the national inflation rate, not their personal calculator.

I have no idea who you think believe that everyone is affected the same way though - who exactly thinks that? I've genuinely not spoken to a single person, nor seen a single person in the media, make such a claim.

What about Union claims?  Inflation is 10% so we need at least a 10% pay rise to stand still.

This site. With inflation at 10%, even  if your savings account gives you 2% you are losing 8%.

The media. Everyone is paying 10% more for things they buy.

I've also not seen the media say "everyone" is paying exactly 10% more - do you have any specific examples? Again, it's a generalisation - like literally everything to do with finance on a national scale is.

BBC at least have been very clear that inflation impacts everyone differently hence including a personal calculator on their website as referenced by the OP originally.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62558817

This is exactly the same calculator as on the ONS website.

I still maintain that your average person in the street has no real understanding of these metrics. 

sevenhills

RG2015 said:

For completeness, I have done the detailed ONS personal calculator and mine comes out at 11.7% compared with CPIH (their choice of comparator) of 8.8%.

RPI inflation is 13.4% so that is closer to your personal rate.

RG2015

sevenhills said:

RG2015 said:

For completeness, I have done the detailed ONS personal calculator and mine comes out at 11.7% compared with CPIH (their choice of comparator) of 8.8%.

RPI inflation is 13.4% so that is closer to your personal rate.

If you look back a couple of pages to my calculations, you will see my calculated rate is 4.9%

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6381003/personal-inflation-rate/p1

callum9999

RG2015 said:

For completeness, I have done the detailed ONS personal calculator and mine comes out at 11.7% compared with CPIH (their choice of comparator) of 8.8%.

This is comparing the years ending July 21 and July 22. But it is based upon a generalised basket of goods in each category where I spend, weighted by my average spend in each category. There are just too many averages for me.

  https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/howisinflationaffectingyourhouseholdcosts/2022-03-23

Regarding the perception of the ONS inflation figure applying to everyone, I will acknowledge that it is just my perception.

However, I can only report what I think and until I examined the issue more closely, I believed that my personal finances would be subject to the reported inflation figure.

I know now that my personal inflation is quite different anything the ONS is reporting.

The issue is that you're overlooking that these are generalisations used to track a variable property, and are presented as such, then assuming everyone else shares your surprise that it doesn't match their exact personal circumstances.

Why would a personal inflation calculator exist if the ONS line is that everyone is affected equally?

The calculator you've linked to clearly says it's an estimate many times throughout the description. It also clearly states that it can't account for variation in your spending habits.

You're correct that you can only "report what you think", but I'm afraid you thought that because of ignorance and not because the ONS or "the media" were misleading you. (Please don't take that as an insult, everyone - me definitely included - is ignorant about something - just try to be more aware of any shortfall in your knowledge before sharing it).