True inflation rate 17 October 2022 at 10:14AM in Over 50s MoneySaving 24 replies 1K views

MouldyOldDough

Has anyone say down and worked out their own personal inflation rate ?

Mine must be over 100%

Every week, my wife comes back from shopping an d starts "Toilet rolls are now £12......."

"Baked beans are up 5p" ........"Cat food is up 10p"

I dont believe that it is only up 10% in a year

blue.peter

The published figures are, of course, only an average. It's inevitable that some will be higher than that and some lower. Nonetheless, your figure of 100% does sound rather high to me: I assume that it's hyperbole. Or have you actually done the maths?

I've just used an online calculator that I found here. This says that mine is 24.5%. I'm a bit surprised by that, since there's no mortgage or rent in there (I paid my mortgage off several years ago). I'd been assuming that mine was about average: it's high enough to be noticeable, but (fortunately) not at the point where I have to make difficult decisions.

daz378

The CPI is about 10%  which is a new measure from late 80s ....the RPI is about 13%  which was an earlier measure...unless I have it wrong way round....yes I reckon my personal inflation rate  is probably in late teens

daz378

No checked  on calculator ...nearer 29 %

sevenhills

TVs and some other electrical products are down in price, but I agree that real inflation is higher than stated.
Rice pudding is now 25p per tin, up from 20p many months ago.

Sterlingtimes

I have entered many zeros into the calculator: no restaurants, holidays, hotels, alcohol, or tobacco. But my inflation rate comes out at 29%. Our household expenditure must be focused on the more inflationary items.

blue.peter

daz378 said:

The CPI is about 10%  which is a new measure from late 80s ....the RPI is about 13%  which was an earlier measure...unless I have it wrong way round....

Yes, you're pretty much right.

RPI = 12.3%

CPIH = 8.6%

CPI = 9.9%

All figures are for August 2022, which is the most recent published data, and are taken from the ONS web site.

blue.peter

Sterlingtimes said:

I have entered many zeros into the calculator: no restaurants, holidays, hotels, alcohol, or tobacco. But my inflation rate comes out at 29%. Our household expenditure must be focused on the more inflationary items.

Yes, like mine. My calculation appears to be similar to yours, except that I do enjoy malt whisky. I suspect that energy might be a significant factor in pushing our personal rates up: it certainly makes up a large proportion of my monthly spending, and it's increased dramatically over the last year.

MouldyOldDough

42% - but even that appears too low in the real world!

blue.peter

MouldyOldDough said:

42% - but even that appears too low in the real world!

Because you notice the things that increase significantly but don't notice those that don't?

Sterlingtimes

blue.peter said:

Yes, like mine. My calculation appears to be similar to yours, except that I do enjoy malt whisky. I suspect that energy might be a significant factor in pushing our personal rates up: it certainly makes up a large proportion of my monthly spending, and it's increased dramatically over the last year.

The retired and those working from home will probably have much higher heating expenditures. 

My annual energy price without any government support would be £6,029. As a proportion of my State Pension, that would be £6,029 / £11,164 = 54%. I do have other pension income.

I have an ongoing project to automate the house to get some of these costs down.