Price rises/ inflation

GinAg (39)

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Not sure if this needs it's own topic, but is anyone else just a little concerned about the ongoing price rises?

Papers today reporting that the energy price cap could go up to almost £2k by April, although I'm not sure what that's based on. Many people will have a huge chunk of their income wiped out.

I calculated that our food bills have gone up by about 15% in the last few months.

I've never really known high inflation, it's quite scary.
 
I wish I could speak about this knowledgeably, but I think we're a fixed rate. However Mr Ag deals with energy bills (I know), so I'm not really sure if we're going to be hit soon.
 
Our higher inflation rate is because of the currently high energy prices, and therefore shouldn’t be too worrying, or so the ”experts” are saying here.
The inflation in the US is however supposed to be more worrying… but what’s bad for the US eventually ends up as bad for us, so I guess we should worry anyway. :eyes:
 
Like Jack Monroe I'm one of those weirdos that knows how much things usually cost in the supermarket and prices are going up weekly and have been for months. I've also noticed that pack sizes are getting smaller, where there used to be 14 rashers of bacon there are now only 12 but it still costs the same, if not a bit more, than it used to. The fresh produce also seems to be of inferior quality, it doesn't last as long which I assume is because it's taking longer for the produce to get through customs and on to the supermarket. I've noticed there are far fewer "offers" too, whether that be multibuy or price reductions. My biggest annoyance is milk. Because of how little milk I use I used to buy Tesco's own brand filtered milk in the teeny 1 pint bottles and it would last me a week. They've stopped selling filtered milk other than Cravendale now and the smallest bottle of that I can find is 4 pints so I'm having to buy normal semi-skimmed milk twice a week and pour at least 50% of it down the sink.

Petrol prices went through the roof when there were those "shortages" months ago, the price has never come down again, not even a penny.

I feel like consumers are being screwed three ways to Christmas. I remember watching people in East Germany queuing to buy loaves on the telly when I was a child and I fear we could easily be heading in that direction.
 
I mentioned Jack Monroe in the Boris Johnson thread. She's doing amazing work highlighting how inflation hits the poorest hardest - and she's getting real traction and results.
Yes they're doing fantastic work highlighting real world shit.

That the official cost of living stats basically only included the costs for middle income earners shows up what a classist and repressive nation we are. Taking the poor out of the stats defies the whole point of it SURELY? SURELY?
 
I noted with horror that a Greggs sausage roll has now gone up to £1.05.
 
I noted with horror that a Greggs sausage roll has now gone up to £1.05.
And a day rider on Bristol buses has increased 18% to £5.30. That's HUGE if you're on benefit.

One of those Co-op freezer meal deal will give a family of three pretty much 2 meals for a fiver. That or a couple of bus journeys for one person. No wonder people walk.
 
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It's been visible for a while. I've noted that at least 2 major supermarkets have started trailing a price rise with a special offer...so if something looks like it's on offer at about 60-65% of its normal price, look out because that's the new half=price (if that makes sense).
 
I think most people are just assuming SURELY SOMETHING WILL BE DONE in regards to energy prices? I'm on a fixed rate until June, so hoping it just BLOWS OVER by that point.

Payrises really need to be handed out left, right and centre to workers. SO MANY people have had covid-induced :eyes: pay-freezes over the past couple of years, it's going to be a real issue if wages don't start playing catch up and SOON.
 
I think most people are just assuming SURELY SOMETHING WILL BE DONE in regards to energy prices? I'm on a fixed rate until June, so hoping it just BLOWS OVER by that point.

Payrises really need to be handed out left, right and centre to workers. SO MANY people have had covid-induced :eyes: pay-freezes over the past couple of years, it's going to be a real issue if wages don't start playing catch up and SOON.

Johnson is doing absolutely nothing at all, not will he unless persuaded that it would be good for him on a personal level. And we'll be whistling for payrises, don't you worry about that!
 
The vague proposals out there will barely take a dint out of the hit. And of course N.I. is going up.

Mr Ag's recent pay increase will be wiped out. I won't get any more, because they're hardly going to increase student loans.

Almost everyone I know will struggle to some degree.
 
I've genuinely taken to STEALING the most expensive parts of my weekly shop to KEEP COSTS DOWN :disco:

It's very easy to do at self-service tills FACT FANS. I think everybody must be doing it, the staff really DO NOT CARE where I live.
If I was on the shop floor in a supermarket I certainly wouldn't care. Why should you, when they pay you a wage that leaves you needing to claim Universal Credit and use food banks yourself?
 
If I was on the shop floor in a supermarket I certainly wouldn't care. Why should you, when they pay you a wage that leaves you needing to claim Universal Credit and use food banks yourself?

Oh absolutely! I'd be the worst supermarket security guard ever :D I'd basically let people FILL THEIR BAGS :disco:

As a disclaimer though: I wouldn't ever steal from a small local shop or business. Just the big supermarkets.
 
I've followed Jack for a while, and have thought more about my shopping after her (I believe she uses she/they) campaign of the last couple of weeks, and I can see a lot of it, as much as I'm fortunate enough not to be acutely affected by it like a lot of other people. I don't tend to buy the value range in any supermarket - other than when I buy in Aldi or Lidl where there is often no choice in terms of basics like eggs etc. And I don't think the middle has been squeezed quite as hard as the lower end as far as food is concerned. Or at least if you shop in that middle range you're more likely to be able to afford to shoulder a price increase, or choose to move down to the value range. But if you're there already, where do you go? There is no down if your 40p loaf of bread increases to 60p overnight. Or if the 500g bag of pasta reduces to 400g but that's all you can afford, what do you do, other than eat less?

I'm allowed to refer to food banks for my clients, and I'm doing it more and more. And I know that every person I refer hates having to ask. Not a single one treats it as a freebie or takes it lightly. Going back a year or two I was being contacted asking me not to refer certain people as they had already used it 3+ times in whatever the period was, but thinking about it now, I haven't had any such contact for about a year. Perhaps they have given up on that as things get worse, and the alternative is literally people dying of starvation, particularly at the moment when many are making a stark choice between food and warmth.
 
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The level of food bank use in this country is already disgusting, and I fear this is going to make it worse.
 
The level of food bank use in this country is already disgusting, and I fear this is going to make it worse.
The thing that makes me most despondent is that despite the very clear link between austerity and food banks, people have still returned that government three times since, and it's taken wine and cake to make change look likely. It's possibly the biggest push factor for Independence, for me.
 
I’m completely clueless when it comes to understanding inflation beyond prices rising :(
 
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The US has printed shitloads of money out of thin air to prop up the markets after Covid, well they did that after the 2008 crash too but it got really out of hand this time and cracks are starting to show. Buckle up.
 
The thing that makes me most despondent is that despite the very clear link between austerity and food banks, people have still returned that government three times since, and it's taken wine and cake to make change look likely. It's possibly the biggest push factor for Independence, for me.
I’d love to see Scottish independence, a united Ireland and then Wales to stick 2 fucking fingers up.
 
Mr L's job is relocating to Cardiff. Perhaps we really ought to consider going with it.
 
Yes they're doing fantastic work highlighting real world shit.

That the official cost of living stats basically only included the costs for middle income earners shows up what a classist and repressive nation we are. Taking the poor out of the stats defies the whole point of it SURELY? SURELY?
I don't believe it's that the intention was to "take the poor out of the stats" per se but this mendacious government has looked for any way it can to cook the books to hide the real Brexit "dividends" they said would never happen. So they twist the real inflation figures, the BBC doesn't report the queues at Dover, they downplay the supply chain crisis... Brexit is genuinely worse than I imagined, and I had rock-bottom expectations even back in 2015.
 
I've not personally been too hard hit and I don't expect to be - yeah energy bills in April are going to be a bitch and the rising cost of food/just about everything else is annoying, but i'm fairly lucky in that regard.

But the whole situation at the moment is an utter shambles and I cannot for the life of me understand why the government isn't coming up with a plan, specifically in regards to energy bills. The UK economy is really on a knife-edge here, and it's very possible that we have fairly lengthy period of higher inflation which will cause massive damage both in terms of a large section of society and the economy at large, but I hope i'm wrong.
 
The National Insurance bump has been on the cards since September last year - there has been some speculation that Boris and Rishi might renege on it amid all of the other household spending pressures (various Tory MPs have been publicly calling on them to) so today’s news is just confirming they are pressing ahead with it. It’s a bit rock and hard place as they have essentially already committed the money to tackling the huge backlog of elective care like operations in the NHS so pulling the NI increase would also be unpopular in that regard.

My dad said we are essentially looking at the 1970s but probably without quite so many strikes and said it will be a fright for millennials and younger who have never lived through this kind of inflation before.

AT THE MOMENT, I’m fairly guarded from the energy costs side of it as my bills are included in rent. Landlord is not making moves to increase the rent to reflect this YET (he hasn’t increased the rent once in the four years i’ve been there) but I fear that this will make enough of a dent for him to make moves. I was already towards my upper limit as far as rent when I moved in and like most people my wages have barely improved since then. My next two years of annual incremental pay increases will be totally absorbed by the NI hike.
 
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That’s just a completely ridiculous idea. You can’t get a Drs appointment for weeks, add repeat prescriptions for fruit and veg and and you may as well just quadruple (minimum) the wait times at A&E and fill more police cells with arrested shoplifters having to resort to stealing food.
 
The food crisis is a huge concern but in some respects it’s one I’m less worried about because there are systems in place with foodbanks to catch people falling through the gaps.

The fuel crisis is much, much scarier. People will be forced to choose between eat or heat and they’ll choose eat.

ONS recently reported there were over 21,000 excess deaths in England and Wales last winter. 8,500 of those deaths were from cold homes. I can’t see these figures going anywhere but up this winter and people dying in their own homes from the cold in modern Britain is just so so wrong.
 
Sexy SLANKET sales set to go through the ROOF as nobody can afford to turn their heating on :zombie:

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My local train ticket (day return to city centre) went up from £4.30 to £5 in January. That's HUGE. Almost 25%. I do not ever recall such a spike, nor do I remember seeing any communication about it.

It's like price hikes are just every day life now.
 
My boiler doesn't actually work (long story) so the impact should be minimal.

But remember everybody, absorb those higher fuel bills, food prices, clothing prices, NI increase but also make sure you are needlessly commuting (and paying through those nose through that) - Pret must be protected at all costs.
 

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