Inflation Anecdotals?

[Kyoto]

Is anyone else starting to notice higher prices - particularly over the last 2 - 3 months?

I don't buy petrol or have a large food bill, so haven't really been impacted by these, but some of the other discretionary things I buy are really starting to make me do a double take.

Examples include:

Average posh sandwich £3.30 > £4

New release DVD £14.99 > £18.99

Mid range clothing e.g. Ted Baker Jumper £55 > £70

Cinema for two > £15 > £21

All of the above are clearly luxuries, they vary, and are completely discretionary, so let's not argue about the specific figures. However, the specific prices are there to make a point that inflation is really feeling apparent in the discretionary mig-range sector.

What are your experiences?

[Lepista]

Co-Op crab sticks used to be £1 for 16.. now they are £1 for 16. Only thing is, packet weight has gone from 250g down to 200g.

I make that a 25% increase!

[Kyoto]

Co-Op crab sticks used to be £1 for 16.. now they are £1 for 16. Only thing is, packet weight has gone from 250g down to 200g.

I make that a 25% increase!

Irish inflation!

[Once in a lifetime]

Sky Tv have told me they are putting the price of subscription up by a £1 a month.

[MrFlibble]

I saw Pringles in Morrison yesterday on offer, 2 for £3, original price £2. Since when?

[Meat Puppet]

No anecdotals as I am not in the country at the moment and rarely shop when I am there - that's the wife's job.

But I do have facts and they show that the measure of inflation, CPIY, that excludes the effects of indirect taxation has fallen from over 5% in 2008 to only 1.6% in June and most of that increase is due to rises in transport costs i.e. petrol.

And that is in the face of a large devaluation in sterling. As austerity starts and deleveraging continues I expect us to be at 0% soon enough.

[goldbug9999]

My daily can of red bull at the petrol station has gone up from £1.29 last november to £1.79 now. Enough is enough so I've started bulk buying tescos own brand clone which is only 30p .

[ken_ichikawa]

Metro tickets used to be £4 then went to £4.50 are not £5 a 25% increase in less than 1 year.

Cheap ramen noodles used to be 6p a packet are now 9p a 50% increase.

Ubercheap crisps used to be 48p for a pack of 12, are now 58p for a pack of 10.

[Georgia O'Keeffe]

Tickets for the Young Boys / Spurs Game only 90 CHF a pop, massive deflation

Probably woth a million for a game that would grace the final

[Sour Mash]

My daily can of red bull at the petrol station has gone up from £1.29 last november to £1.79 now. Enough is enough so I've started bulk buying tescos own brand clone which is only 30p .

So in fact, strong deflation there as you switched to a much cheaper equivalent. Good old hedonic adjustment!

Amazingly, that's the way that they actually calculate the official stats. No wonder official figures so rarely correlate with personal experience of strongly rising prices.

By the way, offer on in Tesco at the minute - 8 cans of Red Bull for a fiver

[Azbola]

Subway sub of the day has gone from £1.99 to £2.29.

Whats that, about 15%?

Edited August 11, 2010 by Azbola

[Realistbear]

When consumers curtail spending and start saving dear things will have to get cheaper or rot on the shelves.

That is, apart from the "must haves:' bread, water, leccy, beans, cabbages, McVities Biscuits, milk and Glen Morangie.

Clothing--I have enough to last a few years and I only buy shoes when I visit the US (Rockports for $40 or less at outlets).

[Lepista]

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=121721

[Sour Mash]

When consumers curtail spending and start saving dear things will have to get cheaper or rot on the shelves.

Or they will simply not be produced ... or exported somewhere else in the world where people will pay more for them. Don't assume that producers will continue to produce and sell at any price to the impoverished UK population.

That is, apart from the "must haves:' bread, water, leccy, beans, cabbages, McVities Biscuits, milk and Glen Morangie.

Clothing--I have enough to last a few years and I only buy shoes when I visit the US (Rockports for $40 or less at outlets).

Stagflation has long been predicted here.

[Caveat Mortgagor]

Sainsburys after dinner ground coffee. Was on a 'special offer' for more than 12 months - so we considered it the norm. 2 bags for £3.

Now £2.36 per bag

Edited August 11, 2010 by Caveat Mortgagor

[teef]

High inflation is nothing new - for years I could never reconcile the increase in prices against the Government stated inflation. Everything I bought always seemed to go up 5-10% per year but the official inflation rate was 2-3%. Then I realised the true rate of inflation is 5-10% - the Government are just understating it.

[fatsam]

I still have a receit in the kitchen from a shop i did in asda 27/03/09, just doing a quick comparrison using asdas website.

Bread has gone up slightly, beans are the same, porridge down 1pence, jam is the same, pasta sauce down 1pence, tinned potatoes up 3pence, spaghetti is the same, soup is the same, sardines up 10 pence, noodles down 2pence.

Pity i didn't buy any tuna but i'm sure the price of that has gone through the roof, hard to get the chicken breast fillets aswell as they allways get snapped up quick, the cheap ones, i need to start using the website to buy my shopping i guess.

Edited August 11, 2010 by fatsam

[SarahBell]

Phone bill going up 50p a month

[opt_out]

Not sure how just much wheat has gone up, but my staple Hovis crackers were always 55p, now above £1 everywhere.

[soldintime]

Funny that we are still experiencing inflation when credit has been deflating for a while and incomes are not growing but shrinking. I think lots of businesses have put up prices to combat slower sales. You would expect greece to experience low inflation after the massive cutbacks and market reforms coming in. Inflation went up to almost 5% this year. It shows the market is still not very competitive and lower sales are being offset by higher prices.

For retail prices to come down we need the following:

* Significantly lower rents on commercial property in the high street.

* Wages to come down.

* Death of brand power - things will get that bad that we will not pay £70 for a Ted Baker, and we all go to Primark or Matalan. Forget the £4 pret a manger sandwich, you have your own one.

With food essentials going up due to poor harvests elsewhere the retail sector will have to give eventually.

[barrabus]

Packet of 50 balloons gone from £1.20 to £1.99 thats proper inflation.

[Sour Mash]

Funny that we are still experiencing inflation when credit has been deflating for a while and incomes are not growing but shrinking.

That's because there's a widely held myth that inflation is exclusively paired with economic growth and likewise deflation with recession.

If you are heavily dependent on imports and you debase your currency of course you'll stoke inflationary price pressures irrespective of whether or not your economy is doing well.

Besides it doesn't matter whether or not overall money supply is growing or shrinking (due to bank credit lessening) when it comes to buying day to day essentials - you'll pay what you have to in order to get them. If supply drops off because the producers have stopped making them (e.g. they have gone bust or find it more profitable to devote capacity to other production) or are selling their produce to people in another country who can afford to pay more (because your currency has tanked for example) then prices will go up.

[Concrete Jungle]

Car insurance renewal time paid £315 last year. This year same car, worth less, one more year without claiming / getting points special price of only £425 for a valued 'customer' like me

[Ceinwyn]

Subway sub of the day has gone from £1.99 to £2.29.

Whats that, about 15%?

Hehe - I always get the Veggie Delight at Subways, has been £1.99 for ages and I keep £2 in my pocket to avoid getting purse out of handbag etc.

One day the girl says £2.29 and I reply: WHOA that's gone up 15% to which she replies: Wow, you're the first one to notice that.

On the one hand it's only 30p, on the other it's 15% - and it's across the board. We used to bulk buy Heinz soups for quick dinner days but then they jumped from 55p to 80p, up over 20% in one smooth move. Needless to say, Heinz is only on the menu when the supermarkets do special offers like 6 for £3 now - the cheek!

Every trip to the supermarket leaves me baffled at how much it's gone up. It's nigh impossible to leave without paying £10, the usual basket is nearer to £20 now. I think I'll have to bite the bullet, start getting more organized and do a big bulk buy once a week trying to avoid the supermarket for the remainder of the week. This would probably save me at least £30 a week (which would be great since I'm on a mini salary).

Ceinwyn

[porca misèria]

I paid under £800 for a new bike in April 2008 (and that was LBS price - online was cheaper). Now look at it!

On the other hand, sensible clothes are cheaper in £ terms, let alone index-linked, than they were 30 years ago. Electronic devices even more so. Swings and roundabouts!