Guest absolutezero Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 BBC news has put a personal inflation calculator on their website. 7.7%?!?! What do you get? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7610430.stm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbga9pgf Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 BBC news has put a personal inflation calculator on their website.7.7%?!?! What do you get? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7610430.stm Donno, but get your comments on the map. Looks as if there are some pi$$ed off people out there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fully Detached Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Well how 'bout that? My inflation rate is 4.6% - I decided to see what it would be if I stopped smoking and drinking, and it rose to 5.2%. There is a God. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzzMosiz Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 7.6% though it feels like a lot more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckmojo Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 8.7%. it's more than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bingley Bloke Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 The calculator was developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). ... Which explains how the calculator produces a figure of 6.9% when in reality I am experiencing 20%+ inflation. Yet another BBC-supported government fiddle to make it look like unaffordability isn't increasing as quickly as it really is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5lab Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 its funny how everyone with supposed 20% inflation has nothing to back their figures up with. sure SOME things are rising by 20%, but others are dropping and lots are stagnent. so. average around 5%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AteMoose Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 5% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selling up Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 I don't know my expenditure figures any more: These days my financial circumstances are stress-free to the extent that I don't think about them. I suspect that's bad of me. Does that mean that I'm no longer allowed to consider myself financially astute?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yawnIHateSundays Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 7.3%, yet by my own calculations of expenditure I get 12.5%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normal Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 4.8% Only explanation is that I must have massaged one of the figures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selling up Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 (edited) Anyway, whatever my personal "inflation" figure is, it's totally meaningless: I live frugally in a small rented property, with no taste for going out, holidays, posh clothes, cars... I have a large pot of savings / investments, and over the next decade, only a small proportion of my assets is going to be spent on living expenses. Most will be spent on a house. Since house prices are falling and this accounts for where most of my assets will be spent, I consider my personal inflation rate to be about -10%. Edit: I see I'm the only person who has voted less than zero! Edited September 16, 2008 by Selling up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the primitive Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 BBC news has put a personal inflation calculator on their website.7.7%?!?! What do you get? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7610430.stm 5.2% but it seems way oversimplistic. So many caveats "food" - i mean FFS that's a bit generalised! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impatient_mug Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 3.4% - guess being single helps as not a lot is spent on food compared to a family, and living 5 miles from work means petrol costs less than £150/month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadman Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 9.5% for some reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluke Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 I like the map for comments, that's fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lepista Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 It's worth lokoing at a simplistic example to see why relatively small increases have such an effect on your spending power. Let's say you are relatively average, and spend around 75% of your salary left on paying all your house bills, rent, car bills, insurance, council tax, phone bills, tv and internet bills, etc. You might even be quite prudent, and save 5% into a savings fund, or just let it increase your bank balance (yes, I know - fairly unreal for most of the population!) Anyway, this leaves you you get to spend on the things that you want to spend it on - hobbies, meals, cinema, alcohol, fags, holidays. Now, the government comes along and stings you with a 5% inflation. Average. That's maybe 8% inflation on the things you need, and maybe 1% on the "luxury" items. So, where does that leave you? your "essentials" bill has now increased from 75% of your salary to 75*1.08 = 81%. The 20% you spent on your luxuries has now only gone up 1%, to 20.2%. You are now spending 101% of your salary on stuff that before only cost you 95% of your salary. Plus, you're not increasing that bank balance either - previously you were saving 5% of it. To get back to saving what you were saving, you actually have to rein back 6% of your spending, but you can't do that with the essentials - it has to come out of your discretionary spending. So, you are now only spending around 15% of your salary on the "luxury" items - a reduction of 25%, for an inflation rate of around 5%. The figures get worse the higher the proportion of your salary you spend on the essentials (i.e. for the poorer in society). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Less than 0%. Never mind the BBC site. The reality is that housing costs dominate so overwhelmingly over everything else, that things are only getting better for anyone who doesn't own property. Or rather, we're reclaiming a little of our money that was thrown at far richer people over the past decade or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickolarge Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 5.4% Which puts me in the middle of the most popular group so far but still over .5% above the official figure. Maybe this is my average but what troubles me is the number of things that you see jumping by 20+%. And they are normally the things where a choice is denied, like car park charges etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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