Inflation watch

[teamsaint]

I paid over £2 a litre for diesel last week at Esso in Romsey ( lets name and shame).

And Malted Milk biscuits up 10p from 55p to 65 p at the village shop in about a fortnight.

And our regular fruit and veg box up about £1 to £26 , doubtless due to fuel prices.

Don’t get me started on heating oil…….

[french frank]

Don’t get me started on heating oil…….

I was a bit surprised at how much my dual fuel DD was increased. I thought I'd have avoided that by turning off the (gas) central heating when the clocks changed and not turning it on again even when it got pretty cold. The next wheeze is to discontinue the use of the freezer once it's been emptied. Last time I did that for a while I took the door off and used the drawers to store fresh vegetables. I've quite liked being able to have frozen peas and baby broad beans but … I'll just have to do without. And when I've made too much of something, not freeze the extra portions but keep eating it day after day until it's gone.

[johncorrigan]

Two or three years ago the price of a postage stamp on a postcard to my pal in Germany was £1.35...at the weekend I went to post a card to him and the price has risen to £1.85. I went into a second post office just to check and it is indeed that price. I know it's not life and death, but a postcard coming in the opposite direction is 0.95 Euros. As somebody who sends quite a few letters, both within and outside UK, postage prices have been a very noticeable increase in my outgoings of late.

[ardcarp]

Indeed...and my missives to Norway seem even more inflated.

I know inflation and interest rates are not the same (though obviously related) but it is a scandal that interest on any loan or mortgage will rise instantly following a bank-rate change, whereas savings rates not only lag behind, but sometimes don't seem to shift at all.

[teamsaint]

Two or three years ago the price of a postage stamp on a postcard to my pal in Germany was £1.35...at the weekend I went to post a card to him and the price has risen to £1.85. I went into a second post office just to check and it is indeed that price. I know it's not life and death, but a postcard coming in the opposite direction is 0.95 Euros. As somebody who sends quite a few letters, both within and outside UK, postage prices have been a very noticeable increase in my outgoings of late.

not good that, JC.

In even worse news, a new season Southampton shirt is up £5 to £55.

You could probably get a portsmouth one with a player in for the same money, mind.......

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I suggest we are being conned by the inflation figures. Ever since 2012, benefits and pensions have risen by CPI inflation, which is noticeably lower than the RPI rate, which had been used.
But rail fairs and annual phone contract charges rise according to RPI inflation. The effect is cumulative, so a small annual difference becomes a large one after a decade or so.

[kernelbogey]

You could probably get a portsmouth one with a player in for the same money, mind.......

[Joseph K]

£18 I paid for a hair cut yesterday. I think that is a £5 increase from early March.

[Pulcinella]

My haircut yesterday stayed at £10! Mind you, that's pensioner rates.

But 4 pints of milk in the Coop just now £1.70, up from £1.55 last week.
Not that long ago when it was 2 x 4 pints for £2.20!

[Petrushka]

£18 I paid for a hair cut yesterday. I think that is a £5 increase from early March.

£18??? I just have a two minute trim at pensioner rate of £8 every three months or until it gets desperate. A neighbour has been trimming his own hair for years by using tutorial videos on You Tube.

[Serial_Apologist]

£18??? I just have a two minute trim at pensioner rate of £8 every three months or until it gets desperate. A neighbour has been trimming his own hair for years by using tutorial videos on You Tube.

Last time I visited a barber's, it cost me eleven and sixpence in the old money. That would have been in 1970 I think. In the 70s it was the long hair, beard & moustache etc lefty activist look - keeping the hairline above shoulder length by grabbing it round to the front and simply lopping off a couple of inches with scissors. Then around 1982 I shaved and chopped most of my hair off in a sudden fit of irrationality following a relationship break-up! My workmates asked me if I'd joined the National Front! A group of black schoolgirls shouted "Hey look, there goes the white man!" Within a short time some of my favourite jazz musicians, such as Andy Sheppard, were following in my example. People thought the band Sphere had acquired a new tenor player! I then bought a Braun clipper, quickly learning how to trim round the back with the aid of two mirrors, one hand held, the other wall fixed - counterintuitively, it seems at first as if one's hand is moving in the opposite direction from what one thinks... or maybe that should be "to"? Anyway I've used that appliance ever since, and watched charges at hairdressers spiralling with smug self-satisfaction. I recommend a self-inflicted haircut on anybody - but one warning: I only know how to do one style!