Everything is expensife.

Last year i remember chuckling to myself around this sort of time how wealthy i felt and eating out, pissing loads up the wall.

This year i have more money coming in and can't afford a pot to piss in.
My supermarket shop seems INSANE, the leccy bill just smashed me in the pocket, bicycles are ridiculous, climbing gear is still reasonablish and camera gear is just to expensife to consider buying any.

no, I'm loaded :o)

Food shopping is rediculous at the moment.

Gas and electric not too bad but i do turn everything off if im not using and use energy saving bulbs.

its all a bit of a trade of as my mortgage is about 250 quid cheaper than this tim elast year so im not particularly poorer.

I also live well within my means and dont have any loans or credit cards outstanding.

Life is so tough eh when you HAVE to buy climbing gear, bike gear and camera equipment all the time.

I earn less than the average wage, but I have a mortgage on a house, run a car, go on foreign holidays, buy bike bits all the time. I honestly don't get how some people are apparently skint all the time. I guess it's different for those with kids.

Fixed my energy bills in 2005, shopping seems pretty cheap, I spend £64 to feed a family of 4 for a week on Saturday

Living in Britain is expensive, I think a lot of people are still coming to terms with having to pay back all the the credit which was on offer a few years ago though.

Our baby is due tomorrow so things are having to be looked at long and hard when it comes to spending, we had a 20% pay cut at work in July and now the missus is on maternity pay. We're just being careful and clever with what we buy but are still managing to get to the end of the month with money going into the savings. It's a challenge, but I think we all need the lesson

I agree that food shopping in particular seems to add up amazingly fast lately.

I should add that I'm not in the UK but in Belgium, but just buying normal stuff without either luxuries or mega budget stuff adds up horribly.

Can't complain with our quality of life overall, but it's always frustrating to see money haemorrhage out…

is this a carnivore thing ?

I don't think so, I normally buy omnivores and herbivores to eat.

I feel fairly okay at the moment. Mortgage is significantly reduced (far more than food bill has increased) so that helps a lot.

As the UK now appears to import everything we are hit especially badly by currency fluctuations like now where the Euro is almost at parity compared to being 2/3rds value and so everything becomes expensive. The upside to this is that the UK is now very good for manufacturing the few items which we still do (for foreign owned companies) and exporting them abroad – for example the Honda Jazz is now made in the UK rather than Japan and assuming that Mandy gets the new owners of GMEurope to ignore what the Germans are asking them to do then the new Astra will be built in Liverpool, Dagneham is the main Ford Europe engine plant etc etc.
In terms of energy however we are f-ed as the National Grid is less than a decade away from being life expired and we're becoming far too reliant on Russian gas (or as they call it a non violent regime change material).

I guess it's different for those with kids.

too bloody right – when my kids are here at weekends it's an extra £30 at least on petrol, food etc

try planning a wedding!!, then you will be poor like me!! 🙁

Well good point down here.
I can go to the market place, so amazingly nice fruit/veg and meat cheaper than in supermarket (and way cheaper than in UK).
Petrol as gone to the roof, but then it's bike/useless piece of crap called train for commute.
I have slowed down on photo as they cost an absolute fortune to get processed over here.

Bike parts are now back on rpp (mainly due to my choice to support my lbs) so not much luck from here.

And jaffa cakes are the same price as gold around here :'(

The prie of food and petrol seems mad to me. my outgoings appear to have gone up 1/3 in less than a year 🙁

is this a carnivore thing ?

Not sure. IME supermarkets keep the price of meat artificially low, while veg suffers in both cost and quality (and variety).

The difficulty is that, as a nation, we have bought massively into the "food must be cheap" mentality. We have also pandered to the idea of one big shopping trip per week to a supermarket and have adjusted our lives for this.

The food we buy reflects this – "bread" that lasts a week anyone?

But, as a general comment on the cost of living – I find that inflation has been much greater than the low figures that RPI (and even CPI) suggest. Combined with salaries and wages remainiung at least static or even being heavily reduced to avoid unemployment, the perceived cost of things has gone up.

The reality is that, for a significant number, nothing much has changed except their perception of how expensive things are.

I have slowed down on photo as they cost an absolute fortune to get processed over here.

I was shocked to realise my major photo cost now is shutter wear at approx 1/2p per click! Oh and I just spent £1100 on a new pooter to speed up panorama stitching :o)

yup omitn have hammered the nail on the head.
I need 2 shopping trip a week one at the market place and one at the supermarket.
To be fair you could even count it at 3 as I live in my mum's basement and I tend to "steal" some of her food same way she come down to "borrow" some of mine. I have reduced my meat intake too as a result to going to the market only once.
Same for fish can't really afford (in terms of time) to go to the fishmonger that much, so it's frozen fish.
As for food should be cheap, well when you compare the price of basics food here and in the UK the difference is massive. And strangely enough, the "non vital" stuff is way cheaper in the UK.

I've found that living is expensive since I've become underemployed. This means a) smaller wage and b) more leisure time, the latter is a real killer because it's very easy to spend money when you don't have much to do. I've tried to get round this by making a note of everything I spend (even if 40pence chewing gum) and tallying it up every week. If I go into the pub to read the papers and get out of the house I settle for half a pint (getting wasted not good for the bank balance). It's easy to take this to extremes – do all socialising on facebook and take holidays on google earth – nevertheless count the pennies, see the pounds (then go to the government).

IME Britain is less expensive than mainland europe at the moment, even after factoring out the exchange rate movements.

Yep – food, local taxes, fuel all gone.
Not had a pay rise / bonus and overtime and call out have been cut.

The only really cheap thing here in the UK is cars. Way cheaper to buy a Pug like mine here than in France.
Food's become expensive, especially fruit, veg and fish. I buy meat from supermarkets (can't afford 30 quid per kilo of beef at the butchers) or a guy who delivers to luxury hotels (15 kgs of chicken breast for under £50). And no eating out for me nowadays 🙁
Diesel is costly, rent – OTT, bike bits ridiculously priced new. One day it'll get better I hope.

I buy meat from supermarkets (can't afford 30 quid per kilo of beef at the butchers) or a guy who delivers to luxury hotels

People have got so used to the idea that food should be cheap and you have to eat loads of meat every day (me included). Meat used to be expensive and seen as a treat – nothing really wrong with that imo.

Are f's cheaper than v's ?

State school dinners…… now costs £30/week for my 3 girls school dinners – bleedin 'ell 🙁

So £2 per meal – hardly outrageous is it?

So £2 per meal – hardly outrageous is it?

It all adds up I can tell you.

Make them a packed lunch then?

Its not like i was buying climbing gear/bike parts/cameras all year last year. Sorry if i sounded like a tosser.

I just mean that even if i have to buy a chain and cassette now it seems to pound me. My DLSR body also died a death and that is now so expensife to replace that its unlikely to happen.

and you have to eat loads of meat every day (me included).

dream on sunshine :o)

Are f's cheaper than v's ?

Hoho. See also:

http://how-to-spell-ridiculous.com/

I have 3 'kids' at Uni or college……………tis ****' expensive! 🙁