Bloody hell gents,
Anyone else just taking an absolute drubbing at the moment? It is just astonishing. Every time I think there is nothing more left in the tank, I get slammed with something else. Just had a note that the council tax is going up - drumroll 38%! The water bill this year is just astonishing. My leaseholder has smashed us with a massive bill.
The whole country is totally broken. I have no idea how people earning low salaries make ends meet. The numbers don’t make sense.
What’s really getting to me is that the official “inflation” figures just don’t reflect any of this. They say inflation is X%, but everything you have to pay — housing, council tax, energy, water, transport — feels like it’s gone up multiples of that over the last couple of decades.
I was doing some reading online and it turns out this isn’t just perception. Back in the mid-90s, households were spending roughly 30–35% of their income on essentials. Now it’s more like 50–60%. That’s a massive shift.
So even if wages track inflation on paper, the reality is you’ve got far less left over at the end of the month. The “optional” part of your income — the bit that actually gives you breathing room — has been getting squeezed for years.
And it makes sense when you think about it: council tax has gone through the roof, housing has exploded, energy is constantly volatile, rail fares keep climbing. Meanwhile, the stuff that’s gotten cheaper (TVs, clothes, gadgets) doesn’t help much because you don’t need to buy those every month.
It honestly feels like we’re being slowly boiled. Not one catastrophic hit, just constant increases in all the unavoidable stuff until suddenly half your income is already spoken for before you’ve even started living.
I think the cost of living affects women too, some of whom are even members of this forum!
I'll eagerly await their input. Apologies to the woman of the STW massive.
Just had a note that the council tax is going up - drumroll 38%!
Are you sure that's not 3.8%? There's only a handful of local authorities that applied to increase above the 5% cap and 8.99% was the largest increase of those.
Yes sorry should have said - I lost a single person discount as have another person living with me now... but still up 5%. Misleading opener!
Edit: ah, so your council tax has actually decreased?
Ours is up by 7%, though 2% of that is for infrastructure improvements (roads etc).
Water has definitely gone through he roof. Just awaiting a 'password' reset to see what my council tax has changed by. A colleague who is in the next council has gone up by £10 per month, so hoping mine is similar. Actually our council bills went up a fair bit last year as we had to start paying for the garden waste collection.
I'm older, so my mortgage is paid off and MrsF isn't working now. Only our one income but we manage. Car use isn't a great deal as I cycle to work, saving about £12 a day. We're not going abroad this year just because we can't be bothered, and there is loads to explore in the UK. My ideal holiday is sat in my tent/the van by a beach with a few beers and food on the BBQ. Oh and a bike at my side.
We had one big expense, a hot tub. That's finally given up the ghost, so we're getting rid. Saving over £100 a month on energy. MrsF's 'cold tub' doesn't need energy, just an occasional water change as you only dip in it for 5-10 minutes.
Up 7.8% in Wychavon. 😳
Ah, joe, you had me panicking then... Naughty.
I was thinking this very thing yesterday looking at my council tax and water bill.
I was reflecting that with mains supply becoming so expensive it might be more cost effective to have ones own potable supply. Seems like the payback for the purification system would be about three years. So. Rain water recovery and storage, with a mains connection in case it ever runs dry seems like a sensible approach.
I lost a single person discount as have another person living with me now...
So your council tax bill has gone down significantly, because you have someone to share it with? I make it that your half of the bill is 31% down on what you were paying when solely responsible.
As for leaseholders, the law urgently needs changing there to control charges. That’s going through parliament now.
over the last few years my council tax has jumped massivly. At least 25% over the last few years.
We are having to go to a single income household soon as well. Its crippling.
Rain water recovery and storage, with a mains connection in case it ever runs dry seems like a sensible approach.
It might have changed, but back when my parents were off grid for water, the water company could (and did) still charge them for collecting rain water and preventing it running back into the ground. And they had no mains connection (and couldn’t get one).
Yep.
We're being rodgered from all sides.
I feel like I'm running to stand still and I'm sick of it. Can't stop running though.
Now you have someone living with you then you can share those costs.
Our council tax has increased, water rates too but by electric has reduced. Other costs such as food shopping have increased though and treats like a meal out.
I hear that ii fees have gone up too.
Another 9.5% council tax increase here (iirc thats 25% in 3 years). Luckily our mortgage has just come down, but the hope was to use that saving to overpay - oh well.
Car insurance for 2 cars is up next month - looking forward to getting shafted there too
Beer is still under £4 a pint in my local so it's not all bad!! 🙂
Its the food shopping that always gets me. Pop into Coop for a few bits, get to the till with a half full basket and its £25!
I've stopped using the Coop completely now. Can't afford it there. There was once a time when they were great value.
Kind of sad what has happened to the Co-op, they are pretty dire. Shame it is the only shop in many remote locations. It is overpriced. My local one seems incapable of getting its order numbers correct, routinely throwing out huge quantities of high value salmon for example. Car park is a rubbish tip, no pride at all. It has been obvious to me that it has a management issue, and indeed that was reported recently:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crrnkpyqdzyo
There's only a handful of local authorities that applied to increase above the 5% cap and 8.99% was the largest increase of those.
just across the border from me in the shire - it was a 10% hit. We got 6.8%
Its the food shopping that always gets me. Pop into Coop for a few bits, get to the till with a half full basket and its £25!
Co-op is expensive.
Dunno how much fuel has gone up there but it's a dollar more per litre here for 91.
I was doing some reading online and it turns out this isn’t just perception. Back in the mid-90s, households were spending roughly 30–35% of their income on essentials. Now it’s more like 50–60%. That’s a massive shift.
I think partly it's our expectations. I live in a house that's bigger and more expensive than the one I grew up in, consequently it has a bigger council tax bill (and being Scottish our water bill is linked to that so its bigger too).
Car insurance for 2 cars is up next month - looking forward to getting shafted there too
And we have two newer, nicer cars than my parents have ever owned (they only ever owned one) and each of my three bikes cost more than my dad's one, despite him riding his more often! Even if you look at the food we eat, and the frequency with which we eat out, it's no wonder we seem to be no richer.
The issues are real, but if your spending includes Netflix, Spotify, unlimited mobile internet, fibre broadband, etc you may not really be comparing like with like in comparing 2026 to 1996. Even foreign air travel was a serious luxury which seems to have been normalised now. Housing costs have changed a lot - but the 90's were not a time of cheap mortgages, even if the properties themselves were lower.
Beer is still under £4 a pint in my local so it's not all bad!! 🙂
Which is your local? Spanish Bar in Ilson had some at £3.40 last month
Co-op is expensive.
Very much a "just need to grab a couple of things as I'm driving past" shop. Feel for those that have to use them for a proper food shop
Which is your local? Spanish Bar in Ilson had some at £3.40 last month
...but you've then got to drink in Ilson and mix with the locals!!! 😬 😬
Just had to renew my energy bill. Go tracker or fix 1 years at plus 20% or 2year at plus 10%. Stick or twist, screwed in all regards - thanks Mr Trump
Kind of sad what has happened to the Co-op, they are pretty dire. Shame it is the only shop in many remote locations. It is overpriced. My local one seems incapable of getting its order numbers correct, routinely throwing out huge quantities of high value salmon for example.
On the other hand if you go in at 7pm and are prepared to buy all sorts of random stuff, they do have some excellent deals on food going out of date that day!
Agree though, Co-op is a last resort for me, they're very expensive.
I'm getting all the emails now about broadband and mobile bills - "as of April we'll be adding another £3 onto your bill... " type stuff. But Octopus did tell me (very proudly) that my prices were coming down since the unit price of electricity was somehow 0.5p cheaper this month. So yes, my bill (which I pay by DD anyway, a fixed monthly amount) will be approximately 35p cheaper than last month... 🙄
Co-op is expensive.
Very much a "just need to grab a couple of things as I'm driving past" shop. Feel for those that have to use them for a proper food shop
TBF, they're a convenience store, not a supermarket. Get a membership card. Makes it a bit cheaper. I'd still rather shop there than line the pockets of shareholders of Tesco, Asda etc (as well as deal with the pond life that seems to use those shops).
Kind of sad what has happened to the Co-op, they are pretty dire. Shame it is the only shop in many remote locations. It is overpriced. My local one seems incapable of getting its order numbers correct, routinely throwing out huge quantities of high value salmon for example.
On the other hand if you go in at 7pm and are prepared to buy all sorts of random stuff, they do have some excellent deals on food going out of date that day!
Agree though, Co-op is a last resort for me, they're very expensive.
I'm getting all the emails now about broadband and mobile bills - "as of April we'll be adding another £3 onto your bill... " type stuff. On the other hand Octopus did tell me that my prices were coming down since the uni price of electricity was somehow 0.5p cheaper this month. So yes, my bill (which I pay by DD anyway, a fixed monthly amount) will be approximately 35p cheaper than last month... 🙄
I need to call Sky. Bill is pushing £120 p/m but I've just had a mail from them telling me I'll be getting HBO for free from next month. Ace - I don't care at all as I only really watch the sport. But in the same mail, £10 of price increases on existing parts of my contract so I'll be taking the opportunity to look elsewhere given this gives me a chance to get out of my contract.
Gas & electric bill has gone up to £200 p/m recently as well...
I think partly it's our expectations
and circumstances...
in 1996 my parents would have been about the same age as me now (ie late 50s) but unlike me (and others I know my age) they had by then paid off their mortgage, did not have university costs for their offspring to cover (I had a grant back then and lived in cheap rented accommodation), and my dad could afford to semi-retire (who knows when and if I can!), and they still went off on nice hols every so often, and enjoyed their later years in reasonable health at that time.
But Octopus did tell me (very proudly) that my prices were coming down since the unit price of electricity was somehow 0.5p cheaper this month.
And they’ve dropped the feed in payment to 12p per kWh from 15p
Helium balloons have gone up in price. Not sure why 🤔
The UK is in a Dire place, nationally and for individuals.
Banking Crisis, Brexit, Covid - all took a toll on the economy, the Banking Crisis was 18 years ago, but we've still not recovered from it every time we start to, something else comes along, for heavens sake just as it was looking like the war in Ukraine was going to end, Trump decides to kick off in the Middle East.
Labour are taking all the shit for rising bills and taxes, but what else can they do? we've still got a massive deficit and facing the real prospect of a World War.
The knock on of all of this is what we're feeling at home. Food prices rises because of tariffs (Trump), increased transport costs (Wars), large scale criminality in shops (Public Spending and Poverty) increased utilities (Privatisation and War) Increased Council Tax (Deficit).
A lot of posters are making the valid point about lifestyle changes, Holidays, iPads and Sky, the usual suspects - but there's a point to it, People by and large aren't good at giving up things they've become used to without feeling they're victims - which has lead the the Populists gaining so much popularity not only in the UK, but Globally.
I haven't a clue if it will end, or we should accept this as the new normal.
Yeah it's dire, our council tax is going up by £28 a month, and they introduced last year the £40 to take your green waste away BS. Gas and Elec already £160pm for the two of us and a dog. Don't even get me started on cost of food. An old farmer friend of mine reached out to me a couple of months ago asking if I'd come and get on top of the rabbits for him again, I don't shoot anymore it's been a good 8 years but with the price of chicken and other meat lately I seriously considered it, until I looked at the cost of getting back into it again, even the price of lead has shot through the roof no pun intended. I'd be better off faring my chances with a catapult and a pocket full of gravel but then I'm not really doing him any service coming away every week with maybe only one rabbit, and then not taking into consideration fuel to drive to and forth from his farm either.
We actually ended up buying another freezer to keep in the garage and now we buy all sorts with yellow labels on or as part of deals, or extras from what we've cooked and freeze it.
We're not skint by all means, dual income no kids but every month were' seeing our disposable income get less and less and less.
This month I treat myself to fake 100% S3 riding glasses off ebay and a perfect draft keg cause the off license had an offer on, rest has gone on the house, the dog and food 🙄
I agree. The cost of living is going up world wide. Peak quality of living is a thing of the past. Our society is having to pay more across the board. People living much longer, resulting in higher costs to look after them, impacts from final salary pensions going on much longer, etc. Combine that with the simple fact that energy is more expensive and will continue to get more expensive as time goes on (burning stuff that easily pops put if the ground is pretty cheap compared to trying to get the same stuff from harder, more remote places or trying to get new infrastructure in place to harvest variable renewable power). Then we've got climate change making weather more extreme and starting to cause migration of people. This all adds up to life costing more. We also have more luxuries (as mentioned by others) that we now see as essential.
It's the world we live in and that us and our parents have led us to. Blaming the current government for worldwide systemic issues is just short sighted.
What we need to do is live better lives. Use our resources more efficiently, be kinder to each other, and focus on what matters ...
My local Co-Op is definitely more expensive than the local Aldi if you just look at the price at the till, but I'm sick to shit of Aldi perishables not lasting. Carrots and peppers particularly that turn liquid in a few days, onions that magically are either rotten or have the brown wrapper inside, and meat where the packs aren't sealed properly meaning they are either already spoiled or go off well withing the use by dates.
In real terms the money local councils get from Westminster has fallen 46% since 2010. (Source: institute for Fiscal Studies)
Hence why everyone's seeing services being cut to the bone even as tax bills go up.
It's brutal being a councillor ATM, all the 'fat' was cut long ago so every budget season you're just presented with a series of increasingly horrible options to save more money as things like the housing crisis push ever more demand for statutory services that you have provide by law ever higher even as the cost of everything keeps going up. In the end it's a communities' most vulnerable residents that rely on these services and they are the ones who get it in the neck when cuts have to be made.
On an entirely unrelated side note, Nvidia's 2 UK subsidiaries paid £0 in UK corporation tax last year due to some very clever accounting. (Source: Private Eye)
Nvidia has a current market cap of $4.3 Trillion
Yup. “We” (the population of the world) actually keep getting richer, but all (well 2/3 of) new wealth gets grabbed by the already highly wealthy, the top 1%, with what’s left (1/3) distributed among the remaining 99% (and mostly to the top half of that).
My train fare, which is a huge chunk of my salary is capped this year, which means a lot, but I have 4 kids- 15,13 & 2x8 are not cheap to maintain!!
The knock on of all of this is what we're feeling at home. Food prices rises because of tariffs (Trump), increased transport costs (Wars), large scale criminality in shops (Public Spending and Poverty) increased utilities (Privatisation and War) Increased Council Tax (Deficit).
Most of that I have no dispute about, but has Trump tariffs really increased your food costs (I assume you live in UK from your other comments)? How much of your food is produced in the USA or am I missing some indirect way that tariffs cost us money for our food?
Nearly all food costs are affected by oil prices, both fuel and fertiliser. Buckle up…
Just had my council tax letter for the year ahead, the maximum 5% increase as expected.
Nearly all food costs are affected by oil prices, both fuel and fertiliser. Buckle up…
Very much this I expect.
I'm another one who feels the official rate of inflation doesn't reflect 'modern life' costs.
I'm also a excessive bargain hunter. I just HAVE to get costs down for all sorts of things. That really helps.
What doesn't is feeding 4 adults....my word food is expensive.
Fortunately Rachel from Accounts has her Fifty million pounds widow to buy her clothing for her.I wouldn't want I see her suffer. Keir's son has a £15,000,000 study pad to help him along.These folks are well aware of our struggles.
Today I was working on our mag archive. Involved searching through old issues. An issue from 2005 had a review of a Fox 36 fork. RRP was 699.
Bank of England inflation calculator suggests that would be £1250 today. A Factory 36 today is £900. So why does everything feel like it’s way more expensive? Because despite the low inflationary price rises of some stuff our wages have not kept up.
I'd say a Fox 38 is a fairer comparison at £1398.99 The 36 was the top fork in the day but now it's old hat and the price reflects that. It would be like comparing a current Sandero with a 2005 Clio because the spec is similar when a fairer comparison is a current Clio or better still Renault 5 EV.
We're doing OK. No Netflix, no fibre, no subscription services just a basic Android phone each at 20e and 11e - we have different operators so one phone can be used as a hot spot because they work better in different places. The horse isn't cheap but our holidays are, and junior still gets subsidised, and probably always will.
And yes, the fixed costs such as local taxes, insurance, food and water are rising well above rises in income.
Keir's son has a £15,000,000 study pad to help him along.
You mean during the 2024 election campaign he got to stay away from the maelstrom and study for his GCSEs at someone else's pad?
And politicians getting their 2024 election campaign clothes paid for says nothing about their lives, or what they know about ours.
Because despite the low inflationary price rises of some stuff our wages have not kept up.
This is the at the nub of it, wages haven't kept up with inflation for many (most) of us. Meanwhile the wealthy have increased their wealth at a faster rate than inflation.
The 36 was the top fork in the day but now it's old hat and the price reflects that.
Not really. The 36 still has the same place in the range, for the same kind of riding, same kind of travel. 180mm stout single crown forks are a different proposition entirely. Will we see a new 38 tomorrow by the way, that gets the updates the 36 has already received? Oh, if you really want to compare apples and oranges, why not talk about the Podium... as the 38 is "old hat".
Nice to see you're still here to chat!
I'd say a Fox 38 is a fairer comparison at £1398.99 The 36 was the top fork in the day but now it's old hat and the price reflects that.
Does a modern Fox 36 perform worse than an older Fox 36 though?
Does a modern Fox 36 perform worse than an older Fox 36 though?
It depends. Fox 'innovation' goes around in circles. Where are we in the cycle right now?
As an observation from someone who's visited in 2023, 2024, and 2025, in comparison to rising Australian prices, the cost of virtually everything in England and Wales seemed to have increased far more than 10 years ago, and particularly in 2025. 2025 may have been partly due to exchange rates though.
Groceries in Italy were on par with what we pay in Australia, but in the UK (and to a lesser extent Canada) they were more expensive. The other difference I think is that wages have increased more in Australia. Personally, I'm pretty much guaranteed to get 2-3% increase each year, but i'm aware that's not common in the UK and hasn't been for years.
And yet, my car obsessed kids couldn't believe the amount of tyre-clad bling on the roads. Admittedly luxury cars are probably comparatively less expensive in the UK than they would be here, and we did spend a bit of time in Sussex.
Flipping bleak atm. Every single bill has increased well beyond the rate at which our pay is going up by. I'm also in the Stage 2 student loan cohort where the repayments on that are really starting to take a chunk out the paycheck whilst my debt has increased by nearly £20k since leaving uni. Fiscal drag is really starting to hammer home on us, especially with it now applying to Student loans from next year.
Having serious discussions with my partner over whether we want to have a kid, and how the heck we'd actually afford it.
couldn't believe the amount of tyre-clad bling on the roads
yep, massive motors pretty much everywhere these days 😕
All paid for on the never never.
The car selling gangsters refer to the UK as 'Treasure Island '.Here in Rip-off Britain we truly are a nation of mugs.
Pah, you ungrateful plebs,
But hey…….the ftse is up, corporation profits are up, ceo pay is 100+ times the lowest paid company wage, many more millionaires/billionaires have been created - just work harder/grift longer and you too can escape the tax man knocking at the door
Yeh,no spare money for the plebs.Those Billions in share buybacks are money the govt couldn't possibly touch.
Yeah it's all quite depressing really. My outgoings are going up this year as well as I have to do some additional borrowing on the mortgage and not sure how I'm going to cope, I'm already stretched pretty thin. Luckily my car and some other finances have just been paid off so I have a bit extra to take it up, but would have been nice to have that extra money to actually be able to save a bit.
Going out for a ride is one of the few things that helps clear my head, so I just hope nothing big on my bike breaks otherwise I'll be waiting a long time to replace it.
yep, massive motors pretty much everywhere these days
My Mum couldn't understand this (as in, how people could afford massive new cars) until I explained about leases deals - and that was only because I'm in the market for a new (new to me) car and work do offer a salary sacrifice scheme.
As someone who has always bought cars secondhand paying full price, she was amazed to hear of this opportunity to spend £500+ per month in order to be seen driving around in a top end car.
However the car companies and the finance companies absolutely rely on each other, it's the only way that either of them survive.
The whole country is totally broken.
Hyperbole much? No doubt things are economically tough for many. And I’m sorry to hear about your single person living costs and subsequent council tax discount OP.
it’s a bit better than ‘broken’. The outlook for employment and ‘fair wages for a fair day’s work’ has been better. But things tend to work OK. We have water, power, transport. Businesses are still open. And the streets are fairly orderly day to day. I’d suggest that we got where we are now through increasingly conservative politics. Moving right makes things s#***.
There’s no doubt that wages have failed to keep track with inflation. For me this is the biggest gripe I have. Not so much for myself as despite losing a fair margin over the last 10 years I’m in an OK position. I’m more concerned about folks on ‘get by’ and less income. Together with a punitive benefits system this wage regression is a day to day demotivator. I put the blame for this on larger employers and their ‘shareholder value’ nonsense and disempowerment of unions by conservative governments. The mantra of ‘wage rises cause inflation’ is frequently repeated and has blunted ambition and opportunity while giving employers just cause for cutting wages in real terms while pushing fewer people harder.
rises in council tax have been restrained for years. Together with reduced real terms funding from central government and no tax band reassessments this has meant councils having to make increasingly hard choices. Much like healthcare professional wages, council tax needs a BIG change to start redressing the balance.
so, not broken. Tough for many for sure.
My local Co-Op is definitely more expensive than the local Aldi if you just look at the price at the till, but I'm sick to shit of Aldi perishables not lasting. Carrots and peppers particularly that turn liquid in a few days, onions that magically are either rotten or have the brown wrapper inside, and meat where the packs aren't sealed properly meaning they are either already spoiled or go off well withing the use by dates.
We do a scandalous amount of our shopping in the local Co-op, mainly because anything else is a 20 minute drive away (something I factor in to the extra cost).
I also like to consider it as the 'Just-in-time' equivalent to grocery shopping, i.e. we only buy small portions of what we need, when we need it. I reckon this drives down food waste and allows us to eat a bit fresher/ healthier, although it's bo doubt still more expensive overall and probably results in more packaging waste as we're not buying big packs of everything but multiple smaller packs.
I like them though, they seem to always serve the smaller communities which (I had presumed) weren't profitable enough for the big boys.
What we need to do is live better lives. Use our resources more efficiently, be kinder to each other, and focus on what matters ...
Amen.
Carrots and peppers particularly that turn liquid in a few days, onions that magically are either rotten or have the brown wrapper inside, and meat where the packs aren't sealed properly meaning they are either already spoiled or go off well withing the use by dates.
We used to buy all our fruit & veg at a local place that bought direct from covent garden & it was noticeable how much better all the fresh produce was, reckoned it was because of the lack of handling & processing, sadly the owner retired & it went downhill.
Don't forget peeps that because of geographics one of the cheapest council tax rates is in Westminster.... Band C in Westminster is £904, here in leafy bucks £2109.....
As an observation from someone who's visited in 2023, 2024, and 2025, in comparison to rising Australian prices, the cost of virtually everything in England and Wales seemed to have increased far more than 10 years ago, and particularly in 2025. 2025 may have been partly due to exchange rates though.
Groceries in Italy were on par with what we pay in Australia, but in the UK (and to a lesser extent Canada) they were more expensive. The other difference I think is that wages have increased more in Australia. Personally, I'm pretty much guaranteed to get 2-3% increase each year, but i'm aware that's not common in the UK and hasn't been for years.
And yet, my car obsessed kids couldn't believe the amount of tyre-clad bling on the roads. Admittedly luxury cars are probably comparatively less expensive in the UK than they would be here, and we did spend a bit of time in Sussex.
I get all my Aussie economics knowledge from Chris Kohler's youtube shorts, but hasn't Australian house price inflation gone absolutely nuts - leaving UK averages in the dust?
8.77% council tax increase here - Scotland (are England/Wales limited to 5% increase?). That's after last year's 15.6% increase. We're comfortable enough managing the increase but I'm eternally frustrated at our council's spending priorities - I wouldn't mind the increase if it was prioritised properly, but instead there's multiple vanity projects and generally pissing it up against the wall. IMO obviously.
Food cost increases are what I notice most, probably because it's me rather than Mrs a11y who does the big weekly shop and have seen the change over the past 5-6 years. Mostly £200+ weekly not including some big items we get elsewhere (who gives a crap toilet roll, Smol dishwasher and laundry stuff, etc). No alcohol either.
I'm also very conscious about complaining about cost of living when on the same forum where many of us are spending £££ on non-essentials.
What we need to do is live better lives. Use our resources more efficiently, be kinder to each other, and focus on what matters ...
Nailed it 👍
Nobody take this the wrong way, but it's nice to know there are normal people here who are feeling the pinch. We're not exactly skint, Lord knows we used to be, not that long ago. But, I'm stuck on 3 days a week at work and they keep denying any request to increase my hours and there are no other jobs advertised yet. We're preparing to tighten our belts while the Mrs is on maternity pay because it drops dramatically. She's already planning to go back to work early.
There have been so many threads on here over the years like 'What do I do with this enormous windfall?', 'Where would you live with a 700k budget' etc. It's easy to believe that everyone on here is minted and I stay away from the finance threads because it's just depressing.
p.s. Our council tax just went up 4.99% and our water bill doubled. Yay.
When I took my current job 3 years ago it meant starting to commute by train. I budgeted for 5-10% increase each year. The reality has been a 280% increase in that time. It's quite alarming and I don't think it's hyperbole to say something is broken when this kind of rise is being seen in various other costs too - the whole point of the social contract is that we expect some return from our money but for a long time now the price has gone up and the service has gone down.
Nobody take this the wrong way, but it's nice to know there are normal people here who are feeling the pinch.
TBH, I think most folks experience is similar, I know ours is, and our circumstances aren't impoverished by any stretch of the imagination. Like other's we see it most in the weekly shop, what used to be £75-90 for two of us, (were veggie) is now routinely £120-140 and in the Tesco mini-mart/garage, butter! is security tagged.
As an observation from someone who's visited in 2023, 2024, and 2025, in comparison to rising Australian prices, the cost of virtually everything in England and Wales seemed to have increased far more than 10 years ago, and particularly in 2025. 2025 may have been partly due to exchange rates though.
Groceries in Italy were on par with what we pay in Australia, but in the UK (and to a lesser extent Canada) they were more expensive. The other difference I think is that wages have increased more in Australia. Personally, I'm pretty much guaranteed to get 2-3% increase each year, but i'm aware that's not common in the UK and hasn't been for years.
And yet, my car obsessed kids couldn't believe the amount of tyre-clad bling on the roads. Admittedly luxury cars are probably comparatively less expensive in the UK than they would be here, and we did spend a bit of time in Sussex.
I get all my Aussie economics knowledge from Chris Kohler's youtube shorts, but hasn't Australian house price inflation gone absolutely nuts - leaving UK averages in the dust?
That’s entirely possible. I actually don’t pay much attention as I’m not planning on moving anywhere. Looking at a land valuation notice we just received (government has to provide a land valuation for all properties) our unimproved land value has gone up massively - it’s actually worth more now than the land and the house combined cost us in 2012.
butter! is security tagged.
years ago a colleague who worked in large scale architecture projects, town planning type stuff told me the easiest way to work out how nice a neighbourhood is, was to go to the tesco express/sainsburys local and look at what had security tags on.
Big corporation loss prevention would give you an actual analysis rather than going by someones feelings.
just the spirits would be good
meats average
cheese poor
butter...
spend £500+ per month in order to be seen driving around in a top end car.
yep, I sometimes take a look at these 'deals' and it's all strings attached stuff of course, ie limited mileage, liability for damage etc, so basically it's car rental--I am old school when it comes to buying and owning cars, which is probably why I still have a 2010 reg Passat estate!
I'm the same. My ex made a decision for us to trade in the 2010 Passat I bought when I moved here (1.4t that could run on ethanol) for a lease eNiro. We got decent money for the trade-in, but not as much as a private sale would have got, but then she did more than the lease mileage and had to do a trade-in of that car to another one on a new lease with the right mileage level.
It was a nightmare to organise.
Meantime, I bought the newest, cheapest Dispatch I could find that had decent mileage and was not battered hulk. So glad I did given that she dumped me three months after I bought it and took the Niro with her.
ANYWAY... filled up last night and a tank cost me 200kr more than two weeks ago. 1200+kr for the cheap diesel, not even a full tank and at the cheapest place I have locally. Last time I tanked it was 16,34kr/l or something. Last night 22,04kr/l or something. A place down the road was over 23kr/l.
I'm actually glad I do not have to drive to Västerås this weekend and can save 300km of the tank. Summer tyres should also help a bit with economy.