Is it just me or are things getting disproportionately expensive nowadays?
For example...
A hedge in our garden collapsed because of the snow last winter. Had to have it removed. Ended up costing just over £400 (gardener, stump grinder & shredder). Couldn’t do it myself due to work and operation recovery.
About to have radiator moved from one wall to another in son’s bedroom. £320 parts & labour (excluding cost of radiator). They were the only plumbers I could get to even quote - nobody else was interested.
Thats about £800 in a month on these 2 tasks. Thats could be a big chunk of a holiday! 🙁
Need to get some double glazed units replaced soon as well. I know from past experience thats also costly.
Is it just me or do others feel that they have no option but to pay what they feel is too much for jobs that need doing?
Is it just me or do others feel that they have no option but to pay what they feel is too much for jobs that need doing?
Not to sound grumpy for the 3rd time in a day..
Take off VAT
Mandatory Pension Contributions
Tools
Fuel
Cost of living increases
How has your charge out rate changed in the last few years?
What should those people earn? What is a base living wage where you live?
I was going to suggest whores but they are well cheap compared to your examples!
Out of interest how much did you expect either of those 2 jobs to cost?
How big was the hedge?
Marmite...always seems expensive to me
C&H!
😉
Size of hedge and stumps? It's the busiest time of year for a seasonal job so you will pay a premium. Get it done in the off season next time if you want to save money. Stump grinding is a specialist job requiring expensive machinery to be purchased or hired.
Agree it's hard finding tradespeople to do work though so maybe it doesn't pay well enough to encourage more people into these jobs?
How lung did the hedge take? If it was one man for a full day I think it might be a little bit pricey but not massively with the kit that he used.
Hedge sounds reasonable, just a decent garden shredder is over £100 to hire for a day. The rad move sounds way high though unless anything fancy was being done with the pipework - how long did it take the plumber?
Marmite…always seems expensive to me
Me too!
As I understand it, it is, or at least was a by product of beer production, but even the smallest pot seems to cost £3 now.
If you work for a company it can be very easy to become so detached from where the money is actually earned you find it hard to appreciate where self-employed tradesmen need to make theirs from.
I paid £170 for a man to walk around my house for 3 mins and calculate the the of type of RSJ I'd need to put in place of a supporting wall. He took another 5 mins to write it up.
Now that was expensive. I'm just jealous that I can't do that and work for 10 mins a day.
Is it just me or do others feel that they have no option but to pay what they feel is too much for jobs that need doing?
No it’s not just you.
Lots of people place unrealistically low values on other people’s jobs. And lots of people have no idea how much of the invoice price goes on running the business and tax.
Thankfully I am no longer self employed, so I don’t have to constantly explain to people why I can’t charge the rate they perceive me to be worth without being homeless and eating from food banks.
Well at least you own a house you lucky so and so. Us millenials will never have a chance to piss away 400 quid on a radiator!
I get paid < £200 per day. I get charged out at £1000 per day by the company I work for, more if away. Rates charged vs salary is quite a difference!
Petrol & Diesel
But you cost the company more than 200 a day to employ. Admittedly still definitely south of a grand. What do you do btw?
Sounds like you need a practical husband to deal with these little jobs around the house.
Coke and hookers are excellent VFM these days. (Although I think it's awkward attempting to measure the quality/purity of hookers)
And in charge out vs salary, you are not charged out every day normally, those costs add up when you are looking for work, generating business and doing all the non value add stuff.
Some serious research has gone into stoners charts. How long did it take you?
the wifes lip gloss £18 for 5ml 🤔
I get paid < £200 per day. I get charged out at £1000 per day by the company I work for, more if away
That's quite a mark-up. As a Chartered Civil Engineer my charge out rate was 3x salary in the UK, 6x in the Middle East.
As a software contractor I've looked into bespoke work and had people want me to develop nearly the equivalent of Amazon for £100.
That’s quite a mark-up. As a Chartered Civil Engineer my charge out rate was 3x salary in the UK, 6x in the Middle East.
Depends on what comes with the person for that.
Think I'm 6x here but that is consulting so a chunk of that time goes to getting the work too, then it covers the down time etc.
Lots of people place unrealistically low values on other people’s jobs. And lots of people have no idea how much of the invoice price goes on running the business and tax.
Exactly. I think another factor is that goods and products have got relatively cheaper while labour prices have increased so people feel that the cost to have things done is too high.
But you cost the company more than 200 a day to employ. Admittedly still definitely south of a grand. What do you do btw?
Exactly, that is my point a lot of cost on top.
I am a software / controls engineer in a specialist industry. I am crap at negotiations but my work is very peak and troughs. I can have a week or more where I have nothing to do but be at work, but I still have to be paid so I think that explains a big part of the disparity. I should really go self employed split the difference and not have to do the sitting around part but it's mortgages that mean I am tided to PAYE at the moment.
And in charge out vs salary, you are not charged out every day normally, those costs add up when you are looking for work, generating business and doing all the non value add stuff.
Exactly, that is my point. A lot of overhead and treading water time.
I find the cost of a brand new mid range full sus MTB quite surprisingly high, but I am comparing with prices from 20 years ago without accounting for inflation. If I scale it based on the cost of a pint it's quite cheap.
So yeah, the cost of a pint is surprisingly high. These days you're lucky if it's under £5. I remember £1 a pint in Curlers and the student unions. Maybe £1.50 if you weren't a student at Curlers.
hookers are excellent VFM these days.
I dunno..!
Look at mike's breakdown of costs..
[i]
Take off VAT
Mandatory Pension Contributions
Tools
Fuel
Cost of living increases[/i]
Do they pay bloody VAT?
Have pensions!?
Outlay for tools? (Well, maybe)
Fuel? (bit of cake an a cuppa maybe)
Right rip off I reckon. Never spending out on them again!
I paid a couple of guys £240 to pressure wash my yard. Took them a couple of hours. I was well chuffed, meant I didn't need to find a rental pressure washer, lug it home, waste a weekend day doing it, get covered in crap, lug the washer back to the rental place, covering my car in shite...
I went riding instead, perfect.
Erm, so, not a service you thought cos way more than it should?
I paid £170 for a man to walk around my house for 3 mins and calculate the the of type of RSJ I’d need to put in place of a supporting wall. He took another 5 mins to write it up.
He knew the answer before he even turned up! They do so many wall removals, they know from your address what type of house it is, what the approx span is and could just tell you over the phone!
In defence of Structural Engineers I'm always surprised how cheap they are, I get full build designs for a few £100, which seems like good value to me.
Petrol & Diesel
I think its a Billy Bargain considering the infrastructure needed to extract raw materials, refine it, transport it, store and sell it and the fact it’s something like 65% tax in the uk.
£1.30 a litre for all that, some places have the bare faced cheek to charge more than that for water!
And in charge out vs salary, you are not charged out every day normally, those costs add up when you are looking for work, generating business and doing all the non value add stuff.
20 years ago when I worked for a massive Telco as a design engineer, our loaded rate (all in cost per staff member) was $120k pa. I was paid about £25k IIRC.
Train fares, unless they are "Advance" tickets and even then, some appear to be silly prices.
"Proper" hydraulic disc brake road bikes before end of season sales, with the very odd exception.
Center Parcs often gets slated on here, but I've been tentatively looking at prices to stay in a B+B or a caravan for a few days near Dolgellau to do some fun hilly road riding including Bwlch Y Groes before the kids break up for summer, I've yet to see anywhere that wants less per bedroom than a CP villa Mar-Apr midweek outside kids holidays.
fact it’s something like 65% tax in the uk.
Exactly my point. Lob that off it and it’s reasonable IMO.
Should be about £.85ppl.
Exactly my point. Lob that off it and it’s reasonable IMO.
Should be about £.85ppl.
My 2p is that it’s got to come from somewhere and it’s one of those taxes you can legally avoid if you want.
Have to say, according to Stoner's charts, Tokyo looks great value for Hookers...
My wife took delivery of an £800 handbag yesterday. £800 on a chuffing bag. Apparently that was a good price.
I find the cost of a brand new mid range full sus MTB quite surprisingly high, but I am comparing with prices from 20 years ago without accounting for inflation. If I scale it based on the cost of a pint it’s quite cheap.
One fun thing to do is looking at old prices... Open All Hours is one I like.
Back in the 80's for example onions cost a lot lot less than peppers or meat.... but have soared in comparison whereas a bottle of bleach has hardly changed...?
Any high end bike bit shurly 🙂
Thing that gets me about paying for services, is that you pay for an hour of their time usually. Then the task is completed in about ten minutes.
On one hand maybe you should be happy with their efficiency, on the other you've paid their one hour minimum charge, you should be able to get them to do other stuff for you for the rest of the time they've charged you for.
Dentists. My wife just paid 2k for some remedial work after several years of NHS dentist messing up her mouth.
..and she needs more work!
