Ancestors

Toot

Written by Yvan on 2025-01-21 at 13:29

Butter seems to get more expensive every time I buy some. (Bearing in mind I stick to "organic" butter options generally, but right now I'm pretty tempted to ditch the "organic". I also miss my favourite French butter the supermarkets used to stock... which sounds very bougie... but I just like nice butter, it's but a small luxury amongst very few luxuries.)

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Descendants

Written by Yvan on 2025-01-21 at 13:39

RPI at December was 3.5%... IDK, I'm pretty sure my personal RPI is somewhat higher than that. Whatever happened to that Jack Monroe alternative RPI thing? Not that there's anything you can do about it but suck it up, tighten belts, buy cheaper lower quality stuff, and try and scrape by... I'm just a data nerd.

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Written by Mike on 2025-01-21 at 13:49

@yvan I calculate our family inflation rate on a number of data points - it's currently running for us at about 3.66%

I have fairly detailed spending records going back about a couple of decades but this figure is the last 12 months.

The UK government confuses matters by issuing CPI, CPIH & RPI figures each month - the last update was on the 15th January

It's all at https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices for your enjoyment & delight :)

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Written by Yvan on 2025-01-21 at 13:54

@MikeFromLFE yes, I check that specific page/site regularly. A habit I got into in the decade of running the business.

I alas don't manage your detailed personal record keeping. Maybe I should try, not sure I am capable.

I used to have such detail from the business of course and used to track that against Government RPI given we had key RPI-linked costs like rent and wages. That is of course very different to home spending.

Right now we're burning through the last of savings/redundancy and it's hard to get a handle on the "burn rate" but after rent and electricity "shopping" for household goods/food/etc is the next biggest cost and I swear it is going up week on week. Though there are other contributing factors, like we traditionally keep a pretty big "store" of "pantry" items and that is now running down and needing more replacements.

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Written by Mike on 2025-01-21 at 14:03

@yvan Thanks for those comments and I fully understand your pain & position - I hear similar stories from other people.

I intended to add a rider to the earlier toot - so I'll say it now - I strongly suspect we are outliers and not typical by a number of data points. We both receive NHS pensions (mine is particulalry generous) and my wife is in receipt of PIP. We have a fair amount of savings and our regular outgoings are modest.

I fully accept that there are those in all groups that are not a well placed as ourselves - and this is why I strongly support a rebalancing of the economy in favour of those who are not in such a fortunate position as ourselves (call that Socialism if you want, I don't care!)

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Written by Yvan on 2025-01-21 at 14:12

@MikeFromLFE the main reason I was pondering Jack Monroe earlier on is there was a concept going around they were involved in for an alternative RPI that is based on the spending profiles of those on a lower income. So where the weight on costs is leaning more towards essentials, and more frugal buying.

IDK where I lie on the spectrum between that lowest end and the government RPI basket, not at the bottom yet anyway. But I've seen what look like large rises in some key basics, butter being one of those. But due to the way things chop and change it's hard to pin it down to anything exact.

We'll be OK if just one of us gets just about any job. I'm not panicking, but feeling the pressure, and it's been a lot of years of living close to the line now.

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