Prices where you live?

Seattle

Seattle

Valued Senior Member
I assume most places have experienced large price increases over the last year or so but it might be interesting to see if it has been more or less where you live.

I just went to the gas station today and regular gas was $4.99. Groceries, on average, seem to have doubled over the last year. I don't rent so I can't address that. Used car prices have gone up about 35% over the last year (I bought a 2 year old car about a year ago and it's gone up that much).

What has been your personal experience?
 
Here in Blighty a litre of unleaded is now c.£1.60 - 1.70. Fortunately I've been able to drastically cut down on my travelling expenses by... um... not travelling as much.
General consumer inflation is running at c.7-8%, and this doesn't yet include the impact of home energy bills, which for the majority went up c.50-60% from the start of April. In the UK there is a cap to the prices the suppliers can charge. This worked okay when the market was "normal", but with the sudden spike in prices, many suppliers went bust, and now every supplier is charging the new cap. The average cost of heating and electricity for a home went up from c.£1,200 to c.£2,000 per annum. I pretty much pay the average. So that will hurt.
Food prices - yeah, they're going up, but it is product specific at the moment. Some prices are coming down but most are up. Interestingly, our biggest supermarket chain trebled their profits last year! So they've pledged to keep prices low.
Interest rates are rising as well, but I'm on a fixed rate for my mortgage for another year or so, so that won't affect me until then.

All told, most people will be looking at c.10% cost of living increase compared to last year, I think.
 
Sarkus said:
Fortunately I've been able to drastically cut down on my travelling expenses by... um... not travelling as much.
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I'm about 6 KLM from my main shopping complex

If I used the bus, not to bad a schedule, would not cost anything to go there and back. Problem is the walk to and back from house - bus stop - carrying groceries back to house

Bought a 50cc scooter. Now have own schedule no carrying. Petrol went up now going down. Cost between $5 - $6 to fill scooter tank. Since a little before Christmas I estimate spent somewhere close to $30 on roughly weekly shopping trips

Groceries average about $50 a week. Power bill and water bill have been $0.00 for passed 6 months. Here Territory Government gives $800 direct each utility yearly to help pensioners pay their bills. My usage of both utilities has been less than $800 each hence I pay zero

:)
 
Sarkus said:
Food prices - yeah, they're going up, but it is product specific at the moment. Some prices are coming down but most are up. Interestingly, our biggest supermarket chain trebled their profits last year! So they've pledged to keep prices low.
Interest rates are rising as well, but I'm on a fixed rate for my mortgage for another year or so, so that won't affect me until then.
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They are going up and up and up where a lot of us are in Australia.

High fuel cost, floods that wiped out a lot of our food regions..

An iceberg lettuce (which is an ordinary run of the mill lettuce) is over $7 currently. Everything has spiked up in price and we are also having issued with availability again due to roads being cut, etc, from floods.
 
Bells said:
An iceberg lettuce (which is an ordinary run of the mill lettuce) is over $7 currently.
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$7??? That's... that's like... £4!!! For an iceberg lettuce??? Here it's around £0.50-0.70, depending if you shop at one of those upper-market supermarkets (*cough* Waitrose *cough*) or something cheaper like ASDA or ALDI.
That price would seriously put me off eating such a pointless calorie-deprived vegetable entirely! ;)
 
Sarkus said:
$7??? That's... that's like... £4!!! For an iceberg lettuce??? Here it's around £0.50-0.70, depending if you shop at one of those upper-market supermarkets (*cough* Waitrose *cough*) or something cheaper like ASDA or ALDI.
That price would seriously put me off eating such a pointless calorie-deprived vegetable entirely! ;)
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I'm growing my own vegetables now and so glad I started doing so a while ago now. Was a therapy thing for me after my dad and stresses of life and never have I embraced those seasonal veggies as much as I have recently. I cannot even imagine how people on income support or low wages are coping and how they are eating.

They have supposedly come down to $5 now.. I was in the store yesterday, and it was $7. Website today says $5.. Wooo.. Price is coming down.

But it's indicative of the price hike in some parts of Australia, particularly when it comes to fresh food. Tomatoes on the site - for just regular ones, nothing fancy - .98c each. Nearly $1 each.

When iceberg lettuce is being priced like a luxury item, then it's clear we are having issues with inflation.
 
Seattle said:
I assume most places have experienced large price increases over the last year or so but it might be interesting to see if it has been more or less where you live.

I just went to the gas station today and regular gas was $4.99. Groceries, on average, seem to have doubled over the last year. I don't rent so I can't address that. Used car prices have gone up about 35% over the last year (I bought a 2 year old car about a year ago and it's gone up that much).

What has been your personal experience?
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Approximately this.

Jumi Rutledge: "Costs are up here, too, yet not by that much. But then we're parsecs away from the nearest mad experiment of 'tax and levy your way to social utopia'. Suffer, guinea pigs." --Escaping Ideological Land, character of Raelynn
 
Back in April prices hadn't risen all that much around here, apart from gasoline I guess.

But now (July4) I really see it at the supermarket. Everything is going up. They try to hide it by putting things on sale, but once the sale is over the price goes up to above what it was before the sale. (They hope we won't notice.)

My electric bill has just this month increased by about $100/month. They call it peak demand pricing, along with various "green" mandates the state has forced on the power companies. (Who don't fight it since they know they can pass the cost on to the consumers.) They are decommissioning the state's last nuclear power plant (several more are already gone), haven't built new power plants in decades apart from green boondoggles like windfarms, while our population has ballooned to about 40 million, with a grid designed in the 1960's for 20 million. Then there are the fires. The power companies get blamed even when the fires weren't their fault (the companies aren't popular and have deep pockets) and hit with various administrative fines on top of it. All of which is again passed on to the consumers.
 
wegs said:
Wow, that’s impressive.

A few of my neighbors have solar panels and while it was somewhat expensive, they said it has been a great investment and their electric bills have substantially decreased.

For anyone interested...

Solar Quiz - Freedom Solar (freedomsolarpower.com)
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Here in the NT Australia the local Government give $800 direct to the electricity company for each pensioner

I have numerous LED lights throughout the house and only cook in a microwave

My power usage for a year is below $800 so I get a bill each quarter saying You owe us $0.00

:)
 
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