Biggest cost increase......

[secret squirrel]

Here goes,

My gas and electric has gone up by 20%,
Diesel cost me the other day £1.50 a litre,
Road tax on a van cost £210 for a smaller van.
Liability insurance up by £50.
Food costs up by 15% (on my own bill, just 2 of us)
Season ticket for London up by £400!
Car parking £6 per day in local station,

The list goes on and on..........

How can we as an industry, private individual, running a house keep up with these constant increases. I am fed up with constantly paying out.

We have considerably less disposable income than 1 year ago!

I know of a postman who has £100 per week to live on, he's so fed up that he is now signing on and wait for this bit......

He now has £200 per week to live on doesn't work. Fewer bills to pay as the government pick them up. A better quality of life...........

I used to be proud to be English, now I feel a bit jaded. We're involved in more wars and we're making soldiers redundant, closing RAF bases, we now don't have a navy to talk of! MP's cutting left right and centre but still be paid expenses,

Am I in the minority or do we all feel the same.....

 

[Resolute]

I totally agree with you. I did a weeks shop yesterday (3 of us in house but son is only 4 so doesn't eat much) and it came to £110!

 

[SafeGasInstall]

prices are the same here in west london ! filled up van the other day £115.00 OMG

 

[secret squirrel]

I totally agree with you. I did a weeks shop yesterday (3 of us in house but son is only 4 so doesn't eat much) and it came to £110!

Its unbearable £110 is = £5720 per year, so, with all the add ons for Christmas, Easter, entertaining etc your looking at closer to £6500 per year!

You and your wife go out for a meal once a month, on your own and presuming that your mum/mum in law has the kid average of £50 for a reasonable 3 course meal 12 x £50 = £600.

Your already up to £7k and not earnt a penny yet!

HOW much are our yearly outgoings per year just to exist?

Presume, you have a fully equipped van on the 1st January, you have no work booked and you don't work for a year, how much to have the van there just in case.

Fuel full tank (waiting for a call) £115
Road tax £210
Liability insurance £300(?)
Van insurance £500
Mobile phone £200
Advertising £1000(?)
Accountant fee £600 (needed if ltd company)
MOT £50.

Anything I've missed?

 

[Resolute]

Computer, tools, rent?!

 

[Ivor Bates]

well if you work in Central London, It's going to cost you £300 per week just for parking and congestion. And if you want a cup of tea and a sarnie kiss goodbye to another fiver. As for having a pint down the local, I no longer call my mates to see if they want to come out as I know I'll be paying £40 a round... To get around this, I visit them uninvited, after the greetings are out of the way, I wait for the golden words...."fancy a drink?" "Don't mind if I do....thanks" works all the time.....:smiley2:

 

[Gray0689]

Its unbearable £110 is = £5720 per year, so, with all the add ons for Christmas, Easter, entertaining etc your looking at closer to £6500 per year!

You and your wife go out for a meal once a month, on your own and presuming that your mum/mum in law has the kid average of £50 for a reasonable 3 course meal 12 x £50 = £600.

Your already up to £7k and not earnt a penny yet!

HOW much are our yearly outgoings per year just to exist?

Presume, you have a fully equipped van on the 1st January, you have no work booked and you don't work for a year, how much to have the van there just in case.

Fuel full tank (waiting for a call) £115
Road tax £210
Liability insurance £300(?)
Van insurance £500
Mobile phone £200
Advertising £1000(?)
Accountant fee £600 (needed if ltd company)
MOT £50.

Anything I've missed?

Yes
Hand Tools
Power tools
Van servicing / repairs
Wages
Bank charges
Work clothing

 

[quality]

I find my biggest increase is my kids

 

[WHPES]

How can we as an industry, private individual, running a house keep up with these constant increases. I am fed up with constantly paying out.

A lot of people have it tough, and tougher. At least we still have our jobs. Simple, like everyone else struggling, do the following:

Cheaper holiday - we went camping this year instead of self catering or going abroad. Cooked our own food and made our own sandwiches.

Cut down on expensive food, stop getting ready meals and buy basic ingredients and cook from scratch, make more use of garden veg patch

Use the car for quick jobs and boiler servicing as opposed to the van

Eat in instead of eating out, and no takeaways

Less time spent in the pub

Cut down on clothes shopping, make do with what we have

Hand-me-downs for the kids

Buy more second hand stuff, charity shops etc

etc etc

When times are hard youve just got to tighten your belts. No point moaning about it. Our grandparents had it much worse than us.

 

[Ian10261]

Here goes,

My gas and electric has gone up by 20%,
Diesel cost me the other day £1.50 a litre,
Road tax on a van cost £210 for a smaller van.
Liability insurance up by £50.
Food costs up by 15% (on my own bill, just 2 of us)
Season ticket for London up by £400!
Car parking £6 per day in local station,

The list goes on and on..........

How can we as an industry, private individual, running a house keep up with these constant increases. I am fed up with constantly paying out.

We have considerably less disposable income than 1 year ago!

I know of a postman who has £100 per week to live on, he's so fed up that he is now signing on and wait for this bit......

He now has £200 per week to live on doesn't work. Fewer bills to pay as the government pick them up. A better quality of life...........

I used to be proud to be English, now I feel a bit jaded. We're involved in more wars and we're making soldiers redundant, closing RAF bases, we now don't have a navy to talk of! MP's cutting left right and centre but still be paid expenses,

Am I in the minority or do we all feel the same.....

Yep, i agree with that, thanks Tony Bliar & New Labour..........for absolutely nothing !!!!!

 

[ecowarm]

This is how it is for most plumbers, why are more and more people wanting to be plumbers?

 

[Destroyer2813]

Seems to be getting silly prices on materials and custards still wanting to pay less, its silly dont buy any toys new for my son bootsales etc theres a nearly new stall at our indoor market brought in something for 3 quid saw it new in the shops 20 squid thank you very much. And buy his cloths reduced 36 quids worth of stuff 18 quid

 

[villa_tom]

We've not got our own place yet just saving hard to get there, another year and we should be there. So at the minute minus my savings all my cash is mine but after looking at previous posts I may just live like this and live with my parents

 

[secret squirrel]

A lot of people have it tough, and tougher. At least we still have our jobs. Simple, like everyone else struggling, do the following:

Cheaper holiday - we went camping this year instead of self catering or going abroad. Cooked our own food and made our own sandwiches.

Cut down on expensive food, stop getting ready meals and buy basic ingredients and cook from scratch, make more use of garden veg patch

Use the car for quick jobs and boiler servicing as opposed to the van

Eat in instead of eating out, and no takeaways

Less time spent in the pub

Cut down on clothes shopping, make do with what we have

Hand-me-downs for the kids

Buy more second hand stuff, charity shops etc

etc etc

When times are hard youve just got to tighten your belts. No point moaning about it. Our grandparents had it much worse than us.

I agree with this philosophy, however, after the 2nd world war there were street parties etc and although rationing was still in force for some considerable time there was a lot to look forward to. Women were allowed to work and the class system that was still really in force prior to the war was practically over. I do not see things improving! the cost of everything is on the increase and there is no end in sight. Cost of fuel, raw materials, tax on everything.

Year after year, peoples useable income is going down! wages are not set to increase, pensions worth less. I've now been told that I can not retire at 50 on my private pension I have to wait until 55. Yeah Yeah, I know the sarcastic comments about retiring at 50 but if I've invested so much why can't I use it as I was told I could, why have the goal posts changed for the hard working individual.

We're in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Operation Desert Storm. Doing much more with less soldiers and equipment! We bail out Ireland and every other nation who asks begging bowl in hand. We now or will soon have to ask the French to borrow an aircraft carrier.....SERIOUSLY!

We have regular G10 riots, riots recently, riots because of the cost of a University education is going up,

Do you or anyone else honestly think tightening our belts a bit is going to keep us out of the gutter as a nation. The argument that our grand parents had it worse doesn't mean that much in all fairness, its a different world now than it was 60 years ago.

Where are we going to be in 10 years.............

 

[GQuigley67]

jeezo this is a depressing thread for a friday night, excuse me while i go slit my wrists

 

[Ian10261]

jeezo this is a depressing thread for a friday night, excuse me while i go slit my wrists

So what we all doing sitting at the bloody computer, anyone would think we aint had enough of work by the time friday comes, we should all be in the pub (and i dont mean the plumbers arms) or are we all just a bunch of anoraks ?????? ( and yes, i'm just as bad as the rest):sleep1:

 

[SafeGasInstall]

Its depressing for every one . I do not think that there is going to get any better . It is only going to get worst ! My wife did read a book and keep asking me to read it but I can not be bothered reding books . Any way if any one is interest to find out about what is live about " do not touch this book " is the name of the book it self !Hope my scotish mate has not really killed him self Glasgow hold tight brav have a drink !

 

[dontknowitall]

I'm here cos rugby's finished and telly's boring ... again!

 

[Ian10261]

:54:

Its depressing for every one . I do not think that there is going to get any better . It is only going to get worst ! My wife did read a book and keep asking me to read it but I can not be bothered reding books . Any way if any one is interest to find out about what is live about " do not touch this book " is the name of the book it self !Hope my scotish mate has not really killed him self Glasgow hold tight brav have a drink !

Make sure they serve it to ya in a plastic cup though..... just in case !!!:54:

 

[GQuigley67]

i would be out the town just now, but i have a bad bout of the dreaded man flu....

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

I've not filled in the figures but you can guess - and I have 3 kids & 1 family car:

electric, gas, water, mortgage, council tax, food & household shopping, telephone, internet, sky TV, TV licence, house insurance, life insurance, clothes & shoes, school uniforms, household maintenance costs/ repair/replacement..., (pet costs if you have them - we just have fish and have you seen the cost of Fish food!),
car running costs if you have one, chistmas, birthday and holday expenses if you have them!

hair cuts,
Glasses
Dental bills
Any costs related to school - trips, etc...

So that is at home.

Then work costs which we all have on top of materials:

van depreciation or van finance costs and running costs & deisel,

GSR membership + any other memberships,

insurance

advertising,
tools - new & replacement & recalibration
training
stationary, photocopying, stamps
phone
accountancy fees


When you work out that this all comes to £*** K and you are VAT registered then you need to add on about 50% more to cover various taxes.

And if you employ anyone on PAYE you have an additional cost of about 13% on top of their wages for employers NI contributions.


Depressing indeed.

What have i missed out?
Good news - Sky seems to always be going Down, as does internet and telephone - keep shopping around.
We also cut our insurance costs this year - shop around - used broker.
But more things are going up and over all costs rise because shopping and diesel are a big part of the bill.

 

[Spanner2k7]

I know of a postman who has £100 per week to live on, he's so fed up that he is now signing on and wait for this bit......

He now has £200 per week to live on doesn't work. Fewer bills to pay as the government pick them up. A better quality of life...........

Hell the hell does that work.

My dad has just been made redundant, both parents go to the job centre and find they can only claim £105.95 a week, mom asks how are they suppose to survive on that as it does not even cover the rent and the reply is a shrug of the shoulders.

Apparently they are not entitled to anything else. My mom gets a part time job as a cleaner 10hrs a week, and because they are claiming a joint claim for income based job seekers allowance, they take all of her wages except for £10, and the reason for that is, " because that is what they do"

And then we know a family who is claiming the world. Income Support, all rent and council tax paid for, carers allowance,
Aparently cannot work due to a bad back, but can drive all the way to Manchester for a day out.
The husband claims carers allowance for the wife, the wife claims carers allowance for the daughter.

And they still can afford to save money and go on holidays.

And get this they saved up for a holiday, had spending money, and someones lets on that as there daughter has Cerebral Palsey (allleged) they can phone a charity, say they want to take the kids on holdiay but cannot afford it. "Thats O.K." they reply " We will send a cheque for £400".

 

[Spanner2k7]

and i forget:
Child tax credits
EMA

 

[secret squirrel]

I know of a postman who has £100 per week to live on, he's so fed up that he is now signing on and wait for this bit......

He now has £200 per week to live on doesn't work. Fewer bills to pay as the government pick them up. A better quality of life...........

Hell the hell does that work.

My dad has just been made redundant, both parents go to the job centre and find they can only claim £105.95 a week, mom asks how are they suppose to survive on that as it does not even cover the rent and the reply is a shrug of the shoulders.

Apparently they are not entitled to anything else. My mom gets a part time job as a cleaner 10hrs a week, and because they are claiming a joint claim for income based job seekers allowance, they take all of her wages except for £10, and the reason for that is, " because that is what they do"

And then we know a family who is claiming the world. Income Support, all rent and council tax paid for, carers allowance,
Aparently cannot work due to a bad back, but can drive all the way to Manchester for a day out.
The husband claims carers allowance for the wife, the wife claims carers allowance for the daughter.

And they still can afford to save money and go on holidays.

And get this they saved up for a holiday, had spending money, and someones lets on that as there daughter has Cerebral Palsey (allleged) they can phone a charity, say they want to take the kids on holdiay but cannot afford it. "Thats O.K." they reply " We will send a cheque for £400".

Its appalling, my partner is being made redundant next year, I know its a way off but thats not the point,

40 years old, been paying the higher rate of tax for 10 years, medical insurance provided by the company again for the last 10 years, higher rate of NI etc, not entitled to a blasted penny not even job seekers.....

No kids, so, other than our rubbish being collected we (like a lot of us) don't use anything the government offers.

At the moment now pays more than 50p in the pound in tax........

Appaling, I can honestly say I'm sick of it, looking for a way out......

 

[Spanner2k7]

looking for a way, let me know when you find it, so i can tell my parents. They keep hitting dead ends.

 

[WHPES]

This is us: (from your post)

food & household shopping - do more cooking from scratch, grow veg, no fancy sauces or ready meals

sky TV - have cancelled the subscription. More to watch now we have digital TV anyway.

clothes & shoes - make do with what we have, Tesco

school uniforms - Go to Tesco, use more hand me downs

household maintenance costs/ repair/replacement - Do more work ourselves

pet costs if you have them - Dried as opposed to tinned dog food from the acgricutural wholesalers

car running costs - Do a lot of maintenace ourselves

chistmas, birthday expenses - Do all our own cooking, Days out walking, eat in instead of expensive meals out, no big ticket Christmas or Birthday presents

holday expenses - Camping in the UK as opposed to jetting off abroad, camp cook-ups instead of dining out.

 

[secret squirrel]

This is us: (from your post)

food & household shopping - do more cooking from scratch, grow veg, no fancy sauces or ready meals

sky TV - have cancelled the subscription. More to watch now we have digital TV anyway.

clothes & shoes - make do with what we have, Tesco

school uniforms - Go to Tesco, use more hand me downs

household maintenance costs/ repair/replacement - Do more work ourselves

pet costs if you have them - Dried as opposed to tinned dog food from the acgricutural wholesalers

car running costs - Do a lot of maintenace ourselves

chistmas, birthday expenses - Do all our own cooking, Days out walking, eat in instead of expensive meals out, no big ticket Christmas or Birthday presents

holday expenses - Camping in the UK as opposed to jetting off abroad, camp cook-ups instead of dining out.

Has your disposable income increased or stayed the same since implementing your austerity measures?

Have you been saving money in a savings account?

Or are you no better off than you were before your started your measures?

I'm interested because I've been scuba diving in this country for a weekend and for the money it cost I can genuinely get a week in Egypt! I don't drink or smoke so these are not a contributing factor when going away for a week!

 

[WHPES]

No better off in the long run but would of course be worse off if we didn't cut back! Work is quiet at the moment! Less income so less money available. Savings account? What's one of those?

 

[cdodds2004]

tbh the way they tax working class etc, is it obv why people do cash work, launder money etc, why should people give it to the gov for them to waste it, if its was getting spent correctly but come on, we give so much in foreign aid to countries that have a bigger cash turnover than we do! our goverment likes to think we are still GREAT britain but in all honesty we are just britain and need to look after our country! we have pritty much zero export and manufacturing anymore

 

[quality]

The way this country is run makes my bodily waste water boil. It is a joke

 

[Ian10261]

Oh dear!!! the way this thread is going i can see me frantically looking fer a soap box anytime soon.:33:

 

[dontknowitall]

Gold's expensive these days, and Bournville chocolate ...

 

[GQuigley67]

freddo bars aswell....they are now 20p !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Resolute]

freddo bars aswell....they are not 20p !!!!!!!!!!!!

They used to be cheaper then that!!!!

 

[Spanner2k7]

freddo bars aswell....they are now 20p !!!!!!!!!!!!

bought an animal bar the other week 26p

curlt wurly 27p

Whats this world coming too,