[Indalo]

There's an interesting piece in the BBC News website which might actually have some truth in it:

Inflation: Four things that are going up in price and why

From skincare products to used cars - the items that tell the story of the cost of living crisis.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[mr.macspot]

I like a piece of lamb, but the price has reach stupid levels. It's not just used car prices, used caravan prices have gone daft and at the same time caravan manufacturers are cutting back on production, which in turn is forcing prices up.
I am old enough to remember the day when we accepted a mortgage with a 14% interest. Are those days on their way back?

 

[iooi]

I don't think they will.
You only have to look at the outcry over gas & electric prices to see that the public would not stand for anything like the 14% mortgage rates. Had only just bought our 1st house a couple of years before they shot up...
These days far to many people could not stand that sort of increase. Despite banks having to run affordability checks the FCA imposed, but are now trying to talk down & remove... In many cases people have PCP or lease car using up any spare cash. So they are far too strapped to pay any increase.
So I would see any government letting them get that high face a massive public backlash.

Fun times ahead for many people who have stretched themselves to far for too long. Just because they can have a new car every 3 years, just to show off. Rather than build up a nice rainy day fund.

 

[Alanw47]

I like a piece of lamb, but the price has reach stupid levels.

Living (literally) on the Welsh borders it has long since amazed me why all of the lovely Welsh lamb is exported to New Zealand and then we import lamb from New Zealand. Give me a leg of Welsh lamb any day (apologies for a non Kia comment).

 

[iooi]

1. Sunday lunch
Those families who still sit down to eat a traditional roast dinner together are having to be a little more imaginative if they are trying to keep the costs down.


Yep eat it on another day. Which means it's cheaper 🤣

2. Skincare products

When your old & wrinkly it's too late. But nothing will stop time, so save money and do not bother with skincare products.. You are what you are.

3. Furniture

Pretty much all ours is over 5 years old & still going strong. I bet most people throw away good stuff & buy new just for the hell or it.
Only planned purchase is new room carpets (20+ years old) and in house when we moved in. But as we had just got two pups. Pointless renewing at that point. Got the stains to prove that point 🤣

4. Used cars

Well we all know why as dealer had a shortage of new cars. So were paying silly prices for 2nd hand. Many people made money selling their cars for more than they paid for them.
Garage I bought mine from jan last year offered me £2K more than I paid for it.... 🤪

 

[Indalo]

apologies for a non Kia comment.

That's ok, Alan; it's in the 'Idle Chit Chat' section.

Like you, I enjoy a bit of lamb and I don't mind which of the four home nations it comes from. I do object to buying in lamb from the other side of the planet though as it makes a mockery of the 'agreements' we allegedly signed up to at COP 26 in Glasgow.

It has always offended me in recent years that the price of lamb is so expensive; the supermarkets are bad enough but the local butchers shops in my neck of the woods charge outrageous prices for their lamb.

 

[KDMB]

Living (literally) on the Welsh borders it has long since amazed me why all of the lovely Welsh lamb is exported to New Zealand and then we import lamb from New Zealand. Give me a leg of Welsh lamb any day (apologies for a non Kia comment).

I get all my SaltMarsh lamb, Beef and Pork, black pudding, cured bacon etc from a shop 350 miles away, in The Lake District, shipped down overnight along with a goodly supply of Award Winning Pies of every type. Usually get half of each animal all jointed and ready for the freezer. But I haven’t seen prices go up at all, but then I don’t pay for any of the above, as my sister owns the shop and the farm where the animals are bred. 🤗
However I do seem to remember having an Endowment mortgage with a 16.75% rate back in the 80’s and as a single guy, that hurt. 😡

 

[Tommo21]

I like a piece of lamb, but the price has reach stupid levels. It's not just used car prices, used caravan prices have gone daft and at the same time caravan manufacturers are cutting back on production, which in turn is forcing prices up.
I am old enough to remember the day when we accepted a mortgage with a 14% interest. Are those days on their way back?

Of course in those days you actually got tax relief on mortgage interest which if you were a higher rate tax payer was quite a substantial discount.The other thing was that lenders had sensible lending policies ( 3 x highest earner and 1 x for spouse) based on realistic house values.

In many cases though inflation is only a published figure and for those that shop around it is nearly always possible (with certain exceptions as you say) to make best possible use of deals/cashback offers to keep your costs under the headline rate. Energy costs are probably the main component in rising household bills and I accept that there's not much you can do about those at the moment apart from those who perhaps were forward thinking and invested in solar panels etc when feed in tariffs were generous.

 

[kenp1]

Interest rates of 0.5, 1 or 2% are still low rates, but yes I could only borrow 3 times my salary in 1999. If those rules applied today I would have to put half the value of the house as a deposit, house prices have just got silly.

Endowment mortgages were the big thing when I bought my house, and I remember thinking at the time that I couldn't see how they would ever work, and they didn't.

 

[mr.macspot]

Bought our current house in the early 80's on an endowment mortgage and it worked perfectly for us, however we did take independent advice from a financial advisor. I remember the building society manager wasn't please we were not buying the life insurance from him. It worked a treat, we paid of the mortgage and had a substantial lump sum at the end of the term. As I recall building societies would only accept 75% of my salary and the wife's income could not be included.

 

[kenp1]

I wasn't willing to take the risk with an endowment mortgage, they're OK in good times but if things take a dive your stuffed, and it seems the time I took mortgage out was the bad time. They did mention life insurance when I went for the mortgage but as I was single I didn't bother getting it.

 

[little_geoff]

To join the mortgage discussion, my wife had owned the house for 7 years now. (my income couldn't be included due to such a bad credit rating), yet it was ironic that the deposit came from a "gift" which i got from a HUGE PPI mis-selling pay-out from a number of credit cards and loans.

For now the price of the property has increased in value in those years, so much that at the end of the interest term, she recently took the option of a 0.87 interest fixed rate....it's daft that the cost of the mortgage is FAR cheaper than any rent we were previously paying, and would still be in that situation today due to the insane deposits that are required these days.

 

[Indalo]

Spotted this in today's news from somewhere north of Watford.........

Woman fuming over price of Tesco leg of lamb becomes talk of Ramsbottom

Clive, a Tesco leg of lamb and a viral post that has sparked a feverish debate - and plenty of quips...

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

A leg of lamb she asked for! A leg of lamb her dutiful other half delivered but she's not happy. I wonder how many she intends to feed - I mean, if it's just for the two of them, they must be big eaters but perhaps the good lady is going to butcher the leg and place selected portions in freezer bags? Then again, perhaps she runs a restaurant?

All in all, 30 notes does not seem unreasonable to me for the whole leg so what is the lady's problem? Perhaps I'm missing something.

 

[noublue]

i had endowments taken out in the 80's and 90's when it became known that these were no good. i decided to pay the mortgage off (it make good sense not to pay all that interest) So by having a series of fixed rate mortgages ( remorgaging downwards by paying back lump sum saved each time) i was mortgage free a good 10 years early. to do this i had to work overtime saving the extra money, not decorating or upgrading a perfectly adequate house for a few years,keeping a perfectly functional car instead of renewing. i have had 2 of the three windfall endowment payments (and life cover) and are looking forward to spending the last payment when it comes next year !

 

[Tommo21]

i had endowments taken out in the 80's and 90's when it became known that these were no good. i decided to pay the mortgage off (it make good sense not to pay all that interest) So by having a series of fixed rate mortgages ( remorgaging downwards by paying back lump sum saved each time) i was mortgage free a good 10 years early. to do this i had to work overtime saving the extra money, not decorating or upgrading a perfectly adequate house for a few years,keeping a perfectly functional car instead of renewing. i have had 2 of the three windfall endowment payments (and life cover) and are looking forward to spending the last payment when it comes next year !

I don't know that your wise approach would work with today's younger generation unfortunately.

House prices have become so inflated generally and the concept of scrimping/scraping/saving is totally alien to many now just who live for the day!

The linking of endowments with mortgage products was always questionable and I recall debating this issue in the very early 70's when you would be faced with the choice of "with profits" or "standard"! I always plumped for standard repayment terms despite the pressures from mortgage providers to sell you the endowments. Maybe I've missed out on misselling compensation by not having such products but just not into that culture I'm afraid.