Cost of living

[Jerry_Atrick]

I just thought on the news that the Abbey a has increased interest rates by half a percent. I also saw on the news a head of lettuce was $12, bunch of Coriander is $5 and beans are $30/KG and I just saw $25 for a watermelon. Not sure if these were from 7-11 or cokes 

 

No wonder I am getting interest from Aussie banks to work there - everyone is coming here again

 

Is it really that bad over there? Blimey how do you survive?

[rgmwa]

At least we don't have to put up with Boris.

[onetrack]

I presume you meant "RBA" has increased interest rates. I don't know where you're getting your food prices from? Outback Queensland or an island such as Cocos-Keeling or Christmas Island?

 

Here on the Left Coast, shopping at Coles (not the cheapest), an iceberg lettuce is $5.50, fresh prepacked green beans are $12.00 a kg, and watermelon is around $3.00 a kg, up from about $2.00 a kg a couple of months ago.

Watermelon is out of season, so it's gone up - same with lettuce - green beans are also out of season and we rely on greenhouse crops or crops from the Northern, warm areas.

Freight costs have gone up at least 10-15% with the current bout of inflation and high fuel prices. Inflation is running at over 5%, so that's the biggest worry.

 

If we buy stuff in season, it's pretty reasonably priced. When I was in the U.K. in 1988, I was stunned at food prices there, then. I can recall an Aunty telling me she had recently paid £1 for a single tomato.

Red meat has gone up substantially in the last couple of years, thanks to high beef and sheep prices. We just cut back on the amount of red meat we eat, but we probably still eat a lot of red meat, as compared to many other places.

Local free range (Mount Barker) whole chicken is $6.00 kg on special this week (normally $8.00) - but you can buy it cheaper if you don't want free range. We rarely eat pies or sausages, but I know a lot of people eat a fair amount of them.

 

I prefer to make our own pies, we just use a small pie dish, and chop up carrots, beans, onions, celery, parsnip, potatoes, pumpkin, maybe some cauliflower - add some meat (beef, lamb or chicken), then some stock, then lay a piece of ready-bought butter pastry on top, and cook for 50 mins.

The result is delicious and pretty low cost. A shop-bought individual pie is around $6.50 to $8.00 for a "gourmet" pie - I reckon we make our pies for about $4. and they're bigger than a shop-bought pie.

 

Have a look at Coles online shopping below. You may have to type in a postocode to access local prices. Perth's postcode is 6000.

 

https://shop.coles.com.au

[onetrack]

It appears it's the NSW and Southern Qld regions that are suffering from the fresh food shortages - largely as a result of the incessant rain that the East Coast has been receiving. I would imagine the big stores would be looking to acquire fresh produce from interstate to fill the shortage.

We have no shortage of fresh produce here on the Left Coast, Australia exports 100,000 tonnes of carrots annually, and the largest percentage of that export amount is produced right here in W.A.

 

I don't know if we have enough surplus lettuce and other fresh produce to make up the shortfall that the East Coast is experiencing, but the problem is the sheer distance involved in trucking West to East, which would probably double the cost of the wholesale lettuce price once it reached the East. Even then, though, it's probably still viable for the big retailers to do it, as it's case of higher prices for produce from the West, or nothing at all.

The advantage to the retailers is, trucking West to East is generally at a good rate, as there's an imbalance in East-West shipping, and a lot of trucks (and trains) head back East, empty. Triple road trains shift a large quantity of goods, and they do it fast, which is necessary for perishable produce.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-06-08/lettuce-shortage-continues-and-fruit-and-vegetable-prices-rise/101133906

[facthunter]

It's a long way by road or sea no matter how you view it.. We can't whinge about this because it's what it is. No one is dying of starvation in any numbers like they did in the depression where people ate rabbits and anything they could grow themselves.. There can be no guarantee your precious standard of living is cast in stone. If you have running hot water you're in the top  2 percent.. Nev

[red750]

They were saying on the TV this  morning that you should switch to canned or frozen veges where possible. My daughter told me KFC are using cabbage in their burgers instead of lettuce. I don't know what Asian lettuce costs, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[facthunter]

I regularly use frozen Peas and broad beans. Canned tomato is good for cooking and I use a lot of onions for thickening or give things a bit of body. . You can get Tinned Pie apple too. Freeze small helpings if it's just tor you or two.. Try sourdough bread or a good wholegrain.  Nev

[spacesailor]

Dandelions Are nutritious. Young leaves are sweetest.  Free of course !.

Shark & crocodile are good eating, & will cut down the deaths by those two.

Why so many sharks?. We stopped eating Them !, So the eat Us.

And, then theres those milions of dog & cats to go before starvation. 

The English & French ate Horses.

AND

Soldiers ate Rats.

spacesailor

 

[red750]

9 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

Why so many sharks?. We stopped eating Them !, So the eat Us.

Flake is about the only fish I eat.

[spacesailor]

No bones in "  flake " only cartilage. 

Shark that is.

Fish with many names.

spacesailor

[willedoo]

11 minutes ago, red750 said:

Flake is about the only fish I eat.

One of the best, in my opinion.

[red750]

Our local fish shop sells peices of flake that hang off both sides of the plate, with potato cakes (scallops in some locales) larger than a saucer. YUM.

[facthunter]

Flake is a specified range of small sharks.  The large top of the food chain ones are not recommended eating as they will have high levels of mercury in them. I've tried Croc a few times and you can have it as far as I'm concerned. Everyone I've asked in the territory seems to think the same but I don't ask everyone I meet as it's not the meaning of life for me. I used to eat water buffalo steaks.. I'm not a big eater of meat these days. Never eat cake or drink sugary drinks or add salt. I'm going OK at 82 as far  as I know except for a near death with a rotten Gall Bladder two months ago that got past my guard. and set me back a bit.  The worst thing is that most of my mates are no longer around. and others are not going THAT well... I guess that's my lot. Nev

[old man emu]

On the price of lettuce in NSW - this afternoon small ones were $11.00 in my local grocery store. I'm glad that iceberg lettuce doesn't agree with my cast iron guts.

[Jerry_Atrick]

On 07/06/2022 at 8:13 AM, rgmwa said:

At least we don't have to put up with Boris.

No, I guess not.. But at least his party is willing to have a crack at removing him.. and he is now considered a dead man walking (politically). Also, I don't recall electing someone like ScoMo after enduing someone similar in Abbott.. But, what that has to do with the cost of living, I am not sure.

On 07/06/2022 at 10:02 AM, onetrack said:

I presume you meant "RBA" has increased interest rates. I don't know where you're getting your food prices from? Outback Queensland or an island such as Cocos-Keeling or Christmas Island?

Yes.. I tapped the OP using a phone while at work.. I did tap RBA and didn't notice the auto-correct. I was reading a BBG article and it was talking about Sydney, and showed a receipt - but with no business identiication..  As I tapped the message in a hurry, my OP may have seemed a little blase.. not intended..

 

On 07/06/2022 at 10:02 AM, onetrack said:

When I was in the U.K. in 1988, I was stunned at food prices there, then. I can recall an Aunty telling me she had recently paid £1 for a single tomato.

Yes.. I was still in Aus until '96, but I recall reading reports of how expensive it was in the UK in those times.. and of course £1 is a lot more then than it is now. Apparently, at the height of the inflation curve in those times, inflation was sometehing like 27% in the UK.

 

But at today's money,  the minimum wage in Aus is something like $21/hour (give or take); In the UK, it is about £11 (tgive or take - and there was no minimum wage to speak of when I first arrived in the UK..) At $11 for a lettuce, it is 1/2 hour's work on the minimum wage. Over here, at about £1 a head of iceberg lettuce (not very popular here against other varieties, but the cost per equivalent is the same), it represents about 6 minutes work for those on low incomes. That is a big difference, but the purpose of the post was not to compare here to there. The purpose of the post is that inflation (which is running at 10% here at the moment), seems to be hitting at least the green stuff hard in Aus.. and that is a big chunk of change, and what are Aussies doing to cushion themselves against the impact. I noticed (as Red pointed out) KFC in Aus are now substituting cabbage for lettuce in their burgers. Are people substituting, running down savings and running up bigger debts, growing their own, switching oiff the heating and using jumpers, walking/cycling instead of driving? Is there reports of people foregoing means? Or is there sufficient capacity that they don't need to worry?

 

On 08/06/2022 at 4:48 AM, facthunter said:

We can't whinge about this because it's what it is. No one is dying of starvation in any numbers like they did in the depression where people ate rabbits and anything they could grow themselves.. There can be no guarantee your precious standard of living is cast in stone.

Yes, this is true, but as higher prices bite, what are the sacrifices that people are going to make. We have already planted a lot more varieties of vegetables than we normally would have. And are staggering sowing to give yeilds throughout. We have reduced the time our hot water is on to reduce oil consumption, and even the kids are switching off lights!

 

However, I don't see people doing any oif this. Even with their back gardens, they tend to lawns rather  than allow a patch to grow their own and save a few shillings. It is sort of like modern society has come to rely on the supermaket for their food, gas/elec for heating and petrol/diesel/electrons to get around.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[onetrack]

Interest rates going up half a percent in Australia, has only added a lot of pressure to already increased food and fuel prices here. The adverse weather events have merely piled on the troubles.

Wage increases are well behind the inflation curve, that is the main problem.

Since the unions have lost a lot of their following after their unpopular stunts in the 70's and 80's, where the union leadership was invaded by criminals, and union officials helped themselves to union funds, and many unnecessary strikes were called, there's now a major power imbalance between employers and employees, with employers holding all the power.

As a result, wage increases have been constantly nailed down to minimal increases for the last 8-10 years - aided of course, by very low inflation, and very low interest rates.

 

The result now is that employees are really feeling the pinch - with the financial problems being led by vastly increased house prices over the last 10 years. If you have a mortgage of say, $180,000 on a house costing $200,000, then a 0.5% increase in finance costs is not going to amount to a huge dollar amount. But if you have borrowed $720,000 to buy a $800,000 house, then the 0.5% increase is a sizeable dollar amount increase.

Even though wages are a little higher, house prices have outstripped them substantially, in percentage terms - along with the massive increase in loan value figures.

 

Most home owners are running close to the wind with mortgage repayments, and have never even considered what an interest rate rise would do to repayment levels, or budgeting.

But those of us who are older, and who have lived through major inflationary times, and mortgage interest rates of 18%, and hire purchase interest rates of 30%, know full well the impact of these kind of increases (and yes, I have paid 30% on a HP contract, in 1982!). I've also paid 23% on a bridging loan to totally alter my business direction, in that same era. Fortunately, the business decision I made was correct, and the profits in the new direction more than covered the 23% interest bill.

 

But a lot of younger people who have never seen interest rates above 1% or 2%, and who never experienced anything more than 1% or 2% inflation, are going to have to learnt some hard new lessons, as we enter this new inflationary period that is needed to catch up with all the "free money" that was printed (remember that cute term, "quantitative easing?") and the easy credit that has been handed out willy-nilly for the last 14 years, since the GFC.

 

[spacesailor]

It can,t be bad . 

A customer in Aldi,s took a whole trolley of CAT food.

Feeding strays in Sevenhills.

Good food for when we Do starve! .

Yum yum,!  Chicken curry.

spacesailor

[facthunter]

That's what he told the check out chick but it wasn't for the kittys, it was for the Kiddies. Nev

[onetrack]

It could be worse - we could be living in Japan. Wages in Japan have barely increased since 1990, and now the Japanese are having to face up to dealing with inflation - something they have never heard of, or had to deal with.

 

The old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times", seems to be coming into effect.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61718906

[Marty_d]

2 hours ago, spacesailor said:

It can,t be bad . 

A customer in Aldi,s took a whole trolley of CAT food.

Feeding strays in Sevenhills.

Good food for when we Do starve! .

Yum yum,!  Chicken curry.

spacesailor

Cat.  The other white meat.

[Bruce Tuncks]

All my life, food has been so cheap it's almost been free. This has had undesirable effects, like how we have lost most of our ag colleges. I used to work in one.

I really like seeing prices go up, especially because I now live on a farm.

Another thing...  all my life, I have never felt hungry and  I don't know what it feels like.. I always ate more than I wanted to keep the cook from getting angry with me.

When you look back, you realize that we sure lived in an unusual time.

Marty, I never knew that cats were white  meat....  you sure? What about dogs? I do know that crocs are white meat, from eating some in Darwin once.

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

We have a plague of white cockys around here right now. I wonder if they are edible.

 

[Marty_d]

3 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

 

Marty, I never knew that cats were white  meat....  you sure? What about dogs? I do know that crocs are white meat, from eating some in Darwin once.

 

I honestly have no idea Bruce... it's an old joke and it wasn't mine.

 

As for the cocky's - they probably taste like chicken, but tougher.  Wouldn't roast them - I made that mistake with one of our young roosters once.   I would wonder if the cost of ammo and time needed to get enough for a feed & prepare them would be more than a store-bought chicken.

 

[onetrack]

You've never heard the old joke about the recipe you use for cooking cockies? You add a stone to the pot, along with half a dozen cockies. Cook until the stone is soft, then the cockies are ready for eating!

[facthunter]

Ducks ? I have lots of them here and I can't really imagine how people can shoot them for fun. Nev