Inflation

[willedoo]

It's hard to get the head around the cost of things these days. Admittedly I've been out of the loop on some prices for a while and have really noticed it as I'm starting back doing some things I haven't done for a few years, namely building renovation and a bit of fabrication. Some building materials haven't increased much but most have. The price of timber products is scary.

 

Another one is the price of steel. As said I'm a few years out of touch on prices but the price of steel in general now is incredible. Gone are the days of taking it for granted. Every job now needs a bit of careful planning and research to keep it affordable. I look at every scrap of steel now as gold. Back in 2021 I was cleaning my block up to sell and gave away a heap of good steel as I didn't want to spend the time trying to sell it and couldn't take it with me. Circumstances changed and I'm still here but almost completely steelless. I figured out that at today's prices, what I gave away was worth thousands to replace. I had a lot of steel that had accumulated over the years, either bought or obtained for free. If I had a small job to do, there was always the right bit of steel lying around somewhere. It's a bit of a shock to the system to have to go to town and pay crazy prices when all you need is a small amount for a little job. On the bright side, the place looks a lot tidier these days. The metal scrap bloke took away five truck and trailer loads if you include old water tanks and vehicles.

[old man emu]

Well, don't try buying a few screws or other fasteners. Now they come in packages containing either way too many, or just a couple short of enough. 

 

$6.19 at the green and red shed. 

[onetrack]

Agreed, the price of steel is incredible today. Makes me glad I've gathered up a lot of steel over the years, I don't have to buy a great deal of it.

 

But the cost of building a steel shed has rocketed. In 2019, I got several quotes for the construction of a large shed (12M x 24M x 4M gable height), and they came in around $35,000.

I got another couple of quotes the last couple of months, and the price has more than doubled in 5 years. But I also think a lot of shed suppliers are having a good old rort, because I can't really see how they can justify the prices.

 

A lot of shed suppliers have been spoilt by orders from big miners and big farmers, and I'm stunned at the size of some of the sheds that have been built on mines and farms, they're like covered football fields.

[red750]

What is ridiculous is the up and down price of petrol. At the moment, it's down. Today I bought petrol at pump price $1.70/l.

Preset $35.00. Then, with my discounts, paid $33.15, reducing the price to $1.61.5/l

[onetrack]

The oil price has been going down - but the 3 major Eastern States are hotbeds of petrol price rorting.

 

We benefit somewhat here on the left coast, because we're closer to Singapore, which is where around 80% of our refined petrol comes from.

 

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/oil-prices-are-dropping-this-is-when-australians-will-see-the-benefit/a72e7k4y0

 

Petrol is going down to 152.7c tomorrow at Costco, adjacent to Perth Airport. It was 154.7c today. Many local servos are coming close to matching Costco's pricing, which always been 4c-6c cheaper than other servos.

Servos in the Perth Metro area are obliged to notify FuelWatch of their following days pricing by 2:00PM each day - and then set that price for the entire period between 6:00AM and their closing time on that following day.

 

https://www.fuelwatch.wa.gov.au/

 

Edited August 27 by onetrack