Things you'd expect to be cheaper
Discussion
Fats25 said:
I didn't know they still did Heineken Export.
My memory was that in the 80's/90's that Heineken was approx 3% abv, and Heineken Export was approx. 5%. Then at some point in the late 90's, they stopped selling Export, and just had standard Heineken.
I always thought Export was just for the UK, and that everywhere else had Heineken. I always thought it was something to do with when lager was introduced to the UK and taking over from bitters/pale ales, and it was because the UK drinker still thought they had to have 20 pints on a Friday night, and 20 pints of 5% was more dangerous than 20 pints of 3%. Better profits for the brewer and landlord as well!
I was in Ireland recently and I am sure they do a low alcohol version of Heineken, but the standard Heineken is as per what Export was.
So do they still do Heineken Export?
Sorry for thread de-rail!
Not since 2003: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/heineken-tak...My memory was that in the 80's/90's that Heineken was approx 3% abv, and Heineken Export was approx. 5%. Then at some point in the late 90's, they stopped selling Export, and just had standard Heineken.
I always thought Export was just for the UK, and that everywhere else had Heineken. I always thought it was something to do with when lager was introduced to the UK and taking over from bitters/pale ales, and it was because the UK drinker still thought they had to have 20 pints on a Friday night, and 20 pints of 5% was more dangerous than 20 pints of 3%. Better profits for the brewer and landlord as well!
I was in Ireland recently and I am sure they do a low alcohol version of Heineken, but the standard Heineken is as per what Export was.
So do they still do Heineken Export?
Sorry for thread de-rail!
clockworks said:
Lance Catamaran said:
In real terms it's no more expensive than something like an Escort XR3i from the 80's. Plus you will now get climate control, ABS, touchscreen, parking sensors etc thrown in, whereas before it was maybe electric windows in the front and central locking.
I bought a new XR3i back in the day, and thought it was a bit cheaper than that. Googling shows a facelift XR3i with all the extras cost £9.5k in 1986. According to a "what is the pound worth now" website, that's about £26k in today's money, so not too far off.However, wages for many people haven't really kept up. I was taking home £1k a month then as a computer field engineer, so a new XR3i was 9 month's wages. I wonder how many people with regular jobs take home £40k a year basic now? I think that the crazy rise in house prices since the 80's has skewed the inflation figures in relation to real incomes.
My first house, a 3 bed semi bought new in 1984, cost £27k. Probably cost 10 times that now in Milton Keynes?
Sheepshanks said:
Taking home £1K/mth in 1986 was good going. Average gross salary then was £9500/yr.
I went for an interview with Burroughs Machines a little earlier in the 80's - I can't remember the fine details but I was reasonably paid and they were offering less than I was currently earning.
My parents bought a 3 bed semi in Bristol in 1986 for about £28k, that is now worth at least £250k, probably would be a little less if they hadn't extended and improved it in the mean time. I bet they were barely taking home £1k/month between them at the time. Now you would need to be probably a few pay grades above what they were then to even consider affording it.I went for an interview with Burroughs Machines a little earlier in the 80's - I can't remember the fine details but I was reasonably paid and they were offering less than I was currently earning.
I currently live in New Zealand, so I could put pretty much everything on this list. Here the surprising things are lamb, beef and dairy products, which are produced in immense quantities but are actually cheaper when they end up abroad. Also craft beer, which seems to be about 4x more than you might expect in a supermarket and peppers, which I can't even consider paying about 10 times more than I would in the UK.
Apple products are just silly expensive now and they don't even try to hide it. They are just conditioning us to pay a lot for something we have to upgrade a lot.
a said:
Wedding cakes.
There are some wedding costs that I understand... For example I know that a decent photographer charging £1,000+ is actually putting in a week's worth of work plus wear-and-tear on expensive equipment, insurance, etc.
But a cake is a cake. Even a very fancy cake goes off quite quickly so they must decorate it quickly after baking. I don't believe that it ever takes them a week to decorate a single cake. At best an intricate cake would be a full day of work. They might be very skilled, but there are loads of them so it's hardly a unique skill. How can they justify charging £1,000 for a cake? It's madness!
My OH works in specialty cake decorating and some of the commissions they take on are mind-boggling in their complexity and take crazy amounts of labour hours (compared to what you would think) to produce!There are some wedding costs that I understand... For example I know that a decent photographer charging £1,000+ is actually putting in a week's worth of work plus wear-and-tear on expensive equipment, insurance, etc.
But a cake is a cake. Even a very fancy cake goes off quite quickly so they must decorate it quickly after baking. I don't believe that it ever takes them a week to decorate a single cake. At best an intricate cake would be a full day of work. They might be very skilled, but there are loads of them so it's hardly a unique skill. How can they justify charging £1,000 for a cake? It's madness!
Obviously some smaller/simpler cakes are much less intensive, but even when they do produce such a thing in a day, that is a result of years of practice & experience- your everyday joe with no experience would take significantly longer and still probably make a hash of it, you are paying for that skill/experience like with any other craft. Not to mention the covering of certain overheads etc.
It is always entertaining hearing the tales of customers who rock up saying they have agreed to make their friend's/family member's wedding cake (because how hard can it be right?!) and want some advice- they have no concept of what it actually involves, and 99% then end up sheepishly paying to have it done properly.
Her & her colleagues often tell people who question the price that if it is such an overpriced industry with minimal barriers to entry, set up your own business and undercut everyone else- you'll be flooded with orders and make millions, but oddly these successful businesses producing high quality and charging peanuts never appear, meanwhile they are booked out with commissions weeks in advance!
To go back to the photographer analogy, there are loads of 'amateur' photographers out there these days who might offer to do your wedding for a couple of hundred quid. They might do a decent job, but many people would rather pay the going rate to get a professional to do it and not take the risk- it's not like you can go back and have another go. The same is true for wedding cakes and a million other seemingly straight-forward services.
I run a company providing lighting/DJ services for weddings and we get exactly the same in that industry when we turn up with several £k worth of PAT-compliant equipment with multiple backups, fully insured etc and someone asks what all the gear is for when they could have done it using an i-pad and a couple of lights from Maplins!
All that said, I've personally never seen the appeal of those ornate wedding cakes!
Jobbo said:
Not quite everything. I bought a Billy bookcase from Ikea at the weekend and it was £55 (oak veneer, the wider, full height version). I first bought one in 1995 and it was £79; I've since bought them at lower prices each time over the years (£69, £65 and £59) so I was somewhat surprised that they're even cheaper in 2017.
Are you buying each one to replace the last one when it breaks? I am not a fan of Ikea stuff but end up with a few hand me downs so know that they don't cope well with being moved whether they are dismantled or not. Currently trying to accumulate a ramshackle collection of old solid furniture items which will survive multiple moves.
oyster said:
BoRED S2upid said:
bloomen said:
train travel, every last crumb of property in this country, printer ink.
Train travel is a joke it should always be the cheapest form of travel not the most expensive no wonder nobody uses them. Google helps a lot
Every other Saturday we travel sixty miles to watch Plymouth Argyle lose. That costs roughly £50 in fuel for the Range Rover. Plus there's parking,etc, but leave that out for the moment.
I bought a three year Friends and Family Railcard for about £70 and now a return journey for two adults and one under 16 costs £15.70. The savings in one year paid for the card.
Now, here's the qualification for the 'sort of' bit above..
For us to travel from Devon to Walsall away costs £140.00 and that's with the F+F card.
So, the local travel is cheap as chips, anything else is damned expensive!
Tyre Smoke said:
Have to say, I disagree that it's expensive - sort of. Let me explain..
Every other Saturday we travel sixty miles to watch Plymouth Argyle lose. That costs roughly £50 in fuel for the Range Rover. Plus there's parking,etc, but leave that out for the moment.
I bought a three year Friends and Family Railcard for about £70 and now a return journey for two adults and one under 16 costs £15.70. The savings in one year paid for the card.
Now, here's the qualification for the 'sort of' bit above..
For us to travel from Devon to Walsall away costs £140.00 and that's with the F+F card.
So, the local travel is cheap as chips, anything else is damned expensive!
£50 of fuel to travel 60 miles is about 6 to the gallon. Seems a bit low.Every other Saturday we travel sixty miles to watch Plymouth Argyle lose. That costs roughly £50 in fuel for the Range Rover. Plus there's parking,etc, but leave that out for the moment.
I bought a three year Friends and Family Railcard for about £70 and now a return journey for two adults and one under 16 costs £15.70. The savings in one year paid for the card.
Now, here's the qualification for the 'sort of' bit above..
For us to travel from Devon to Walsall away costs £140.00 and that's with the F+F card.
So, the local travel is cheap as chips, anything else is damned expensive!
mondeoman said:
Ilovejapcrap said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Pebbles167 said:
Viagra. Around £29 For 4 tablets.
You can get it cheaper, if it's past its swell by date. 
TTOBES said:
My contribution:
Ale served in pubs that is brewed five minutes away. I know it still needs to be delivered, but does it need to be as pricey as the other, non-local stuff at the pumps?
Local beer is likely produced in much smaller quantities, so the cost per pint will be higher. It may also still be distributed through a central supplier, so the 'food miles' might not be lower either.Ale served in pubs that is brewed five minutes away. I know it still needs to be delivered, but does it need to be as pricey as the other, non-local stuff at the pumps?
a said:
Wedding cakes.
There are some wedding costs that I understand... For example I know that a decent photographer charging £1,000+ is actually putting in a week's worth of work plus wear-and-tear on expensive equipment, insurance, etc.
But a cake is a cake. Even a very fancy cake goes off quite quickly so they must decorate it quickly after baking. I don't believe that it ever takes them a week to decorate a single cake. At best an intricate cake would be a full day of work. They might be very skilled, but there are loads of them so it's hardly a unique skill. How can they justify charging £1,000 for a cake? It's madness!
Cakes are not cheap, the wife bakes cakes and decorates them. They can easily cost £50-£60 in ingredients alone, these are usually one or two tier. I can imagine a wedding cake would cost £200-£300 in ingredients alone before time and profit are factored in. There are some wedding costs that I understand... For example I know that a decent photographer charging £1,000+ is actually putting in a week's worth of work plus wear-and-tear on expensive equipment, insurance, etc.
But a cake is a cake. Even a very fancy cake goes off quite quickly so they must decorate it quickly after baking. I don't believe that it ever takes them a week to decorate a single cake. At best an intricate cake would be a full day of work. They might be very skilled, but there are loads of them so it's hardly a unique skill. How can they justify charging £1,000 for a cake? It's madness!
Thankyou4calling said:
Tyre Smoke said:
Have to say, I disagree that it's expensive - sort of. Let me explain..
Every other Saturday we travel sixty miles to watch Plymouth Argyle lose. That costs roughly £50 in fuel for the Range Rover. Plus there's parking,etc, but leave that out for the moment.
I bought a three year Friends and Family Railcard for about £70 and now a return journey for two adults and one under 16 costs £15.70. The savings in one year paid for the card.
Now, here's the qualification for the 'sort of' bit above..
For us to travel from Devon to Walsall away costs £140.00 and that's with the F+F card.
So, the local travel is cheap as chips, anything else is damned expensive!
£50 of fuel to travel 60 miles is about 6 to the gallon. Seems a bit low.Every other Saturday we travel sixty miles to watch Plymouth Argyle lose. That costs roughly £50 in fuel for the Range Rover. Plus there's parking,etc, but leave that out for the moment.
I bought a three year Friends and Family Railcard for about £70 and now a return journey for two adults and one under 16 costs £15.70. The savings in one year paid for the card.
Now, here's the qualification for the 'sort of' bit above..
For us to travel from Devon to Walsall away costs £140.00 and that's with the F+F card.
So, the local travel is cheap as chips, anything else is damned expensive!
Rostfritt said:
Jobbo said:
Not quite everything. I bought a Billy bookcase from Ikea at the weekend and it was £55 (oak veneer, the wider, full height version). I first bought one in 1995 and it was £79; I've since bought them at lower prices each time over the years (£69, £65 and £59) so I was somewhat surprised that they're even cheaper in 2017.
Are you buying each one to replace the last one when it breaks? I am not a fan of Ikea stuff but end up with a few hand me downs so know that they don't cope well with being moved whether they are dismantled or not. Currently trying to accumulate a ramshackle collection of old solid furniture items which will survive multiple moves.The others in between were additions as I moved to bigger houses and had more books to store. I've been very impressed with their longevity.
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