Everything is going up except our income.

I agree NfkDumpling wasn't there a thing where the husband or wife had to pay for their partner even if they weren't earning? I am struggling to remember (hopeless memory) .

GracesGranMK2 Don't think people would have a choice to pick and choose which services they would want if (hypothetically) the poll tax was revived. As for arguing about living in a lower value house than someone else? Gilly bob What has that got to do with anything? You make choices in life about how you earn and spend your money (yes I know there are exceptions) but overall bleeding hearts/do gooders have removed any incentive to work and strive to do better.

Conned? Yes. For all goods provided by and within the UK any change in price is directly due to the provider. What we import costs more.

Rises in council taxes has more to do with austerity and government reducing or fixing financial support for councils. Austerity has many bad effects so we will not be able to return to any norms ubtil we get all that debt on a better footing as well as a fiscal surplus.

Typical opinion of someone who doesn't care one jot for anyone less fortunate than themselves yaiyai

you make choices in life about how you earn and spend your money

Really? You can choose where you are born?
You can choose your intellectual capabilities?
You can choose whether your parents are rich or poor?
You can choose not to be ill or infirm?

I have never read anything so ridiculous in my entire life.

Surely poorer councils should attract more government assistance in order for them to keep their council tax at a fair and affordable rate for all. CardiffJag

Angela the govts. latest measure of inflation is cpih, which does take into account rental costs and council tax.
Norah it's not just pensioners that get increases from the govt. but also benefit claimants, but only inflation increases - no triple lock. There was some talk of this changing to increases in line with wages rather than prices.

Look, let's cut to the chase and talk about really important things again......butter
Lurpak spreadable is really good, but we always have the normal packet of Lurpak sitting there in a butter dish out of the fridge all year round, if very hot, it sits in the cooler pantry cupboard.
On prices, there are all sorts of variables at play ( Brexit is getting blamed for all but the weather) oil prices go up and down as we know, which affects prices, weather in countries abroad which spoil their crops, sterling goes up and down, and so on.
I haven't noticed much difference in price in my weekly shop.Council tax will be more expensive ( Government allowed councils to put it up to help with costs of local social care.)
For anybody managing on only a state pension, life is tough, but that was always the case, going back 50 years, and in fact, in real terms, pensioners are much better provided for now than for my Grandparents generation in the 1960's.

It is one of life's small pleasures to peel back the metallic paper from a brand new, packet of Lurpak butter. To gently let the butter fall into the butter dish and to glide your knife across the surface for the fist time. To place a perfect scraping onto the top of a homemade scone, fresh from the oven .

There you go roses is that buttery enough for you?

I have actually licked the paper too. Waste not want not

Thumbs up from me gilly ??
All Lurpak lovers have great taste ( although I do dally with Anchor now and again)

It has to be Kerrygold for me. Cows grass fed. That's the Irish in me coming out..

Presumably they eat silage from grass in the winter months when they are not outside.

I used to loathe the smell of silage fermenting, perhaps they have better methods these days!

@gillybob
Unfortunately that is not how funds are distributed. In any case there is a shortfall in almost every council just to meet their mandated duties. Have you read about the number of care homes that are closing because they cannot continue with the funding their councils' provide? That means more bed blocking for the NHS. That means less operations.......and so on.

I know that cardiffJaguar . I haven't read about care home but I stared another thread about home care contracts being handed back . Very worrying . Central government should be forced to take care of the elderly not individual LA's

The next problem of course will be that elderly people living in their own home relying on home care will be admitted to hospitals as they will not be adequately looked after .

And they won't get Lurpak on their toast either!

There's now a packet of Lurpak residing in my fridge. When I've used up the current butter, I'll report back!

Nobody's mentioned fuel gas/electricity increases. Mine have just gone up 14%.

Gillybob - presumably we are talking about born in Britain? It doesn't matter where then, intellectually? How intellectual do you have to be to work, save, live within your means, use contraception to limit size of family? What difference does it make if your parents are rich or poor? I covered your last statement about ill or infirm. My husband and I were born into poverty from a largish family and we are not intellectuals. Our siblings have varied achievements, some being feckless whilst others are normal hardworking adults living modest lives. If you have never heard anything as ridiculous then you have led a very sheltered life. One thing we apparently agree on at least - Lurpak butter lol.

Fitzy Many state benefits have been frozen for years. The only one which has increased in line with inflation (or more) is the state pension.

yaiyal How do you work out that do gooders have removed the incentives to work? I've lived on the breadline between benefits and trying to make a living from self-employment for years.

I know from personal experience about the cliff edges and the disincentives to work, most of which were brought in by the coalition government and made worse by the current government. I've never thought of the Conservatives as do-gooders.

yaiyai - I don't know where to start with your post. If only life were so simple. There are plenty of people who work incredibly hard but don't earn enough to save or manage to live within their means. And then there are the smug ones......

Well, the good news is that the price of petrol is going down today by 2p a litre. More to spend on Lurpak now!

Apparenly petrol and diesel prices are coming down which should reduce the cost of transporting goods which should bring down food prices including the price of butter.

That's the theory but don't hold your breath!

X post Chewbacca (it just takes me ages to type with one finger)

Wassup with your other 4 Jalima ? What have you done? Accident?