Cost of Living - Spending Insights

[Turkish]

Just got a chippy tea for the first time in ages. 2 x regular fish and chips, kids fish and chip and a sausage a chips £30 FFS. I swear a year ago that was more like £20. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

8 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Just got a chippy tea for the first time in ages. 2 x regular fish and chips, kids fish and chip and a sausage a chips £30 FFS. I swear a year ago that was more like £20. 

Mine is £9.70 for a fish supper. And that's battered, rather than breadcrumbed. It went up in leaps and bounds in the last few years, rather than smaller inflation based ones. It's been that price for a little while. But once the £10 is finally breached...

[Challenger]

13 hours ago, Turkish said:

Just got a chippy tea for the first time in ages. 2 x regular fish and chips, kids fish and chip and a sausage a chips £30 FFS. I swear a year ago that was more like £20. 

Brexit innit, those French fish, German sausages and Irish spuds all cost more to import these days.

[Turkish]

18 minutes ago, Challenger said:

Brexit innit, those French fish, German sausages and Irish spuds all cost more to import these days.

I blame the lefties. Had we not had an open door immigration policy then there would be far fewer foreign take aways like kebab shops meaning more people would use traditional British chip shops thus driving higher demand, more bulk buying and therefore lower prices passed onto customers. 

[egg]

14 hours ago, Turkish said:

Just got a chippy tea for the first time in ages. 2 x regular fish and chips, kids fish and chip and a sausage a chips £30 FFS. I swear a year ago that was more like £20. 

That's cheap. That's £35 round here, and the Millbrook Chippy... Millbrook...will charge £35.50 for that order BEFORE you get to the kids fish and chips. Mental money for spuds and a bit of fish. 

[Turkish]

7 minutes ago, egg said:

That's cheap. That's £35 round here, and the Millbrook Chippy... Millbrook...will charge £35.50 for that order BEFORE you get to the kids fish and chips. Mental money for spuds and a bit of fish. 

That’s mental. Got to be the cheapest take away around surely?

coffee is the same now. I unfortunately had to go to a Starbucks yesterday too, usually avoid them and costa much prefer a locally run one in town. £22 for two cappuccino’s an espresso and a strawberry refresher thing to take away. 
I’d say our coffee machine at home was better

[egg]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

That’s mental. Got to be the cheapest take away around surely?

coffee is the same now. I unfortunately had to go to a Starbucks yesterday too, usually avoid them and costa much prefer a locally run one in town. £22 for two cappuccino’s an espresso and a strawberry refresher thing to take away. 
I’d say our coffee machine at home was better

I find Indian is the best value. A tandoori chicken shashlik, with salad, yoghurt sauce, and fresh naan or rice is cheaper than fish and chips. Just nuts. 

Coffee is crazy. We had 2 iced latte's at an independent in Stockbridge yesterday. They cost me £10.80. No syrup or any of that, just coffee/cold milk/ice in a cup. For contrast, we were paying less than €6.00 for the same in Belgium last month, and Belgium isn't cheap. 

[Turkish]

32 minutes ago, egg said:

I find Indian is the best value. A tandoori chicken shashlik, with salad, yoghurt sauce, and fresh naan or rice is cheaper than fish and chips. Just nuts. 

Coffee is crazy. We had 2 iced latte's at an independent in Stockbridge yesterday. They cost me £10.80. No syrup or any of that, just coffee/cold milk/ice in a cup. For contrast, we were paying less than €6.00 for the same in Belgium last month, and Belgium isn't cheap. 

Coffee has become very fashionable so they’ve hiked the price up. Along with that  the woke nonsense like chia latte and the soft millennials needing oat or almond milk due to their intolerances it’s become a gravy train which they milk (pun intended). I only really drink espresso these days, couple at home when working from home on the morning or get one at the train station if travelling. 

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

Going to the cinema hurts these days too.

Can still reasonably priced tickets at Vue. However add some popcorn and slushie it's another £14!

Best bit is, Vue have done away with the small slushie cup (in Eastleigh at least). So you buy the regular for £6.95 and they try and upsell to a large for another 80p.

[egg]

32 minutes ago, JohnnyShearer2.0 said:

Going to the cinema hurts these days too.

Can still reasonably priced tickets at Vue. However add some popcorn and slushie it's another £14!

Best bit is, Vue have done away with the small slushie cup (in Eastleigh at least). So you buy the regular for £6.95 and they try and upsell to a large for another 80p.

I'm an unashamed tight sod and take snacks and a drink with me. I'm not paying cinema prices. The cinema ticket is usually a freebie from the bank as well. 

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, egg said:

I'm an unashamed tight sod and take snacks and a drink with me. I'm not paying cinema prices. The cinema ticket is usually a freebie from the bank as well. 

I’m definitely getting tighter as I get older. Tend to look at the prices of stuff a lot more than I used to. Don’t eat out anything like we used to, mainly because I object to paying best part of £100 for very average pub food. I’ll go somewhere if there is a deal on but tend to avoid it. I know people say the hospitality industry is really suffering but it’s a vicious circle where the price has gone up hugely whilst the standard has gone down which forces the price to go up as it’s a lot quieter than it used to be. 

[Turkish]

40 minutes ago, JohnnyShearer2.0 said:

Going to the cinema hurts these days too.

Can still reasonably priced tickets at Vue. However add some popcorn and slushie it's another £14!

Best bit is, Vue have done away with the small slushie cup (in Eastleigh at least). So you buy the regular for £6.95 and they try and upsell to a large for another 80p.

Last time I went to the cinema properly was to see Top Gun Maverick, decided to make a night of it and go to the Everyman, tickets, couple of drinks and a few snacks and spent over £80 for 3 of us

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

28 minutes ago, egg said:

I'm an unashamed tight sod and take snacks and a drink with me. I'm not paying cinema prices. The cinema ticket is usually a freebie from the bank as well. 

Drink and popcorn for the kid and wife.

I'm more than happy bringing my own bottled drink in.

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

23 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Last time I went to the cinema properly was to see Top Gun Maverick, decided to make a night of it and go to the Everyman, tickets, couple of drinks and a few snacks and spent over £80 for 3 of us

Yep, can rack up easily.

Showcase is very expensive during peak times.

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

Needed a wee whilst out and about in Cornwall last week. Public toilets were 50p to use. Bit miffed, but I stumped up the cash as I was desperate and once in there made sure I got my money's worth by squeezing out an unnecessary poo.

[egg]

29 minutes ago, Turkish said:

I’m definitely getting tighter as I get older. Tend to look at the prices of stuff a lot more than I used to. Don’t eat out anything like we used to, mainly because I object to paying best part of £100 for very average pub food. I’ll go somewhere if there is a deal on but tend to avoid it. I know people say the hospitality industry is really suffering but it’s a vicious circle where the price has gone up hugely whilst the standard has gone down which forces the price to go up as it’s a lot quieter than it used to be. 

I'm with you. We popped out last night, just us 2. Diego's, basically an indy version of Nandos in Bedford Place. 

2 mains, nothing fancy, 1 side order of prawns (from the starters), 1 bottle of water for me, couple of ciders for my wife. No starters, desserts or nibbles on the table. With service, £90.

In fairness, it was good for what it was, service and atmosphere were great, but for a single course meal, only 1 person having a couple of cheap drinks, almost a ton spent. Pleasingly they were busy in there, but many places weren't. 

Not long ago we'd have got a really good meal for that. 

 

[egg]

6 minutes ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

Needed a wee whilst out and about in Cornwall last week. Public toilets were 50p to use. Bit miffed, but I stumped up the cash as I was desperate and once in there made sure I got my money's worth by squeezing out an unnecessary poo.

Good man. I hope you went heavy on the paper and got vfm. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 minute ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

Needed a wee whilst out and about in Cornwall last week. Public toilets were 50p to use. Bit miffed, but I stumped up the cash as I was desperate and once in there made sure I got my money's worth by squeezing out an unnecessary poo.

Well worth staying in there for all those hours, until you needed one.

41 minutes ago, egg said:

I'm an unashamed tight sod and take snacks and a drink with me. I'm not paying cinema prices. The cinema ticket is usually a freebie from the bank as well. 

I prefer ale, and trying out new ones. It's not my fault that the local Wetherspoons stocks the best range, and it's much cheaper.

I live minutes away from my town centre. Buying any coffee, or anything else from a Costa, is madness with a kettle so close. 

Equally mad to sell an organ that you might need to process cinema food.

Given two similar things, I'll pick the clubcard deal one.

I begrudge my local team putting the crisps up by loads, when I can see the giant box of golden wonder sitting there.

But, in company, if someone really wants to do something, then that's fine. The last thing I want to do, is go on about it. 🙂

 

[whelk]

40 minutes ago, JohnnyShearer2.0 said:

Drink and popcorn for the kid and wife.

I'm more than happy bringing my own bottled drink in.

Yes ridiculous how the bill can mount up

[Gloucester Saint]

4 hours ago, egg said:

That's cheap. That's £35 round here, and the Millbrook Chippy... Millbrook...will charge £35.50 for that order BEFORE you get to the kids fish and chips. Mental money for spuds and a bit of fish. 

Does depend what fish you’re having https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7v92v4l8nzo - some chippies offer cheaper alternatives. 

I’ve been a ‘never mind the Pollock’ advocate for a long time. A lot of people, especially boomers and older get fixed on cod but approximately it’s also true that fish and fish and chip prices have doubled since 2020 so it’s not just you and Turkish. 

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, egg said:

I'm an unashamed tight sod and take snacks and a drink with me. I'm not paying cinema prices. The cinema ticket is usually a freebie from the bank as well. 

Yep, that’s what we do as well at the Brewhouse Quarter cinema in Cheltenham.

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

1 hour ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Does depend what fish you’re having https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7v92v4l8nzo - some chippies offer cheaper alternatives. 

I’ve been a ‘never mind the Pollock’ advocate for a long time. A lot of people, especially boomers and older get fixed on cod but approximately it’s also true that fish and fish and chip prices have doubled since 2020 so it’s not just you and Turkish. 

I personally can't really tell the difference between cod, haddock, pollock when it's covered in batter, fried and then smothered in salt and vinegar.

The wife on the other hand does not touch any alternatives to cod.

[spyinthesky]

It is appreciated that time marches on but when I was a kid we used to have fish and chips once a week from our local chippie.
I guess the fish would have been cod or haddock.
The cost for fish and chips, wrapped in newspaper, was the equivalent of 10p.
But this was when the UK had big fishing fleets operating out of many ports, particularly Hull & Grimsby and potatoes were a staple crop throughout the British Isles.
All that said, at the time none of our family had a car, nor such things as a phone/fridge/washing machine, and our 14" Sobell T, only able to pick up BBC and later ITV, was rented.
Our holidays were basically coach trips to Weymouth, Bournemouth or Swanage or a visit oop north to stay with relatives.
Our council house was bloody freezing in the winter and we had to queue for around an hour outside The Dell to get our best spots in the Chocolate Boxes.
My first wage, after leaving school was £520 a year but I was able to save enough to pay for driving lessons and buy and insure an eleven year old car within a year.
My generation had very little, compared to the younger generation of today but our expectations were low but we were lucky and relatively happy.

 

 

 

 

[egg]

2 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Does depend what fish you’re having https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7v92v4l8nzo - some chippies offer cheaper alternatives. 

I’ve been a ‘never mind the Pollock’ advocate for a long time. A lot of people, especially boomers and older get fixed on cod but approximately it’s also true that fish and fish and chip prices have doubled since 2020 so it’s not just you and Turkish. 

I don't like Haddock, Cod has a milder flavour. I've never seen a chippy with Coley, Pollock or other white fish, but wouldn't be against that. It's the £4 for a regular chips that's more offensive than the fish prices for me. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

22 minutes ago, egg said:

I don't like Haddock, Cod has a milder flavour. I've never seen a chippy with Coley, Pollock or other white fish, but wouldn't be against that. It's the £4 for a regular chips that's more offensive than the fish prices for me. 

£3.60, I think for chips for me. And it's not like it's a big bag of them either.

Meanwhile 3-4 doors up from the chippy, Iceland are selling 3 packs of Young's fish, so 6 fillets...

... for £10, and the chips are cheap too. It's not a fish supper, but there comes a point when common sense kicks in.

[Gloucester Saint]

47 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

£3.60, I think for chips for me. And it's not like it's a big bag of them either.

Meanwhile 3-4 doors up from the chippy, Iceland are selling 3 packs of Young's fish, so 6 fillets...

... for £10, and the chips are cheap too. It's not a fish supper, but there comes a point when common sense kicks in.

Youngs Gastro range is good, these came into stock recently and enjoyed them https://www.birdseye.co.uk/range/frozen-fish/captains-discoveries/2-lightly-dusted-fish-fillets-rosemary-and-seasalt

[The Kraken]

Battered fish is crap. There, I said it.

Sea bass or bream over a wood fire (best found in a Spanish chiringuito), that’s the ticket.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

10 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

Battered fish is crap. There, I said it.

Sea bass or bream over a wood fire (best found in a Spanish chiringuito), that’s the ticket.

As a fictional character, I only like battered fish due to Alf Tupper.

[Gloucester Saint]

18 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

Battered fish is crap. There, I said it.

Sea bass or bream over a wood fire (best found in a Spanish chiringuito), that’s the ticket.

Sounds good. Grilled or BBQ is the best of all.

They used to do nice grilled fish at Rick Stein’s in Padstow before it became trendy. Chips were rank even then though which spoiled it somewhat. 

[Challenger]

A popular Cod alternative is the River Cobbler, however having seen first hand where it's " farmed " I'd give it a miss.

[Gloucester Saint]

13 minutes ago, Challenger said:

A popular Cod alternative is the River Cobbler, however having seen first hand where it's " farmed " I'd give it a miss.

Is that the same as Basa?

[Challenger]

14 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Is that the same as Basa?

Indeed, seen it farmed in waters which have the colour of battleship grey, rivers where if you fell in, drowning would be your last problem. Apparently it tastes ok though.

[Gloucester Saint]

3 minutes ago, Challenger said:

Indeed, seen it farmed in waters which have the colour of battleship grey, rivers where if you fell in, drowning would be your last problem. Apparently it tastes ok though.

It does but that makes me look far more closely at what I’m picking up from the freezer compartment in the supermarket…

[Lord Duckhunter]

It’s not just the outrageous price of Fish & Chips, the quality & service is awful round here as well. I don’t know about where you blokes are, but here it’s wank compared to 10 years ago. They close about 9 o clock. Because they’re so fucking paranoid about waste, everything is cooked to order, apart from the chips, and even then, they never cook enough. So you end up waiting around in queues of Grockles. The chips are poor quality, im sure it’s not just nostalgia, but you genuinely can get better ready meals now. I’d be surprised if half of them will still be here in 5 years time. You can get a Supermarket deal  3 course for 2 & a bottle of wine far cheaper, and when the snap dragon has been out with the coven all day and can’t be arsed to cook, we much prefer that. 
 

As an aside I think pub meals are getting worse as well, maybe I’m a miserable old twat, but I’m sure they’re using inferior ingredients more and more. 

Edited 6 hours ago by Lord Duckhunter

[Turkish]

18 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

It’s not just the outrageous price of Fish & Chips, the quality & service is awful round here as well. I don’t know about where you blokes are, but here it’s wank compared to 10 years ago. They close about 9 o clock. Because they’re so fucking paranoid about waste, everything is cooked to order, apart from the chips, and even then, they never cook enough. So you end up waiting around in queues of Grockles. The chips are poor quality, im sure it’s not just nostalgia, but you genuinely can get better ready meals now. I’d be surprised if half of them will still be here in 5 years time. You can get a Supermarket deal  3 course for 2 & a bottle of wine far cheaper, and when the snap dragon has been out with the coven all day and can’t be arsed to cook, we much prefer that. 
 

As an aside I think pub meals are getting worse as well, maybe I’m a miserable old twat, but I’m sure they’re using inferior ingredients more and more. 

100% this. The chain places, which i tend to avoid, dont seem to actually cook much on site these days. I heard that even the Ivy, which opened a couple of years ago, where you'd expect a level of service dont even cook steaks on site. They cook them at the Leeds one and then reheat them in the Harrogate one. Dont even get me started on the likes of Marstons and Mitchell and Butler, pre packaged ingredients, flung together, stuck on a plate and then served up with a 20 quid ahead bill. 

[moonraker]

On 05/07/2026 at 11:10, Turkish said:

I blame the lefties. Had we not had an open door immigration policy then there would be far fewer foreign take aways like kebab shops meaning more people would use traditional British chip shops thus driving higher demand, more bulk buying and therefore lower prices passed onto customers. 

If you had cod that may account for the cost, our local chippy (top 10 in UK) have stopped doing cod due cost and scarcity, they offer sustainable equally good alternatives at a much more sensible price.

[Gloucester Saint]

5 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

when the snap dragon has been out with the coven all day and can’t be arsed to cook, we much prefer that. 
 

Fully agree with your post but that bit just made me laugh 😂😂

[Gloucester Saint]

4 hours ago, Turkish said:

100% this. The chain places, which i tend to avoid, dont seem to actually cook much on site these days. I heard that even the Ivy, which opened a couple of years ago, where you'd expect a level of service dont even cook steaks on site. They cook them at the Leeds one and then reheat them in the Harrogate one. Dont even get me started on the likes of Marstons and Mitchell and Butler, pre packaged ingredients, flung together, stuck on a plate and then served up with a 20 quid ahead bill. 

Marstons are rank. To think their products used to be highly regarded although Pedigree always had the joke about becoming Pedigree Chum the next day as the minerals in the brewing liquor gave some people a sloppy stomach. AKA the sulphur note in their beers known the ‘Burton Snatch’ on the aroma. 

Huge pub chain now, lucky if you can find cask ale at all and it’s crap processed food in a sterile atmosphere. Can make miles better at home on a fraction of the cost or if feeling lazy M&S like the Duck household or the local Indian takeaway which is high quality as a treat. 

[Challenger]

Always going to be rip-off merchants, but I genuinely believe that due to wages, costs etc most have to change what they do to make a profit. Higher prices, smaller portions, crappier ingredients unfortunately lead to less sales.

Got to be a cut off point soon on what people are prepared to spend on leisure.

 

[Gloucester Saint]

3 minutes ago, Challenger said:

Always going to be rip-off merchants, but I genuinely believe that due to wages, costs etc most have to change what they do to make a profit. Higher prices, smaller portions, crappier ingredients unfortunately lead to less sales.

Got to be a cut off point soon on what people are prepared to spend on leisure.

 

Going on for a few years since the pandemic and probably before that - Toblerone chocolate is one standout example which had radically changed shape (eg thinner) and shot up in price. Climate fluctuations and intense weather extremes don’t help farming either.

You’ve also got shit overseas firms like Kraft/Mondelez forcibly buying Cadbury’s in the early 2010’s, forcing quality and quantity down with prices up no doubt to pay for the leveraged takeover. They’ve pissed off the Royal Family to such an extent they lost their Royal Warrant. To think that this was a great British firm that built a suburb and civic facilities for workers. Seen it in engineering around here with what was Smith’s Industries and now GE aviation. Cadbury’s I’m not even sure would qualify as chocolate in the EU as it’s mostly oils and processed vegetable fat.