Prices went down?

Dr_Phil

There's a lot talking that prices went down and loads of goods and services are priced chaper because of the famous Recession. So in fact all the paycuts are nearly totally painless. Sure.

Here's what I've noticed:

Chocolate bars - same price
Soft drinks - same
Can of Guinness - no change
Bus tickets - up
Hoagie in Spar - no change
Coffee in Munchies - no difference
Smokes - up?
Toys - same price
Video games - same
No change in petrol.
Clothes - haven't seen much difference
Also no difference in mobiles, laptops, phonce calls, text messages, GP visits, bread, milk, lemons and cheese.

Either my perception of reality is disturbed or someone's talking bollix.

BOHSBOHS

i believe the "Reduction in prices" is mainly due to the fall in interest rates and oil prices.....

jhegarty

Don't know abouy anyone else , but my money is going further in the supermarket.

ardmacha

Well the CSO use a bigger basket than you. Electricity is down, especially for those with the gumption to change supplier. Many foodstuffs are down. Laptops have always come down. Yes fags are up, as the government wish to dissuade people from buying them, but these should have no part to play in a price index used to determine pay rises etc.

You have a point about GP visits, GPs dentists, hairdressers etc have not reduced their charges as everyone else's wages have fallen.

koHd

Yes our weekly shop is going a lot further than it used to. for 45 a week me and the OH are well fed from tesco. And that includes some quality fresh meat. But you are right about other things. Transport has definitely gone up for us with the train being silly expensive.

me_right_one

Yep. My E50 is going way further in the supermarket. And barbers are down too.

Victor

Dr_Phil wrote: »

Either my perception of reality

I'm going with this?

How about rent? Mortgage interest? Fuel prices? Clothing price have been dropping for more than a decade - you can get a pair of jeans in Dunnes for €6. Unless you buy a a dozen bars a of chocolate a day, you spend a lot more on housing than in chocolate.

http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/prices/current/cpi.pdf

Decreases

Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels (-28.8%),
Clothing & Footwear (-12.8%),
Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages (-6.4%),
Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance (-4.1%)
Transport (-3.1%).


Increases

Education (+11.2%),
Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (+7.1%),
Miscellaneous Goods & Services (+6.0%)
Health (+3.0%).

ronbyrne2005

Everybody has their own personal inflation/deflation rate based on the goods and services they use. The CPI is a weighted average for whole economy. Rent has come down a lot as have non fixed rate mortgages. Food is down 6% over past year according to CSO and most pubs and restaurants have offers/deals on.

Dr_Phil

koHd wrote: »

for 45 a week me and the OH are well fed from tesco

PM me how you manage do it. I've never ever left Tesco paying less than 100e. Made a small progress switching to Lidl: between 60-80e for a week.

Tesco is a phenomenon, no matter how many thing I get for "free" (buy one get one free) I always seem to pay the same amout without having the menu changed.

koHd

Dr_Phil wrote: »

PM me how you manage do it. I've never ever left Tesco paying less than 100e. Made a small progress switching to Lidl: between 60-80e for a week.

Tesco is a phenomenon, no matter how many thing I get for "free" (buy one get one free) I always seem to pay the same amout without having the menu changed.

Well there is just the two of us. And we buy stuff to make meals from scratch. No chocolate or chrisps or anything like that. We also do our shop online, which we find helps us be more frugal with our money. You can find deals easier and tend to make less impulse purchases that way. It's also only 4 euro delivery.

Dr_Phil

Victor wrote: »

I'm going with this?

How about rent?

Mortgage interest?

Fuel prices?

Clothing price have been dropping for more than a decade - you can get a pair of jeans in Dunnes for €6.

No change. Was on the same rent 6 years ago and it hasn't changed, so it means there was no reason to drop down.

Mortgage - well, I just start my adventure with mortgage so wish me best of luck

Fuel? No, didnt notice any change...Since it exceeded 1e 4 years ago never came back any lower.

Clothing? Same type of shoes I buy, same trousers. Always ca. 80/50e respectively. If you dont go down with quality, the price seems to stay on the same level.

Liam Byrne

Don't know where they're getting those from!!! Personal experience is as follows:


Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels (-28.8%),
NO CHANGE

Clothing & Footwear (-12.8%),
down, but I wouldn't say as much as that

Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages (-6.4%),
Might be right, down slightly

Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance (-4.1%)
Seems about right

Transport (-3.1%).
Definitely not. Petrol and taxis are up

In fact, with the exception of laptops, I think the OP's post is spot-on.

c montgomery

Food is way down.

If your not brand loyal you can shop now cheaper than any time i can remember. Tesco and Lidl have excellent value at the moment. If you cook food at home yourself and prepare it all yourself it will cost very little. I spend about 60euro a week on food for myself. This includes all my dinner's, lunch's and so on. I dont buy the cheapest stuff but neither do i buy the most expensive.

Electronic items have come way down in price.
Flights and hotels have come way down.
Many restaurants have special offers on now.
Rent is down.
House prices are down.
Car prices are down.
Gas and electricity are down.
Price of trades men are down.
Diy products are down. ( i have taken advantage of this)

In general almost Everything is coming down in price!!!!!

ronbyrne2005

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Don't know where they're getting those from!!! Personal experience is as follows:


Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels (-28.8%),
NO CHANGE

Clothing & Footwear (-12.8%),
down, but I wouldn't say as much as that

Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages (-6.4%),
Might be right, down slightly

Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance (-4.1%)
Seems about right

Transport (-3.1%).
Definitely not. Petrol and taxis are up

In fact, with the exception of laptops, I think the OP's post is spot-on.

Theres loads of taxi companies offering 20+% discounts on meter price. Prices will tkae a good while to move towards EU average but thats where we are going.

MikeC101

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Don't know where they're getting those from!!! Personal experience is as follows:


Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels (-28.8%),
NO CHANGE

What's your situation with this one, are you renting or paying a mortgage?

If it's a mortgage, your repayments should be down due to the interest rate.

If you're renting, you should definitely be having a chat with your landlord about dropping the rent, or else consider moving. A lot of empty apartments at the moment, and there are landlords willing to do deals, waive deposits etc at the moment. Plus yours may not want the hassle of having to get a Building Energy Rating done, if he hasn't already.

cavedave

Prices went down?
There's a lot talking that prices went down and loads of goods and services are priced chaper because of the famous Recession.

NAMA is attempting to keep peoperty prices up. So that price should not be reducing if the billions invested are successful.

prinz

Chocolate bars - same price - Special offers on constantly for different brands, 2 for €1 etc.
Soft drinks - same - same as above, saw two bottles of pepsi for €1 in spar last night
Can of Guinness - no change - Don't drink Guinness.
Bus tickets - up - Agreed
Hoagie in Spar - no change - Don't eat Hoagies what are they €4.99? I can get a roll at the deli counter made up fresh for <€3
Coffee in Munchies - no difference - Don't go to coffee shops like this, they were a rob years ago and still are
Smokes - up? - Don't smoke, don't care
Toys - same price - Don't buy toys
Video games - same - Don't buy video games, second hand books and dvds and video games ftw
No change in petrol.
Clothes - haven't seen much difference - Depends where you shop.
Also no difference in mobiles, laptops, phonce calls, text messages, GP visits, bread, milk, lemons and cheese. - lots of phone special offers esp if you switch provider, food is all on special offers more often, deals on mobiles and laptops..

Either my perception of reality is disturbed or someone's talking bollix.

I think it's disturbed tbh.

ednwireland

pretty much anything that isnt related to the gov has come down,
so things that havent public transport, hospital fees, dentists?, gp fees, any taxes, watch the 2nd property tax go through the roof,

gurramok

2L milk(Avonmore/Premier) as an essential has come down. Was about €2.19, now €1.79 in my local 'pricey' Spar.

ei.sdraob

prinz wrote: »

Bus tickets - up - Agreed.

let me guess you are using heavily unionized (semi?)state bus service? how about this

The row has provoked a price war on the route, with fares as low as €1 for some online bookings with Citylink.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1117/1224258982405.html


anyways


http://www.ronanlyons.com/2009/11/17/rents-hit-their-lowest-level-in-a-decade/



seems anything thats not tied to public sector / government or high fuel costs has gone down

ArmaniJeanss

Chocolate bars - shop around, plenty of bargains.
Soft drinks - shop around and be willing to change brand. e.g., Pepsi / Diet Pepsi 2 litres are €1 in Dunnes this week, next week it'll be a different product on special in Tescos or Dunnes.
Can of Guinness - off license prices have totally plummeted over the last 5/6 years. Guiness may be an exception, I don't know.
Clothes - definitely falling in price, lovely t-shirts in primark for €5. (Designer stuff still expensive)
mobiles - same price, but better models.
laptops - i'd say half the price they were 3 years ago.
phone calls, text messages - texts are now effectively free, they sure as hell weren't when I got my first mobile.
Milk - 1.45 for a 2-litre, less than it was 5 years ago.


Either my perception of reality is disturbed or someone's talking bollix.
Sorry Phil, your perception of reality is disturbed.

prinz

ei.sdraob wrote: »

let me guess you are using heavily unionized (semi?)state bus service? how about this..

I have no choice in the matter.

herya

I notice much much more special offers (which actually make sense -> decent savings), also almost constant sales in high street clothes shops in one form or another as opposed to more defined sale seasons. Our money goes a loooong way in Aldi, their offers are geting better and better and food quality is top notch. Even lunch places and takeaways are coming up with 2 for 1 etc.

Irish and Proud

jhegarty wrote: »

Don't know abouy anyone else , but my money is going further in the supermarket.

same with me - ...I shop in Tesco though I'd prefer to shop in an Irish store like Dunnes. However, I find Tesco to be far more competitive than Dunnes and especially Supervalu.

Although many prices have fallen, some have seemingly not such as professional fees, transport etc.

Regards!

DOC09UNAM

Perception is as disturbed as gary glitter.

ei.sdraob

prinz wrote: »

I have no choice in the matter.

yeh that sucks

another reason why they should be privatized, semi privatization of ESB brought more competitors and new energy market in, i dont understand why they cant do that with transport

murphaph

Looking forward to a trip home for xmas so, sounds like my money will go even further in Dublin than Berlin these days! Never seen 2 bottles of Pepsi for one Euro in a Spar type shop. Clothing in Ireland is definitely cheaper though, especially Irish bargain suppliers like Penny's versus German bargain suppliers like Woolworth (Germany). Penny's wins by a mile. I used to buy t shirts etc. in penney's during the 'boom' and to be fair, they were always cheap-I hope they do very well out of this recession and that Irish people return to non branded clothing (paying for nothing often times) wherever possible.

On the flipside, my mates find the likes of Hugo Boss is much cheaper in Berlin. Perhaps the Berliners aren't as easily conned out of their hard earned.....

prinz

murphaph wrote: »

Perhaps the Berliners aren't as easily conned out of their hard earned.....

Perhaps doesn't come into it, it's definite. Personally find people, especially French, German and the low coutries to be incredibly thrifty i.e. making perfect dinners out of a few cheap ingredients/cheap cuts of meat, buying a few cheap items of clothes and mixing and matching to get a designer look etc. I reckon it's in the national psyche because of the wars. Even when they have money they don't tend to 'flash' it like we seem to love doing here.

amacachi

Dr_Phil wrote: »

There's a lot talking that prices went down and loads of goods and services are priced chaper because of the famous Recession. So in fact all the paycuts are nearly totally painless. Sure.

Here's what I've noticed:

Chocolate bars - same price
Soft drinks - same
Can of Guinness - no change
Bus tickets - up
Hoagie in Spar - no change
Coffee in Munchies - no difference
Smokes - up?
Toys - same price
Video games - same
No change in petrol.
Clothes - haven't seen much difference
Also no difference in mobiles, laptops, phonce calls, text messages, GP visits, bread, milk, lemons and cheese.

Either my perception of reality is disturbed or someone's talking bollix.

Always offers on chocolate bars now.
Always offers on soft drinks too.
Who the hell would drink Guinness from a can?
Mine stayed the same.
Wouldn't know.
Wouldn't know.
Slightly.
Wouldn't know.
Video games have come down plenty if you shop around. Got the new CoD for 40 quid and up til a few months ago the old one was that price second hand. Games consoles have also come way down.
Little change.
Clothes have been getting cheaper for years if you don't look at the label.
Mobiles and laptops and electronics haven't come down? ROFLCOPTER!
Groceries have come down plenty with constant offers on.

00sully

Can of Guinness - no change - €27 for a crate in tesco
Smokes - up? - TS
Video games - same - Batman AA (new) ~€22 as an example. In fact I haven't paid over €35 for a game this year! (FIFA 10 was €35 at release)

My grocery bill is certainly down. a lot! I prefer to shop in Dunnes too (unless the bargains are exceptional in Tesco)

jimmmy

I notice a bar of chocolate is down in my local shop, compared to what it was a year ago. A hamburger in McDonalds is one euro ; great value when I remember paying 68 pence or so old money in 1980 for the same thing. Flights out of the country are a lot less. You could go to Australia and back for a weekend, for the equivalent of a weeks gross salary for many people. 30 years ago I remember unionised Aer Lingus charging me a few hundred quid to go to England, when a few hundred quid was a lot of money. Cars are coming down. Some people never had more disposable income.

Mr. Presentable

Dr_Phil wrote: »

There's a lot talking that prices went down and loads of goods and services are priced chaper because of the famous Recession. So in fact all the paycuts are nearly totally painless. Sure.

Here's what I've noticed:

Chocolate bars - same price
Soft drinks - same
Can of Guinness - no change
Bus tickets - up
Hoagie in Spar - no change
Coffee in Munchies - no difference
Smokes - up?
Toys - same price
Video games - same
No change in petrol.
Clothes - haven't seen much difference
Also no difference in mobiles, laptops, phonce calls, text messages, GP visits, bread, milk, lemons and cheese.

Either my perception of reality is disturbed or someone's talking bollix.

I'm going with this, I'm afraid.

Prices have gone down. Not perhaps on the luxuries you choose to list (smokes??, video games? Coffee in where???), but on staples such as fuel, energy, bread, milk and associated grocery products. In other words, on the things that actually matter.

ei.sdraob

yeh for sure

one has to have a very weird lifestyle not to notice prices drop on just about everything

on another note, Buckfast got more expensive :cool:

the_barfly1

Car Insurance - up 30-40% on last year round the board

prinz

jimmmy wrote: »

Some people never had more disposable income.

That would be me. Never had much to begin with so have always lived within a budget. This is when I get sick of all this nonsense about kids being disappointed this Christmas if the Christmas SW bonus is cut, kids will get over it ffs. I was often disappointed when what I asked for santa couldn't deliver. I grew to understand that 'santa' always did their best and got what they could. Important life lesson.

No debts, money in the bank and living better than I was a year or two ago. Happy days.

prinz

ei.sdraob wrote: »

one has to have a very weird lifestyle not to notice prices drop on just about everything..

People who spent years spending and not noticing the price of anything.

ntlbell

the_barfly1 wrote: »

Car Insurance - up 30-40% on last year round the board

yea? I think car insurance seems to be something that people don't haggle on.

Mines just sky dived for years.

sometimes they chance they're arm on renewal and I simply move somewhere else, but more times than not they keep me by reducing the premiuim.

I've often had sales rep's from the same company compete against each other.

people need to do more and stop bending over taken it up the rear.

ntlbell

Dr_Phil wrote: »

There's a lot talking that prices went down and loads of goods and services are priced chaper because of the famous Recession. So in fact all the paycuts are nearly totally painless. Sure.

Here's what I've noticed:

Chocolate bars - same price
Soft drinks - same
Can of Guinness - no change
Bus tickets - up
Hoagie in Spar - no change
Coffee in Munchies - no difference
Smokes - up?
Toys - same price
Video games - same
No change in petrol.
Clothes - haven't seen much difference
Also no difference in mobiles, laptops, phonce calls, text messages, GP visits, bread, milk, lemons and cheese.

Either my perception of reality is disturbed or someone's talking bollix.

"You're doing it wrong"

the_barfly1

ntlbell wrote: »

yea? I think car insurance seems to be something that people don't haggle on.

Mines just sky dived for years.

sometimes they chance they're arm on renewal and I simply move somewhere else, but more times than not they keep me by reducing the premiuim.

I've often had sales rep's from the same company compete against each other.

people need to do more and stop bending over taken it up the rear.

Well I'm a big haggler, and I renewed my insurance in October, got quotes from EVERYBODY, both online and then the phone call afterwards to haggle some more, best I could get this year was €595 after paying just over €400 last year, if you take a look at the threads on the motors forum you'll see most people are finding the same, maybe you're just one of the lucky ones!!

The_Honeybadger

I find my money definately goes further in the supermarket, although I have started to shop around more and watch out for bargains, will bulk buy something if it is very good value and can be frozen or if it is tinned etc. Rent is also down over 100 euro per month. Car insurance is up for renewal in march so will see about that. Electrical goods have definately fallen with big sales in many retail outles, Harvey Norman have been advertising a sale for the past month. Overall I find better value nearly everywhere at the moment.

bangersandmash

Rent is down again this year. Noticeable decrease in cost of the essentials - groceries, energy, and clothing.

As for discretionary spending - eating out in Dublin is considerably cheaper (but high by international standards), but unsurprisingly most pubs are still holding on to their VFI "price freeze". No idea about the cost of games, smokes or junk food.

Minor increase in transport costs. Only substantial increase this year has been in cost of insurance - car, home and health insurance. I'd expect further increases in this area in the New Year. VHI/Quinn have already promised health hikes, while insurers have starting telling us that we'll all be paying to cover recent flood damage.

Overall I find it hard to believe that anyone who keeps a close eye on their spending will not have noticed price drops. Though if you do your shopping in Spar, then this probably doesn't apply.

inforfun

Did prices really go down?
To me it seems there is many more offers, true.
But once the offers are expired, the price is the same as it used to be.

That, to me, doesnt mean the prices have gone down.

ntlbell

inforfun wrote: »

Did prices really go down?
To me it seems there is many more offers, true.
But once the offers are expired, the price is the same as it used to be.

That, to me, doesnt mean the prices have gone down.

can you show some examples?

average_runner

In fairnes electricity has come down 20%

First of all last Jan ESB reduce their prices and then a move to Bord Gais ment another reduction! So ESB is down.

Board Gais reduce their prices twice during the year.

Washing powder has drop alot since tesco drop their prices 3 months a go and actually right now you can get Persil big bottle for 5.25 and was 8.50 in tesco.

Most food has dropped except for Fizzy drinks and chocolate bars but we should all notice at least 10 euro in savings a week these days on shopping.

Process foods havent dropped but who buys that fat food anyhow.

Also if you shop smart and bulk buy when deals are on you be saving at least 100 a month. 2 of use use to spend 400 on shopping a month now its 300, and its not we are cutting back.

inforfun

ntlbell wrote: »

can you show some examples?

It is more a feeling i have than that i can back it up with real figures to be honest.
Just looking at the totall bill of my shopping, i am not all of a sudden paying 10/15 euro less each time i do a proper shopping compared to a year ago.

Mr. Presentable

http://www.nca.ie/eng/Research_Zone/Reports/NCA-price-survey-2009-07-22-Branded-Own-Brand-Trends.xls

Up to July 2009. Prices have dropped more since then. Compare with the peak in summer 2008.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.