OT : Inflation & Compound Interest.

[DogDave]

Any calculations will be based on some assumptions that just don't apply to everyone you can look up the "basket" of goods used to calculate any of the main indexes and there will be loads of things you don't personally buy each year, but also they all have items in that move due to other factors than inflation - things like tobacco, alcohol, fuel etc where tax increases are a much bigger driver in costs than production or materials.

The big thing that matters is how much your income has increased over the same period (or not) and if the cost increases mean it's a bigger or smaller part of your income - but that's a bit more complicated and different for everyone.

[TimV]

Mars Bars used to be used as an indicator of inflation, but they've gotten smaller, like wagon wheels - so no longer useful.

[Beowulf]

Long long ago, just a few coppers would buy me a Mars bar that seemed to be at least one foot long and two inches thick, and a bag of Salt & Shake crisps (the little blue bag) ahhh those halcyon days.
Today, a Mars bar is just one example of `shrinkflation`, make it smaller but keep the same price 
For an accurate price comparison between a Mars bar & crisps in 1960 and todays sad offerings, knowing the weight of each will give the unit price e.g. per ounce/gram. And even allowing for inflation, I`d bet todays bar will be vastly more expensive by weight.

[DogDave]

You just need something sold by volume / weight and not subject to a "sin tax" to make this work.

Can anyone remember the price of a pint of milk in 1960/70/80?

[DogDave]

On a similar, if confusingly opposite note, I always make sure I have an OS map going away, if even for a weekends steam show, so I can work out where to walk the dogs in the morning or evening. Maybe an extravagance but they don't go off so use them year after year.

This year for going to masham steam fair I bought a new OS map of that area, it was £9.60 for a waterproof OS map, delivered to my home.

I didn't need to buy one for Llandudno vintage weekend as I already had one, waterproof and same scale and the price tag was still on and it was £15.99 - the gear shop I bought it from shut about 20 years ago so that age dates it.

An OS map used to be something that was an expensive investment that meant forgoing something else  - now it's less than a pint each for two of us.

[ChrisJC]

According to this:
https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0512/how-inflation-has-affected-the-price-of-cars.aspx
cars are now much better value than they used to be, i.e. they are cheaper & better.

I suspect that is true for a lot of things, when not viewed through the nostalgia glasses.

Chris.

[Beowulf]

.....i.e. they are cheaper & better. I suspect that is true for a lot of things, when not viewed through the nostalgia glasses.
Chris.

I hope DogDave won`t mind me using his example of OS maps, not being an essential item on our shopping lists and their customer base proportionately tiny compared to our weekly shopper, its not an example of things getting cheaper. It is however a demonstration that such things have become better value, probably manufactured overseas (?) with vastly reduced manufacturing costs and with the economy of scale principle, easier & cheaper to produce.

ChrisJC makes an excellent point. Ordinary cars are (I think) as a proportion of income, much cheaper than they were 60 years ago. But lets not forget, buying a car, especially a new car, is nothing like going to Tesco for things to keep your family alive. We don`t have to buy a new or even a nearly new car in order to live, and car manufacturers know it. Therefore we are incentivised to buy.

Which? The Consumers Association has published evidence of shrinkflation. A little of what they say -

Which? has found dozens of examples of grocery and household essentials that have become smaller in size but remained at the same price, or even become more expensive.

The most common victims of shrinkflation, according to the survey respondents, were chocolate (50%), crisps (40%), biscuits (39%) and snack bars (35%).

We asked Which? Facebook group members for examples they'd seen, and learned of numerous popular branded products that have shrunk in pack size in recent months, including: (but not limited to)

Lurpak's ..butter; down from 250g to 200g (20% smaller)
Whiskas cat food ...down from 100g to 85g (15% smaller)
Penguin and Club biscuit multipacks: down from eight bars to seven (12.5% smaller)
McVitie's Digestives: down from 400g to 360g (10% smaller)
Richmond meat-free sausages: down from 336g to 304g (9.5% smaller)
Magnum ice creams (four pack): down from 110ml to 100ml (9.1% smaller)
Nestlé Quality Street chocolate tubs: down from 650g to 600g tubs (7.7% smaller)
Pringles tubes: down from 200g to 185g (7.5% smaller)
Comfort Pure fabric conditioner: down from 85 washes per pack to 83 (2.4% smaller)[/i]

Here's two more, our washing powder once came in large boxes, now the box is almost half that size but helpfully with the same price. And tubes of toothpaste, aren`t they also getting smaller.

Or could it just be my "nostalgia glasses"? Sorry Chris   

The so called "cost of living crisis" is not imagined, shrinkflation is not imagined 

[DogDave]

A lot of what you say is true Fred, but OS maps are printed in Frome, Somerset. One of the few things still made in the UK I know.

And a fair few items in that list are hardly essentials - magnum ice cream and quality street, probably doing your health a favour if they smaller (although I do get annoyed about the trend for beer in small cans - what is that about?)

I remember from days working in agriculture it was often mentioned that an average family in the 60's spent a third of their income on food - as an example of how farm prices didn't keep up. Most will probably still be spending less than that on food (and more on housing, transport etc)

[Beowulf]

A lot of what you say is true Fred, but OS maps are printed in Frome, Somerset. One of the few things still made in the UK I know.
.......Most will probably still be spending less than that on food (and more on housing, transport etc)

Dave, I`m very glad to hear OS maps are still being made in the UK. I`m also glad that I qualified my assumption they were made overseas, with a question mark.
To your comment - "and more on housing, transport etc" I would add digital technology. But that is a subject way way off this thread

[Exile]

As long as "shrinkflation" does not happen to any part of my anatomy, I will try to live with it.