I have to say that I find myself muttering those words in todays headline quite a lot lately. Indeed, so commonplace is the spiralling cost of almost anything, that exclamation of mine almost seems inadequate.
I know that folk in Mallorca are also under pressure in terms of the price rises, but I do wonder if they are quite as bad as they appear to be in the United Kingdom at the moment. Indeed, whenever two people are gathered together the rising cost of living is the first and last thing discussed with a sort of doom-laden inevitability. So much so, that all talk of a ‘scorchio' summer seems to have been put on the back-burner for the moment.
However with four days of weather hovering around the late 20soC in this part of the world, there has been an unfortunate outbreak of puffed out-cheeks and unsuitable leisurewear to remind us all that it is quite warm, so I am often forced to say…. “Call this hot?” which rather annoys people it seems. Anyway, back to the subject in hand i.e. the huge rise in the cost of living here in Blighty.
I have to say that I have given up disappearing for a couple of pints when I have completed my chores late on a Friday afternoon, because the price of a pint of San Miguel would make your eyes water. However, the most outrageous example of inflation (or was it just greed?) was when we visited a cafe - come farm shop, of which there are plenty examples of them here in The Cotswolds. Okay it wasn’t a transport ‘caff’ but I still thought that £20 for two Cornish pasties was a bit on the steep side don’t you think?
In delving a little deeper into the ways that people are coping with these endless price hikes I came across two very different ways that some people are hoping that will help them become more financially aware as they live their lives. Funnily enough, they are perhaps at each end of the spectrum in trying to have more control of a persons (or families) money. For instance, it seems that for the last month some people are putting 8% more on their credit cards for everything they buy - which if you think about it, could all end in tears. On the other hand, the concept of CASH seems to be making a welcome comeback.
As people are desperate to keep in control of their money, cashpoints have become much busier as they forsake ‘flashing the plastic’ for everything they buy and go back to hard cash that can be counted and a person knows exactly what he or she has or hasn’t got to spend. I know that it has probably all changed over the past year or so, but I often daydream of sitting in the square in Andratx on a Sunday at my favourite cafe and Toni the waiter would serve me a steady flow of wine and tapas and when I laid down my Bulletin he would inform me that I owed him euros 7.60 and all was well with the world. Better than a pre-packaged Cornish pastie at ten quid a pop, that’s for sure!