Swiftlydoesit Life & Insurance

Family food bills climb

July 3rd, 2008

The BBC have reported this week that the average food bill has now increased by £15 a month for a family of four. Coming from a family of four I can completely agree with these statistics.

According to the report, a basket full of staple items costs 15% more now then it did 12 months ago, staple items would include bread, milk and tea bags. The increase in costs has not be put down to the rising food prices internationally. The price of wheat as an example has risen sharply in 2008 which has pushed up the price of wheat based products like bread. Corn prices have surged due to bad weather and flooding in the US and now farmers are having to pay more to feed their livestock which is compounding on the price of meat and dairy products.

A report by ASDA shows that although people are receiving reasonable pay rises they actually have less money each week to spend due to the increasing cost of bills. It is also evident that people are feeling the pinch as less people are paying their credit cards off in full each month. One of the problems with this is that people will be charged interest if they do not pay for purchases in full in the credit-free period. Paying part of the bill is not good enough.

A case study detailed in The Guardian found that someone had left 62p on their credit card by mistake, having paid off over £5,000 of the cost of some flights, but because there was this remaining balance he was charged £61.40 interest. Unbelievable. So make sure that you don’t over spend on your credit card so that you don’t have to worry about escalating interest charges.

One good piece of news today is that Gordon Brown may not go ahead with the 2p a litre increase in fuel duty this autumn. It isn’t confirmed yet but that would be one less thing to worry about, for now!

Entry Filed under: Finances, shopping, advice, food