We've changed season recently, mornings and evenings are quite cold, so yesterday was the day to take out my autumn clothes, among which, a specific autumn coat, that I haven't used for ages. The first thing I did was try it on, to see how it looks and most importantly how it feels. During the process, it's inevitable not check the pockets and the pockets were not empty. What I found in them shocked me.
This is a topic about a phenomenon that affects everyone, regardless of your financial situation and I've been thinking about it quite a lot lately.
The whole thing started a month ago or so, when during my research on Vinted, came I across a pair of new boots with tags, just like mine and the listing price surprised me quite a lot. My boots are 10 years old or so and still good to wear, but I thought if I could get another pair at a good price, I'd buy them, as I like the brand and model.
What shocked me was the price. I bought mine 10 years or so ago for 235 RON, I will never forget that. They weren't quite cheap, as the boots were made of genuine leather, but they weren't the most expensive either. It's been 10 years since then and you can buy a new pair for 335 RON and the one I came across on Vinted were listed for 125 RON, plus shipping costs. The gap between the two prices can mean a number of things, but that's not important right now, so let's go with the highest, official price of the store.
The difference between the two prices, respectively 235 RON and 335 RON is 40%, which in 10 years doesn't mean much. If I'm clever, and most of the times I am, can buy it next spring on sale at 50% discount and most likely that's what I'm going to do.
If you're thinking that inflation in my country in 10 years is 40%, you are very wrong, It is way more than that and I think I don't even want to know the exact number. The official data you can find online is cooked, I wouldn't trust that and there is evidence everywhere that the number is way bigger.
What shocked me yesterday was a receipt I found in the pocket of my jacket. It was from a sandwich shop from 2019. Yeah, it seems my jacket was sitting in the closet for the past 7 years, undisturbed, unused, but that's a different matter. The receipt was from a sandwich, that costed 13 RON in 2019. That sandwich today costs 34 RON and I bet it weighs only 80% of the one from 2019 as shrinkflation is a real phenomenon. In trading, we would say that's a 2.6X and if I count shrinkflation in, it becomes even more.
This is not an isolated case, you can't blame the shop of being greedy as they are forced to raise price and cut corners wherever they can, to survive and they do. I could mention the price of bread, other food items and continue with energy price, fuel, that has been sky rocketing this year and so on.
What I was thinking is that not everything is getting more expensive at the same rate. Clothing, footwear, bags for example you can still buy at a reasonable price, although rising energy, fuel prices, labor costs are influencing the price quite a lot. What has become more expensive is food in the first place, housing, energy and fuel prices.
For me, this was the first year with AC and was curious to see how much energy I'd consume with it. It was a test and can honestly say, it is not bad at all. If you can find a way to use it wisely and not have it on 24/7 as some do, it's quite manageable. The same goes for heating, which has already started. Yesterday was the first day I turned on heating as night temperatures are close to zero now and this kind of temperature persisting for some time now caused the walls to cool off quite a lot.
Life is getting difficult everywhere in the world. You're the manager of your own finances. There are costs you can control and there are those that you can't influence, which is why you have to increase incomes and manage spending. It's a tough job, that has to be done the best way you can.
If you think of it, prices are rising all the time, unfortunately and we get used to them as there's no other choice. 10% today, 5% next month, 15 in half a year and at some point you lose track of how much it really is. Then you find a receipt in your pocket and think back asking: "how the hell we get from 13 to 34 in 7 years" and this is just an example.
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