Consumer Debt

On my journey into learning about our economy i’ve started to come across all kinds of theories & questions about money, business, politics and society.

One of the biggest questions I’m currently asking myself is exactly what the impact of the current financial slowdown will have on UK society?

My hope is that the people (both businesses & consumers) will learn the lessons of recent excess and the social ramifications that brings with it.

I can’t comment further than that but I’d like to open the floor and ask the DailySpends readership what they think?

Travel Allowance Update: 30.04.08

Travel Allowance Update – Wed 30.04.08
Budget = £16.00
Actual Spend = £8.50
Month to date (total spend) = £17.00
Surplus/(Deficit) = £15.00

PPI Update 29.04.08

Ingredient Prices at 29.04.08:
T Healthy Living Italian Mozzarella – £0.252
Tesco Value Ham – £0.525
Tesco Value Mild White Cheese Small – £1.344
Tesco Value Plain Flour – £0.12
Tesco Value Plum Tomatoes – £0.085
My Pizza Price Index at 29.04.08 = £2.33

NO CHANGE

Weekend Spends

It seems everyone else in the country was paid this weekend except yours truly so unfortunately we had to keep the spending to a reasonable level:

Fri:
bottle of wine – £4.50
beer – £10.50
chips & curry sauce – £1.90

Sat:
groceries – £9.50

Sun:
paper – £2.00

Total: £28.40

Daily Spends – Thurs 25th April 2008

Expensive travel day 😦 . . .

Bus – £2.00
Train – £14.00
Tram – £2.80
Total = £18.80

I got caught in the rain so had to use the tram & bus.

Yesterday Wed 23rd April

I got a bit excited today and spent quite a lot for a weekday:

Bus Fare: £2.00
Train Fare: £14.00
Beer & Snacks: £10.00
Total Spend: £26.00

The Pizza Price Index

Pizza Price Index

***My Pizza Price Index at 23.04.08 = £2.33***

I’m fascinated by what’s happening in the financial markets at the moment and everyday I’m learning more and more about how the economy really works.

The Times had a great piece this morning to illustrate how food costs are rising called the ‘Cheese Sandwich Index’. The theory being that you take the standard ingredients of the sandwich and measure their cost increase/decrease over a period of time.

I like this test. It looks like fun. So I’m going to launch my own price index (The Pizza Price Index) and inviting other bloggers to ride alongside me in a quest to document the highs and lows of the food markets.

The Pizza Price Index – Intro / Instructions
Here’s how I’m going to do it . . . Please use these criteria if you want to play along at home:

1 – Choose a flavour = Decide what you’re gonna have on your pizza (think about using different ingredients from across the globe to measure global pricing pressures)

2 – Specify the ingredients = Make a note of the exact quantity of each ingredient on the Pizza so you can price up each part, and the total pizza price

3 – Calculate your start price = Decide where you’re going to buy your products from and which brands you’ll be using. It’s important to keep these variables constant when recalculating your pizza price so you get a true reflection of the price increase. NB – Wherever possible I’ll be using ‘Value’ products as I think these will be more prone to market price fluctuations.

4 – Track your Pizza Price Index = I’ll probably do this on a weekly or monthly basis in a spreadsheet and chart. Publish it to your blog whenever you like 🙂

5 – Link back to this page = If you do want to play along . . . I’d appreciate it if you could link back to this page with the text ‘Pizza Price Index‘

6 – Leave a comment! = Leave a comment on this post to let me know you’re taking part!

My Pizza Price Index
Lets get cracking then. I’ll start you off with my favourite Ham and Cheese Pizza fantastico!!!

Pizza Type: Ham & Cheese

Ingredients: 500g Plain Flour, 1/2 Tin Plum Tomatoes, 300g Cheese, 50g Mozzarella, 200g Ham

Ingredient Prices at 23.04.08:
T Healthy Living Italian Mozzarella – £0.252
Tesco Value Ham – £0.525
Tesco Value Mild White Cheese Small – £1.344
Tesco Value Plain Flour – £0.12
Tesco Value Plum Tomatoes – £0.085
My Pizza Price Index at 23.04.08 = £2.33

So there you have it . . . the first ever Pizza Price Index . . . I’ll keep you updated over the next few weeks!

Childcare Costs – Pushchairs

We’ve got another baby due in Sept 08 and we’re getting very excited! Yesterday we went looking at Pushchairs to decide which one we’d be investing in for the new baby and I was shocked by the price of some of them!

There are a few issues we’re considering when choosing a suitable pushchair/pram:

1 – Is it suitable from birth?
2 – Does it look cool?
3 – Is it too expensive?
4 – Is it gonna be comfy for my little one?

Two of those criteria are reasonably easy to meet (1 & 4) but the other 2 are quite a different matter as it seems you can’t have one without the other! Cool looking prams do not come cheap in the same way that cheap prams do not look cool.

Here’s our shortlist:

Bugaboo Bee – Approx £400.00 All in


Quinny Buzz – £300.00 all in

There’s only £100 in it and I think the Bugaboo is more stylish – which one would you go for?

Boring Old Thurday

All I spent was £8.50 on a train ticket.

Oh . . . and £0.70 on a morning paper.

Ciou

Wednesday 16th April 2008

Here’s what I spent on Wednesday 16th April 2008:

Train Fare: £14.50
Lunch: £1.10 (Tomato & Basil Soup)
Bus Fare: £1.00
Total: £16.60