Interesting Fact - Cost of Living in the UK

According to the Office for National Statistics, we Brits are no longer that keen on going to night clubs or buying CDs and DVDs.

(The inflation basket, which is used to calculate the cost of living in the UK, analyses the cost of 704 items.  It is an interesting look into trends in the UK, and seemingly many nightclubs in the UK are facing closure, and more and more people download their music and films online so these items have been removed.


However, the inflation basket will now include coffee pods and downloaded software, along with women's leggings, and strangely, cream liquers like Baileys, which must be a sign of an ageing population with very little fashion sense.)

Here is a list from the Guardian newspaper of what is "In" and what is "Out":-

In:

Pouches of microwave rice: Joins a range of prepared foods, emphasising our love of ready meals.

Multipacks of meat: The ONS has spotted a boom in cooking cuts of meat and presenting them buffet-style.

Cooked sliced turkey/chicken: Turkey has been joined by chicken, which is becoming more popular.

Lemons: Ignored until now, lemons join oranges and other citrus fruit.

Large chocolate bars: A boom in larger chocolate bars sold in supermarkets has forced the ONS to include them.

Coffee pods: Made popular by George Clooney in his adverts for Nespresso, coffee pods are all the rage.

Cream liqueur: For some time Britons have demanded sweeter alcoholic drinks leading the ONS to include Baileys and its rival cream liqueurs.

Women’s leggings: Obviously an oversight by the ONS, as it admits when it says: “A type of clothing not currently covered but widely purchased.”

Boys’ T-shirts: The ONS said: “Replaces boys’ branded sports tops to enable representation of both casual and sportswear clothing.”

Paint, gloss/emulsion: Not so much a new item as a merger that reduces the weighting put on DIY sales.

Computer software: Software downloads replace CD-Roms in recognition of a shift to online sales and storage.

Computer game downloads: Such is the boom in sales, game downloads get their own category in an area the ONS admits is under-covered.

Restaurant main course: The last few years have seen a boom in restaurant visits, but the ONS said it is over-covered in the basket and has merged meat or fish main courses and vegetarian main meals.

Nail varnish: The rise and rise of the nail bar accounts for a boom in nail varnish sales and its inclusion for the first time in the inflation basket.

Out

Organic dessert apples: The popularity of organic fruit allows the ONS to merge organic apples with other dessert apples.

Organic carrots: Likewise, organic carrots are removed “due to organic produce becoming mainstream with less distinction from non-organic products”.

Boys’ branded sports tops: Replaced by a boys’ T-shirt “to enable representation of both casual and sportswear clothing,” said the ONS.

Power points: Power sockets sold in DIY stores were removed from an over-represented category to make way for other items.

Prescription lenses: Removed from an over-covered area of the basket and lenses are still represented by spectacle frames with single vision lens.

Rewritable DVDs: A declining technology which is being superseded by streaming services and YouView-style personal video recorders (PVRs).

CD-Roms: Excluded in recognition of the shift to people increasingly downloading software.

Nightclub entry: A collapse in the number of nightclubs charging entry is the main reason for their exclusion.

Pub hot or cold snacks: Chips (and salad) with everything means pub customers rarely buy a hot or cold snack on its own.

Restaurant main course, meat/fish: Too much emphasis in the inflation figures on restaurant prices has triggered a rethink and merger of meat, fish and vegetarian dishes for the purpose of calculating average prices.

Restaurant main course, vegetarian: Now part of merged main meal category, see above.