Well that's vat!!
So today is the day we were all dreading (not only is it the first day back in work for us working mothers) but its the day that the vat rises from 17.5 % to 20%.
Yes, its the governments way of trying to cut the debt levels of the country but what about us, what about the normal family.
According to the leader of the labour party, Ed Milliband, this will cost the average family £7.50 a week. Do you have £7.50 a week to pay on goods that would have once cost less. The only items not subject to VAT are food, children's clothing, newspapers and magazines but everything else is.
Fuel will probably be one of the first things that goes up. Having checked the prices of petrol in our local area the lowest priced is 123.90p, if this goes up by 20% we will be spending 126.54p on petrol! (thank you to the BBC for their handy calculator) That would then cost us an average of £56 to fill the car with petrol! Seeing as we use the car quite a lot and a whole tank doesn't last us a month am scuppered, especially since the nightmare problem with the car that we had pre Christmas now means that we have to keep it quite full otherwise it happens again ( no, I don't know why either - has even stumped the garage!).
One of the worst things I've read today is that some companies may even increase they're prices to higher than the vat increase - to 5%! Some clothing companies have said that this may not only be because of the increase in VAT but due to the increase in cotton prices.
The coalition government state that if you're not raising VAT, where is the extra 13bn pounds of spending cuts coming from? The NHS? Schools?
But what of us, the average working family with one parent not working, well it seems that we will be spending less and tightening our belts even more. Fingers crossed we can make it through this period.
If you have any ideas on how I can conquer this vat increase (which by the way seems to have bought the UK in line with other countries) please let me know.
Here's to tightening our belts even more!!
BNM
Yes, its the governments way of trying to cut the debt levels of the country but what about us, what about the normal family.
According to the leader of the labour party, Ed Milliband, this will cost the average family £7.50 a week. Do you have £7.50 a week to pay on goods that would have once cost less. The only items not subject to VAT are food, children's clothing, newspapers and magazines but everything else is.
Fuel will probably be one of the first things that goes up. Having checked the prices of petrol in our local area the lowest priced is 123.90p, if this goes up by 20% we will be spending 126.54p on petrol! (thank you to the BBC for their handy calculator) That would then cost us an average of £56 to fill the car with petrol! Seeing as we use the car quite a lot and a whole tank doesn't last us a month am scuppered, especially since the nightmare problem with the car that we had pre Christmas now means that we have to keep it quite full otherwise it happens again ( no, I don't know why either - has even stumped the garage!).
One of the worst things I've read today is that some companies may even increase they're prices to higher than the vat increase - to 5%! Some clothing companies have said that this may not only be because of the increase in VAT but due to the increase in cotton prices.
The coalition government state that if you're not raising VAT, where is the extra 13bn pounds of spending cuts coming from? The NHS? Schools?
But what of us, the average working family with one parent not working, well it seems that we will be spending less and tightening our belts even more. Fingers crossed we can make it through this period.
If you have any ideas on how I can conquer this vat increase (which by the way seems to have bought the UK in line with other countries) please let me know.
Here's to tightening our belts even more!!
BNM
Oh bummer, that will certainly add up.
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