As for the Brand name clothing issue: Although my family is upper middle class my dad is from the generation of ‘only poor people wear jeans, therefore my children will not wear jeans.’ This was during the 90s when 80$ GUESS jeans were all the rage. For elementary school kids! Needless to say we did not wear name brand clothing. Or jeans for that matter. Like the saying goes…the rich stay rich…

Once I started working and living on my own I stopped shopping at department stores, i.e. Zellars, ( I abhor shopping at wal-mart and steer clear at all costs). Instead I buy my clothes at Rietmans, Dynamite, Smart Set, sometimes Rickis or Le Chateau. However, I shop the clearance rack. It’s not unusual for me to fork over 200$ at Dynamite and walk away with 6 pairs of pants, a skirt, a couple of blouses and a t-shirt or two. Or to buy t-shirts and camisoles at Smart Set, 4 for 50$. I also wear hand me downs, even in my late 20s I still do! It’s often fun to go shopping in my sibling’s closets for clothes that they no longer want.

I’ve also participated in a Naked Lady Party — a bunch of friends get together with gently worn clothing and swap clothes. One particular party I went to, one of the girls had a nice assortment of frilly ‘bar’ clothes (but not trampy or tarty ) which I brought home with me.

And out of curiosity, what’s the deal with ’surf shops’? Is that the Australian equivalent of Canadians shopping at Roots?

That said my mother this year sent me $100 to buy myself 1 pair of jeans from Jeans West. I looked in the shop and they had a 2 for $99 offer on. BUT Suzanne Grey opposite had jeans for $40 each and I could get a nice formal style top for $20. So that is what I did. I struggle with the fit of K-Mart and target jeans (short leg, wide waist), but these ones from Suzanne Grey are lovely, I just have to get used to the button / zip fly.

As for food prices ::eek:: If vegemite were not essential to my families mental health it would be off the shopping list. And Mini Wheats - the only breakfast cereal Heidi will eat. I noticed Safeway bumped the price up, when the box packaging changed then occasionally it comes on special at the old price.

OTOH Safeway have permanently knocked back the price of 24 cans of Pepsi to $12.

River - yes, it was the generic stuff that I was noticing. Particularly cheese, butter and margarine. I HATE that manufacturers reduce package sizing. I noticed Aldi offer a price per unit pricing feature (like some other countries have). I wonder if this will help push for this to be included in all supermarkets? One can only live in hope.

Sarah - ignore your sister. That is just rude!!! Most people do this because they somehow feel guilty about not managing their own money better. If you track your spending, your money WILL stretch further.

Lauren - you’re welcome. One thing I’ve found these days with brands is that nothing seems to be guaranteed. They all change suppliers so often you don’t know what will be good and what not until you use it. Very frustrating. We have an Adidas t-shirt I bought for Farmboy that went out of shape VERY quickly. Yet one he had when we were first married has latest 12 years and is STILL going.

Jeanie - some days I wonder if the old “what we don’t know can’t hurt us” could apply to grocery prices. LOL.

Stuffy - I do actually think you have a point with the whole “quality” argument. But you know me - I’m not going to TELL you that I agree with you!!!! Your information about Walmart is interesting and explains why things are so up and down quality wise in most stores these days. It’s VERY frustrating.

Lynette - Farmboy is so GOOD when it comes to label brand stuff. Mind you, when we first married he was used to only having Levi jeans. But he still learnt that he didn’t really earn an income that supported such a habit. I tend to buy him some label brand stuff for gifts or discounted etc because I’ve noticed that while he won’t spend the money on himself, he does wear the brand label stuff more than the basic stuff. I do think t-shirts and jumpers are better use of spending the extra $$ on than shorts and jeans though.

LuLu - how much cheese do you hope to get for $10? Refresh my memory - is it Japan where you are? I know when my brother was in Japan the meat and stuff was unbelievably expensive!!!! It’s a good reminder that we still have it pretty good here in Australia when compared to some countries.

Journeyer - we’re planning a 3-month trip with our kids next year and this latest hike in site prices has made me rather nervous about the affordability (combined with fuel price hikes). That’s great that you get hand-me-downs. It really makes a HUGE difference. I get some for my younger 2 and it really helps stretch things.

Cat - Yes, my mum did that with my younger brother. My problem was I got hand-me-downs from my cousin so my mum didn’t already spend ANYTHING on my clothes. And I wasn’t one to make a song and dance like my younger brother did. I was too aware of how tight the finances were.

Bettina - Wow! That is really interesting. I always thought they had like a 100% mark-up (so what we paid at full price would be half profit, half cost). Would seem it’s even more so than that although I guess if you took out operating costs it would be around that. It’s great to hear of what positive steps others are taking to help combat the issue of rising food prices. Well done!

Last week while shopping with my two I told them they could have $50 each (they are almost 13 and 15). My daughter immediately wanted a pair of $99 ugg boots of which I paid $50 and she paid $49. My son bought a new back pack for school which cost $49.95, he’s good at staying under budget and won’t part with his own money very easily at all! Hence the significant difference in their bank balances!

As for groceries, I too am noticing the change. We spent $250 in Woolworths the other day, and that was without cleaning products, toiletries or any other luxury items. Except DH’s marinated olives. He would have sulked all the way home if I didn’t let him have those.

As for feeling the food price pinch, definitely. Hence our increased vege garden size, baking our own bread and preparing to put chooks in the backyard.

Yeah, groceries are going up for sure. We used to budget $40 per week for all my meals and 5 weekday dinners plus weekend food for Peter (he ate mess food for brekky and lunch during the week). Now I’m budgeting $40 a week for just my food…it’ll be interesting to see how that works these next six months.