Wednesday 28 September 2016

The price of milk

My fridge is on the blink. I hear the motor clicking in and out but to no effect. It defrosted itself over the weekend and has not returned to the less than 4 degrees C I am used to having it run at. It's a good old Lec which has served us well for over twenty years. Therein lies the rub. I suspect that the trouble is a loss of refrigerant which would at the time of manufacture have been an ozone-depleter banned throughout the EU since 2000. Before 2014, I would have been allowed to top up the original refrigerant probably seeing me through for the rest of my lifetime. Now it looks as if I shall have to buy a replacement refrigerator.

So I am now in the situation of the sizeable minority forgotten by public figures when challenged over the price of milk. If MPs and the like actually know this, it will be from a trip to the supermarket and the purchase of a four- or six-pint container. Those who have no personal or convenient public transport have to pay corner-shop prices, for less economic smaller quantities if they cannot keep milk for more than a few days. So I am going to have to lay out around 88p for a two-pint carton; a penny or two more would buy me four pints in Lidl.

These are the sort of calculations which need to be taken into account when devising cost of living indices for pensioners and those on low incomes.


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