Down Down Prices are Down

Down, Down Prices are Down?

Well there's a statement for you. It's amazing how well perception advertising works. I think back to when I was growing up and the price of food. A can of soft drink from a vending machine was 50cents to a $1.00 a packet of mixed lollies would make you feel sick if you ate the all. $2.00 of hot chips would feed the whole family. 
Just recently my amazingly wonderful wife has gone to the shop for the annual birthday cake splurge, she just loves to be creative and make all 4 kids the most amazingly decorative cakes. One year she even made an actual ginger bead house for Christmas, it even had snow on it!!! Now to the point, Jess was picking up some Cake decorations from the local supermarket and one of the items were those little silver balls, caschous. Last year she paid $3.50 for them and this year they have gone up to an amazing $7.19. Our weekly shopping is often between $350-400 plus a $50 top up during the week and we are not a falimy that buys lots of crap, infact if you came to our house and looked in our pantry the only treats u would find are the lollies from reward training we just completed. See http://diaryofastay-at-home-mum.blogspot.com for the full story.
 According to money matters in news.com.au 'Australia has the fastest rising food prices in any major developed  nation' and food prices have risen 41.3 percent over the last decade, Spain follow us then the UK, Canada, italy & US.
Yet even though we have had such a dramatic rise companies are out there telling us that prices are down?
Perception is the key to getting people like you and me to spend our money thinking it's a good thing we are paying more. So what do we do? Well when it comes to food, sadly there isn't a lot we can do. Grow more of your own, get some chooks :-) catch fish. When I asked Jess to maybe just make simple cakes you would have thought I was telling her she couldn't buy shoes! However there will be no little silver balls on future cakes, it will be silver icing or something not so expensive. The only people making money out of charging us more are the companies, they need to raise their share prices for their share holders hence create more profit and raise prices you and i are to pay? I would often tell friends the only way to make money from a bank is to own shares in them as that's who these companies are interested in looking after. Ever know why the poor get poorer and the rich get richer? It's all about perception!