Dear ibec , here,s few small examples to prove my spending power will not be increasing this year.
VHi up €300
House insurance up €100 year despite no claims.
Wife,s car insurance will increase by an average of €200 according to our insurance comp due to the Eu law on equality
Potatoes have gone from 2.49 a kg to 2.99
Dunnes cooked chicken up from €4.44to €5.49
Pending property tax
Further increases to vhi
My spending power is all but dead and buried

Ibec the same crowd who are try to drive down the wages in public and private sectors, yet forecast more spending power, your having a laugh

IBEC = Ireland’s Best Economic Chancers.

Keep horsing down that kool-aid IBEC, Edna and the other schoolteachers will love you for it

I totally agree with IBEC on “Consumer spending power to stabilise this year”. We will stabilise spending but on essentials only.

My mortgage did lower in 2012 but the amount it dropped was the same as the Government took in extra taxes for 2013, even before property taxes.

I am working and consider this a bonus. In the 6 years with my current employer, (no pay increase even for the extra responsibilities I have taken on to stay in work). Unlike lots of individuals I do not get pay increments. Petrol has over doubled from about €0.80 to over €1.60 per litre. I still have to drive the same distance to work, as there is no public transport available. I pray that my second hand 9 year old car does not need major repairs, or I could just find myself out of work. The insurance on this car went up again. Road tax went up again. All reducing my spending power.

My house is now lower in value but the insurance is higher, and we have property tax coming. More spending power reductions.

My income tax rates have also increased in this period. Altogether cut backs and tax increases in the budget of last December alone have reduced our spending power by almost €2k per year, again lowering of our spending power.

We officially learned this morning the price of the standard shopping bag has gone up by 12% in two years. Not that we did not know this already.

I am 15 years married this year, for our 10th anniversary we went away for a weekend. We had planned to do the same this year, having not done so during the last 4 years. What we will actually do this year is buy a take away pizza to share with the kids. We don’t have spare money for anything else, like driving ½ hr to the nearest cinema.

Gum shields to allow the 3 kids keep playing GAA, the only organised sport where we live is costing €45 and this is before we talk about membership and second hand boots & socks & shorts. I used to volunteer my time but with trying to keep a job by working extra unpaid hours this has stopped.

I won’t even talk about the rip off prices for school uniforms and books for “free” education.

Health insurance is a thing of the past. At 45 years of age this is the first year since my childhood this has happened. My father before me paid my VHI until I started working. I am unable to offer the same medical protection to my children.

We used to take a 1 week family holiday with the kids, only 2 of those holidays were outside Ireland. This year weather permitting we will be camping in the Costa Del Backyard, otherwise the borrowed tent will be returned unpacked.

So IBEC you are right our consumer spending will stabilise this year. It will stabilise to the essentials of keeping horse meat in our stomachs, clothing on our backs & enough fuel in our old cars to stay in work. We will not however spend money on items that will improve the economy, even though as a country we must outperform the ECB interest rate by 1% just to remain stationary and we must maintain this for the next 40 years.

Consumer confidence is great . But where is the extra spending money coming from

So, if i take home €500 a week ill have an extra €2 a week to spend ( 0.4% of 500)? And ibec reckon this could be a game changer? Are they retarded, seriously?

“CONSUMER SPENDING POWER is forecast to stabilise in 2013 and improve in 2014 with the deal on the promissory notes expected to boost confidence.”

Why is The Journal repeating this bullshit that there was a “deal” last week. There was no deal. We the Irish people were saddled with a 40 year mortgage by Fine Gael and Labour to pay gambling bondholders.

Lies, lies and more lies.

According to the news today the shopping basket has gone up 12 % in the last two years in some cases items have gone up 38% , and the supermarkets using price matching or in other words price fixing , not a good idea for the customer just another way of ripping off the costomer , nothing much has changed we are still living in rip off Ireland.

Heres hoping because it can’t get much worse.
Hopefully a bit of consumer confidence will bring some spending power.

My consumer spending is double in Q1 alone. Been furnishing my apartment since I moved in 6 months ago and just put the electronics in. With the economy turning and job situation improving I have to keep less of a short term cushion in case I loose my job etc and can dip into savings I imagine others are in a similar position.

It is good to see things are looking up.