To ask when is the cost of living going to go down?

They will never stop going up. The best we can hope for is that a) things stop going up as fast and b) wages find a way to raise to make up for it.

Now days you need two wages to afford a house,

I own a home but only because I have a joint income with my husband. I never would have done it when I was a single mum.

@scotpancakes its madness how mismatched the ‘idea’ of a media salary is to the reality. Fair enough if you’re a well know long standing journo with a special oeuvre like politics etc, but most people who you hear on local radio for example are on less than 28-30k. I was always given the impression by my employer it was a privilege to be in the position I was in…bugger that, I need cold hard cash! See ya bye!

It won't.
And I understand that deflation is even worse.
I don't know what the answer is apart from possibly more appropriate housebuilding.

A little over 10 years ago, we moved to the East Midlands in a rural area to be able to afford a house, bought a fixer upper, did it up and now have the mortgage paid. I was subsequently headhunted for jobs in London, but when I looked at the prices of housing, the salary just didn’t make the move worth it whatsoever.

I know you want to do what is best for your daughter, but I might consider weighing moving to a cheaper area and buying, versus running to stand still. As you get older, you won’t have the energy to work all hours, and a house that is paid for becomes worth its weight in gold.

If you are a university alumna, their career services might be open to you, and that can help with a new job, retraining, etc. Might be worth a look.

"there were no mobile phones" always makes me roll my eyes

right but in the 1990s, say, the average person would have
-bought a wall calendar and diary every year to keep track of their appointments
-still paid a monthly phone bill (I've never had a lineline since I bought my first house nearly a decade ago) which without texting or internet would have been your primary way of communicating with anyone, and would thus have been very expensive
-had a decent camera and spent money each time on film and getting photos developed
-had a sound system for the house
-if they were thirties or younger, had a walkman (or a bit later a cd player)
-spent money on records/tapes/cds regularly
-a decent alarm clock
-a decent watch
-bought books on a regular basis
-bought a daily newspaper
-A-Z whenever you wanted to go anywhere new

possibly other things like a printer, stamps, paper, scanner for important docs, or to send parcels, before you could just use your phone for labels. And that's not counting the things that might not have cost money but would be much more timeconsuming or annoying, like having to carry round a wallet full of store cards, or bus timetables, or cashing and writing cheques to pay bills without apps for online banking, etc.

all of which have been replaced for many people by a mobile phone, which for the £7.50 I pay a month with giffgaff I consider very reasonable!

And much simpler! How on earth can you say receiving bills through the post and writing and posting a cheque, and making a note of this for every single bill or card, every single month, is easier than all of this just happening automatically once you've taken 2 minutes to set up a direct debit?

Exactly and any money you could save some banks were offering 8% interest!

What do you do? I was a broadcast journalist for a very large organisation and I made 25k per annum 🙄😩😩😩 I moved sideways to comms, and worked my way up and now earn quadruple within 7yrs. Can you manoeuvre sideways?

That doesn't work if you co-parent though? You need to remain near the other parent, I would love to move to a cheaper area but I can't as my children have to be able to see their dad so I'm stuck in an expensive town for at least another 10years. He is a high earner but wouldn't pay the extra to travel further to collect/drop off his kids.

The best thing I heard was that having sex with him would be like tripping over a penny farthing in a dark hallway.

Hopefully your childcare costs will reduce once your DC is at school.

I'm guessing you have looked into rent to buy and shared ownership schemes? I personally would be willing to downsize in rental in order to get a deposit together if the mortgage itself is affordable for you. Renting in the SE can be so expensive.

It's not going to. Sorry. You need to work out a way to increase your salary or/and you could move to a cheaper part of the UK.

Food prices are going up post brexit. Fuel prices have come down but a lot of that reduction has not been passed on to consumers in all the products we buy.

At least heating and motor costs not as extortionate but its still bad.

Renting is so insecure and interest rate increases are bring passed on by landlords. Even if rates come down the won't reduce rents.

Your best bet is to retrain or look for promotion in your current job. You need to take on more work or more responsibility. Depending on what you do you might find it easier to be at a higher level in your job rather than slaving away at the bottom.. I wish you luck. It's not easy.

https://www.techswitch.co.uk/ - forgot to post the example sorry

Agree about the retraining, I retrained into tech several years back and it really opened up my options in terms of where I could live. It wasn’t this organisation but a similar one with a similar offering where they help you get a job afterwards as well. I reckon with a little research there are other career switch opportunities, especially with companies that are trying to improve diversity.

Inflation is the rate of increase,so whilst 4% is better than 11% , prices are still going up 4%,and from a higher base

Really? because a recent holiday in Spain says otherwise. Bullshit.

It will impact him I guess? vile creature

The cost of living crisis has been felt all over the world- much worse in many countries than the uk, even!

Never, it will never go down. The Posh Boys have wrecked the country.