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

I agree this is absolutely key. Very few people can support a household on one wage, particularly when you’re presumably paying childcare costs as there isn’t a partner at home to do that

Of course you do. This is literally the reason I asked what you meant. It’s easy to throw your hands up in the air and say you work so hard so what else could you do, but it’s obvious that a) in a country like the uk with excellent employment laws etc working hard means something quite different to other countries and b) it has little relation to remuneration

It’s going to expensive running a household on one salary. Gone are the days of a raising a family with one working parents being standard. It takes two salaries to buy a house in the south east.

Do you have a friend who would be willing to buy with you? Another single mother. Buy a 3 bed and the kids share. Or for now rent together and spend less on running a house. Or get a lodger in weekdays and share a bedroom with your child?

What are the practical suggestions for retraining?! I earn a high salary as a professional. My professional qualification cost in excess of £10k 15 years ago. And of course, it’s taken me this long to get the experience to earn that much.

what do people actually mean when they say retrain for a higher salary? It’s not an idea I come across in the workplace at all.

@scotpancakes We left Richmond, Surrey ( hometown) because we could never rent and save to buy because of high rents.
We moved 100 miles away ( missed family abs friends) but we bought a house.
Renting is soul destroying.

It's possible that a government will manage to get housebuilding numbers up and eventually that would result in house prices and rents being relatively lower. That's the one single thing that could do most to reduce the cost of living.

Labour have said that this is what they want to do, and they have a planning reform bill on the way. I couldn't tell you whether they will be successful or not, or how long until you'd notice the benefit of they are, but that's your best hope.

But hard work has never paid. That's why the expression "work smart not hard" exists. You need to find a better paying job/industry or else yes, accept your lot.

If prices go back to what they were, this is actually DEFLATION. This will not happen (unless things go seriously wrong…deflation is a bad thing in an economy). If things stay exactly as they are today, that is 0% inflation. The goal is to remain at or below 2% inflation. As PPs have said, we’re expecting prices to go up as business owners need to cover the cost of the new minimum wage rise and the increase in their NI contributions. My prediction is that inflation will be above 2% for the next several years. How much above 2% is anyone’s guess.

I had to retrain and move my child’s school. It wasn’t easy but it was better then giving a landlord all my money every month. I had a friend in London who accepted a council house near Hull in order to escape high rents. If your job can be done from home then you could live anywhere in the country.

But it’s a fair question- the uk is full of allegedly hard working people but our economy doesn’t reflect that. It’s just maybe British people as a whole have the wrong idea about what hard work looks like.

No shade at all- I think I am a perfectly average worker. There is nothing wrong with that.

The col is never going to go down. The only thing that varies is how fast it goes up.

It’s getting a bit like the ‘american dream’ isn’t it? We can’t even imagine that life could become more liveable for large swathes of people, and can only suggest ways for an individual person to tug harder on their bootstraps. If it was that easy to retrain for a high paying job while a single mother living in an overpriced area then everyone would do it. Probably true that systematic changes won’t happen though, when our two parties are so close in outlook and income inequality just continues to spiral post 2008.

UK productivity is low not because people don't work hard but due to a combination of factors such as long term lack of training and lack of investment.

It’s not coming.

It isn't.

Sadly OP, i think this is the new norm, and we all need to adjust to it.

It's terrible and it's a political decision. Personally we plan on leaving England, although I grew up here I am originally from elsewhere. I appreciate it's a privilege that we can make that choice. Otherwise the only hope is that enough people decide they've had enough and initiate proper political change but so many people think these difficult living conditions are somehow not inevitable and nothing to be revolting against. I do have some hope in the younger generations!

Is it hard work? Is it is just work? No need to be a martyr, it doesn’t sound like you’re down a coal mine. Uk wages are shite but so is productivity- we are not a hard working nation.

The main issue in the uk is low wages. If wage inflation were to increase far more rapidly than it has for the last 10
years, and RPI/ CPI and house prices stabilise, then your life will become more affordable.

but that’s how it happens, not by things you buy getting cheaper

"Can't afford to save"

Life will only ever get more expensive over time

Work overtime
Work a second or third job
Move somewhere cheaper
Train for a better paid job
Get a job that pays more
Check your budget & cut expenses
Investigate side hustles where you swap something for something
Look at discount schemes, vouchers, points, cash back, switch your bank account & get free money
Sell stuff or sell a service that you can provide
Use Olio or Too Good To Go or yellow sticker
Pay into a work pension

Have you done any of the above ?