To think this increase in cost is going to break me?

Oh gosh! I saw this and was like whhhaaaatttt???

Everything costs far too much 😬

It is only my bet but they won’t do something really…
baby boomers will, you know, not be around in 30years so that will be a lot of houses free, rent will go down except in nice « location, location, location » area.
with AI, not sure what the job market will look like but defo another shift and ladder for wealth has opened.

But yeah. That is a few gen stuck in the middle. It always has been the case though…

I shop at Waitrose and m and s but when I pop into Lidl/ Aldi/ Tesco/ Morrisons/ Asda I don’t find them especially any cheaper for the kind of things I buy.

How sad that people are suggesting giving up a grind of black pepper is a reasonable thing for working people to be doing in one of the wealthiest corners of the globe. I despise the race to the bottom mentality we seem to have in this country at the moment, I don’t want people to be making do the best they can with lentils and veg off cuts and sitting in the dark with 5 jumpers on when there are billionaires and companies that still aren’t paying their taxes.

Let's hope they realise soon something has to be done, otherwise things will get even worse than they are now.

Lancrelady80
NHS says average nursing wage is between £33 and £35k

NHS England need to update that webpage - the starting salary for a qualified Band 5 nurse is stated as £27,055 (2022?) - it's £29,969 now so the average wage will be more.

Tell me about it. I nearly had a fit at the price of Lurpak butter in Iceland a few days ago. £6.75 for 600g! 😱 Christ almighty. I can remember not long ago it was 3 quid.

It's ridiculous how much prices have gone up for everything everywhere and continue to do so. Even the cheaper shops aren't cheap anymore.

As far as I'm aware they're still making huge profits so there isn't a need to do this, like oil companies. It's because they can. I know people who work for manufacturers and the mark up from buy to sell costs are huge.

It's the cost of everything. My cat was a bit under the weather and the consultation plus antibiotics was over £100. It's exhausting.

And there will probably never a gov that doesn’t encourage growing wealth inequality either… they just market it differently 🤷🏼‍♀️

Hi op,

Can you look into club card? Tesco does charge horrendously if no club card up to 1 pound for no reason I can think of.
Also all the points get turned into money so save it for the end of the month?

It isn’t so much about cutting but juggling.

Still not nice but that will get you out of rough patches.

Good luck op 🌺

It's amazing how bad the situation has got but it seems people are only bothered about immigration. We've just had the worst, most corrupt government ever. Labour are just pandering to the right wing in the country but those idiots hate them anyway.
If reform get in there will be no NHS, welfare state etc. We are turning into the horror show that is the USA.

@sometimesmovingforwards Ok, I'll just erase my disabilities and my son's should I? And go back in time to stop his dad dying? What the hell kind of choice do I have about careers?

@sometimesmovingforwards 'Who the hell looks at a job spec with ‘huge’ levels of responsibility coupled with poor pay and thinks “ooh yes, that’s a bit of me that is, exactly what I’m looking for! Where do I sign please?”
Nurses, carers, teachers, anyone working in youth or community work?
Or people who have previously been in high powered jobs, but need to find something part-time/local due to caring responsibilities? And then find out it still has a lot of responsibility but is paid appallingly?

It will get worse under any government that doesn't deal with growing wealth inequality.

@Skethylita that’s fair comment. On my own my grocery bill would be tiny in comparison! I’m just saying that I do do a lot of what you suggest as ways to bring costs down, as much as possible within the confines of my work and the requirements of the household, and so once the spend comes down to a certain point it’s very difficult to get it lower. It’s not simply a question of people not trying.

(I agree with you about line-dried washing. But at this time of year it needs airing indoors to get it bone-dry. However the pp who said it makes washing smell bad has a very unusual point of view- unless they didn’t get it bone dry, it smelled damp, and they blamed that on line-drying.)

If you live rurally they often smell of slurry in spring/summer and stinky coal fires/log burners in winter.

My grocery shop in Aldi each week is about €240 here in ireland . Family of 5 including 3 very hungry teens. 2 years ago it was about €180.

I still think food is relatively cheap though ie you can get a chicken for €3.99. To take a chic , raise it , feed it grain and process it and package it. I just think how can anyone in the chain make money at that.
I work in the industry and the coca crop has really failed this great. Chocolate is going to go up about 20% this spring ( not thr worst thing in the world I suppose)

I use Olive oil for everything. Not because of the taste, but because we were always taught that it's healthier than other oils. I've never bought any other type of oil so I don't know how they would affect the taste of food.

I have a private back garden you could have walked past but it's an apartment
Not allowed washing outside
I use an airer or a heated one, no tumble dryer

I don’t own my own house, am a pensioner, pay my full rent, and everything else. I don’t get any extra benefit handouts. 🤷‍♀️. We are all struggling nowadays, and it’ll get worse, sadly, and unexpectedly, under this government. 😡

@AlertCat You're comparing the cost of running a household for 4 people with the cost of running my household of 1 in the week I haven't got my kids. Of course my shop is not enough to feed more than 1 person, though it's not repetitive other than my soup for lunch, which I'll have 3x in a row for the same type. In a typical week I'll have stews, curries, stir fries, omelettes, egg fried rice, pasta with various sauces, some meat and mash type food, pies, pizzas, burgers - all reasonably easy and cheap, and they can be as healthy and nutritious as you like. Time is not an issue; I leave my food to cook while I do other things; it doesn't need constant supervision. But that's my point, many people on here cite time or money as a reason why eating healthily is not possible on a budget and I'm saying it is with a bit of planning and foresight. My kids don't get the option to be fussy; the rule is to have tried a few mouthfuls of everything and I will always serve things up in different ways until we find one we all like - spinach pizza and spinach-based lasagne are now firm favourites while the initial reaction to spinach from both of them was eww.

@torreli We'll have to agree to disagree here; I love the smell of fresh air, which clings to washing line dried outside, I don't have to iron as a result of line drying and it is better for the fabric integrity overall. Win-win here.

I've noticed olive oil mentioned quite a lot on these threads, how much do people use? A small bottle lasts us absolutely ages because we only use it in something like a salad dressing where you actually notice the taste.

It used to be something they sold in small bottles in the chemist, not for cooking with.

I can also remember when orange juice was something you had for a starter, not an everyday drink, it was quite a treat!

Well we'll all be completely screwed if everyone earning those wages did just up and quit. And some wage, even in those ranges, is better than no wage - unless you'd also like to see UC bills increase exponentially?

Also, you might have noticed one or two things in the press about recruitment and retention crises, especially for teachers?

Don't go blaming people who are in work (and I'm not having a go at those who aren't for whatever reason) for the poor wages they are receiving when they say things are tough. A pp said the middle class is being squeezed so much there won't be one left soon, just the in-work poor or worse off, and the rich. It's happening now - yet some people say it's our fault we're struggling? It's not actually that easy to just bugger off into a new career. When I started teaching, the trajectory for pay rises would have put me now at earning around 65k or more. It was a good career with good pay. Chuck in pay freezes and it's nowhere near that. But I can't magically just get a similar waged job without taking time out, retraining etc...which I can't do because pitiful pay means minimal savings to allow that, and mortgages need paying and kids need feeding.

Don't go blaming the people at the bottom of the heap. (And I'm well aware that I am NOT at the bottom. Many more have it much worse.)

???
no they don't, they smell lovely and fresh
unless you live next to a sewage works or something