To be absolutely sick of hearing about the cost of living crisis

Well the government does help the poorest humans not animals so why not use tokens for dogs.

Nail on the head again.

That makes literally no sense. What are you trying to say?

Nail on the head. In the late 80's my sister who was in a menial low paid job bought herself a flat when she was 20. That's impossible to do today. As you rightly say, it's not just house prices that have gone insane compared with wages, it's other things like crap/expensive public transport meaning a car is more of a necessity these days (especially when lots of employers have moved from town centres to out of town retail/office parks with no bus service!).

How much did childcare cost you? Having no support network around you to help with that? Because I know how much it costs us, as we don't have family who could help.

I note you said you commuted 2.5/4 hours each, every day. How did you feel being away from your child for that long every day? Who actually raised them while you did that?

You were very lucky not to have family who needed your support too. Or, the fact you valued buying a house over being there for them speaks to your character.

Sacrifices are different for different circumstances, you were able to do what you did but not everyone can. And commuting costs might make a move further away from work pointless these days.

People who say stuff like that offend me with their stupidity. They're so transparent. Vouchers would be way more costly and inefficient, plus open to abuse, but it's the thought of stigmatisation and punishment of those on benefits that gets these people salivating. Grim.

Nobody needs to be grateful for what they receive as part of the welfare state. Counting your individual blessings is another matter entirely. I'm thankful everyday that I have a job and a roof over my head and nobody monitoring what I spend my money on or where I live. I wish the same for the people I encounter and it's grossly unfair that they don't have the bare minimum.

The gap between those working full time and those on benefits has shrunk. Before everyone shouts but those on UC work, evidently most work part time.

People aren’t stupid, if you get up day in day out and hardly see your children as they are in clubs and then your pay is eroded so much that it seems those on benefits are better off than you especially given all the extra stuff they get, of course they are pissed of and so they should be. People tend to be around people like them, when they see others have a lifestyle similar and not working they annoyed and blame col.

And how much did commuting cost you?

But many didn't have to make any sacrifice.

Yes!

Many industries are tied to London, even for a first job. Mine was. It's also not reasonable to expect people to move away from their friends, families and support networks
See I call that entitlement. We did. We didn't question it. It was that or continue renting and never being able to save for a deposit. We moved where I didn't know a soul. We both commutated daily. It was the price to pay.

So I don't really want to hear how much easier I had it because I could afford to buy from people who wouldn't consider for a second the sacrifices that we made to be able to do so.

Yes, the agenda is becoming clearer by the minute..

I havent voted because its not one particular group per say that springs to my mind per say. Its a little depressing to constantly hear about the COL but it is true! I can see it from both sides.

Also when I say financial support, I also mean living in a house free of charge (not booted out at 18) , getting a house /flat etc from family. Any financial help at all.

Oh I bet you do!

In the 80's and 90's it was perfectly possible to buy a house on a single, blue collar job salary and to be able to afford for one parent to stay at home with the children or to work part time in evenings and weekends which meant no childcare costs.

If both parents did need to work and they couldn't afford to buy, they could generally find social housing or cheap rentals in the areas where they grew up which means they had help with childcare.

Today we have a housing crisis, people have to move away from their family networks for jobs or to get affordable housing. There is virtually no chance of raising a family on a single, low wage income which means both parents have to work, but having moved away from their network they are reliant on expensive childcare.

Add to that comparatively more expensive travel, a lack of public transport and more expensive utilities.

What about that is so difficult to understand that makes it impossible for you to understand how hard today's low and middle income families have things compared to the 80s and 90s?

This parallel thread is very indicative of the topic we're discussing

To ask if you could make this amount of money last 3 weeks and how? | Mumsnet

OP is questioning if £540 is enough for 1 adult and one 6yo to live for three weeks after bills paid, so basically food and fuel. If people believe that's not enough then of course they'd moan about COL crisis.

A few questions op and really genuine questions , do you have children ? Have you received any financial support at all from family ever ? Have you had practical support with childcare? Have you ever had to not eat due to waiting for payday ?

100% this.

Frozen local housing allowance doesn’t cover rents in most of the country. It’s wholly inadequate.

I agree. DS is having to pay circa £1k per month for a dingy basement box room size bedroom in a HMO. It's utterly obscene. OK, that's London (not Central either), but that's where the jobs in his profession are located since the push for centralisation closed huge numbers of regional offices and concentrated everything in London and a handful of other large cities.

Even 1 bedroom flats in our run down regional town are averaging £800-£900 per month these days and are heavily sought after due to lack of supply and lots of people needing homes.

I really don't think the older people who are sitting pretty in houses/flats bought a few decades ago have the faintest idea of the current state of the housing market.

If you're paying £800-£1000 in rent alone, plus utilities etc plus commuting costs, plus subsistence level foods, you've bugger all left if you're on minimum wage, and virtually no chance at all of saving anything towards the deposit needed to buy your own flat/house.

I am assuming that two professionals working full time will bring in at least 70k per annum? Your essential outgoings surely do not take the majority of this income? 😬

Some regular outgoings are used to support a privileged standard of living, but are not necessarily essential, e.g, extra curricular clubs, tutoring, paid family days out/activities, pre-prepared meals, Netflix, disposable mop heads, etc. Many people are voicing that they are not willing to give these up, because they work hard. People worked equally hard in the 90s. Why is there a presumption that living standards (aka consumerism) should just increase year on year, without consequence?

The cost of living ‘crisis’ has been a real crisis for some low income households that had no wiggle room to reduce their costs and were struggling already.

However, many posters claim to be ‘struggling’ when what they actually mean is they are unable to maintain their privileged standard of living to the same degree, but they are still pretty privileged.

We are allowed to grumble about it, but I think it’s important to not be disingenuous and use the phrase ‘struggling,’ like those in actual poverty. I agree we can moan that we haven’t eaten out or had a take away all month, but please be careful who your audience is.

The older generations sometimes scoff at the moans, as their lived experience was very different when living standards were much lower. They are accused of begrudging standards improving. I think we miss the point that increased happiness has not matched increased living standards.

If you are currently ‘struggling’ (but not actually), just imagine you are living in the 90s… you will have just one house phone between you, will have painted your own nails and box dyed your hair - you won’t feel like you are missing out at all!

The 90s were great, btw

If that's what you think then sorry, you have no idea what you're talking about. Our residual welfare regime provides some of the lowest benefits in Europe and they're reactive, doing nothing to prevent poverty before it takes hold. We had no strategy on child poverty for a decade and a half and policies literally designed to increase child poverty. There are very few boroughs in England and Wales where LHA will fully cover rents so people are having to use subsistence level benefits to cover their private rents. I could continue but your views are likely to be entrenched.

I dont want to get on board with this "cloth cutting" mentality, because it makes me feel like I am personally responsible for the shortcoming of an economic system that is badly managed by a handful of people and companies.... I don't want to stop doing nice things for my children because some Orange man decided to have a power trip and cover up for his friends dirty deeds....

I refuse to cut my cloth in the way goverment wants me to cut it... I will moan and voice my displeasure with this system forcing me to give up few nice extras ( a soft play for a 5ver) while we can't have a comfortable life or holidays and days out with kids.

Also all those businesses you seen on the high street are small businesses basically all struggling to feed their own families in those times.

I am sure your heart is in the right place, but conforming and surviving in this broken system is not an achievement and we will keep on moaning and pointing the widening gap between poor and rich.

I really hope you don't expect people to be grateful for what they get. That's a horrible attitude to bring to work. I don't think anyone needs to be grateful for the protection of the welfare state, especially now it's so piecemeal and inadequate. It's a social contract, not charity
I am grateful. Grateful for my health, grateful for the opportunities that I chased but ultimately we're there, grateful I was able to work FT as a single mum and managed to raise two great kids who are now independent and happy.

Gratefulness goes a long way towards happiness.