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

If you are earning 90k a year and only have £20 left at the end of the month with no treats (if this is to be believed) then you have overstretched yourself somehow.

It is a financial squeeze yes, but not a COL crisis.

Its a crisis because when people restrict spending it impacts jobs

Honestly I think you are a bit dim. It’s not about the hairdressers or nail bars - its about the BASIC stuff - houses, food, fuel costs - because these are not things you can go without. And so cannot.cut.your.cloth.

I worked in a club in the ‘90s. Student nights were 80p/pint and 30p shots (of the cheapest vodka, rum, and whisky). Fridays and Saturdays were more expensive but you absolutely could get about 8 units of alcohol for £10. The £1 club entry and £1 chips and a bit more alcohol might bump it up to £15 if you were some sort of Rockefeller.

If your life consists of just about covering the basics and a soft play visit once a week and that’s all you can manage, then it’s pretty shite, really.

@TheBoyMayorOfPartridge I had some crazy cheap holidays in the early 00s & late 90s

I do remember playing golf for under a tenner a round back then, now it's around 40 quid a round. When you add in the lost golf balls, that's 50 quid. So you are right.

@TheKittenswithMittens yep! I would only have one alcoholic drink but I had enough left for the night bus & chips.

I earn just under 6 figures and

• do not get my nails done, ever
• use cheap cosmetics such as Nivea or ELF
• have not bought new clothes in last year
• drive an 05 reg car to get to work
• do not buy takeaways, coffees, do not drink
• do not smoke or vape
• have zero Netflix, Sky etc packages
• have a cheap phone deal at £15pm
• batch cook and take a packed lunch to work every day
• go on holidays except when staying at relatives'

We save each month a bit, as I think that is responsible.

We budget rigidly to ensure we do not dip into savings unless absolutely needed.

At the end of the month we will have around £20 left.

Two or three years ago, we could take thw kids for a pizza, do a short trip away, take them to the zoo. Now, we have to think carefully about where to cut back if we want to take them to an indoor climbing wall.

That's reality, it's not made up, and if someone on £90k odd feels that, I think people on £30k can have a moan!

I partly agree.

I grew up very poor, however my parents were super practical, mum grew up in an extremely rural area and had a very hands on childhood. Society in general are used to mod cons, convenience food, days out to attractions etc that many of us have become reliant on, if you haven't had a parent/grandparent to teach you ways to survive when those things are removed its even more difficult think on your feet.

We went through a really tough time financially when DS was little and friends were blown away that I could manage, some of them had literally no knowledge of how to hand wash clothes or how to make bread. I know how to warm a house in the middle of winter when there's no heating, preserve food etc and make £10 stretch to a week.

I don't think anyone should have to live like this, but these are skills that get lost within one generation, the lack of village is also a massive contributing factor, I have support system that wouldn't hesitate to help in practical ways and in return I do the same.

We do fine really, but I’m allowed to be pissed off that my normal, not particularly extravagant weekly shop seems to go up by at least a tenner every few weeks, buying more or less the same items

Absolutely, I am pissed of too. We should be in a comfortable period, no childcare costs, lower mortgage & we have a decent income that we work hard for. Instead I am buying own brand and cutting back on treats despite paying a shed load of tax.

Yep, I remember these days too. £20 was an expensive night out. You could get a week in Ibiza for £99.

Is it - ‘absolutely’?

The gap between the richest and poorest has widened significantly. Housing costs and rent take up a much larger proportion of lower income family’s budgets today than they did back then.

Children still get rickets, and otherwise suffer from malnutrition, in the UK, today.

Clubbing on a tenner?

I think food banks ( some) need to be aware that whilst some really do need their help. Eg. Their benefits payments haven’t come through etc. Some are being used I think by people who don’t need them. When you see someone turning up in an SUV it should make you wonder…

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what a cost of living crisis actually is.

It is an inability to feel secure in your ability to continue to pay for food, shelter, energy.

There are members of this country very much in a cost of living crisis

But I agree OP, having to forgo branded foods, a holiday, give up one of your cars etc is not a cost of living crisis.

It is a financial squeeze yes, but not a COL crisis.

I think a lot of it has to do with expectations. Back in the late 90s some of the things we take for granted now just weren’t a thing eg cheap flights , 4x4s, takeaway coffees, soft play, days and days of paid entertainment for kids during holidays

Err, late 90s was all about cheap holidays, I travelled all over Europe on £10 Ryanair fares. Public transport was much cheaper, I could go clubbing on £10.

I don't think that will be something exclusive to Waitrose shoppers!

I think that’s a really good point. I follow a social media person who has a whole thing about being an NHS mum struggling to feed her kids and pay bills whilst paying off debt. She’s doing well but then booked a holiday to Disney because “we’ve had a tough few years, only live once and we deserve it”. Still in debt.

Days later posting a video in tears calling on the government to help out hard pressed NHS families like hers.

Well get real, most folk are £30,000 or under and live fine. Do a lot of people on here just make it up.

How are most people on 30k paying housing & childcare costs?

@Katypp Its no real surprise you think as you do, its always the case with the 'right... the deserving and undeserving poor is a theme throughout their political thinking.

Sure some people do make bad choices and waste money but things like Food has, in some cases, trebled in price, many other items have doubled since 2019.

Energy is around 50% higher & will go up even more shortly.

Same with rents, car costs, parking charges, bus and train fares etc etc property prices on avg have gone from 235k to 290k since 2019....

Have wages doubled since 2019?

Plus you've no idea the financial situations of people interviewed in a Play area or are you saying poorer children shouldn't be in these places?

Why shouldnt we talk about it?

Things are more expensive and many of us have to give up things.

Silence and stiff upper lip? No thanks. I'm going to mourn my decent coffee while I drink my tesco own brand.

But how do you decide who is genuinely struggling and who isnt? Others cant possibly say what people are going through

I agree with some of it but 25 years ago a lot of families still only had one parent working. Since most have to have two working do you not think they should be able to have a coffee when they want and take their children to soft play?

If nobody went to the restaurants or nail bars or hairdressers or soft play then those businesses would fold, more unemployment and less money circulating in the economy.

We do fine really, but I’m allowed to be pissed off that my normal, not particularly extravagant weekly shop seems to go up by at least a tenner every few weeks, buying more or less the same items.

A box of eggs has increased in price by over 120% since 2020, beef mince gone up by nearly 30% over the same time period, strawberries between 30% and 40%. Overall cost of groceries risen by 40-50% - and wages haven’t https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2026-0004/

Add in all the other rising costs, I think it’s understandable that people are pissed off.

Yes we could all go back to doing nothing unnecessary or pleasant for ourselves and looking forward to our daily bowl of gruel - but we really shouldn’t have to. There’s two full time working professionals in this house - we should be able to afford to take our daughter to a theme park or soft play with relative ease, the fact that we could easily live without it or it didn’t exist years ago is neither here nor there.