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

Absolutely correct.

What gets missed a lot in these discussions is that some visible spending actually is the result of people cutting their cloth. So for example people who used to/would like to go away for half term but now cant afford it are at home and spending a fraction of the money they'd have spent on a holiday on soft play instead.

Plus some of this is essentially substitution. Coffee shops are like pubs used to be. Was pints, now frappe syrup mocha whatsit.

And lastly, COL issues dont affect anyone equally. Not at all. Someone who's still got their 2021 mortgage fix or is old enough to have paid it all off is having a totally different experience to a private renter. One that would afford them a lot of brows and dog grooming if they like.

There has been a huge rise in rickets.

The graph charts the uptick until 2014. The table shows the marked rise in some areas since 2019. There are lots of reasons for it but it's not like it has disappeared.

We have a what I used to consider a fairly OK income . Until I need to maintain the property . The cost of paint , wood , even trying to buy some plants has gone up hugely. Never mind big items like windows or doors . Previously I would have been able to save up for big repairs , now there is not much left to save .

And my DS has asked if we can have a BBQ and I am worried about the cost of the meat . Maybe we should bring back the meat raffles they used to have in pubs .

This is what I was going to say ..... it's not a crisis, just the cost of living. Prices won't go down any time soon - or let's be honest, ever.

The bar is so insanely low. Let's be grateful we don't have rickets?!

I do agree in part, where I live the shops and restaurants are always busy. People are going on multiple holidays a year.

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. We expect so much more ‘extras’ now. I’m not saying it’s necessarily wrong but working class people a generation ago would not have been going to Turkey / Spain for 2 weeks every year and driving the newest / largest car they can get on PCP. And I count myself / my family as working class.

There was a mum on the radio yesterday complaining about the price of her food shop and how her teen sons couldn’t manage to make themselves a meal so she had to buy fast / convenience food for them during school holidays. I do understand that prices for a lot of things have gone up. But there’s loaves of bread, beans, pasta, tinned veg etc that are really cheap, under 70p each. It’s very hard to find that in other countries. If you have to cut back I guess it is possible though yes frustrating.

Think everyone is fed up "hearing" about it. We all know its there. The news just picks on one thing and nothing else matters. It was Iran for several weeks. Epstien disappeared. Sky news this morning was back to ex prince Andrew headlining.

As for cost of living, its a travesty soft play or food bank hmm the choice is obvious. All you read on here is oh £80,000 salary how will I live! Well get real, most folk are £30,000 or under and live fine. Do a lot of people on here just make it up.

I agree. Folk moaning about the cost of a loaf of bread. While having their nails done every few weeks and take away coffees every day.

I’m really pissed off with the latest government announcement on theme parks and cheap nugget meals. A tax cut for theme park businesses - there is no way that people who couldn’t afford to go to Alton Towers last week will now be planning a trip in august. It’s less than £2 off per person for what is a very expensive day out if it is all passed on to the customer. The cheap meals is worse. Every corrupt hospitality business in the country will be perching a stool in the corner and claiming a VAT reduction and HMRC is not well funded enough to investigate fraudulent claims. Honest hospitality businesses are being driven to bankruptcy by the tax burden when all the criminal “cash is king” dives are thriving and our own government is encouraging it. Anything that incentivises work and growth is squashed by policy. People are paying £100s in bus fares trying to get kids to school (dd was £60/week when she was in college) and then you can save money by going out when you don’t even need to in the holidays.

I shouldn’t have to live without heating my house and only taking coffee in a flask to work instead of buying one and only buying food at Aldi with a household income of £85k.

And that’s the issue.

80k 5 years ago is the equivalent to over 100k today.

I dunno where you live but where I live shops are shutting.

I went to book a beauty appointment that I only have once a year, and my niece who is always complaining of the COL crisis history came up as we have the same surname.
She spends hundreds a year on treatments including nails, hair extensions and Botox while claiming benefits and being a single parent to 2 children.
I now have no sympathy whatsoever for her.

This was a phrase picked up by the media, and like anything that becomes overused the meaning to it becomes diminished. And then starts to become irritating. And then people start thinking hang on, look at the airports full up etc.
The BBC in particular use it a lot.
There has been a spike in food prices. I am afraid some businesses will see a crisis ( Tariffs, War with Iran) as an excuse to put up prices. Even if they don’t have to.
But it is an overused phrase.

That’s the cost of living though, people can’t afford to live the lifestyles they were living.

Im not sure how anyone is blind to wage stagnation and housing costs ratios to salaries.

I also don’t understand why people pretend leisure spending is new.

I would agree with you that people's expectations of a basic standard of living is now much higher, and more expensive, than it ever was. I grew up in the 60s / 70s when a basic standard of living was really, really basic.

So to me the question is what is a reasonable expectation.

Well maybe they are doing well or maybe they indebted to a PCP or worse and merely keeping up with the Joneses.

There is a cost of living crisis, where people can’t feed themselves or their family.

there is also a quality of living crisis, which is what I think you might be referring to.

please understand the difference.

The main gripe I have with the phrase is that the word "crisis" implies it's a temporary blip, when in reality, this is just the new normal

People are complaining because their money doesn’t go as far. I shouldn’t have to live without heating my house and only taking coffee in a flask to work instead of buying one and only buying food at Aldi with a household income of £85k.

Nobody is saying that everyone is suddenly in poverty. What they’re saying is that money isn’t buying what it should, that high earners aren’t feeling well off and that therefore lower earners are being pushed into relative poverty.

I don't blame you. It is a pity that people are not out in numbers, on the streets protesting those facts though.

I would ask what does mothing off about it achieve?

My Dad would buy a big bar of chocolate and dole it out one square at a time. If we moaned, he would regale us with stories about how harsh life in the 1930s was. His Aunt told us the truth, she and his Mum, both smokers then, gave Dad their chocolate rations.

@Danikm151 £5 for soft play? Where the heck do you live? It is £13.75 for 90 mins at my local softplay if your kid is 4+ and £11.00 for under 4s.

I do think people should cut their cloth if everyone suffers equally but when you see the super rich getting richer and richer it is galling to be in the “squeezed middle”.

No. There are too many people around for whom it is nothing but convenient for others to be on the bones of their arse. Disaster capitalists, currency speculators, the funders of Brexit, Trump with his ridiculous pathetic wars. I refuse to shut up so they can make a few more quid as the cost of living soars and the country sinks into high interest debt. Why should I?