If you are financially comfortable, have you started cutting back on non-essentials?

[LabraDabraDoo]

I realise that we are very fortunate to have the financial headroom to choose to cut back and at the moment we spend quite a bit on non-essentials. We did a budget last night to look at likely price increases (especially fuel) and it looks like, while our jobs are secure ( although our investments are in the doldrums) we will be cutting back on quite a few non-essentials. Anyone else also making this choice yet?

Our list includes:
Back to buying decent quality supermarket meat and reining in trips to the farm shop.
I’m not buying clothes this Spring, I have enough to clothe a hundred middle aged women. We aren’t heating unused rooms in the house. Horse riding lessons are being suspended ( kids didn’t seem too bothered so that’s an easy £200 saved). We’ve cancelled our plan to refloor downstairs (wooden floors, so that’s a big saving). I planned to raise the children to a cottage in Norfolk for a couple of weeks in summer and we’ve arranged a house swap with a friend instead. We are not going out to eat for the foreseeable, and outings will be free swimming at the gym, dog walks etc. All other home improvement plans and big spends ( I considered renewing my car) are on hold. There are some things I hope we don’t have to cut, like cancelling holidays, music lessons and our lovely cleaner. We are still saving money into pensions and investments.

Anyone else making cutbacks? Do you think it’s going to start having an impact on people who provide non-essential services or are they still enjoying a post-Covid boom?

I would put my financial situation somewhere between comfortable and just about doing ok .
I'm turning the heating off earlier, no more take aways, showers only (my dd has a bath and then a shower to wash her hair) , I'm making a flask of coffee (wfh) so I don't keep boiling the kettle.

Put your hard hat on OP, someone will be along shortly to slate you for having to cancel riding lessons, and not making so many trips to the farm shop .....

But yes, we are not on the breadline, but aren't at the level of having investments either (except our home) ... but even we are cutting back., less eating out, no cinema, no coffees out, fake always not take always, not using tumble dryer. ... yesterday I even worked out the cost of the drive to the supermarket for only two items and it was £4 for the round trip, so I didn't go! ((I can afford the £4, but it's one example of cutting back)

I spent £17 on a farm shop chicken last week, and whilst it was lovely, £80 a month just on chicken is a bit crazy, snd we def. Can't stretch to that now ... ... (we aren't likely to go veggie anytime soon either) ... now this is extreme - and not everyone's cup of tea, but I've just ordered baby table chicks (meat chickens, not egg layers) and I'm going to rear my own free range birds in the back garden - cost to rear £5 each. .....am potting up seeds whilst browsing Mumsnet too for my own salads this spring too ...

I think we need to. We are fine at the moment but have 3 dc all renting in different parts of the country, and I think we may need to help them financially. We may not have to but I want to be here for them if they need it. We also have a large mortgage still which is up in 4 years time and we need to throw extra money at that (io but on schedule to pay it off).

I work 4 days a week and was going to go down to 3, but will hold off cutting hours for now. We have stopped buying alcohol. We will eat out less.

We've made no changes at all. I don't think we'll need do. But we have both been young with no money before so know how lucky we are.

Yes, we're fortunate enough to be in this position, but I'm getting rid of Amazon Prime (keeping basic Netflix), turning off the heating in three rooms we don't use regularly and turning down boiler and thermostat, grouping shopping trips to use the car less, no new clothes, eBaying good clothes and lots of household items (we're moving later this year so need to declutter). A number of these things I should have been doing anyway!

Yes, we are comfortable but have had discussions about energy usage, we are cutting back on luxury “nice to haves” like takeaways and meals out, we are limiting purchases of new clothes, we will sell some things on eBay that I would previously have just put into the charity shop pile etc.

I understand the point of this thread but think it’s a little tone deaf to talk about cutting back on horse riding lessons etc!

I don’t think it’s tone deaf although I understand why youve said that. I think it’s an interesting point that it isn’t just those on the breadline who are cutting back. Even those who would regard themselves as comfortable are doing it.

I’m pretty sure we are heading for a fairly significant recession.

I'm struggling to make the call really. We don't live extravagantly and don't have a lot of disposable income, but we're not living on the breadline. Our really obvious non-essentials are generally eco alternatives which is hard to swap back (such as having milk delivered; costs an awful lot more than supermarket milk). But theres also things like the weekly dog walker, which are just so convenient that I don't want to wave goodbye. We cut back loads of the bigger stuff which make the largest impact when our wages dropped during covid, miserable to be doing it again!

Shouldbeworking I think we're in a similar position to you. We're cutting back on things like eating out, takeaways, cinema etc. We have a free weekend coming up and we would normally plan to take the kids out somewhere but we'll just do something cheap at home instead.

I'm much more careful when shopping now. I have been fairly casual about chucking treats in the trolley, things like flowers, reed diffusers, bottle of wine and so on, but that will stop. We're very lucky in that DH's job is secure but I'm very worried about mine. I have a small business and it's entirely dependent on people having some spare money. I'm concerned that my customers will be cutting back on the stuff I sell.

I also don't think I am well off by any means but yes we comfortable. In so much I didn't check my bank before I spend money etc.

Yes we are definitely looking at where we can cut back like heating, eating out and takeaways.

I am paying much more attention to the weekly food shop, and trying to meal plan more and eat leftovers up. (Yes I know we should be doing this anyway) I often over buy cleaning things and toiletries but now am not buying them until we actually run out.

Somethings I have moved to fortnightly like organic chicken delivery and ironing.

I am also not buying any clothes for me and this is a big motivation to lose weight

I am absolutely aware that we are in a privileged position compared to many families.

You must realise how tone-deaf your post is.
Eg, How do you get “free” swimming at the gym? You mean you pay for gym membership, which you’re not cutting back on? So no hardship there.

I don't think it's tone deaf, it's clear from the title of the thread what the thread will be.

Our energy bill is going up by £200 a month so we'll definitely be cutting back on takeaways. I'm also trying to avoid little top up shops and will need to wean DS off his Cherry habit have an apple kid.

I find our biggest expense is food. So we're going to do a couple of nights of things like egg on toast, omelette etc and trying to use up cupboard and freezer stuff instead of going and doing a top up shop

I'm financially comfortable because I'm pretty frugal anyway.

But yup, looking to make cuts.

Driving less. Free outings rather than paying entrance fees.

Stopped an out of school activity.

Doing extra hours at work.

@Pyri

I understand the point of this thread but think it’s a little tone deaf to talk about cutting back on horse riding lessons etc!

She’s just saying what she’s cutting back on. We are cutting back on swimming lessons. They are expensive and they can swim (although I’d like them to get better) They thoroughly love their swimming lessons so we are all a big sad but it’s an expense we can do without at the moment.

We are also getting rid of our national trust member shop too.

We’re comfortable but both grew up poor and got hammered in previous recessions. We spend carefully and save what we can- for work on the house and now for the kids going to uni in a couple of years- but that will drop to nothing and I’m not sure what will go after that. We shop at Aldi, don’t have gum memberships or expensive phones. Most of our DDs are charitable donations, so if things get really bad that’s what will be hit

We'd planned some house projects for this year including a new family bathroom and full redecorating but have decided to put that on hold for now. I really don't feel happy dipping into savings for big spends like that at the moment.

I do feel very grateful to be in a reasonably secure financial position. But I can see that where in the past I've been lucky enough to be quite relaxed about day-to-day spending, I'm going to have to be more careful now.

I think the thread title gives fair warning about what issues the OP hopes to explore, and she sets it out clearly. There was a thread recently started by a cleaner who had a real interest in understanding the same issues.

I’m still at the post-covid boom stage - I do have money and I still want to spend it on enhancing quality of life after lockdown.

Of course it’s not tone deaf, unless you think you can only comment about financial matters if you’re on the breadline?
We are financially ‘comfortable’, in that we have enough to pay the bills and provide extra curricular activities for the children, the odd meal out/take away, a holiday a year etc. Yes, we are definitely cutting back. Our fixed term energy contract comes to an end in April and the DD has doubled. We’ve just remortgaged on a 5 year fix so that’s a load off our minds for now. Everything is creeping up so we are cutting back.
We are using the car far less often (we sold our second car in lockdown when our income was hit). No more takeaways/grabbing food when we’re out and about out of convenience. Have started meal planning properly so there’s no wastage with the food shop, and have cut down on ‘extras’ like a couple of bottles of wine in the food shop.
We’ve cancelled Sky sports and movies, decided not to upgrade our phones and moved them to SIM only contracts etc.
Weve also kept our gym membership as my ASD child loves swimming and it works out cheaper with the gym membership than to pay each time we go.
We’re not on the breadline but we’re definitely watching the pennies more.

Gosh OP I understand where you’re coming from but at one point reading your post I wondered if it was a parody.
I’m sorry I do think it’s tone deaf and can’t see what you’re hoping to gain from it that would balance out the possible upset to people who are really struggling.

We will be cutting back on takeaways and not putting the heating on during day when we WFH. I’m also going to be more vigilant doing the food shop and plan meals better so we make better use of food and avoid wastage. Also reducing meat consumption but we aren’t big meat eaters anyway. I’m looking at recipes containing dried pulses etc which may go further.
We aren’t stopping anything for DC as they missed out on a lot during covid but we will be taking packed lunches for weekend activities instead of buying lunch out.

Yes. We are comfortable but the reality is we’re looking at an extra £300 to £400 a month in bills. So we will cut down things like booze in the shop, organic this and that, eating out and using the car. We don’t use the heating as much as we like so are saving there already.
I know we’re privileged but we have to find that money somewhere. We have no investments

Yes we are looking at going sim only when our contracts are up. Will make a big saving there.

I hate threads like this where people pile in to tell the op that they are ‘tone deaf’ (a phrase that I absolutely hate anyway). Op has explained why she has posted, she’s not pretending to be struggling, she’s aware that she’s fortunate.

Are people not allowed to post if they aren’t using food banks?