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?

@2022HereWeCome

Missing point of the thread but would love a subscription to a private library - no fines.

How much do you spend In fines a year?!

The price of good second hand clothes is going to go through the roof if everyone switches to those. I bet ebay is rubbing its hands. I’m going to just buy far fewer and better.

If you are putting money in savings, pensions, investments, is that money coming in or going out?

I think anyone who is able to add to investments/savings (other than pensions) on a monthly basis is, by definition, comfortable. Well, maybe not if it’s just a few quid, or if you can only do it by cutting spending to the bone. But if you can pay your bills, have a few treats, AND have money left over to save, you are comfortable.

There are some people who can only dream of having spare cash to invest. There are others who could do it they prioritised differently. And there are some who can do it, and have done it, they are probably the ones this thread was aimed at.

We are comfortable, but not ridiculously so. Most months we manage to save around £200-£500. We know we're fortunate to be in that situation but are still making cutbacks, so god knows how people on the breadline are going to cope.

Things we're doing so far:

Cutting down on meals out and takeaways. We've agreed to the odd coffee and cake in a local café but no more big meals out that cost us £40-£60 as a family.

Turned the heating down and wearing vests/having blankets on the sofas and beds instead.

Using the car less for short trips, walking into town or the supermarket (both around 1 mile away.)

Eating far less meat, this has reduced our food shopping bill a lot.

The big one.... holding off on renovating our bathroom. It's dated and needs doing (we only have a bath and no shower) but we've decided to hold onto the money we'd put aside to do the work and live with it for another year, then reassess.

So far I'm keeping the cleaner, she is amazing and I'd hate to lose her and have her lose income. We're also keeping DDs in swimming lessons as we see those as a life skill so non-negotiable.

@MrsArchchancellorRidcully - It’s £11 a month that can be used for other things.. the few properties near to us all close throughout the winter. We already have plenty of decent free walks nearby. So the membership doesn’t seem like value for money anymore.

No, I don't think so, but I don't do a lot of the things that the OP mentions. We'll still have the odd takeaway or coffee and cake when out and I'll still buy from our lovely local market.

But I am trying to be more careful with fuel, heating and energy because I think we are casual about using that and I need to be greener.

We are comfortable, but not loaded but we are cutting back in a few areas.

• Loft extension on hold (mainly due to building material costs being through the roof, we will reevaluate in a year). We have reconfigured our back living room to help in the short term with some of the additional space we need, the bill has been a bit of IKEA furniture.
• UK only holidays this year
• Cutting down on some of the 'nice to have' food spend - Switched Nespresso capsules to supermarket brand, reduced frequency of our veg box.
• Thermostat is down
• Being more mindful of putting the dryer on
• Switched to using the eco wash setting on the washing machine
• All direct debits reviewed and there are a couple of small price comparisons I need to do, but will only save a few pounds per month max.
• Have had my phone on SIM only for 4 years anyway, but will keep that going, I don't need to spend £800 on a new handset at the moment.

Otherwise, I don't tend to spend much. We cook from scratch, rarely have takeaways or eat out. I stopped drinking so that saved a lot of money on wine/nights out.

I think it's an interesting and useful topic, thanks for raising OP...I think money-saving tips are great whatever your position in life, and reining ourselves in and reflecting on what we 'need' as opposed to 'want' is a good practice whatever the context. Very interesting to think about what is 'essential' to each of us and our families. Mental health and quality of life are important and sometimes money should be spent to get to that place and hold everything together. Other times we have the resilience to let go of some things and feel better for it. I think your post was written in a positive, proactive spirit, and most people feel some sort of solidarity with what you're trying to express, so good for you! X

I find this thread interesting. A good way to see how people are living etc…

And it looks like we are very frugal in the first place so a lot of what people are talking about cutting, we already do as a matter of fact anyway.
There are things that we might want to cut back on. But it’s all about the dcs hobby and one that they really enjoy so this will be the last things to go.

But I have to say, the idea of taking money from savings to be able to afford all that is the last thing I would do.
For me these savings are there if dh looses his job. With me not being able to work, that would be a massive issue. So those 3 months worth of wages are staying put.

@Blossomtoes

The price of good second hand clothes is going to go through the roof if everyone switches to those. I bet ebay is rubbing its hands. I’m going to just buy far fewer and better.

If everyone switches to second hand clothes instead of new, there will soon be a big shortage of second hand clothes.

@kilo, I agree that MH a has a big part to play there.
And one area I wouod nit be cutting back on is stuff I do for my MH. The cost of not doing those things is too big tbh.

Dh is moving to a similar only contract. I currently have one which is up next week so will get a new sim only deal. In terms of takeaways we have one a fortnight so will keep that. We shop at Aldi already. What we are working on is meal planning so we do one shop, otherwise dh will pop out twice in the week spend £20-30 forget what I actually needed and then say we need to tighten our belts when I do the actual food shop. We are making sure to have 2-3 meat free days a week and I've had to stop buying fish from the fishmonger and am getting it from the supermarket instead. We are still taking the kids to soft play but maybe twice a month and one parent will go along as the weather gets nicer we will head to the park and maybe beach more. In terms of other activities my son would like to see the new sonic film so dh will go with him and I went to a frozen event with my dd a few weeks ago. Previously we would have all gone but they are starting to enjoy different things.

Not really made any changes. We don't own a car though and we're already vegetarian and already don't ever put the heating on because we're cheap about bills. Still WFH so still saving on our commutes.

Thank you OP for this thread, I am on the same boat - below is my list:

1. No heating. Hot water bottle + electric blanket instead.
2. Go to the office more, and walk to work instead of taking the bus.
3. No new clothes. If I need anything, find them on Vinted.
4. Sell old stuff on Vinted.
5. Switch to a much cheaper skincare range.
6. Reduce eating out/drinking out/takeaways.
7. Shop in Lidl more.
8. Set a budget on my mobile banking app and stick to it.

"Luxury things" that I am keeping:

1. £5 roses from Tesco, which lasts around 14 days, gives me joy on gloomy days.
2. £6/week tennis court - as I am not going to gym, this is a much cheaper alternative.
3. Vitamins tablets

I do worry though, with so many people cutting back, pubs, retail, and restaurants will suffer greatly.

I've bought a clothes horse and started to make everyone turn things off. I'm not a big spender anyhow. I save up to buy stuff we need. Own the house now, nothing on the never never. I don't drink. The leccy has shot right up, my breads gone up 70p since last month.

Oh and heating rarely goes on, hate it, rather wrap up. My sons have turned their radiators off ages ago. We all have autism, so thing it's a heat sensitivity thing.

We could also stop our cleaner but we won't, we could cut back on a lot more before we did that. She provides a service I really value (more than lots of other things), and I'm sure she'd miss the income a lot.

Some things people are cutting cost are huge and seem to be way more than the NIC increase, energy bill and fuel increases. Are you sure it’s entirely necessary?

Have I missed something?

We are in the top one percent - we have turned the heating down and are not heating some rooms. We've got a pool - not sure we willl be heating it this summer

@Lifeisaminestrone

Some things people are cutting cost are huge and seem to be way more than the NIC increase, energy bill and fuel increases. Are you sure it’s entirely necessary?

Have I missed something?

There is a general cost of living increase too. Inflation like we haven’t seen for a long time.

An interesting thread on what can be cut for those who are not financially that comfortable

twitter.com/bootstrapcook/status/1501851784549216258?s=21

Plenty of ideas there too.
But it’s interesting to look and compare the two.

I think we are going to both be getting slight pay increases over the next year which we won't see because of the cost of living going up.
We will probably save less rather than cutting back on other things I suspect.
The things we have currently are things that are "essential" for our lifestyle. I.e our housekeeper means we can both work the hours and jobs we do without worrying about the house.

If sense checking how everyone else is responding to increasing prices helps people re-evaluate and make 'better' decisions that support those in the most need, surely that is good.

This is what I'm hoping to do.

@Lifeisaminestrone I think a recession is probably looming too. My jobs isn't vulnerable in a recession but my OH's could be. He'd get a decent redundancy payout, but it could take a little while for him to get another job. I'd rather boost our savings at this time than spend unnecessarily.

@CBFA

Well done you for cutting the horsing but not the music lessons. This post needs a trigger warning for tone deaf braggadocio while other people can't even afford to drive to their workplace or heat their homes. Seriously.

Your MN experience must be a veritable merry-go-round of angst if you can't read thread titles and work out what "financially comfortable" means without a trigger warning.

Anyway, my cut backs: no more takeaways, cutting down on meat (twice a week at most). Will search for a new phone once my current contract ends in December. No more clothes or shoes this year. Was going to buy a new sofa but that's off the agenda for the time being.