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’ve gone through thread and can’t find any poster saying they wouldn’t buy £17 chicken
Another thread?

[quote PuzzledObserver]@GloriaSicTransitMundi:

Won't give up the car as DH can't go on pub trans, but using it as little as possible

How often do you need to use your car, and how much does it cost you a year to keep it running?

I’ve just started volunteering for a Community Car scheme which is aimed at older and less able people who can’t use pub trans. I take them to hospital appointments, hairdressers, to and from a day centre - wherever they need to go. Using my own car.

I get expenses at 45p per mile, they pay a bit more than that with the difference going into the charity’s coffers (as they have some paid staff, office costs etc). It’s cheaper than a taxi, plus we volunteers know what we are getting into and will be patient at having to help with mobility aids and hang around waiting etc which a taxi driver couldn’t because they need to earn a living.

Just taken someone to a hospital appointment and waited while they had their procedure. 18 mile round trip for them, the fare was £13.40, I’m sure a taxi would be a lot more. My empty miles to reach their house are covered as well.

If there is a similar scheme near you, it may work our similar or even cheaper than running the car, if you only use it once a week or something.[/quote]
That is really kind of you

@implantreplace

I’ve gone through thread and can’t find any poster saying they wouldn’t buy £17 chicken Another thread?

Can't be arsed to look back, but it was a '17 quid for a chicken, some people live in a different world' comment, after a PP said they were going to cut back by not buying a 17 quid farm shop chicken any more.

@implantreplace

I’ve gone through thread and can’t find any poster saying they wouldn’t buy £17 chicken Another thread?

No, it’s near the start of this thread.

@implantreplace

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 ...

Although most of us would scoff at a £17 chicken, I doubt the farm shop selling it would, and will probably have to close if there are no “poncey” customers. Likewise it’s all very well to sneer at people who have cleaners, or go to the hairdresser’s frequently, or who eat out several times a week or attend the theatre - but thousands of people’s jobs - livelihoods - rely on this.

We will be in a real hole if everyone pares their lives down to the bare necessities. Think before jeering.

Whilst cutting back i am mindful that i need to also get into perspective that this is going to kill people's livelihoods too. I will economise but need some perspective on it.
I live alone and my wage is ok i will cut back on heating and economise with fuel but i want to support local businesses and continue to use taxis, visit the hairdressers etc.

The farm shop will have to address its pricing strategy if its customers abandon it. There seems to be plenty of fat for these establishments to cut.

It was £17 for a chicken!!

It was £17 p/h for cleaner

No need to copy and paste - but thanks
Just “quote” it

@implantreplace

No need to copy and paste - but thanks Just “quote” it

I was just trying to help . Does it matter whether it was c&p’d or quoted? Wish I hadn’t bothered now

@implantreplace

No need to copy and paste - but thanks Just “quote” it

Ffs.

I said thanks!

Just wanted to read in full and see responses

Goodness, knife edge!

@implantreplace

I said thanks!

Just wanted to read in full and see responses

Goodness, knife edge!

I didn’t quote as it was a massive post and only that small part was relevant. It’s on page 1, if you want to find it for yourself. Approx 3 posts in to the thread.

So basically we're all cutting the fun stuff out of life...

About the 17 quid chicken.... it is an animal's life!! If it's been treated well, fed well, given space to roam rather than live in a tiny box it's entire life then is 17 quid really that much?! Too many people see animals as nothing more than consumable disposable goods.

Thanks
Got it

She doesn’t say how many it feeds

£17 for a family of five, say with a couple of ravenous teenagers, and then use leftovers to make soup, for example

Doesn’t seem too bad to me

Does anyone else routinely make decisions not to buy something which you would like and could afford, just because it seems expensive for what it is?

And yet on another occasion I will say to myself, yes, it’s expensive, but we can afford it and I really want it. It’s very subjective which things get which treatment, though.

One poster gives her saving of reducing her Turkish takeaway to just a tenner platter, and then making all the other sides herself

That one meal won’t be far off if not more than £17

Struggling to see the big deal about £17 o a chicken that we don’t know how big and how long lasted her

@icelolly12

So basically we're all cutting the fun stuff out of life...

I’m not And many of us won’t need to for some time yet That seems to anger some and being tone deaf and insensitive

Yes I'm definitely cutting back.
Little things that I should have been doing already, taking lunches and snacks, swapping lunches out with coffee, meal planning better, freezing things, eeking things out before replacing, going down in brand for things.

Also re: takeaway, I now buy those microwaveable rice pouches instead of ordering those.

I'm just grateful that we have leeway to do these things. Others are going without food and heating.

@PuzzledObserver

Does anyone else routinely make decisions not to buy something which you would like and could afford, just because it seems expensive for what it is?

And yet on another occasion I will say to myself, yes, it’s expensive, but we can afford it and I really want it. It’s very subjective which things get which treatment, though.

Yes. I have mean fits every now and then. I suspect they’re going to become more frequent now.

@MoonbeamSprinkles

^ Roast dinner.

Chicken stir-fry

Enough meat for one or two chicken mayonnaise sandwiches

Boil the bones, make a stock use the stock for a risotto, I would say that was money well spent. ^

A Mumsnet chicken in the wild

Haha, nothing better than a load of leftover roast chicken though!

Useful description of what life is like for a £17+ chicken...

ethicalbutcher.co.uk/collections/bird/products/the-ethical-butcher-soy-free-chicken

We have in small ways. Instead of having all the lamps on in the living room, we just have one on now. The hallway lamps are turned off. We got hive thermostats for some of the radiators in the least used rooms so they’re not heating unnecessarily. Back to batch cooking, jumpers instead of cranking the heat up. Honestly the thought of the energy bills makes me feel sick for the future.