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?

@Spudlet, thank you for explaining. That's so sad. .

My parrots are threatening to live forever but thankfully they are less expensive than horses. So barring any serious avian illnesses, even if I am reduced to hawking lucky heather around the streets of Broughty Ferry (sob!), hopefully I'll be able to keep them with me always.

I'm gawping a bit at those spending £300 per month on the gym and barely going. I spend £92 per month but go 4 times a week. Classes, pool, sauna, dario machines, weights.

Our gym membership is £48 a month (for 2 adults, and our 3 children get free swimming for that too), I’m gobsmacked that there are gyms charging £300 per month

£300 !
Do you get free liposuction?
Mine is £27 a month

So, being frugal now means you cannot buy make up?

I am not frugal, but I am looking to be more so. From what I have seen and read, some people who profess to be frugal are actually just being super tight with money. Savings for savings sake is not the same as living frugally. Cutting out all of life's pleasures isn't either.

Petrol is going up and energy bills rising but I don’t see what the panic is? Seems over dramatic
Petrol is going up at an unprecedented rate. Energy bills are rising by an unprecedented amount, and will rise again by an unknown quantity in another 6 months.

Many people will have to make cut backs to afford it. This is particularly concerning for this owning, employed or self employed in non essential businesses (e.g. music teachers, nail technicians, entertainers, personal trainers, etc etc). Not only will they be facing the same increased costs, they're likely to face a loss of earnings as others tighten their belts. And just as they're starting to get over the covid slump...

But as a tutor, with no family support for childcare, I am FAR worse off back in the classroom. Hence why I went self employed in the first place.
I am in EXACTLY the same predicament. I looked at going back to work part time from September, but no nurseries have term time places and my daughter is too young for a term time preschool so I would have to pay for her to go to full time nursery 8-6 which will basically cost my whole salary.

I've cut back on takeaways and meals out.
My contract is up on my mobile soon so I'll go sim only.
I'm only shopping once a week now with no impulse buys in the supermarket.
Less trips in the car to cut back on fuel use.
All mundane stuff I know but every little helps

[quote Butchyrestingface]@Spudlet, thank you for explaining. That's so sad. .

My parrots are threatening to live forever but thankfully they are less expensive than horses. So barring any serious avian illnesses, even if I am reduced to hawking lucky heather around the streets of Broughty Ferry (sob!), hopefully I'll be able to keep them with me always. [/quote]
I read parrots as parents there initially...

Yes, I don't spend much but the 50% Increase on bills will be all my spare.

Wow. I don't know what else to say. Wow. The arrogance and lack of empathy astounds me. Cutting down on horse riding? LOL LOL LOL. Cutting back on takeaways? LOL! I know you're all taking the piss, but some people are actually living this. I love that we have parakeets in London. Mainly because I don't live anywhere near that place.

We are driving less, walking more and DH is getting a bike. We try to be more careful with the food shopping and not just throwing everything in the trolley. DH has got a more affordable phone contract. Try to use all the benefits we can through our credit cards, so paying for things with points etc

I’m comfortable and want to stay comfortable so yes I’m ensuring we cut back.
Its exceptionally hot and historically I’d use the fans. Not now due to cutbacks.
We have only bought bottled water in an emergency. I ensure we have tap water now. Lots of little things.

If it’s yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down. So we save water.

We're no longer having takeaways
Using the car less

Have you read the thread's title? It's about those who are not hard-up.

Aware this is a bit of a zombie thread, but I wonder if more people are finding inflation is hitting their bank balance. We’re comfortable, but what I’ve noticed over the last 2 months or so is that we’ve slowly started eating into our savings rate by keeping our expenditure as-is, so am being more careful. Mainly we’re keeping an eye on the food shop as that seems to be where money just flies out these days… I actually am checking the prices now before I put things in the trolley. Meat (esp fish) and cheese seem to have nearly doubled in price!

Yes actually we are topping up from savings more than I realised until you said it @Blaggertyjibbet
I recall being down the pub a while back, probably a good year ago, moaning that Asda had upped their multipack crisps from £3 to £3.50. About a month ago it crept up to £3.75 and I noticed last week it was £4.25. And it’s tiny things like that which are making a big difference. Pasta and spaghetti has increased a lot too, which hits hard as it was such an easy cheap meal. Luckily a packet of bourbons is holding steady at 45p. I’ll be back to update if and when it goes up!

It’s scary how food is increasing, 10-20p here and there. I’m tempted to do a humongous shop - stock on non-perishables etc to beat any future price rises. However, dh doesn’t appreciate ‘hoarding’.

Food prices are shocking. My weekly shop has gone from £80ish to £140ish in a year. I'm not trying to shop frugally (obviously!) but I'm buying the same stuff I was in 2020.

That’s actually not a bad idea. I’m on stat mat pay at the moment and will soon drop down to the three months of nothing. God knows how we’ll survive but stocking up on some of those things is worth considering. I’m sure I have storage space, but would need some sort of “stock room” system to check nothing goes to waste.

It’s very sensible to stock up on non perishables if you know you’ll use them. If we see inflation at 15 per cent that’s a good saving.

toiletries, household products, next sizes up in uniform, coats etc

It’s super scary. We have stopped eating out pretty much completely - we used to eat out at least once a week. DH and I were off and child free yesterday, we’d booked a nice place for lunch but cancelled as knew it would be 50-60 (no booze)

we are cooking so much at home now and using mainly what we grow in the garden as a base for meals.

we have a lot of work to do to our house and took on a large mortgage before the economy went to shit so are cutting back where we can but it still seems to be a small fortune to live

DH’s sister and husband are on low incomes and have always struggled to make ends meet. Not sure what’s going to happen now with all these increases. It’s worrying times for people, obviously some more than others as is always the case but I do think many many people are concerned

Yes.

The rising cost of everything has spooked us somewhat and made us focus really intently on building savings. Prior to the past few months we were pretty sloppy with money, because we could be, if that makes sense. Wasted loads, didn't make the most of what we had. I spent whatever I wanted on my CC and DH paid it off. I had no idea what he had in his accounts despite all our money being shared and us being married. We just never really sat down and made a proper budget so we didn't really have a handle on any of it.

A few months ago we sat down, figured out our costs, set a budget, set a savings goal and cracked on. I don't really buy takeout coffees anymore (I used to buy five or six a week), I have a limit for food shopping (£100 per week for two adults and a toddler, before I used to go for something to do and spend loads every time), and we have a spending limit for 'fun and petrol' each month.

It's a comfortable limit but small enough we do have to question whether it's a good idea to get that takeout or whether we can afford this day out now or if we should wait for the next month. I've started going to LIDL and ALDI for cheaper versions of branded things and deliberately batch cooking really cheap healthy meals. Instead of driving to visit friends anytime I fancy I have to plan just once or twice per month due to petrol costs.

It's the peace of mind of knowing we have savings for a rainy day, once we hit a certain amount we will start putting it into doing up the house (new build we haven't done much to since we moved in!).

I recognise we are enormously lucky that we can absorb the rising fuel costs and that we can cut back and aren't already cut back to the bone. We both grew up in poverty and I've been bankrupt in my early twenties due to ill health so I really don't take it for granted.

It's all relative, I'm sure out income/expenditure would seem loads to some and barely anything to others. I used to live on £8k per year so during those days getting an £18k job felt like riches! I honestly feel for people who can't afford the fuel bills and who are having to skip meals and sit in the cold, it's devastating in a first world country.

No - still spending normally. Dh has been buying Tapo plugs and bulbs to save energy - not sure it's a money saver though after the investment of the tech.