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 haven’t bought news clothes in years and neither has my husband. We both need new things so that’s a worry as i would rather not spend right now.

I'm "comfortable" and can absorb the anticipated rise in the cost of living. Reading this thread and the one started by the poster worried about losing her income as a cleaner, I'm starting to think I should advertise for someone to clean my house and cut my lawns. DH and I normally just do all that sort of stuff ourselves, but the £30 a week or whatever we save by doing so could make a big difference to someone whose other clients are cutting back.

Always lived just about comfortably with money to spare for nice days out often, nice food etc.

Now I'm looking to cut back at much as possible.

Constantly nagging kids and oh about leaving electrics switched on.
Turned heating down 2 degrees and only using in the morning and early evening.
Cutting out luxuries for me and oh in food shops (hopefully not for the kids).
Changing to sim only when contact runs out in April.
No more days out to far flung places down the motorway. We'll be sticking to local stuff for now (luckily the kids are still an age where they enjoy the parks and we have a lot of great ones close by).

Unfortunately I recently took a decent pay cut to get my foot in the door of a company I've wanted to work in for years. I'm now looking at going for promotion much earlier than I originally planned.

I’m in a different position to most people though as I don’t have children and which means we’ve been able to stay in a small house and as a consequence our bills and mortgage are tiny.
This is because I grew up in poverty and have always felt the rug could be pulled at any moment so we don’t really spend much money to begin with

Same here @MoonbeamSprinkles - I'm doing OK now but I'm always anxious when it comes to health, savings, investments etc because I have literally no family safety net to fall back on.

Not well off, but were previously comfortable. Being hugely squeezed now by food and energy prices. We are:

Buying less meat- eating vegetarian 3/4x days per week and switching from deliveries to low cost supermarkets
Cancelled DCs musical instrument lessons
Cut any online subscriptions that are not essential
Turned off the heating (it’s freezing!)
Buying no, or v few, new clothes this year (kids growing rapidly so easier said than done)
Takeaway coffees reduced (once or twice a week rather than daily)
Buying very few ready meals or convenience food

We have large, inflexible outgoings on childcare and care for elderly relative that take out most of our income after mortgage.

I don’t think it’s tone deaf either. In fact it highlights the knock on effect it will have on businesses that will rely on people like the op.

If the well off are having to cut back where does that leave the rest of us that own businesses etc.

Recession looming…..

Also sim only contracts- that has saved quite a bit each month (two teenagers, two adults)

I don’t do eating out and take out coffees anyway, so can’t save there, but making a more conscious effort to hang washing out, freeze instead of throwing away, and turn the thermostat down.
I usually have two showers a day, but only going to have one if I don’t need a night one - going to flannel my pits ‘n bits instead !

We've gone back to lockdown measures (when work dried up and no one knew what support we'd get or for how long). So beady-eyed supermarket shopping by me rather than the usual sweeping arm style shopping other half likes to do. Not bothering with a holiday this year, dumped all the Amazon Prime, NOW TV stuff etc. Walking everywhere again now the sun's shining.

We haven't looked at our finances to be honest! We've just moved house, have a baby due and a toddler. My maternity leave has just begun so will definitely be trying to be more frugal!
This includes:
Possibly cutting nursery hours for DD1
Walking the nursery run instead of driving/ public transport (husband walks to work too)
Spreading the cost of furnishing the house, essentials first!
Shopping at Aldi/Lidl more - although I do wish they'd do scan and go.
Buying (mostly) second hand clothes for the kids

Things we will probably still do:
A holiday abroad
Buy some new clothes for ourselves
Baby and toddler classes
Meals out and takeaway

We are currently doing the Gusto trial weeks... Don't think I'd continue at full price. I will cancel Amazon prime free trail (mainly got it as we just moved house). Mobile phone is out of contract so can get a £5 trariff.

I'm ok now, but worried. Given up drinking, that wasn't helping my mood/ wallet or waistline. Looking for more work. Delaying house renovations. A non creaky floor/ new carpet feels like a luxury choice. Thermostat etc down. Reading threads like this often for tips!

No but I don't think I spend extravagantly anyway.

No cleaner, no holidays abroad, no private schooling, no expensive hobbies, car is a 14 plate etc

My heating hasn't been on this winter. Electricity is £55 a month.

My biggest expense is food - at home and dining out. I won't be changing that at the moment.

Yep, comfortable but being careful so:

• walking more places / not using car
• watching what I spend on food, stricter meal planning to avoid waste, fewer impulse buys
• no expensive theatre / concert trips and no more going to the cinema (last visit cost us over £30)
• sticking to budgets eg refused to book holiday cottage in preferred location as over budget / v expensive and found somewhere else instead that ticks almost all the boxes

I’ve also turned off the aga and I’ve been lighting the fire first thing in the morning so that by the time the dc arrive home from school the house is fairly warm (we have a large supply of wood since we had become used to cheap oil prices and relying on the heating rather than the wood burner). Previously I’d have put the heating on an hour before their return and it would have stayed on until 9pm.

We are very comfortable , I've gone SIM only and got a cheap Moto smart phone it's amazing for the price and so much cheaper than getting a new galaxy or iPhone every couple of years also if it breaks I don't care. We have put off moving don't want to upsize when the economy is so uncertain , I've paid the balloon payment on my 1 litre PCP car it's low mileage high MPG low insurance and quite new so much cheaper than the used car price so no more monthly bill for just using the car. I've cancelled subscriptions I don't really use, I've gone back to shopping in lidl more instead of Waitrose and Sainsbury's you can get some very nice foods in there.

We are going on a self catering holiday to Greece instead of all inclusive Carribbean or far away destination. I won't be stopping the cleaner , DD activities or beauty treatments.

yes, thinking about petrol use more.

Still spending a fortune on a holiday cottage. But we already rarely have takeaways. are careful with grocery shopping, but will need to go to aldi more than delivery when delivery stuff is increasing in price. don't buy new clothes very often. We are lucky in that one kid has school music lessons and one has football lessons. They do not do much out of school otherwise. (swimming, now we can afford it, couldn't before)

cutting back on electricity use where we can. need to do more with that.

No not yet I suppose but we have no mortgage or car payments and my only non optional household bill is electricity (not in U.K.) so I don't have many outgoings to be honest.

We are committed to a number of home improvements over the next few months although they are being covered by savings. We have a huge amount of equity in the house but although retired don't want to downsize just yet. We'll be getting rid of a second car we hardly use, trying to eat less meat and more veg, shopping around as things like insurance come up for renewal and looking forward to turning the heating off.

Why do you think will happen to the horses if everyone stops their riding lessons ?

I've got good job security and have no kids, but I'm a solo owner of a house I part-inherited that was a run-down wreck, so I don't have much in the way of savings, as it goes on refurb costs. No family (hence part-inherited house) so no safety net. So:

• eating less meat
• no new clothes. I'm overweight so I need to lose some to get into old but perfectly fine ones.
• no holiday this year - will do a few days camping in the Lakes here and there at £10 a night at a basic campsite in the Langdales
• in the office two days a week to cut down on heating/electricity. Will cycle to work, saving £7.50 a day on parking, and about a quid on petrol.
• Will make our allotment work REALLY hard this year.
• longer gaps between haircuts. Mine grows really slowly anyway.
• no tumble drying. I'm not an addict - much prefer line drying, but use it in emergencies.
• Better menu planning.

We were always tight on money so not doing many expensive things anyway, so it is easier to keep on not doing expensive things than cutting back.

We are pretty well off and still wfh. That's naturally meant clothing etc budget has been slashed hard (partner worse than me, expensive designer taste and lots of nice custom suits for london job). We have also moved house and decided to cut sky tv.

Other than that, not yet, though I suspect we may do if gas keeps going up as we just moved a few hours away from london and bought house far too big for us. I have turned off most of the radiators though and keep doors closed to unused rooms.

I suppose we are now budgeting holidays vs just booking the best of everything, but considering this just means e.g. a mid range hotel for disneyworld vs the grand floridian not sure I'd count it as cutting back. Partner grew up poor and now has v well paid job so enjoys spending it on stuff he couldnt even dream about before.

I would say I’m more at the struggling end, I have to watch every single penny, and really have nothing else to cut back on. But I don’t think this post is tone deaf at all, it’s actually really interesting to find out what / if the well off are cutting back as this will affect those that offer those products / services and potentially ultimately those of us who are already struggling.

I must admit, your title interested me and I read it thinking maybe we (as a financially privileged family) should cut back too. But I quickly realised I don't do any of the things you're cutting back on! Farm shops, heating unused rooms, new season = new clothes etc. Maybe it's the working class upbringing I've had. Environmentally, you could do to maintain some of these changes.

There are things we could cut back on, but this thread has inspired me not to worry about it as we're obviously very frugal amyway 😁

OP, YABU for talking about "horse riding" rather than "riding".

As you were.