What did you find worse? Recession or cost of living crisis?

[ThemysteriousH]

This is not intended to cause offence

I know it’s rude to talk about money so I thought maybe asking strangers wouldn’t be so bad?

I’m early 30s so whilst I remember the recession it didn’t affect me directly as compared to me now with a household, bills and DC.

I’m personally struggling a lot, working full time, month to month, had a bit of 2023 living in a hostel homeless as my landlord sold up, but I know I’m blessed now with having a home, food, heating etc and that it could be SO SO much worse.
I wondered those that have lived through both as a grown up, has any felt worse?

I hope this post doesn’t come across as distasteful, I’m not very good with words I’ll be honest.

Hoping that 2024 will be better for us all 🤞

I think the point is, that public services have been living with all the cuts that were made from 2010 onwards, on the back of what you are describing as 'the recession' as though it were a difficult couple of years we then recovered from.

Believe me most of the Country (if you are in the UK) has not 'got over' or 'recovered from' the cuts that have devastated services across the board ....... Health Visitors.... Hospital staff...elderly care....schools..... police services......mental health services....transport .....children's centres..... housing....... etc etc etc. have been running on empty for so long, there are no savings to be made in terms of 'cost of living crisis'.

Obviously it hits hard now, if you are coming out of a ridiculously low fix on your mortgage at a time when utilities bills, fuel, insurance and food have all shot up, but they have been falsely low for a while and younger people in the first 10 years or so of being an adult, will notice the changes as they have never known anything different, that older adults have.

We are quite possibly about to find out what a cost of living crisis AND a recession feel like I think.

Our economy just seems to have been getting worse and worse the last few years.

That's what I can't understand. We were told cuts and austerity were essential to reduce the deficit and instead everything has gone to shit since the tories came in in 2010.

We brexited and were told that we would be able to set our own fuel and energy prices. Micheal Gove said this. It's all absolute crap.

And yes, we never recovered from the recession, we just kept kicking the can down the road, meanwhile our national debt has soared. So.much for austerity.

It’s a great film but I still think we were over exposed to the crash due to a large unregulated FS sector

So we had the boom, and then the massive crash. Essentially it was gambling and the risk was high

It's gonna get worse

The last big recession in 2008 hit us personally a lot harder than what is happening now.

After years of Austerity and Credit Crunch and Cost of Living Crisis, I don’t think you can tighten that belt any further.

That list needs the Financial Crash snd Recession at the start

I can honestly say these "Sunlit Uplands" since the Brexit Bongs are the worst time I can remember.

Weren't we promised a booming Britain with cheaper food, cheaper energy, and cheaper clothes and shoes after Brexit?

The worst, apart from the recession, was shutting down large parts of the economy for Covid.

People were keen though.

Neither the recession nor COL crisis affected us as badly as being excluded during the covid lockdowns/restrictions. Losing your income overnight and being excluded from the support schemes isn't a good place to be. Luckily we had savings which enabled us to live for the worst of it.

Selfishly wasn’t impacted by the crash and was actually able to get on the housing ladder. I actually earned only about 2.5 / 3k less (now work part time).

Again very fortunate with todays COL crisis as have warm house, full fridge etc and money left over but now have 3 kids so money defo a lot tighter now

I'm 50, and the worst thing by far about modern life is the overcrowding. That has dragged me down far more than any recession or CLC. There are just too many people. I was born in this town (rural Essex), and looking back to my teens (in the late '80s) it was so much quieter and calmer. Today, many of the fields and woods I remember as a kid have been replaced by disgusting new housing estates. There are more and more people jammed into less and less space. The traffic round here is a joke. In fact, we can't be far from booking time slots to use the roads. People are nastier and more aggressive as well, and the main reason is that they're constantly rushed and frustrated. Everything you try and do is an effort. I've given up yoga, for example, because I can't face the traffic after work. There's no point having money if you're stuck in a tiny, overpriced brick box, with loads of other people jammed on top of you, and you can't go anywhere because the traffic is so awful and you can never get parked. I'd happily accept a cut in wages in return for more space and silence and fields and trees.

We bought our first house in August 1988 when interest rates were nearly 11%. Just over a year later they were nearly 15%. That was tough, but we were young, no kids, and had steady jobs, so we weathered it.

I'm old enough to remember my dad being made redundant in the early 80s when he was in his mid 50s and unemployment touched on 3 million (in reality it was more, as fudging the figures had become a real dark art). His earning power never reached what it was pre- recession, but my parents never overstretched themselves buying a big house, and my mum worked for a building society, the main perk of which was a 3% mortgage rate during the astronomical rates of the 70s and 80s.

Working in public sector, it felt like wages stagnated after 2008, but the pension I'm receiving now after years in the public sector is very good. We also took the decision to not buy a huge house and overstretch ourselves, and paid our mortgage off early. The cost of living crisis is tough, but I think it will pass, just as the 70s one did. I've been grateful we've never lived extravagantly though. I've seen friends lose the big house when they've lost jobs, and seen how it is very true that many are a couple of month's pay days away from disaster.

I think this is really interesting.

As a PP pointed out - if during the recession if you kept your job (and house) then you were basically ok.

However now during COL everything is more expensive. Food, fuel, all bills... I guess we do have more 'stuff' now proportionate to our income but a 5% increase on a mortgage of 500k is much more in real Terms than a 15% rise on a 20k property.

I'm not complaining. We have good jobs but again it's worth noting that a double income household can still struggle to make ends meet now.

Just realised I was talking about the early 90s recession not the credit crunch!

I wasnt effected much by the recession. I had a stable public service job, a mortgage and no children.

The crisis has hit me as I am now a single mum with 2 kids.
Just basis costs are spirilling, Inc running a car, heating etc.
I'm not poor but I've had to cut out a lot, Inc eating out, showers instead of baths and stuff for myself. I doubt my kids will remember going without and I know it's effected lot more worse than me.
I look at prices and shop around more for bargains, which isn't a bad thing. I live more frugally now.

For us, the recession hit us terribly. We had a toddler and the company DH and I worked at went under. I managed to get another job quite quickly, DH struggled to get another job and ended up taking a huge pay cut eventually. Our mortgage rate was 5.5%, quite high even though the interest rate had dropped. We couldn't remortgage on our lower wages, our house price had dropped and our LTV. It took us 6yrs to recover financially and we have been overly cautious and risk averse ever since. This has held us in good stead for the last 4yrs.

Genuinely thank you so much for the responses, I would reply to every single one if possible as I’m grateful for your comment.

I felt a right CF asking, being told it’s rude to ask about money but wanting to know at the same time, I thought why not ask here and hope it’s not taken the wrong way.

I was expecting maybe the odd comment calling me rude so to hear your experiences has helped.

I suppose deep down I’m struggling but wanted to know could I get worse potentially 🥹

I think I was also protected from the post 2008 public sector pay freeze as I was working my way up band 6 so got a yearly increment regardless of lack of pay rise. Ten years later though and I left the nhs, partly because of shit pay. I’m not the only one and the lack of staff in the nhs worries me personally. It’s going to get a lot worse.

This is what bothers me about the current situation. Previous recessions seemed like something cyclical that we would get past. This feels more of a permanent decline. Global events have contributed but Brexit holed us below the water line and we have a populist government who are only on in keeping themselves in power and enriching themselves at the same time, supported by a right wing media who just throw out provocative soundbites.

interested in

2008 was terrible for us. DH’s work dried up, I was a sahm, we had no savings and our Northern Rock mortgage put us in a dire situation scrabbling around to mortgage with another lender with no income.

My fear this time is as per other posters - we are now in a col crisis plus I think a recession is inevitable. How deep will that be ?

On a personal level I am absolutely kicking myself that in the period between 2008 and now we haven’t put ourselves in a totally secure financial situation. DH work now drying up again, and we still have a mortgage at approaching 60. We have done ok in reducing debts and having savings but could have done much better.

2024 will be a worrying time for many.

Absolutely. The problems are global but our governance has made the UK much less able to navigate the difficulties ahead.

The lack of investment in infrastructure and public services, plus Brexit have been so damaging to the UK. It means that households are less able to withstand further shocks such as recession.

Even when I was made redundant with a small baby in the last recession, it was fairly straightforward to downsize because the housing supply was ok, and I never worried about affording to heat my home or food and baby essentials. Today we have baby banks FGS. It’s terrible that they should need to exist.

Anyway, make sure you have ID and ensure you vote at the next election. The state we are in is largely a political choice.