If you are middle class do you feel your lifestyle is eroding?

[ceramicwitch]

Now I know that as long as we can afford to heat your home, pay your mortgage / rent and afford to feed yourself and your family you can't complain too much. However I am interested if you feel you used to have a a middle class lifestyle, able to afford nicer bits or activities if you feel that is being eroded?

I think I am feeling it, we used to be quite free with putting nice things in the basket at waitrose (not where we go all the time but where we get treats and more premium things) and not we are holding back quite a bit more. We usually go to the Theatre a few times a year and the ballet, especially at Christmas but this year we are giving it a miss due to ever increasing costs. We've stopped going to cafes if not on holiday.

I have good friends who live in quite an expensive part of town, He is a Doctor and they seemed to be quite oblivious to cost of living the past few years but the other day I was talking to him and he was saying how he doesn't much enjoy eating out these days as the cost of it sticks in his throat, even cheap and cheerful is quite pricy now.

Anyone else feeling that quality of life even for the supposedly well insulated middle classes is in decline?

Really! So you have no awareness of 2008, you didn't hear anything about it in 2020, the fallout of Grenfell and costs associated with remediation works, the reports of spiralling construction costs or the after mouth of the celtic tiger or that at the start of every recession the first industry to drop is construction? In not talking about house extensions, I'm talking about large housing developments that are stalling, being put on hold and large construction companies that are filling for administration.

I don't really know where to start if you have never heard of any issues in construction in however many years you have been alive. It's not hidden from society.

if you are interested read around the topic.

https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/planning-construction-news/sharpest-drop-half-decade-july-2025-construction-pmi/153903/

https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/analysis/construction-sector-challenges-expected

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/06/uk-construction-housing-labour-target-fears

https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/hr-skills-news/2025-administrations-keep-up-with-latest-construction-companies-collapse/147257/

Im middle class and mine isn't eroding. This is due to pure luck of both getting better jobs and earning more in the past couple of years, low mortgage taken out in 2012 with hefty parental contribution and no childcare due to kids now being teens.

I don't feel like i am earning more than I was 5 years ago despite a salary increase of 40%.

It could all be taken away at a moments notice

Not really. It only erodes the standard of living of those receive an income in return for their labour. Those who’s income flows from assets are effectively insulated from inflation, as asset values, and thus the income they generate tend to increase in line with inflation - or indeed to outpace it as we see with real estate and equities.

This doesn’t make sense. Yes, the value of your assets increase but that doesn’t automatically equal liquid cash to be immediately used on day to day expenses. The person you responded to was clearly discussing those costs that require funds now as opposed to tied up in assets or stocks etc. ie you still need to pay higher costs for groceries and energy bills and the like so the inflated cost of living would lead to higher bills regardless of assets.

I have investments but their value will also be eroded by inflation given I have to buy stuff with them when I eventually retire, and will then get taxed on them. To say nothing of the effect of the current tax take.

Indeed. Tedious isn’t it.

I said those who receive income from assets. That’s means dividends, interest and the like. Not the capital.

Those who’s income flows from assets are effectively insulated from inflation, as asset values, and thus the income they generate tend to increase in line with inflation - or indeed to outpace it as we see with real estate and equities.

House prices are definitely not keeping pace with inflation

Rent Is though.

All rents?

I mean it's literally the first thing I said that I'm not crying poverty or suggesting less nice things equates to poverty, it was quite a different sort of question but it obviously still triggered that particular poster.

We’ve lived in Sydney for 18 years and have visited the U.K. regularly over that time. Over the past 2/3 years we’ve really noticed just how much more expensive things are that were just normal things to do before. In 2019 we would have popped into a Pizza Express for a meal that I wouldn’t have given a second thought to. Last time we came (Dec 2024) we were paying well over £100 for a family of 4. Insane for pizza.

Day trips out to places like Hampton Court or Hever Castle seem to have dramatically increased and even bog standard lunches at National Trust places are now at least £50 or more for a family. Here in Sydney dinner out for a family of 4 in a normal place is around $120 which would be £60.

I know power bills are well over double what we pay as well. I pay $10 per day (I have an app which shows me my average per day for the month and year) which is £5 and that is for all my heating, cooling, water heating, and general electricity for a 5 bedroom, 3 living area, poorly insulated house. Our equivalent of council tax is $500 a quarter (£250). My parents pay £300 a month for council tax on a 2.5 bedroom house.

Even public transport. A train ticket from my station into the centre of Sydney (a 35 minute trip) costs $4.20, or $1.00 for my kids. It’s often free on Sundays. Parking at the station is free.

I’m only giving these examples because these issues that the U.K. has seem very specific to the U.K. In Aus (and Sydney in particular) we have the same issues with crazy high house prices for a number of reasons (relaxed borrowing rules, not enough supply mainly) but the rest of life is really pretty good financially.

I genuinely don’t know how people are getting by in the U.K. because salaries are higher here as well, or at least on a par (obviously depends on the industry).

We’re not getting by, or if we are, we are bloody miserable. We have shite weather as well. It’s a miserable existence here currently.

Agreed, we’re just existing and it’s miserable. We’re both professionals, DH is in the 40% tax bracket, not that that means anything these days and I’m an average public sector worker. We both work very hard, full time and today we have 37p in the bank until pay day at 4pm tomorrow. The government is refusing to even negotiate a pay deal with our unions despite us being due a pay rise in October, which should have been back dated to April. At the same time, they’re piling on more and more and more work.

The clocks went back last weekend and it’s dark at 5pm as well as cold, rainy and miserable. I have to take Sertraline just to mitigate the weather and general misery of life but it’s not even taking the edge off this year. I’m on 3 NHS waiting lists, one I’ve been on for 17 months. Everyone in my friendship group at work is also on antidepressants or anxiety medication and some single people have had to use the food bank. In a very responsible, government led job!!

@Ozgirl76 you are very lucky!!

I also take anti-depressants and my mood plummets this time of year with the weather and darker evenings.

I am not quite in the 40% tax bracket but my DH is. I am trying to negotiate a pay review with my work as my salary isn’t keeping up with inflation, meanwhile they’re rising national minimum wage. It’s become a joke, and I wonder what the point of it all is.

For us no but we have never been ones to go for coffees out and tend to only eat out or have a take away once a month. I do all my food shopping with Ocado and my trolley hasn’t changed and we still go on the same amount of holidays/weekends away as we used to.

Sure

we used to eat out quite often without thinking about it, we now do very rarely. Stuff like cinema is now an occasional treat. We never ever just “go to the shops”. we buy stuff when we absolutely have to. I don’t scrimp on food but I never spend less than £100 on the weekly shop and think that’s so much money

we’ve gone down to one car

we still go on nice holidays but the cost is astronomical, especially now as my kids become teenagers and are no cheaper than adults

i Don’t think I’ll be encouraging my kids to go to uni unless they are dead set on a career that needs it.

@PeonyPatch it’s awful isn’t it? Yep, benefits and pensions all rise with inflation but not workers’ pay. I know it’s not a competition but it needs to be fair!

It’s true. And it is not fair. And this leads to a lot of friction in society. Social contract has definitely been broken!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding honestly I feel lucky to have left when I did. I genuinely like the U.K., we love our holidays there. The countryside is beautiful, people are friendly (mainly!), the history and culture is amazing. But it’s hard to appreciate the good when you’re working your arse off just to pay the bills.

Even in the early 2000s I was living in London and we ate out loads, we’re always in pubs, out every weekend and I was earning about 30k as a junior solicitor. Yes that was pre kids but you could see a path ahead of you for buying a flat, moving up etc.

The inflation of the past few years is just such a killer. It makes nothing all that enjoyable because you’re thinking “this should be brilliant vecause I’m paying a fortune for it” and it’s just never as good as you hope. There is a pub near where we stay and last time we were there we paid over £130 for 4 courses, puddings and soft drinks. Just a pub! It was nice, but I was just flabbergasted.

The thing I find so weird about this though is that it was busy. I went with some friends to the Ivy in Guildford and the food honestly was pretty crap, cost a bomb but the place was heaving.

I am always really shocked at how expensive things are in uk every time I come back from holidays . I am currently in Japan and everything is just so cheap . Taxi rides at £8 ish would be £25 at home . Eating out virtually half price , groceries half the price although it’s the only place I’ve been where veg is more expensive than meat . Everything works here , it’s a wonderful clean , efficient place where everyone seems happy and healthy with a great respect and responsibility for their environment.
it makes me see how something has gone very badly wrong in uk .

Have you visiter other European countries on your trips from Oz , @Ozgirl76 ? While the situation with eating out is expensive and general increase in cost of living is expensive I have noticed increases on my trips to Ireland and other destinations.Perhaps slightly better quality food/drink /services/experiences in these places and some are cheaper than UK but all more expensive than 5 years ago.
The knock on effects of the war in Ukraine has been pretty disastrous for this part of the world.

I would never say we were middle class. We had a reasonable income a year ago, but my OH had to quit work to care for our severely disabled child, so our income has gone down.

Whilst I think the value of money has been eroded significantly by inflation. I also just think people aren't happy to part with their money for shit quality anymore. As prices have gone up rapidly, but the quality has gone down, I think people are just thinking fuck it I will just make my own tea, or buy good quality second hand.

I'm more inclined now to dig my heels in and not buy something if I think a retailer is taking the piss. I will shop around, sort it myself, or just make do, and have walked out of shops a lot in recent years refusing to buy something I need whicisI think is extortionately priced.

@Teaforthetotal in 2023 we visited Hungary, Italy and Greece. They were definitely more expensive than they used to be, but there was also a sense of prosperity that was missing in the U.K. My local town (Guildford) at the time was looking so run down with shops boarded up, whereas Budapest seemed clean and prosperous. Italy of course was a little rough around the edges which is kind of part of the charm and I also don’t have a frame of reference there.

Even on a little island in Greece we could get 5G phone signal whereas in the U.K. in Surrey we had zero bars.

Omg I used to live in Surrey and the signal there is terrible! Esp in the G’ford area! Always astounded me considering how close it is to the capital.