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?

Agreed. The price of cocaine has gone through the roof!

Our incomes have risen a lot over the past 5 years due to promotions not inflationary pay rises but I feel like we’re just standing still or worse off. It doesn’t help that so much of DH’s pay rises is lost to tax and NI 😡.

Yes. DH and I have had multiple promotions due to climbing the career ladder but the constant below inflation pay rises and inflation everywhere else means we still feel like our lifestyle is slipping backwards

Oh and to add my public sector wages have been eroded by 60% in real terms since 2010 (although I wasn’t in this job in 2010) but seriously, 60%!!

The vast majority of workers particularly families will have seen this. It’s not new, wages have stagnated for years but low interest rates masked it. And of course people felt rich if their house went up in value.

The Tories froze the tax bands in 21 ish & again many didn’t notice.

Things are only going to keep getting more expensive.

Yes. I buy everything on sale / charity shop.
Food, I’d like to spend more & get better quality…

Christmas, I’m really not bothering this year!
We want to book a holiday, but I’m reluctant.

Meals out, gigs etc… It’s just birthdays now TBH.

I look at friends doing all of these things, but…
There’s debt. Parents helping. Savings plundered.

Allowing for inflation 60k today is the equivalent to 50k 5 yrs ago & 32k in the early 00s.

But people think those on 60k should be paying more tax…

If you were stuck on a desert island how would your middle class attitude manifest?

Not ours but it’s bloody hard for our kids. If we helped them with deposits which we want to then yes we’d probably feel it too at some point.

I've noticed this. We used to go to chain restaurants for family dinners when DC were little - like Cote or Pizza Express. But those places now cost the same as good independent restaurants.

What I don't understand is - CoL is so high now but every other shop on the High Street is a restaurant or take away food place. Are people just too busy to cook now that most families need both parents in full time work? Takeaway food is so much more expensive than home cooking, but these places keep going.

I earn well. DH finished paid employment at Christmas. We are now at the ‘sacking the cleaner and not going away at New Year’ stage.

Normally we would go overseas at October half term - we are going somewhere in the UK for 3 days. I’m not going to book Feb half term flights as I don’t know where we’ll be up to in Feb money wise.

We need a new car (mine is fucked) I am too stressed about money to buy another so it’s sat outside my home while I decide whether to fix it or trade it in.

We still have some way to go in terms of cutting back - and DH will have to just take any job, but I’m really feeling it and not prepared to commit to long term spending RN.

No, not hugely. However that's not to say I haven't noticed prices increasing and quality decreasing. We don't eat out so much because I don't like poor value. There's only three of us in the house and our food bills are pretty cheap tbh, I eat the same thing most days except dinner

My husband and I earn around £115,000 combined, so we are doing OK, but definitely not as well as some. We are feeling the cost of living crisis, but are dealing with it a little differently while we can.

We have cut back on certain things, food for example, buying off-brand or less. We need a new three piece suite, but are making do and we no longer bother to keep on top of decorating and refreshing the home and garden. We don’t have pets and only have one son who is 20.

But the money we don’t spend here in the UK on goods and services due to the price, we save and then we head to the USA a few times a year and spend it there, whilst thoroughly enjoying ourselves in the sun.

We’ve stopped worrying about saving, ISA’s and retirement. We stopped all charity contributions. We have made a conscious decision to spend on holidays abroad whilst we can, maintaining as far as possible our old and desired lifestyle.

We’ve stopped trying to progress at work, there really isn’t any point in taking on the additional responsibilities for small pay increases that are taxed at 40%. There doesn’t seem an awful lot of point in working harder or longer, saving or investing.

We are even wondering whether to sell our house, gift our son around £160000 to set him up a little bit and then buy a camper van, blowing through our wages on things we enjoy…until we can no longer enjoy it and then screw what happens after that.

I feel that any alternative is just going to be miserable and I’d rather enjoy my working years, whilst I’m young enough to enjoy myself.

For us it's not that we can't afford what we usually get/do but it's that I cannot justify the price and the increases!

Even having some pepsi on the weekend.. so expensive! I'd rather get some diet lemonade for 49p

We eat less red meat and just have a treat meal on a saturday now.

We are not really spenders but I'm way more conscious about what i am spending now whereas if I went shopping years ago I wouldn't need to look at prices!

My pilates class is now £35 for 2 sessions but used to be £25 for 2 sessions. I understand why this has gone up but I just follow a YouTube video for free now.

I find food prices crazy now, stopped buying chocolate, biscuits etc. I have switched to supermarket own brands.

blowing through our wages on things we enjoy…until we can no longer enjoy it and then screw what happens after that.

That’s dangerous imo, I can see the NHS waiting lists increasing for example.

For us I think we are similar to OP. I started off working class, terrace house Coronation St style. but no electricity, only gas. Money was tight. Old motorbike for years before cars.
Managed to get a good job then married and did contract work. Recently I worked it out I celebrated Christmas in a different town for 11 years running.
Had a good life when we settled, theatres, concerts, trips and holidays.
After 2009 when the Global Financial Crisis effects spread, life started to shrink a little.
Now we are retired and doing quite well, good pension decisions and helped by some small legacies which we saved and husbanded. The DC had a good start.

We are now almost afraid to spend money on ourselves because we can't predict what we need for the house or for our long term care. We want 2 rooms decorated and a fireplace removed and made good, quoted £4000 for labour. (Ouch)
Boomers and people like us who started savings plans around 2000 before the 08 GFC have, in the main done better than younger people.
For comparison our French friends are similarly placed. High Streets and market towns are as bad or worse than ours. Closed shops, closed restaurants and bars. Everchanging shift patterns make home life difficult for their 40 yr olds with family.

We feel that we do the right thing by being careful and thrifty, The Government seems determined to increase spending and they will take some of our savings so I will not vote Labour next time.

They are increasing regardless. I don’t feel like I benefit from services regardless of the tax and NI I pay.

Im going deaf in one ear and the waiting list for an ENT appointment is going to be close to 2 years 😂

The Government seems determined to increase spending and they will take some of our savings so I will not vote Labour next time.

An ageing population is expensive & requires more spending. Who should fund it?

@24karatPalamino my point is it will become a case of who can pay because the waiting lists are so long & will just keep growing. I would want to go private if I was going deaf as opposed to waiting & that's why I wouldn't give up all my money.

Absolute nosedive. Everything used to be affordable. If we were offered decent jobs abroad, we’d likely leg it and rent our house out.

I really don’t want to live to work, only affording what is absolutely necessary and paying to skip the health queue.

I’d actually rather we went to an insurance based system as a country, than end up paying taxes only to not benefit from them and have to pay privately anyway.

I want to work to live and then enjoy as much of my hard earned money as possible, with emphasis on the word enjoy.

I’m really not very socialist minded.

Eroding... like a cliff face? Does my skin look dry & flaky now that I can no longer afford oil of Olay and have started using chicken fat? Oh why does the neighbour's dog keep jumping up and licking my face? Or every time I'm on the bus (as I can longer afford to take the train) I keeping overhearing people asking 'Shall we have KFC for tea?' And as I walk the streets am I imagining the calls of 'Tis a pity she's... no longer middle class.'

I still feel quite comfortable but it’s the things like buying a new car or going on a family holiday that is slowly moving out of reach without relying on credit.

The current ageing population have benefited from massive unearned house price wealth, so they should be funding it tbh.