How much worse can the cost of living get before society breaks down?

[TheGardenRose]

I'm genuinely getting worried. Weekly shop now £72. It was around £40-50 not so long ago.

One difference between the eyebrow person and the pp you’re replying to might be childcare fees.

A lot of families in that demographic have fully paid off mortgages, multiple properties, inheritances or family money. It makes a huge difference if you're both earning to cover every single expenditure or if you're just earning "fun money" that only needs to cover utilities, food, holidays and hobbies.

Especially if it's a wealthy neighbourhood, that wealth didn't appear within a single generation. People who gravitate there almost certainly do so because they grew up there or they have family ties to the area. It's an uphill struggle to "compete" with those who have generational wealth.

I agree with an earlier poster - UK food prices are still very competitive compared to other parts of the world. Go to some developing countries that have higher food prices than us, much much lower wages, and even their supermarkets are often half empty with rotting fresh produce - you would be truly shocked.

It's a version of the same world. Everyone has shuffled down. The people who could just about afford the basics and a few luxuries a few years ago, now can only afford the basics. The people who had more luxuries a few years ago are now deciding which of them they can afford to keep.

Further up the ladder, people are seeing what is happening a few rungs below them and are making decisions about how to prevent or decrease their fall.
Just because people sit above you in the ladder, doesn't mean they are not also sliding down it.

We’re comfortably off but have also started trimming the excess. Fewer takeaways and meals out, fewer trips out just for fun (fuel cost), more meal planning to make for bills leaner, we’ve cut unnecessary bills and subscriptions. It’s not that we’re struggling it’s that we want a cushion against risk (not helped by running oil fired heating and the current oil prices). As a PP eloquently said, it’s the knock on impact of everyone tightening a little. Those at the top will be fine, but more and more people will slip into the not fine bracket over time if things don’t shift.

10% drop in foreign holiday sales though - I would say that does support what I see around here. As in, only 10% fewer people are having a foreign holiday this year? When a family holiday abroad is almost always in the thousands (allowing that it’s possible to do it for less if you drive to France and do euro camp) surely you would expect if there was a UK-wide COL crisis this would be the first thing to go? Where are people finding a spare few thousand pounds to go abroad? We are cutting back exactly like you said, and we couldn’t afford to go on a self catering trip to Majorca or something this year (I state this because it’s not like I was ever looking at all inclusive in the Seychelles).

similarly “only” a 25% drop in hospitality, so 75% of the people who used to eat out can still afford to do so.

Don’t be absurd. They are pretty much self sufficient. They have their own oil supplies and food production. They can survive for a long time without imports. How long could we do that?

She runs a business, partner a builder, 3 children.

I dont know? It's a mystery to me.

It's an uphill struggle to "compete" with those who have generational wealth.

Fruitless struggle really

Yeah so on paper we have it easier - 2 kids not three. Both have professional jobs. No way we could spend £6k on a holiday. We have a big mortgage on a fairly normal family home, it’s an expensive area. And yes childcare entirely paid for, maybe your brow tech has family helping. Maybe the eyebrow and building business are doing extremely well IDK?

You can worry about the cost of living, but you were asking how close to collapse society is, compared to other places not very close at all.

If you are old enough to remember the 3 day week, strikes all over the place, queuing for fuel (and it was often all gone by the time you got to the front), regular power cuts, etc, that was really scary times and colapse was much closer then than now but we survived.

This is why I’ll be voting green ! They will end rip off Britain

A lot of people even well off people are cutting corners. The other day at a park with a cafe and restaurant my SIL brought her own flask of tea and strawberries and only bought ice creams. She’s only off to France with her parents and family for one week then combining a work trip to Amsterdam with half term holiday.

lol

If you are old enough to remember the 3 day week, strikes all over the place, queuing for fuel (and it was often all gone by the time you got to the front), regular power cuts, etc, that was really scary times and colapse was much closer then than now but we survived.

Wages also grew considerably during the time which oddly always gets forgotten. Real household income grew by over 30%, can’t see that happening now.

I’ve brought my lunch to work for ages. Partly because I prefer my own food but also eg Pret is horrific cost wise and it’s not always that nice either! Whereas a friend of mine often eats lunch out but partly because she’s out and away from home.

Or that their individual income isn’t reflective of household income. I’ve had comments about how we afford certain things when I work in the public sector, and I just shrug it off, but our household income is vastly higher than my actual earnings.

Er, I think vladamir will seance an opportunity if they come to power...

Apparently the grrens think defending ourselves is something evil...

He's a nutter too... Both vlad and green party guy. Bonkers.

You’re right. My DM doesn’t spend much money on clothes but when she does it’s more expensive brands. Similar with DB’s MIL, she still works at 79 by choice but likes John Lewis and other mid range brands like Whistles, jigsaw and white company. Only food shops at M&S and Waitrose. Both she and her DH have a good disposable income. Her daughter and husband (my DB), shop
at sainsburys, Waitrose and DB at Aldi and Lidl. And car boot sales.

@bafta16 Well if anyone pays cash they may not declare it, you have two business that can take cash there and as a lot of the cost of the work is labour it can be hidden. The black economy is robbing the country of billions, approx 40 billion per year is estimated, that’s almost a third of the cost to run the NHS. Per annum. People bang on about Amazon and other big companies who do not pay as much tax as they could through the system but it is totally legal. I won’t pay in cash for anything even my local Salvation Army coffee morning has a card machine now.

People then bleat on about poor ‘insert marginalised group’ trying to get by and for some reason it’s ok in the eyes of many.

Oh much worse than at the moment.

Basically society starts to break down at the point you can't survive, so not enough money to buy food, clothes, energy to keep warm etc.

People still have a lot of cash for luxuries. Takeaways, holidays, TV channels, multiple cars, gadgets.

The thing is, the supermarket shop has no doubt risen but the cafes, garden centres, pubs etc are still packed out with people. If you went to any of those today on bank holiday Monday you would be lucky to get a table. People still have the money for these things. They would bulk at paying £7 for a supermarket pizza and then happy spend £20 on one from a takeaway.

Not all people I understand, but many people still have a lot of money for luxuries.

You’ll get a good indicator next week.
It looks like lots and lots of people are planning to vote for the UKs version of Trump-ism 😢

This is exactly why Reform's new policy of prioritising asylum detention centres in areas where people vote for the open borders policies of the Green Party and the Lib Dems is so brilliant.

You deserve exactly what you're voting for.

The cost of living is nowhere near at danger level yet. Food is much cheaper than the OECD average. The issue isn’t the cost of food - it’s people getting paid really shit wages by companies that still make millions in profit