When will the cost of living crisis end?

[butternutsquashed82]

I am a single mother. I work full time, I don’t earn loads but enough not to be entitled to any UC childcare help which is what I need. Every day the news is more doom and gloom and every day I hear Labour wanting to do anything but help working people! I don’t see the point in working full time when I have to pay £1500 a term for wraparound care, but I also can’t afford to not work full time. I’m being pushed into debt as electricity bills rise, petrol rises and food prices rise! It is really effecting my mental health. I genuinely don't know what to do! I’m not sure anyone has any answers but instead of screaming into the void I thought I would post here!

@HotGrapefruittrust me I do that a lot! But it is hard carrying the financial and emotional burden alone everyday!

But you getting tax freechildcare? And it is 1500 a term (under 400 a month ? ) which will disappear when they 12 or 13 and can make their way home after school . So longer term that cost disappears. Just hang in til they grow and no longer need childcare . Then your income will be appreciated by you and them .
It is a long game.

Well it would be a start in the government raised the bloody income tax thresholds to match inflation over the past 5 years.

@cestlavielife£400 a month is quite a lot on a single income, with high energy bills and high rent! Only another five years!! But love the positivity - light at the end of the tunnel! Xxx

@MidnightMeltdowngod forbid that Labour actually want to help those of us working people that aren’t on UC! 😂

Do you get any help from the child’s father?

I have stopped thinking it will. Depressing as it is.

Is it on for the original sale price? If you'd be happy to reduce it I'd start there. And even consider going lower.

@Flipperthepriestyes I’m going to reduce! Just waiting for after the budget and possibly might wait until after Christmas to lower! No qualms in doing it though!

What about selling it to the council?

@Bubbalicioussshave no idea how that works and doubt they would afford this property! I’m happy to sell but can not 100k off the asking price and sell at a loss. Not sure what their budgets are!

To be fair Ocado have great basics alongside the M&S basics too. Also multi buy offers. Of course they have ridiculously priced items too. 😂 Bit i don’t find them much worse than other supermarkets these days. Fresh stuff is great.

You won’t be entitled because your equity in it is valued as more than £16000 and it’s not the roof over your head so the DWP counts that equity the same as it does savings.

A few reasons to be cheerful! Whilst you are working you are paying into a pension pot so are accruing savings for the future.

Your childcare payments will end. 12 or 15 terms left?

Do you have the prospect of a pay rise?

Property market is slow around the summer and before a budget. Perhaps November will be better?
Have you considered renting via the council or housing association? They might be able to offer long-term rent with lower risk.

However as a single person it is more difficult to run a household, so you will need to cut back more than a dual income household. I was in this situation a few years ago and I challenged myself to spend almost nothing and it became easier as the habit built.

On the negative side, perhaps this is the new normal? We will no longer be wealthier than our parents. Are we more akin to the post war generation who struggled to heat homes, have holidays, buy decent cars. Is the simpler life, with less consumerism being forced on us??

This is defo the new normal!

@Cars4Govthanks for the positivity! I do love it! As I said to previous poster, I just want rid of property and to find somewhere small but lovely for me and my daughter with outside space so renting not really an option! Thanks for flagging that these are slow times for property market too! I think it’s playing the long game. So much to be positive about! My work situation is a bit wobbly too, so maybe that’s making me anxious. Spending the weekend searching for new jobs and pinging out my CV to everything I think I might have transferable skills in. I have a fire in my belly to improve my lot today xxxx

@Cars4Gov I think your last paragraph is spot on.

A lot of people have a sense of what their life "should" look like, with things like holidays abroad, vehicles for each adult in the household, new clothes regularly etc. This is completely divorced from how many people lived even for most of the 20th century. It used to be the norm for people to walk or bike to work- harder now as more jobs have become focused in certain areas. There's less regional factories for example. Holidays used to mean a trip to the seaside. Nowadays British holidays can be very expensive, but there are still cheap options our there.

I've had some frugal years of my life that were lovely, and some that were miserable. Wouldn't wish a 5°c house on anyone- chillblaines are horrendous- but eating more lentil soup and riding a bicycle might do some people some good shrug

Not any time in at least the next five years.

If anything it's likely to get quite a bit worse in the next 6 months or so.

I guess it would depend on your property. I'm in Scotland and they do pay home report value minus any repairs to bring it up to standard. Maybe worth looking into.

And all those trade jobs our young people are looking to, now AI is taking the white collar jobs, would go to those who accept lower pay, worse conditions and aren't overly worried about defrauding the tax man.

Thank you for all the lovely positive and really helpful posts! And for those that empathised. Really heart warming. Not sure the point in suggestion living off lentil soup would all do us some good! I don’t like lentils!!!! 😂😂 people that are struggling are not all leading lavish lifestyles, but we can’t access help expect to live a semi decent life!

To go back to the original question, the cost of living crisis can only end once:

• Trump's presidency is over
• Putin is finished (incl new democracy in Russia and Ukraine freed)
• Europe tackles the multinationals which pay no tax anywhere by moving assets about (That Europe including UK with new EU agreement - not necessarily full membership)
• The housing crisis is ended by stopping the ever escalating property prices (so people see homes as a place to live and not as an investment)
• Trump's war in the Middle East is over and oil flows again.
• Confidence and a caring attitude return - replacing greed and misery.