to be think that the cost of living is going up much faster than salaries?

[DancesWithWoolsEnPointe]

I remember seeing some other poster be annihilated for a similar post a while back (and hey, we all know you are taking your life in your hands on AIBU anyway), but I am greatly destressed that I am still panicking about money each month at almost 37. DH and I are both well qualified, well experienced and employed, yet we seem to be permanently broke. I am sure that by my age my parents were coping, where as I am STILL in the situation whereby I have to put back the nice responsibly farmed meat and buy the cheaper options, walk past 70% of the high street shops as I can't afford to sneeze in them and goodness know we won't be going on a holiday anytime soon. My car is 10 years old and falling apart but there is zero opportunity to replace it etc etc etc. In the last 3 years my grocery bill has gone from £400 a month to £600/700, and petrol has gone up about 40p a litre. Has everyone else had inflation-based increases? Are DH and I just being stupid?

This is a bit of a directionless rant ramble. I suppose what I'm asking is, is it just me or has the cost of living gone up much faster than salaries and as a result family finances seem to be going backwards?

Yanbu.

I used to have a tiny bit left over for emergency savings at the end of the month or could put a tenner in the kids bank accounts. Now I'm winging it and using the Bank of Mum for emergencies. We're not in the gutter but I have to try and sell some old clutter to make some ££££.

Energy and food are the real killers. Although I have cut back on petrol use and now my shoes are wearing out faster .

I was hoping to save money by growing more veg / raspberrries this year (from last years seeds + plants so no outlay) but the crap weather has ruined it all .

YANBU. Petrol, food and utilities have gone up so much that I don't know anyone who ISN'T struggling, even when both are working professionals. It shouldn't be like this.

then I hear this week that our current leaders haven't had a 'real' job outside of politics. Ever.

I think I'd like a leader who had started low, knew what menial AND professional work was, then made it to politics

Isnt politics 'of and for the people' or sthing?

Yanbu at all .

My grocery bill has gone up hugely , and from what my farmer friends tell me , may yet rise again if this weather doesn't stop , because we'll have a similar situation as we had a few years ago, where we had fields and fields of peas rotting round us as it was too waterlogged to harvest . Except this year it's wheat , so the cost of flour will rise .

Utilities are as bad though. I'm about to do the yearly hell of ordering my oil supply , which involves ringing round about a dozen suppliers for quotes , getting the first one , knocking a bit off it , and then giving it to the second , which they then undercut, and so on and so forth , until I finally get a quote that doesn't mean i have to remortgage the house to pay it . And we have to pay at least half up front , so it's not like I can just turn the heating on and pay it later .

I'm struggling and have been for some years. No pay rise or bonus, selling stuff on ebay to get by, living off overdraft for half the month - it's never ending. Money Saving Expert is now my second favourite website.

How many kids/pets do you have OP? Because £600 per month on food is extortionate, unless you are feeding The Waltons. There's just me and DS, plus a fat old cat, in our house and I aim to spend no more than £30-35 per week on groceries (and am trying to reduce this even further). The MSE forums are great for ways to cut back on spending, so have a look on there and post your SOA (Statement of Accounts) and you'll get loads of advice.

I keep hijacking sorry

But yes, how will things improve if everyone is cutting back?

If there is no spending?

But people still need to buy food petrol etc just less of the healthy stuff?

But again, why is the healthy stuff so much more expensive than the unhealthy?

Why isnt brown bread on offer more often than white? Why is a packet of biscuits cheaper than a bag of apples? It's all wrong in this country somehow.

I agree Pink, the priorities are all wrong. I try to buy brown pasta and rice as it's healthier and I prefer it but it's FAR more expensive than a bag of white value pasta/rice, so I still buy the brown but serve less per portion. Agree re. biscuits - cheap biscuits 20p per pack, bag of apples £1. Value lemonade 18p for two litres - fresh fruit juice not from concentrate £1.50 per litre. Trying to eat healthily on a budget is a struggle. I can't tell you how much I squeal inside when I pop into Asda/Tesco and get decent reduced food. That's how sad I've become - I'm excited by yellow stickers .

I do think housing is one of the biggest problems here. Basically all our spare money goes on rent and saving for an deposit for an (extortionately overpriced) house. And there is no real reason for housing to be so expensive. So money that could be pumped back into the economy is just stuck propping up house prices, which benefits only a small number of people.

Price of utilities is also a problem - usually our direct debit overpays over the summer so we have spare money in winter. This year it is barely covering our summer bill, so we're going to be burning books come the cold weather!

I feel the same OP. My mortgage deal recently expired so added £62 onto my monthly payment. Can't remortgage onto a better deal as my current outstanding mortgage is more than the various calculators say they'd allow me based on my earnings. Childcare has increased in cost, while my tax credits have reduced by £52. Petrol has increased, travel costs overall have increased, utilities, food bills. I was managing to put away £175 a month up until 2 months ago (the money saved always went on something that came up i.e. car service, road tax, school uniform, xmas etc.) and now I am having to cut back elsewhere as that money has all gone, eaten up by all the increased costs. I'm worried for when interest rates do start to rise as I've got very little wriggle room left, given the increases elsewhere. I'm also now having to consider cutting my hours at work as my childcare no longer covers one of my long days, don't have the option to increase hours. It's a long slow torture isn't it? Every month I get to a point where I have nothing left, not a penny, and it's not 'fun' trying to figure out how to get to payday with no access to cash.

I also realise I'm 'lucky' in that I do actually have a job, and the only debt I have is my mortgage and car loan, with a couple of hundred on 2 credit cards (built up from when I run out of cash) but it's the constant feeling of balancing a knife edge that wears you down. My job might not last beyond easter next year, so that will bring a whole load of new problems to worry about. It's fecking depressing isn't it?

Its a catch 22, if no one has any money, then no one will spend, if no one spends........

Wages have stagnated for 30 years whilst corporate profits have soared. 80% increase over the same period.

So who is it who is picking your pockets?

softkittywarmkitty If I'm at the supermarket in the early evening I head straight for the yellow stickers too. I've been making an effort to stock my (small) freezer up with bread and random ready meals for busy days.

There was a hilarious thread on here once about people hovering near the supermarket staff doing all the stickering so they could grab it quickly .

I am OP - and feeling much better knowing that at least it isn't just us.

I probably could save some money on the groceries and I definitely throw away more than I should or would like to (well we don't throw it away, we feed it to the walking compost heaps chickens). We are a family of 5 plus 2 cats. DH and I both work from home, so we need lunch and snacks as well in the household budget. The £600 is not just the food, it is all the groceries - so cat food, , nappies, school packed lunches, , cleaning products, toiletries and pretty much anything else you can get at Tescos. And I do try to keep my kids healthy, so we have lots of fresh fruit and veg in the house, the above mentioned more expensive brown bread, rice, pasta etc. I am also a former fat person so I am trying very hard to keep eating lots of fresh fruit and veg from my point of view. DH and MIL also have a thing about protein, so DDs do get eggs every morning. But in fairness we have chickens so I don't think this adds particularly to the bill, and I think eggs are actually cheaper than cereal. I shall try really hard in the next few weeks and see if I manage to make any savings here. :)

As Plomino said, the areas hit most viciously by the droughts/floods are the ones that grow a lot of our food. Veggies, grain and potatoes have all been hit. Imported food is going to rocket as it is starting to cost more to transport.

Panic mongering anyone?

I am dreading winter.

Prices have definitely risen above salaries.

And gas is set to rise again, so yay.

I'm not having a moan but you are all right. We are a middle aged couple with a modest mortgage and, on the basis of the charts doing the rounds yesterday we are better off then 83% population. We used to feel comfortable but not well off. Now I am constantly cuting back and we seldom go out because my "spending money" goes on extra petrol and food. My sons used to use public transport a lot but I tend to give them lifts now because it is too expensive to go on the train/bus.

I do manage to feed us, usually, for about £90pw as DS1 works for a supermarket part time, so we get 10% off. I only cook veggie and have cut all crisps, cake and biscuits out of the menu, we never buy fruit juice or ready meals - that is quite hard work when we both work full time.

House renovations and repairs are a bit of a problem. We need a new kitchen and a few other rbits and pieces and in the past would have extended our mortgage but with the uncertainty of interest rates and anxiety about job security that isn't really an option now. I'm facing a very expensive dentists bill and the car is making funny noises, it is not easy in the present climate even if you have a reasonable take home.

We seem to be having the same income coming in for 3years now and increasingly more going out. The threat of redundancy or being downgraded looms ever nearer on the horizon.

When I think back to 4/6 years ago my spending habits have changed radically. We were incredibly wasteful and frivolent with money, food and goods. Dh often laughs saying I run the house as if we are in war time but the pennies add up dramatically and we can't keep wasting money.

We repair things before chucking them out, mend holes in clothes, shop with a list and meal planner, grow veg and fruit where we can, consider any big purchase carefully and similarly clothes are bought carefully with thought (is it wanted vs is it needed) presents for Christmas/birthdays are far less extravagant and foreign holidays are a memory in the past. We happily accept hand me downs or buy 2nd toys from friends. Sadly plans for anymore dc are shelved because we could currently survive if my job goes on one wage but probably not with a bigger family.

We are by no means poorly paid but what's frightening is that it could all change very quickly. Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic but 3 years ago I shopped at lidl cause I liked a bargin - now I shop there because we can afford it.

Don't get me started on public transport rises! Everything is galloping up - food, fuel, utilities... Far faster than pay rises, and I haven't seen it this bad in my 21 years since I first started working.

YANBU

DH and I haven't had a payrise in years and food, utilities and travel expenses have rocketted. We lost our tax credits (£40pm but it all adds uP). We are really starting to feel the pinch.

That's the thing though isn't it? Everything is relative.

When I was a teenager I got 10 pounds a month pocket money - huge amount in the 80s.

12 years ago my gas and electricity bills were 14 quid a month. Seemed ok and not unreasonable or achievable.

40 quid now doesn't really go far but if you lost it you'd be gutted (well I would be!)

Another IT worker here. A decade I didn't really think about costs and bought whatever I fancied and travelled long haul etc.

Fast forward and my wages are down 1000 euros a month since 2008 and everything else has gone up.

We are by no means on the headline, but I do have to think now - and a "proper" holiday is just a distant dream.

I am ruthless about special offers and am determined to get quality at Asda/primark prices.

DP is self employed in IT and his income halved a few years ago. It is back up but not at the level it was. We are having to be very careful. If the car breaks down, it isn't getting fixed.

Part of an old job was calculating a 'shopping basket index' so we'd look at some average things - beer, newspaper, pint of milk, etc and work out how much it would cost over time. Yes, the trend was upwards once you have allowed for inflation!

£600/700 a month on groceries

Where on earth are you shopping, M&S ? Unless you've got 4 adult children living at home you are spending an awful lot. I have £200/£250 a month between 3 of us and 5 cats, which includes toileteries, laundry and cleaning stuff. And we still eat reasonably well on it.

I remember, back in the late 90's when we were living in the boomtime and nothing seemed unattainable - not just to me but to the vast majority of my peer group. It was all about electronics - Playstations, hifi's, DVD players. People were jetting off on holiday, buying clothes, putting everything on credit. I worked in IT and it really WAS about the free lunches, wining and dining clients, enormously generous sales incentives and so on. People ate out regularly, went to the pub daily or weekly.

It seems hard to believe that this ever happened now. What a difference a decade makes.

Despite now having 2 incomes (ok and 2 kids) the lifestyle of myself and my friends has changed beyond recognition.

Everyone I know has now dropped from branded products to 'value' 'smart price' etc. I've not had a holiday (UK, camping, weekend break or otherwise) since 2008 and can't foresee a time when I will be able to. We don't eat out, go to the pub, or drive anywhere unless absolutely necessary. A luxury is now an annual haircut rather than a monthly pedicure or facial.

I see no security in jobs any more - no confidence in being able to borrow as everyone is looking over their shoulders wondering if they or their partners will be made redundant.

It makes me very sad that so many people who have worked so hard all their working lives are now worse off than ever before. And while I am still grateful for the roof over my head and the food in my fridge it is a little disheartening to work all week simply to 'get by'

I'm a childminder and I've seen our food and petrol costs rocket over the last couple of years. One (banker!) parent took her kids out rather than forgo a second foreign holiday. Three others were late paying, causing us to go overdrawn.
A direct debit for just over £12 was declined as a result.
The recipient has charged us £12 for this and our own bank has charged us £25.

I am not a happy bunny