To be concerned with the cost of living crisis?

[tontown]

Admittedly I live in a naice area of London so perhaps it's a bit of a bubble. I'm very anxious about the cost of living crisis & if you read the papers lots of comments along the lines of "worst drop in living standards on record" etc. I've been much more cautious with energy usage & am conscious about wasting money & saving what I can but then I look around & see restaurants are packed, house prices keep rising & wonder if I'm being over cautious.

I think it will be a relief to many that the pressure to keep up and do things will disappear. I don’t mean families who are struggling but the last twenty years in places like London has been horrendous for those on low wage ( a huge amount). It has been crazy to keep up and I just couldn’t. I can’t be alone.

Meals out, cocktails, taxis, nice clothes, magazines, etc are lovely and I enjoy them but it had become the norm and I just had to drop out. I saw lots of people on relatively modest salaries living that lifestyle and in my view, it can be done if you budget ferociously (nothing wrong with that) but it is unrealistic to keep at it all the time.

I think House prices and the feel good factor is a factor plus student loans may have made some students feel rich as opposed to the old grant system but the 9000 a year loans have kicked in, everyone recognises the housing issue now, wfh has made many connect with their community in ways they previously didn’t and job restructuring, where companies start looking at employers value and output will kick in and focus people a bit more. We have had twenty years of a lot of waste and expensive empty space where real structure was needed.

I hope that we cut a lot of the waste out, tbh and focus on what we can do rather than what can be done for us and instead focus on the really vulnerable in society who got left behind.

naice dreadful word I can't get past it

I agree but it's a Mumsnet word & very apt.

September/October will be rough...Another raise in energy costs and new uniforms/shoes for school kids...

How high can they actually go & heading into winter makes it tougher.

@BulletTrain

That’s a very real concern, I think, but there are solutions and I cannot understand why the business sector isn’t supporting workers and firms in more innovative ways.

Mu husband is high earner and i’m full time mum. We got 2 little boy. Me and my husband still worried about the increasing prices. Especially energy. I used energy more careful these days. I notice aswell food are increasing. We used to shop at waitrose but now we shop at sainsbury or asda.

@WulyJmpr

There's a huge gulf of inequality in the UK. Lots of families will really suffer whilst for a significant minority who already had a large surplus each month, and perhaps lockdown wfh or furlough savings, it will be irritating but not matter too much.

This basically. I am extremely lucky to be mostly unaffected.

As are most of my friends in our 20s in London. Yes, gas has gone up but we're mostly on fixed tariffs/bills included. None of us drive. Our wages are the same or slightly up from last year) and we all work in the gig economy anyway (all bar one of my friends moves jobs every 2-3 years as due course anyway as otherwise you don't get raises).

So to many food is a bit costlier, gas is another £20 a month (split between shared houses). But other than that... we are not affected by childcare, petrol, insurance etc.

There are many different worlds within the UK. Perhaps this will change as we get older. But currently we're the ones in restaurants, bars etc.

And this makes me sound very braggy and that is NOT my intent. I'm just making it clear that certain lifestyles are less effected by the changes.

Especially as most of my friends (ages 26-36) do not want children.

This is nothing new.
Has nobody noticed the increase in poverty over the last ten year? Massive increase in food bank use, many, many more people in insecure housing and work? I feel like people are only starting to pay attention now that they might personally be affected but before, when it was other people, they didn't care, in fact they used their vote to make poor people even poorer.
Personally, costs doubling it will make zero difference to my lifestyle. And i have to admit, my sympathy is limited for people who cared nothing about the poverty in the UK until it started to touch them.

@Calandor but aren't you worried about your jobs or rent increases? I started work in 07 so just before that crash & whilst I was lucky to keep my job, a legacy of the 08 recession was wage stagnation so it's still had an impact.

@Kendodd I think you have misunderstood my post.

@OliverBabish

I feel it. Been feeling it. I am fortunate in that I can just pick up overtime (I’m a nurse) to keep feeding my family. But others don’t have that and that’s a terrifying thought.

I can often pick up overtime but after tax and NI are taken off and I lose 41p in the pound from tax credits, even my overtime rate of £13 is reduced to working for a few pounds an hour. I work full time but anymore just feels so pointless.

@tontown

September/October will be rough...Another raise in energy costs and new uniforms/shoes for school kids...

How high can they actually go & heading into winter makes it tougher.

I've seen predictions of another 35% which added to the 54% from tomorrow is 89% increase in 6 months

That's crazy!

[quote tontown]@Calandor but aren't you worried about your jobs or rent increases? I started work in 07 so just before that crash & whilst I was lucky to keep my job, a legacy of the 08 recession was wage stagnation so it's still had an impact. [/quote]
Well... honestly no. I just got a new job within my company which is honestly booming. We've hired 7 new people where before my team was 3 (in 2019) and I'm taking a side step to a senior position.

If I lose that job there are many others in the industry keen for experienced workers with the right qualifications and experience. I'm lucky enough to be in a sweet spot with all the right names on my CV. It's a badly paid industry anyway (considering most have multiple degrees) so I could dodge into something else that pays as much or more if needed. It's unlikely I would ever be unemployed long.

Rent wise, I must admit I myself do not pay rent and instead live in my partners house. And I refuse to pay his mortgage. But my friends mostly have arrangements with their landlords (they manage the houses/roommates/bills/fix anything) and in exchange get cheap rent. If worst comes to worst most have family they can go stay with (though I don't do if I'm kicked out I'll have to spend all my savings).

Almost all of my friends bar me work in more temporal roles. Unfixed. If fired or made redundant they are in demand. They negotiate. If they can't find a job they have savings and most have multiple passports. One has already booked tickets to South America where she's decided to work. Another is heading to France next year on her French passport.

And most jobs are flexible if you play it right. I've got mates who've moved from PA to Tech to Social work.

It is quite literally a different world if you have freedom, no responsibility etc. And they all know that if worst happened they could live in my spare room.

By 'most jobs' I meant professional industry jobs btw. I'm aware many don't give such privilege.

Fair enough.

High earning family, but with a huge mortgage, and correspondingly large energy and council tax bills. My bills have gone up £300 a month already this year. I feel very fortunate that we're in no danger of going hungry, but we have definitely had to cut back on luxuries, and I am worried about what the interest rates will be when my fixed rate deal ends.

Most of my friends are married with kids ranging from 5-21. Most of us work public sector. No chance of overtime. Most of us have to drive a fair distance to work.

Until this year, we thought we were doing ok: one holiday abroad a year (3000 or under, depending on which ones of us are teachers). 2nd hand cars. One weekend a year a way doing fun stuff with kids. Not having to worry if kids need new clothes. Disposable income for occasional takeaways or birthdays.
Branded crisps and fizzy pop.

Sounds petty, but it was all the stuff I grew up without and all the stuff I thought I could do as a full time working adult.

Yes yes, previous generations had it harder. But the point is, their kids DIDN'T. Each generation got it better.

I do worry as a middle aged person that I will never know prosperity in my lifetime again.
The knock on effects of this situation are worrying and will eventually filter up to the middle classes.
To begin with the already struggling will fall behind with rent etc. Landlords already sick of legislation to rent their properties, non paying tenants and increased mortgage payments, will sell up quick. House prices will drop due to this and reposessions from those whose businesses stagnate as people cut down on luxuries/ services.
This happened in the early 90s. Lots of people in negative equity, so no remortgaging or moving house.
Crime will certainly go up as people get desperate.
Some will choose to leave UK altogether.
It was hard, out of it was born rave culture and people did have to learn to make do.
I predict sales of high energy appliances will slump, fashion will change.
As people stop going out as much house parties will boom.

I'm on ESA and PIP because I have chronic physical conditions and mental health difficulties. I live alone in a private flat rented from my best friends, so I pay just under the local market rent for a property of this size. I love it but it's not perfect, and the heating situation is one of its shortcomings - I lose heat because the windows ideally need replacing, but I understand why my landlords can't afford to do that for a while. They have fairly young children and both work very hard, and are worried themselves about how the cost of living crisis will affect their finances.

So I fear the increased energy prices but expect to be able to manage without going under this year. I don't drive and don't do an awful lot outside of my home because of my health. On the other hand, I'm very aware that all sorts of goods and services are about to increase in price, and actually prices have been creeping up for a while anyway but after this weekend I expect things to get considerably more expensive. Geopolitical shifts as a result of Russia's war on Ukraine in the short term (hopefully very short term, for those directly affected so severely), and wider implications of such shifts in the long term such as climate change affecting fossil fuel use/costs, seem likely to keep living costs high into the future. In the UK, I'm afraid we haven't even really begun to feel the broader impact of brexit yet, but we will. It feels like people generally are in denial about that.

The changes in the social fabric over the coming years are likely to be significant, I fear. A previous poster mentioned crime rates, I agree they'll inevitably rise because of increases in poverty and social deprivation. Political measures in various areas including education and health are gradually draining funding, quality and good will from our society, and that will have long term economic consequences. I feel badly about what children and young people are inheriting from us, the uncertainty and instability.

I've painted a gloomy picture, and I really hope the reality will be brighter. But it's hard to feel more optimistic at the moment, all things considered. For myself I think I'll manage, certainly for the time being, but who really knows?

Time to get away from capitalist control, go off grid, build our own houses, grow our own organic food, as long as we can still run the NHS, which probably wouldn't need to be as extensive as we would all likely be healthier!

@Kendodd

This is nothing new. Has nobody noticed the increase in poverty over the last ten year? Massive increase in food bank use, many, many more people in insecure housing and work? I feel like people are only starting to pay attention now that they might personally be affected but before, when it was other people, they didn't care, in fact they used their vote to make poor people even poorer. Personally, costs doubling it will make zero difference to my lifestyle. And i have to admit, my sympathy is limited for people who cared nothing about the poverty in the UK until it started to touch them.

You are acting as if everyone deliberately ignored poverty. They didn’t, not everybody really knew.

It’s only now that it is all over the media and people like Jack Monroe are being listened to again.

I grew up in poverty. It’s not something that you shout about and many people keep that hidden.

But at the end of the day, there’s no point bitching about what was and take advantage of the fact that people know about it now.

We need a fucking revolution. This form of capitalising has stopped working.

@Whitestar55

Time to get away from capitalist control, go off grid, build our own houses, grow our own organic food, as long as we can still run the NHS, which probably wouldn't need to be as extensive as we would all likely be healthier!

Can’t do that when most of the land is privately owned!

Speaking as someone who was born in the 70s and lived through the 80s in Ireland (not an affluent time), life goes on. People do not sit at home crying, and the economy does not become the main topic of conversation. People continue to go to the pub and eat out and eventually things improve.

It sounds as if you are in a relatively secure position, and things will probably turn around before your mortgage deal times out. Take a long view and remember the economy has been up and down for many centuries and this is just another blip, not the end of the world.

Plenty of people could not afford the pub and certainly couldn’t afford meals out in England or Ireland in the 80s. Many were just covering their heads. I had uncles and cousins stay at our house in London so that they could send money back as benefits and support were shocking. It was very normal to swop furniture around, 2 or 3 to a bed, no heating, and meals were priced to the penny.

The difference, certainly in my family, is that those born in the 20s to 40s had a lot more children and with each generation it's getting smaller. My grandma was one of 8. She had 3. Mum had 1 and I've had 1.