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.

@dontcallmelen

jgw1 😏 So what are we going to do about, since when did we become so apathetic & accepting that this is our lot, we have approximately 650 MP’s versus millions of people it’s about time we started to realise we do have some power, write/email/petition them demonstrate & protest just let’s stop being so fucking biddable.

I've written to my MP several times. One time he even bothered to reply (or rather someone he employs did). The other times he was probably too busy trying to represent those who pay him in parliament. (Saudis and Russians).

@Calandor your life sounds so glamorous 😍

See, o think people who can will adjust from lunch a bottle of wine to coffee and cake (maybe to help less fortunate friends).

I am perpetually on a budget as are many of my friends so it’s no harm for one of us to say we want to do something on the cheap.

Those that can adjust will. But I think there some who are really vulnerable and close to going under and they worry me. Also, all these people who have moved to London might find that without strong networks it can be a tough city.

I think winter and early next year are going to be bad for many. I live in a 'nice' area in the South and foodbank use has gone up 200%. I expect it to rise again now energy costs have gone up.
I think we wil be ok, thanks to a minimal mortgage but I think come winter there will be many households who won't be choosing between heating or hot food, they simply won't be able to afford either.

new uniforms/shoes for school kids

it would be nice if school leaders stepped down from their reasonably well paid ivory towers (very well paid in the case of some academy trusts) and stopped imposing expensive school uniform on the parents. Allow supermarket versions of things, no silly blazers or logos. And make sure there are second hand sales.

I'm really worried. I'm on SMP at the moment which is £150 a week and then 3 months completely unpaid from May.

I feel sick every time I leave Tesco at the cost of our weekly shop, it's so noticeable how much things have gone up eg baby formula alone gone up by 75p. I think we probably spend double what we used to.

It's so frustrating that its essentials so it's basically impossible to cut back. My daughter hasn't even started nursery yet and I've already had an email to say their fees are rising by £5 per day (almost 10%).

All we can do is stop spending on 'non essentials' like hairdressers, eating out etc but tbh we hardly did anyway and I also feel for the businesses that will suffer as a result of people having less disposable income.

Its really frightening times.

fancy gift shop near me doing well...socks at £60 a pair....scarves at £50...candles at £25 a pop...incense sticks at £22...trendy east london....!!!...all these young couples who have flooded into area seem to have lots of cash....coffees and expensive pastries at the local cafes....already they have paid about 800k for the house etc....new lofts etc....they must all be millionaires....!!

I agree about school uniforms. They are a huge cost even in the state sector.

We are comfortably enough off not to be hugely worried but are being very frugal. I want to be able to help our adult DC if they need it, and to put more into the foodbank etc.

@yellowsuninthesky

Secondhand is an absolute must plus sew on badges that can be attached to any blazer.

I would absolutely support this action. I never forget the humiliation from one teacher for covering my exercise book in wallpaper and not the plastic WHSmith covers others had.

It is also interesting that at the very posh boarding school I taught at some of them would turn up in frayed and torn clothes. There is a certain type of teenage boy who grows out of their clothes regularly overnight who, when there is a spare 5 minutes will find a football and be running around and scraping trousers.

It made no difference to me and I liked the practicality of it and it certainly didn’t affect their learning.

@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.

So do I and I think many of my neighbours are being a bit naive about it. They feel that they are millionaires but it's only on paper and their self-described "small mortgages" are only as small as the setters of interest rate have allowed. There are an awful lot of swanky kitchen extensions financed via remortgaging without much thought. I do wonder if they are prepared. I keep myself away from the dull number crunching myself but then again, I am addressing energy usage, I've changed broadband providers and switched grocery brands while they continue to holiday in really expensive resorts where you spend everything and learn nothing from one visit to the next.

jgw1 I’m lucky I have a Labour MP who is extremely able & as far as I can tell has no paymasters.
I dunno it’s just so depressing, I’m frustrated I suppose by what appears to be apathy & acceptance.

@TwizMoo

I'm really worried. I'm on SMP at the moment which is £150 a week and then 3 months completely unpaid from May.

I feel sick every time I leave Tesco at the cost of our weekly shop, it's so noticeable how much things have gone up eg baby formula alone gone up by 75p. I think we probably spend double what we used to.

It's so frustrating that its essentials so it's basically impossible to cut back. My daughter hasn't even started nursery yet and I've already had an email to say their fees are rising by £5 per day (almost 10%).

All we can do is stop spending on 'non essentials' like hairdressers, eating out etc but tbh we hardly did anyway and I also feel for the businesses that will suffer as a result of people having less disposable income.

Its really frightening times.

I never thought I would say this but I am alarmed at Asda prices and they seem to be heading northwards and accelerating from one order to the next. I cannot understand why they are still regarded as cheap.

@DazzlePaintedBattlePants

NHS parking in England about to no longer be free. £15/ week or about £60 month extra for me, on top of fuel rises.

I think that this is out of order personally. NHS workers should have free parking at work.

Wonder what people think about the MP’s 2K pay rise ?

@tontown

I'm worried for the future.

Me too, it feels really unknown.

It doesn't really matter what other people are doing. They may be very well off, stupid with money, shoving their heads in the sand , have fixed everything so okay for the moment. You can never know. The only thing you need to do is to sort out what you can afford/ need to economise on. Someone who eats out every night may be economising by eating out 3 nights a week.

@EngTech

Wonder what people think about the MP’s 2K pay rise ?

As long as every other public sector worker gets the same pay rise, then I have no issue with it.

My SMP runs out this month -- no idea how we're gonna make stuff work. I think I'm taking on weekend work, which will suck as not see my girl as much - but needs must. I enjoy the side job, so that's a bonus.

We're also about to exchange on our own house which needs some fairly major renovations - possivly worst time to by buying a house but we need to move.

I'm looking forward to having the mortgage locked price for 5 years tho - our salaries 'should' increase in time.
Childcare is a bugger tho - costs gone up 10% as well, which we hadn't factored in,, so I need to check with my full time job how many days are cost effective to work.

I think it can be hard to get your head round the income differences especially if you’re on a lower income. Ex we currently have around £6k after mortgage & childcare, we don't have a ridiculous house & it’s very energy efficient so even if heating & gas doubled & we doubled petrol (live in city so never drove anyway), it would add £300/month to our bills, it’s only .05% of disposal income. Likewise if our grocery bill went up 20% & our current eating out went up, it just wouldn’t be a big dent. Our income is very average for where we live, but very high for total population. Restaurants still full, shops still busy. Even if only 10% of the population is on that kind of income, most of them live in London and there can be a lot of pressure if you’re NOT on that income in that area to spend/behave like you are to some extent.

Most of the people I live around are very poor and struggling already but are in massive denial. I watch the news and read about this a lot and have been accused of scaremongering . Time will tell.

It is worrying.

The divide between rich and poor will become wider. I wonder just how much people must earn in order to be in a position to send 1 or 2 dc to private school, go on long haul holidays, live in large detachable homes, drive Range Rovers. Surely they are not all in debt.

We are not high earners but definitely earn a significant amount above average salary yet we are stuck indefinitely in a tiny house (800sqft) with youngest dc in box room, cannot afford a break let alone a holiday, cannot modernise kitchen or bathroom which are beginning to look worse for wear. It is clear previous owners cut corners.

We save then dip into them towards end of the month which is soul destroying. Our dc are having major growth spurts which means new school uniform clothes and shoes every four to six months.

My mental health has been hugely impacted upon.

I think it can be hard to get your head round the income differences especially if you’re on a lower income. Ex we currently have around £6k after mortgage & childcare, we don't have a ridiculous house & it’s very energy efficient so even if heating & gas doubled & we doubled petrol (live in city so never drove anyway), it would add £300/month to our bills, it’s only .05% of disposal income.

I suppose I'm looking at all the increases though. The increase of NI, the cost of all bills & food going up, interest rate rises & potential impact on job security.
Although most people I know who have higher incomes have higher outgoings so you are unusual in that respect.

I'm really worried but until the first Bill comes in I won't know how worried I need to be.

@tontown where we live most people are in tech & tech jobs just aren’t going anywhere. My job might be slightly riskier but DH and I planned to be able to survive on one income, we only have one child, we have a mortgage for well under half what we can “afford”. It’s true we have kept our fixed outgoings lower than we could “afford” but the reality is increases in cost of living increases hit exponentially harder the farther down the pay scale you go. We have deep assets as well as high income, our big expenses are paying our full time nanny, spending £10k on a holiday abroad a couple times a year etc. my grocery bill going up 20% just isn’t a big deal. I am not trying to boast here, I just think it’s hard to see outside your own bubble in both directions.

It's widening the country's haves and have nots. I have, so it won't really effect me, but I volunteer in a food bank and omg the last few weeks have been increasingly miserable and will only get worse imo. Don't vote Tory is all I can say.

but the reality is increases in cost of living increases hit exponentially harder the farther down the pay scale you go.

absolutely

My job might be slightly riskier but DH and I planned to be able to survive on one income, we only have one child, we have a mortgage for well under half what we can “afford”.

I would say you are sensible.

where we live most people are in tech & tech jobs just aren’t going anywhere.

Maybe I'm naive but I thought recessions (not saying we will have one) could impact almost any job, although granted there is huge demand in tech.