Cost of living crisis: are you feeling it yet?

[whatthejuice]

Posting here for traffic...
Have you felt the cost of living crisis yet? Has your disposable income taken a nose dive?
I've noticed a massive increase in our food bills so that's the main difference at the moment and we probably have £150-£200 less disposable income per month as a result. I'm trying to save a separate money pot for help towards the heating bills this winter - but worried it won't be anywhere near enough to eat up the increase.
It all feels a bit terrifying at the moment, especially after I read the German government in local towns are bringing in energy saving measures already like switching lights off etc....

Yes, food bills.

We were at the wire already. Shopping in Aldi, fruit and veg from the market as it’s way cheaper, cooking everything from scratch, bulk everything out with lentils and veg, no treats, no alcohol, not eaten out in years, batch cook to save money and energy.

It’s as fucking joyless as it sounds.

So we’ve had to cut back even more on that. “Luckily” I do intermittent fasting and eat one meal a day, which helps.

Gas and electric - fuck knows what we will do. Just can’t have any heat this winter. Nothing there to cut back on.

There’s lots of families like us who had no disposable income anyway - we don’t have any treats, no new clothes, days out, hair cuts etc.

So all the advice on how to cut back is slightly grating when that’s how you live anyway!

Definitely started to notice it now!
I've just got myself another part time job to trying and get ourselves in a better position before the winter.

It just seems insanity. The government knows what's coming down the tracks this winter and so many families are already struggling as answers above prove. What do they think is going to happen?
Meanwhile the French are actually protecting their citizens and consumers are seeing a 4% increase in energy bills.

God knows.

And the thing is, you can’t pay if you don’t have the money. You can raise gas prices all you like but if people can’t pay it, they can’t pay it.

Yes. We have no money left at all by the end of the month.

How much were you spending on food before?
If food costs have gone up 10% and your food bills have gone up £200 per month you must have been spending £2000 a month on food!
Have you got a really big family op?

We're okay at the moment as our gas and electric is still fixed from 2020 but that ends at the end of Aug so I expect we'll feel it then.

We can cope with that rise, but our mortgage is up June 2023 and that's looking like a £400-£500 a month increase so couple that with utilities and the inevitable council tax rise and it'll bite.

We can cut back, but not sure with even if we cut everything we could find £800-£900 extra a month.

I'm trying to build a savings pot on my utilities. Currently have £600 in there but that'll go "poof" quickly.

Jeez, yeah. My income took a nosedive in June last year. By this spring I’d turned it round, but the price increases have absorbed every penny, leaving me making all the same cost savings as I have been all year. Talk about depressing.

I was building credit with electric bill, but that’s gone up since the kid is home day. There’s nothing more I can cut back on, apart from kid stuff, and the cutbacks I have made will catch up with me at some point. I’m selling stuff, but that’s also not sustainable. Unhappy days.

Yes I’ve just stopped my flexible working and stopped contributing to my pension- thank you Tories for not intervening on the energy prices, who needs time with their children and money in old age anyway!

We’re okay and will still be comfortable despite the predicted increase in cost of living.
We feel very fortunate that DH has had a significant pay rise and we have a small mortgage compared to our income. If this had happened 10 years ago we would have been in a very different situation.

Our 5 year fixed mortgage deal expires in October and we had an agreement in principle for a new repayment mortgage deal which is £200 a month more expensive. We are lucky to have secured that interest rate because our broker told us today they are putting interest rate > prices up again.
I cannot imagine the misery for people on very low mortgage interest rates who are l already at the top end of what they can afford when their current deals expire. I think we will see a lot of movement in property over the next 2 years as people will be forced to move for financial reasons. Yet again I feel for the younger generation trying to make their way in the world and struggling to even get on the property ladder, mortgage interest rate hikes will make what is already a challenge almost out of reach!!

Yes, definitely feeling it.

Absolutely. The younger generation must just despair!

We've kept the food bill about the same, but go from buying whatever we fancy to being very careful, which is costing head space instead. Energy bill doubled in April, which is coming out of what was disposable income, we're still having the same days out, but religiously taking packlunch & drinks, and more mindful of looking for discounts, factoring in fuel etc.

Where definitely not at crisis point yet, but have cut down pretty much every thing we can without drastically changing our quality of life. Come October we might be there.

I have noticed outgoings are creeping up yes but We are good for now thank god but we are lucky to have no mortgage and our only housing related bills are electricity and broadband really. We can reduce phones and broadband if really needed, but nothing has changed yet.

Yes, food definitely. Every time I login to my online shop, something in my basket has increased by 20p. Usually more than one thing. Utilities are under control right now but I now pay monthly based on what I’ve used so benefitting from summer levels of usage. Not looking forward to the cooler weather.

I reckon thisis the reason why Boris has resigned, finally.....
So he does not have to do anything about this.
And the next PM will take a while to decide, if they actually do something!
I really feel like they have sold us, to be honest. Like they have investments in whichever companies benefit from our ruin and they are going to push the country as far as it goes. Just squeezing pounds out of us while the politicians just sit there looking pretty.

No, we are fine.

We are insulated somewhat from the energy costs with a two year fixed deal that will see us through to Feb'24 and have newly installed solar power and a home battery all of which means that the house and my car are costing us about the same as they did a year ago and will stay that way for some time.

We are in the sweet spot with all the kids, no childcare costs now, no uni costs yet. We've been on the property ladder long enough that we have plenty of equity and repayments are low enough that I'm not too concerned about the increase in interest rates. Our income exceeds outgoings and have done for some time so we have a healthy amount in savings.

I can't believe actually how fortunate we have been actually. If this had been as little as seven years ago we'd really be sweating.

Yes, I’m trying to stick to our usual food budget so am trying to find thifty ways to keep everyone fed for less. We took out our first mortgage a year ago and fixed this for 5 years but it was at the top of our budget. This makes the gas/electric hard to buffer, so today I’ve discussed compressing my hours into fewer days at work with my boss and will get a second job to try to keep us afloat this winter! We’ll manage but it’s going to be close!

Food and fuel are crippling us. We are a family of 8 - the shop I could do for £90 now comes in at around £130. I'm hanging onto the kids clubs but they've all announced price rises from September.

Couldn't agree more. Feels like we need a total reset in this country!

When the fuel prices started to sky rocket after the 2008 crisis, the goverment took charge of the matter then and brought the price down.
They are doing nothing now to control the prices. Everything is getting the knock on effect. Then nothing about keeping a controlon the energy prices either.

I had just left uni then so didn't have a real grip on costs and what it compared to. Can only imagine a government like that now!