To wonder how people will financially survive?

[Cupcakeicecream]

To think that many people are struggling already. Food price rises, gas and electric costs. The general cost of living due to inflation from either brexit since the pandemic and Ukraine war. But come on some people were struggling before any of those factors. Financially people will be pushed to breaking christmas will be off the cards general life will stagnate no meals out leisure activities cinema socialising new clothes treat foods. The threat of blackouts and wondering how we will pay bills to keep warm or keep a house running. Never mind buying food the price of it plus the large gaps on shelves. Winter will be miserable. It's becoming impossible to live in this country.

you don’t think women are capable of working with all of those complex equations and big numbers, but we really are

Of course I don’t think that. There are some brilliant women economists. I just don’t think you’re one of them.

Logs have already gone up here, last year we
paid £350 for a load this year quoted £560.

I’ve been looking at Santa experiences, some were upwards of £150 for a family of 4. And nearly fully booked. Either people are in denial or there’s loads of people who aren’t going to be hugely affected.

Bizarre, but OK hun.

I'm probably the minority, but I'm against the idea of giving out cash to help with the cost of living, just like Covid. It would be our children and the young adults will need to pay back for many years! Income Tax and VAT cut will help though. Most of people will survive one way or another by: cutting down on any holiday trips, cook food at home, go with cheaper food plan, reduce going out, using electricity, gas and fuel wisely etc. The pensioner will get their triple lock back next year, so their pension will go up massively next year with the inflation rate. So they will keep on voting for Tories anyway.

Yet there's another thread about posters sending their sons to Eton.
The Haves and Have Nots

And I'm being changed over to Uc next year. Just done an online estimate of what I'll be entitled to...£200 a month worse off. Brilliant.

sorry I should have expanded on casual as I may tend use it as shorthand for a job around other things. In his case he’s doing A levels and is at home at 17. He loves having the work and will keep going for jobs if any don’t work out.

Like pp London is packed right now in theatres and restaurants and slight shortage has been a good opportunity for him

I know what it’s like to face redundancies though, the sector I know always contracts easily in a recession and is cut throat about reducing employees when demand falls. And it’s the kind of icing on the cake thing that is cut back on by businesses.

I feel for anyone who is worried

That’s a good few months away yet. Are you able to work? If so can you look at finding a job on higher pay or with more hours?

This !

Im going to raise my hours at work. Won't be easy, as have a disabled dd and disabled myself. I have no choice as with her conditions she has to be warm.

Oodies bought, logs stock up (prays log burner is finished!!) and plans for solar panels with a battery. We can sustain it this year but don't want to be as dependant on the energy market next year (project house).

I hope the benefit of this crisis is people realise we don't need houses to be 20 degrees all year round we should be dressing for the weather. I know of millionaires that live in older properties that never get warm they survive quite happily.

Our plan is to turn on the heating and hot water at the same time. Once the tank is full (same gas usage for hot water vs hot water plus heating) the heating will turn off. We will have the oodies for on an evening and can light the fire in the lounge. The rest of the house will be colder but we all hate hot bedrooms and if DS wants to use the playroom etc he can turn on the heating or wear a hoodie. Hoping it will be a nice family bonding winter infront of the fire 🤞🏻

As much as I would love to say as a country we can use our reserves to get us through the winter the truth is we have spent them. We are going to have to choose where we spend our money and to me I would rather be cold and skint than say cut education, health or defence spending

Don’t you think if she could find a job that pays more she would have already done that

How much do solar panels cost ? A few hundred ? Log burner ? Same ?
A lot of disposable income there that many don't have. Seems to be a fair few more affluent people (second homes, project houses and the like) lecturing poorer folk about how we just need to use our reserves and grit our teeth and everything will be just fine. Like we are a collective we with the same finances to fall back on. Some families have been running on empty for years.

Solar panels. You won't get change out of £5000. And thats without a battery.

However in fairness, the more people who put panels on their own roof, the more power that's available in the system for everyone else at a cheaper rate.

There is an arguable moral case here that those who can afford to do it, do so for that reason.

No, not particularly. There are loads of people who seem happy to pad along on a low wage in a part-time job while claiming benefits and just expecting that someone else should step in when things get tough.

There are even plenty on here.

We have an open fire but the price of logs, coal and those reconstituted block things has soared. Look out for fallen trees!

I'm very worried but my husband is quite blasé about it all. I also worry terribly for people on low and fixed incomes. We aren't well off by any stretch of the imagination, but I know there are millions in much more precarious situations.

This winter is going to be awful. The effects on health could have a knock on effect on the NHS for years to come.

We just seem to sit back and take it, though. Maybe we need to be a bit more like the French. Maybe we'll see some civil disobedience or unrest this time.

Councils would do well to foot the bill of installation of solar panels on the homes of certain vulnerable groups. It potentially would lead to people being less likely to default on rent/mortgages and subsequently needing to be rehomed. Plus the councils could sell any electricity gained from the scheme back to the energy companies or to subsidise Council electricity needs. I'd argue that it'd be cheaper in the long run for the council.

I know our control has been putting them on some council homes. It makes sense. More sense than investing in solar farms in another part of the country to purely make money.

@Noname99 I couldn’t agree more!👏 👏

I have no idea how we will make it through the winter.

I'm a full time disabled student. With PIP and Student Finance I bring in about 14.5k a year. Fixed income, my disabilities mean that I can not work as well as studying.

Also have an adult son at home with complex needs. He gets PIP and UC and we share the utility bills. Part of his disabilities include not being able to regulate his body temperature and ASD/Sensory Processing Disorder means he can't just bundle up in jumpers/slippers etc. Sensory wise clothes are a massive issue for him, as is the cold (or the heat in summer, air con goes on and stays on in this weather).

During the winter (Oct till March) it is a NECESSITY, for him, for the heating to be on for 20 hours out of 24. ATM our utilities average out over 12 months at 262 per month for a 2 bed semi. Set to quadruple. We rent from the council (thank God), the boiler is fucked, breaks down at least twice a month which they then take 5 days to fix. In those 5 days we have to use electric heaters, which, at last years prices, cost upwards of a tenner a day to run in just his bedroom. The drafts are horrendous, I've invested in heavy curtains.

My travel to Uni comes in at 240 per month.

So this winter, with utilities set to quadruple, my incomings of aprox 1167 per month will be swallowed up by:

240 travel (can not reduce)
500ish utilities (my half of the bill, as I said, we split it)
480 rent/water rates (can not reduce)
10 Internet (my half of the "poor peoples" rate from Sky - also essential as a student and can not reduce further)

of my 1167 per month income, that leaves me MINUS 63 with which to eat, get a bus, have a coffee with a friend, get the required reading books for Uni, top up my phone, pay for my prescriptions or even just buy bloody sanitary towels. Oh and buy batteries for my hearing aids because the only place I could get them on the NHS in my town, closed.

MINUS 63 per month before I've even eaten a tin of value beans on two slices of toast.

I suppose I should count myself lucky that I get free printer ink from Uni because I'm disabled. Can't afford to run the fucking printer tho!

To say I'm petrified is an understatement.

@ChipsRoastOrBoiled

We just seem to sit back and take it, though. Maybe we need to be a bit more like the French. Maybe we'll see some civil disobedience or unrest this time.

We? Speak for yourself there champ, I’m not sitting back and taking anything. Like millions of others I’ve put literally decades into making sure that I can provide for my family even in the difficult times.

If you just haven’t bothered, that’s on you, but please don’t try to pretend that everyone else did the same.

@MynameisJune if you’re that worried about the price of your Santa experience, why not check out your local garden centre. Mine does one for about 13 per child (including present) and half that for the adult ticket. Probably not quite as fancy as the ones you’re looking at though 😅😂

Honestly, you just have to make do. It's as simple as that, the next energy hike and the next and so on. The food bill going up, the price of petrol, inflation. Were all going to hell in a handbasket here.

It's a bit like being in a aeroplane spiraling out of control, put your ears between your legs and kiss your arse goodbye.

I'm on £24k a year, a lone parent to one child. I do get a UC top up and child benefit.

I'm just going to have to make it work. I'm on pre-payment meters the most expensive (SSE refused to change them when I took over this council house).

We've cut out all frivolous things like takeaways, cinema trips, anything that costs extra basically. I'm now stuffing cash in to the meters, and stocking the cupboards with tins, pasta sauces, and staples.

Christmas won't be too bad, I've always held on to a small £150 gift budget for DS who's now 8, so he's never had big luxury Christmases, he is accustomed to 5 or 6 gifts a stocking and a real Christmas tree as decoration.

I've got to the point now, where worrying and stressing isn't going to solve anything, just batten down the hatches and prepare for the storm 🤷🏻‍♀️

This, we should be aspiring for better as time
goes on, not worse

If we don't support Ukraine, both with finances, training and war goods, then Putin will win and then will go after Moldova next, then Romania. That is what dictators like Hitler and Putin do. They want to dominate the world. We have to prioritise stopping Putin even if it is expensive. As yet we have not had to send UK troops over. I hope it does not come to that.

@Cupcakeicecream

you forgot to mention rising mortgage rates, they are looking at rising again by half a percent - which on a £250k mortgage is another £30 a month