To ask you what specifics you’re cutting back on

[Bunnyfuller]

The only trickle down I can see from Tory economic policy is lots of people’s incomes dropping. As this recession really grips, the small number benefiting from the tax cuts at the top won’t be enough or spend enough to keep many businesses profitable.

what things have you cut back to help you manage your household finances?

caveat: I 100% realise that there are many people who are already cut back to the bone, and have no further cuts they can make. I think there will be a growing number in this situation as prices continue to rise, and people only spend if they have to.

so us -

we used to go to Waitrose/M and S for occasional treats or stickered items. No more, price increases mean even stickered items are too expensive.

Main shop at Lidl. Stopped going to Sainsbury or Tesco as the quality isn’t much better and it’s too expensive.

Go to Asda for branded items because the fucking cat some want only the original

Haircuts - will get them done 4 months/6 months and I’m not having the colours done any more

Window cleaner - stopped

Restaurants - only on 2 for 1 vouchers, once every 2 months if that. We drink tap water

Takeaways - we make 1 Chinese last at least 2 meals, one takeaway a month from a Saturday night every week.

DIY - we had planned to recarpet upstairs and get wood flooring downstairs. Won’t be happening.

Were going to get garden fences painted (large garden so lots of fences) - not happening

Ditto the door on a cupboard upstairs, the bi-fold doors in the living room and the wall move/2 bathroom revamps

No new clothes, Charity shops/Vinted/eBay etc

No new furniture, as above if needed (recently bought a heated surer to avoid using the drier).

We’re a family of 4, I’m not sure what that takes out of the economy annually. I am conscious of the knock-on effect to hairdressers, Tradies etc. This in turn will force them to spend less…..

The lady who does my nails does it as a side hustle. She said last time that she's doing so well she's close to quitting her 'proper' job, because she can't meet the demand from clients!

The younger demographic definitely prioritise beauty and hair treatments because the world is so photographed these days...

I’ve cancelled TV Lic &will cancel Prime when renewal due.

I haven’t replaced DD winter coat/book bag et from last year - they’re perfectly fine & I realised I was just getting ‘new’ everything for going back to school.

I line dry everything & will still hang out through winter.

I bought an air fryer - this is already saving me loads on electricity.

showers instead of baths for DD.

cheaper protein - sardines instead of salmon, eggs instead of chicken.

Sold lots on EBay instead of tipping/charity shop.

Bought fake oodies & electric blankets

We’re very fortunate financially but I am trying to be frugal.

Ask around for hand me downs before buying new (and offer my own to others) - this has been wildly successful.

Breakfasts are almost always porridge with jam/honey.

Go out armed with snacks and water/tea from home for when DC say the inevitable.

Use the library more and Amazon less.

Minimise food waste.

Think twice before ordering a takeaway - I’m not a connoisseur of pizza or Indian food, and to my taste a decent supermarket one is as good as an average takeaway round here.

Work around DH rather than paying for more childcare.

Be vv organised about claiming work expenses rather than letting the odd £5/£10 slide.

I realise that these are all really small things.

Retirement years. Was hoping to be able to go next summer in early sixties. Think I'll need to keep going. Been working for 43 years and I'm so done with it😩

Won’t be getting highlights done at the hairdressers again. Will get a cut every 3 months instead of 6 weeks. We won’t be having planned work done on the garden. Holidays will be UK based.

Yep — we’re cutting back on food, especially nonessentials and treats, and switching supermarkets. I’m also cutting back massively on alcohol which is a win-win on cost and health anyway!

Not shopping for clothes. Was going to get some new boots and bras, but now will be wearing the old ones out and looking in the sales after Christmas. Won’t be buying any more clothes for DD (but she has more than enough for the winter — I buy in advance in sales — but this winter will be a bit less than usual. She won’t even notice).

We’ve stopped eating out anyway since Covid and now that restaurant prices have been rising so fast. We only occasionally get takeaways but we’ll be stopping those too. Also cutting back on ready meals.

I was similarly going to get our downstairs flooring redone, but have shelved that plan for a while.

DD does quite a few hobbies/clubs including music and gym, but I’ve had to stop at least one of them for cost reasons this term. Possibly will need to cut another next term.

I normally buy Christmas gifts in sales and keep an eye out for bargains during the year for Christmas, but I’ve kept to a really tight budget this year, and it’s nearly all done. Was thinking of getting a switch for DD, but now think it’s far too expensive. This year DD has also had a digital piano and a pet during the last few months, so she knows Christmas will be a bit less extravagant as a result.

We’ll also be cutting down on Christmas treats and having a more low-key lunch (we usually get a nice free range chicken instead of turkey anyway, but this year we’ll be doing less elaborate sides and not doing the M&S food order we usually do). I’ve plenty of cards, wrap, etc. left over from previous years, so I’ll be using those up rather than buying any new, and we have more than enough decorations and so on. This year we’ve also got a kitten, so we might not even get a tree!

Outings will be a bit reduced — we’ll probably do a Christmas lights, but we’d normally do a trip to London to see a ballet or Christmas show. I can’t really justify the cost this year unfortunately.

Basically, we don’t have an extravagant income, we live pretty modestly but have a decent salary, and there’s always usually been a couple of hundred left in each month’s budget for outings or house purchases, but this has now completely disappeared and I’m often going into overdraft, something I haven’t done since I was a student!

It’s not great and it’s an unpleasant surprise just how little cushion we have had as soon as even this level of inflation gets going. Worried for when it gets even worse.

I’d echo this, my nail lady is full time and it’s still really hard to get an appointment! She texts me when the next months appointments go live so I get one and she stays late sometimes so all her regulars can get a slot. I know a fair few hairdressers and nail people that aren’t taking any new clients now.

I’m not young and I hate being photographed but having lovely nails makes me instantly feel like I’ve got my life together.

Oh yes, and we also have turned off the main part of the oven., Just kept the hob and the grill. I have not used the bigger bit since July. if it cannot be cooked on the hob or in the slow cooker then it is not cooked.

We also have older cars that we thankfully own outright. One is a bigger car for towing things and one is my very tiny runabout. It costs (at the moment) about £54 to fill and we are using that exclusively, except for a fortnightly run for the bigger car to keep it going.

I am also older and hate photographs, but decent nails make me feel like a proper grown up.

I'm a mid-thirties, married mother of 4.

I am hoping that some of the things we are doing we get used to and keep because actually some of the incidental waste (food, wine, days out etc) I did without thinking I can see has really added up now that I am paying attention.

I am prioritising our cleaner and some repairs and maintenance on the house. Also a holiday in the half term. Plus therapy for DS1 and a hobby that DS2 goes to. DH has cut my hair since the pandemic and I see no reason to stop, and I cannot recall the last time I spent money on beauty treatments. So it is about juggling and saying 'I'm am happy to cut this out but not that'. We will see how we get on anyway.

We won't be going abroad on holiday for the foreseeable. That's 6-8k saved a year. I realise we're lucky that that is all that will change for now. We're also unlikely to trade our cars in next year as planned, they are both over 5 years old so paid off. Normally at this point we buy new ones but definitely won't be now.

Television. I need to reduce the electricity usage. And now one meal a day instead of two.

I'm investing in sustaining my own body temperature.

Yesterday I went to M and S for the first time in a long while (my god, talk about suicide by fashion failures) and bought myself four extra warm vests with brushed lining. 2 long sleeve, 2 sleeveless. So soft and cosy.

I'm wearing one right now and the heating is OFF.

Swapped our Sainsbury’s shop for Asda. Have finally start meal planning for the week (we used to just go with the flow but so much wastage)! Changed our WFH lunches to more beans on toast, soups, jacket potatoes etc. Used to get hair done every 8 weeks but now more likely every 6 months. Still getting my nails done as a little treat but swapped to a cheaper salon for £20 a time. We do still have a cleaner but now fortnightly instead of weekly & husband is washing his own car. Cancelled the dog walker. Takeaways now maybe every month as a treat instead of weekly. Using Asda for clothes a lot more, generally swapped to cheaper beauty products and reduced our buying massively. No new house projects unless DIY! We’re still very lucky and high earners (just me and DH) but are cutting back and definitely thinking twice before spending these days.

No more lovely holidays. Cutting down on driving. I already cycle to work. Less fruit and veg sadly. Less clothes.

From next week I saw there is going to be an national campaign where I live (much like the covid one, stay safe, stay at home) for people to use a lot less electricity. ’You can have fun without electricity!’. I honestly do not know wheter to laugh or cry. But then again, we really do need to do what we can to save the planet.

Holiday next year - we have family abroad and won’t be visiting them for a while. We’ve got 5 days at Haven booked instead.
I’ve always done charity/eBay/vinted for clothes.
No more coffee/cake out except for a special treat.
Me and DD have stopped going to the hairdresser. Easy enough to trim long hair at home.
Menu planning.
No more lunch out when I go to work, I’m taking food and coffee from home instead.

Like a lot of posters, it’s the potential/planned work on the house that we will completely drop.

I know that we are very fortunate that day to day living will still be ok for us, with a few sensible tweaks to how much we have the heating on, we may turn off the chest freezer over the winter. Clothes will be mostly secondhand if we need anything, food shop planned more sensibly.

But it’s the expenditure that helps the local economy that will mainly go, and I hate that because that’s what causes the recession. Less dinners out, less takeaway, not buying that random piece of furniture you see in a shop, growing my hair and doing box dye instead of the hairdresser… This stuff brings the long term recession, and while we will try to continue to support our local economy, we all know these are the logical things many people will cut.

Can’t believe I’m going to say this but I’m going to stop using my naturopath. It’s £130 a month (make it stretch to 6 weeks usually) but tbh I feel I know what to do with diet, exercise, etc. My naturopath really did save my life when I had a vitamin D deficiency and the doctors were useless - really not exaggerating this point- but I have moved forward and can do with saving the money.

I’ve dropped a few optional direct debits and I’m going to go to a sim only when my phone contract ends.
I’m also picking up a bit of tutoring - going to save that money for Christmas I think.

I've been more careful with electric/gas use but more because the price increases have made me reflect rather than the affordability issue.

I've switched to better quality meat but less of it... although that's partly health related.

I'm not a huge spender but am lucky not to need to change any habits.

I did switch my current account to get £150 and also got a cash back credit card (pay off in full each month and has earned me a free £100 cash
back).

@TheOtherBoleynGirls that’s exactly my point, the local and non chain businesses.

I still think the nails and beauty stuff will start dropping off, I can’t justify that for myself when we’re doing no heating, and all the other stuff. I would feel selfish carrying on with that stuff.

It must be a lot colder where you are than where I live, because I wouldn't even consider having the heating on in the middle of the day in September anyway. I am perfectly comfortable in normal clothing (am actually in exercise gear, so shorts and vest) and can't imagine even thinking about wearing a thermal vest yet.

Cancelled sky package and just signed to a basic bb. Cancelled window cleaner. Trying to only run the washing machine 3 times per week on a full load (eco setting) and not use tumble dryer at all. Heating not on yet and when it does go on it will be limited hours and limited temp. Considering paying off our mortgage with a draw down from private pension, but not crunched the figures yet. We do spend a lot on food though - meat from butchers and organic veg and I’d prioritise keeping that as long as we can.

Not sure why the rest of my post disappeared, but it was supposed to say

I can't imagine even thinking about wearing a thermal vest yet.

I've always tried to keep our household expenses as low as I could, precisely so that we have money for 'fun' areas, including beauty treatments, take aways etc.

We're cancelling Amazon Prime this month. I rarely watch Prime video now and we can find a lot of the things we usually buy at local shops sometimes cheaper and better value.

Netflix is staying, as is Disney+ for now.

We eat out a lot less, now down to one takeaway a month, and we don't go to the pub anywhere near as much. It's only birthdays and special occasions these days. We used to go to championship league matches, alas no more.

We take water with us instead of buying water whilst we're out. We take picnics out more too.

None of us smoke.