Cost of living crisis - how are you affected? Is it just me?

[Eve223]

Name changed for this post.
How are people coping with the cost of living crisis? It is hard to believe there is one when the shops and supermarkets are packed, restaurants fully booked and people still taking expensive foreign holidays, buying new cars and houses etc. Are people just living on credit? Is it just me who has had to tighten my belt?

Genuine questions, not trying to be goady.

Since you asked it’s not going to affect me, mortgage free and I live alone and out all day so only using small amounts of water gas and electricity.

and house is still too warm to put heating on.

I have noticed my shopping is more expensive but then I shop at Waitrose.

takeways are now ridiculously expensive so I only have one a week and tbh am thinking of stopping them as it’s actually got ridiculous how expensive they are.

We are lucky to be doing ok. Our mortgage is relatively small and fixed before it went crazy. Energy bills are expensive but we will cope. We are lucky to have some savings we can dig into if needed. Otherwise we are just being a bit more careful with money in general.
However, I agree that from what I see out and about and on social media there is no COL crisis. Everywhere still busy, people spending money on Halloween decorations and outfits more than ever before. Christmas will be interesting, I doubt people will scale it back because they care too much about 'keeping up appearances'.

Individually these things vary, but overall a very large number of people are likely to have trouble paying bills this year than last year.

Your making the assumption OP that everyone's in the same boat at the same time in the same storm.

of course it’s not just you OP, don’t compare yourself to what others are doing.

I know you said you didn’t intend this to be goady however I generally find all the “cost of living crisis” threads almost offensive.

There’s been many, many people living on the edge and struggling to make ends meet for long before this became a recent buzzword and who had to sit by and watch whilst others ate out, went on holidays, bought nice things etc.

I don’t doubt that way more people are struggling now but they seem to be blissfully unaware of how all those people managed previously until it hit them.

(not saying that’s you Op, just in general).

@Beezknees Then surely you houseshare if you're single and on a low wage? After uni I could have stretched to a 1 bed but it would have taken every penny so I didn't. I lived with 3 other people.

We're on a fairly modest income (about £42k between us) in the south so not a cheap area and we can just about swallow the increase so far. I'm sure plenty of other people are fine. We've always lived quite simply though and have no debts, also our mortgage is fixed until 2027 (thank fuck)

For us it honestly hasn't effected us. We have by choice made some adjustments for example shopping in Asda as their just essential range allows us to spend £70 a week on food with blue light discount, instead of £110!in tesco. But if I didn't it wouldn't be a huge hardship.

DS is single and has slightly above median wage and has always house shared or the rent and bills take up a lot of your income, it seems to work out quite well for him.

We have a reasonable income but dh retired early last year with a £600 drop in monthly income, both dses went to uni with our contribution being £100 a week each plus the energy and food cost increase.

I’ve just started using You need a budget to try and get control of our spending, it seems to be helping. We will be fine and I know we are really fortunate but it’s a wake up call and we need to tighten our belts for sure.

We can feel it but it's not adversely affecting us yet. We've switched to a combination of Aldi, Tesco and M&S for food shops instead of purely Tesco deliveries and kept our food budget the same.
Our mortgage is fixed to 2024 and we're making overpayments to hopefully counteract the interest rises.
We're much more careful with the energy use than before and it hasn't really increased for us.
I'm juggling the budget around so we can still have nice things like holidays etc. There is more room for manoeuvre still in it.

Inflation makes everyone poorer but it will have more of an impact on some people than others. The word crisis is very popular in the press.

We can no longer afford to save. I guess we we’re lucky we were even able to, and it wasn’t a lot - couple of hundred a month, that has now stopped.

plenty of people buy food without checking the prices
plenty of people look at the prices of everything they buy

Horrendous, that’s all I can say. We are really struggling and this is just the begInning. Am actually scared right now.

I used to buy a few magazines every month - homes and gardens, cooking & baking, crafts, sudoku puzzle book. I can no longer afford these but I've noticed the selection in my local co-op, large supermarket & on-line shop have all reduced their selections of magazines and puzzle books so am wondering if this is something that a lot of us are cutting back on.

Also, I no longer buy 'naice' greeting cards - I have bought a very cheap pack of generic cards and write a nice message inside. Hand delivered wherever possible to reduce postage costs.

I would have hoped to have bought boots and shoes for the winter but have only bought boots

Heating isn't on yet, washing machine only used when really necessary, using air fryer, microwave or slow cooker for hot meals rather than put the oven on

No treats in my shopping trolley and a lot of 'value' range products

I think most people who know me wouldn't know how worried I am about the cost of living as I'm still able to join friends for coffee and give and attend family meals but I can only do these things by cutting back on other areas of my life.

really struggling, god knows what we'll all do in April if the fuel bills increase to £5,000 as predicted.

I think I saw a chart in the last few weeks that showed when most fixed term mortgage agreements are due. It’s next year people will really have to reign in spending who haven’t already done so.

There are early signs of things slowing right down. For example, the ratio of “reduced” houses on rightmove I get emailed about has shot up, in echos of 2008.

Our lifestyle hasn't changed much, We are top 10% of the country but our mortgage is £1020 (which apparently is pretty average for the uk for housing cost). No DC yet either.

I am trying to be frugal in little ways like using heating less, taking my lunch to work and buying fewer clothes. but if you saw me out and about, you would think that I was living the high life because we do things like book hotels almost every month for a weekend break. As well as eating out regularly. A lot of these people could be cutting back, just not in ways you necessary see.

I'm personally pleased to see shops and restaurants etc still busy. I'm sure people are feeling the pinch but are maybe doing it in a subtle way not just avoiding shopping altogether (less treats rather than no treats and cutting back on other luxury items etc)

I will be very very concerned if the shops get very quite as we need everyone who can afford it to keep spending not hiding their money away. I don't want to loose all the shops and restaurants and for those people to loose their jobs.

I’m able to save less at the end of the month even though I’ve adjusted my shopping habits to try and keep the bills lower and I think twice about using my car. My mortgage payments have gone up a lot. I’m impacted but, as I am fortunate to have money at the end of the month, it’s not a problem day-to-day. Retirement plans - that’s another story :-(

We live in a small property and don’t need to heat it yet. Due to government help we are not hit with the bills yet. Mortgage is fixed and I do worry about what happens when the deal ends. We can’t travel due to to rise in costs. We don’t have a car. We walk/cycle to work. We do spend more as everything is more expensive, but we don’t feel the real hit yet.

These threads always remind me of the mid COVID "Why are the roads so busy?" threads, the OP failing to realise that others are there for the same reason as them.

This is similar.

We’re not saving as much which worries me. No more work being done on the house unless we do it ourselves. I’m much stricter with the food budgeting now, far less treats. Heating hasn’t gone on yet and I’m fighting putting it on. Our mortgage is going to rise ridiculously next year so we’re trying to be prepared for that.