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.

@GuyMontag erm, yes I’m not one of the more affluent ones as have small kids and childcare and grew up here before it went ridiculous. I’m not disagreeing with you that it’s a fact spending is down overall. Not sure why you seem so determined to be unpleasant? Just saying anecdotally, I personally don’t know many people who are worried about cost of living. Professionally I have people I work with who are going to struggle. But they have always been one who live really close to the edge of being able to put money on the meter, use food banks etc. It’s a shame it’s the most vulnerable to always take the brunt

We have been hit hard, we both work and have two little children. We have gone from being reasonably comfortable to scraping by, I had to borrow some money from my parents to get us through last month. Finding it really hard to adjust to only being able to afford the basics.

We used to go out lots, have the odd meal out and be able to afford a couple of UK holidays a year. Honestly though - now we can only really afford to eat, drive to work and live in our house. Which I suppose makes us lucky in some ways as it could be worse - but it feels pretty miserable. I have absolutely no idea how we are going to afford Christmas.

The only positive is that we are locked into our mortgage for a few more years, if we weren't we would have lost the house.

I'm really sorry to everyone who is struggling, sending a warm hug.

I think working single parents often do well out of UC. I speak as a working single parent.

No. We have a fixed mortgage and energy deal, plus we can absorb the increases. I did see this graph this morning. It's from the US but I imagine we are in a similar situation here.

I know what you mean OP. The point is that of course everyone is facing the same price rises - there’s no avoiding that - but most people seem not to be behaving as if there is a “crisis”. Quite the opposite. I’m on a big Facebook group that talks about money saving and although there have been a lot of posts about how to save money on heating etc there’s also a lot of posts about where to buy the best Halloween tat or how to get luxury goods for cheaper prices. People are still buying unnecessary shit and seem reluctant to change the way they live to combat price rises. Yes they are looking for ways to cut the cost but I think a lot of us have become accustomed to a certain way of life and are reluctant to behave as if there is an actual crisis and make changes accordingly.

@bloodyeverlastinghell fair enough I’m glad you’re doing ok 🙏 it’s hard enough without financial hardship on top

there was a documentary on the other week where a nurse working PT couldn’t even afford a cheap weekly shop or to run a cheap car. It was really sad but maybe as you say she’s not accessing all the support she could be ?

No mortgage here. Local government job plus rental income.
We have savings, holidays for next year are all paid for.
Glad everything is busy less chance of job losses.
Only on MN people are starving and not putting on their heating, in real life people have a bit less disposable income.

I agree and it's much better when you have older children and don't need to pay for childcare. I manage fine as a single working parent of one teen - no childcare costs now. I work full time and take home £1350pm after pension and tax and get £500pm UC. My rent and bills come to less than £1k a month so I have plenty spare. Plus I do get £300pm child maintenance.

It hasn't really hit my household yet. Our mortgage is fixed for the next 5 years. We live city centre so we don't use the car much since my husband started working from home (I get the bus to work) so our petrol costs are still down on what they were a couple years ago.

Our electricity costs have really jumped up per unit but we haven't felt the effects of that yet thanks to government interventions (Ireland) that are applying €200 credit to each bill (2 monthly billing) for the next 6 months...our usage is fairly low so our bills might actually end up costing less than last winter thanks to this.

Groceries are definitely more expensive but government interventions in other areas like reduced cost of prescriptions and public transport have helped to migate that.

I expect that next year will be harder and we'll feel it more. Taxes will be reduced though so we'll have around €140 extra coming every month which will help. We're being a bit more careful with money now and saving a bit more in case there's hard times ahead but still eating out and booking holidays for now.

Our energy fix ended 31 October so not looking forward to the new bills, especially as Hunt has cut the government help off next April after Truss promised two years of help. Supermarket costs have risen. We can weather this but many people will find it very hard going. Putin's war is a prime factor but the supply chain consequences of the pandemic and of Brexit (an own goal - thank you Farage, Johnson and the brainwashed) is a major contributor to the inflation.

The weekend just gone was like the week before Christmas in my nearest towns. I get it was payday for a lot of people but it's hard to believe there's a problem,

This could be seen as the opposite , as evidence of the problem - people were holding out until payday before shopping. People are now more likely to be living from payday to payday and waiting until they get monthly pay before going to the shops. Hence it was much busier.

We are noticing increased food costs but we don't tend to have so many luxuries anyway (don't holiday much and when we do we it's uk because we can't afford abroad!). I think it's still early days for energy bills, the temperature hasn't been that cold. People will get swept up in the Christmas mania and then in January everyone will be depressed and poor

I have no housing costs. That's what makes it ok for me. Still eating out, weekends away etc. Don't get me wrong I being more careful and cutting back in places, but if I had to pay a mortgage or rent I would be ditching the extras.

We haven't had to change anything due to level of income, although I have noticed things are quite a bit more expensive now. I've noticed that nursery bill, beauty treatments, takeaways and groceries have all went up a fair bit recently. Weirdly, energy bills and fuel where we are haven't jumped too much.

So far, thank goodness, we’ve not been impacted. Costs have gone up but we weren’t flashy livers to begin with and have a decent enough combined income. So far, I’ve actually saved money by being extra frugal but I am under no illusion that this will continue!

Possibly. Sometimes expensive rentals (there's a limit to the amount LA will help with) childcare over the limit they will subsidise and past debt really do people in.

We turn lights off
Eat out much less
Are careful with heating
Do not buy rubbish we do not really need

I am just cold because we can’t afford heating, and can’t get any laundry done because it’s not the weather to dry things outside and I can’t afford to use the tumble dryer. The food bill has gone up about £40 but we’ve just stopped having our weekly takeaway and that has made up for it.

Apart from that not much has changed. Our mortgage is fixed, our car payment is the same, the council tax and water bill etc hasn’t gone up yet, and we have a bit of savings from the pandemic years so that cushions our spending a bit. Come back to me in a year or two when the savings have been spent and everything has increased in price, and it’ll probably be a different story.

Myself and one of my best friends are at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum - I am a single parent in HA housing, working 48 hrs in Social Care, no maintenance payments blah blah and am unable to save, buy second hand, being creative with food, no luxuries obvs and keeping very close eye on energy bills, being frugal etc - my friend works pt as a teacher, 3 kids, DH earns six figures - they have 4 mortgages for their own property and 3 buy-to-lets - I met with her last week expecting to hear that she wasn’t affected but they have tightened their belts (no new clothes, flash holidays, much more mindful of energy use as have huge house) - they spent many hours faffing around with mortgage providers following Truss & Kwarteng’s fuck-up.

It’s all relative but affecting many …

we are relatively high earners (circa £100k household) and low spenders. Managing to keep food bills low - don't eat meat which helps - haven't turned the heating on at all, barely use the single (old) car choosing to walk or cycle instead. We have about £50k left on the mortgage and have benefitted from the low interest rates on our trackers so savings look good - if the rates rise rapidly we will start paying it off in bigger chunks.

we did cancel a - UK - holiday and christmas will be small but it always is, will aim for £150 per teen all in and a simple roast for christmas day.

I actually think in wealthier neighbourhoods it's easier to be frugal. everyone passes on their kids clothes / toys / bikes, charity shops have good stock, no one cares what other people think of them so I feel no pressure to spend on anything new / drive a new car etc. I'd rather live simply and without stress.

we are still drying washing outside. if the ground is dry the washing will dry. maybe an hour on the heated airer when it comes in to finish it off.

Our food costs and energy bills have increased along with everyone else's, but our current circumstances dictate that we're now a lot better off than we were some years ago.

Smallish mortgage fixed on a low rate for the next 5 years, electric car and an EV tariff (that also means all laundry, charging etc gets done between midnight and 4am 😂), both our wages have increased quite a bit over the last few years. Savings built up during lockdown. Eldest kids still living at home in theory, but more in spirit rather than body nowadays, and youngest mid teens so no childcare costs etc.

We are very fortunate that this crisis is happening now, and not when the kids were younger- I feel so bad for those who were already struggling anyway.

At the moment, we are "ok" but that is only because our gas/electric is fixed until next October and our mortgage is fixed until end of 2024.

If nothing is done about the ridiculous cost of gas/electric and/or the interest rates reduce by those dates - we are screwed as our outgoings will basically double or triple and we don't have the money for that.

I am currently applying for higher paying jobs in the hope that the pay rise will help us if nothing has improved by those times.

One thing to bear in mind, whilst the news is all about rising mortgage rates, etc., is that more homes are owned outright than are mortgaged in the UK.

I.e. for anyone not renting, it's more likely they don't have a mortgage than do.

You wouldn't think it from what's in the news, though.

Having grown up in poverty, sick mum with no benefits then for disability, have always been frugal. But housing and fuel are too high now compared to the incomes. If this happened when I was young it would have been even more miserable. No heating, cost of food. Tax the greedy energy companies.