Cost of living rise? Pubs and restaurants packed.

[MakeMineALarge1]

Ok. I'll be honest, this post is only a reflection of this weekend.
Peter Kay tickets flying out at over £50 a ticket and pubs in Manchester absolutely packed to the rafter's, with standing room only

Or is the cost of living rise only affecting Mumsnet?

Don't be a dick.

I think we're already past the point of no return on that front!

It is a strange phenomena OP that when people are poor, even very poor, they still frequent pubs - pubs were packed in the slums of London in Dicken’s era. It’s not a new thing. People will frequent drinking houses & attend entertainment venues no matter how poor they may be - the old music halls were always packed to the rafters & they entertained some of the country’s working classes.

It’s a diversion, escapism, & the poorer and more adverse the conditions the more people do it.

Thread after thread of this debate. Plenty are struggling, plenty are not, plenty will start to struggle in the future.

FFS.

There are lots of people in the world.

Some of them have lots of money.

Some of them haven't got lots of money but are frivolous feckwits.

Some of them haven't GLOM but have saved up for this one night out.

Some of them haven't GLOM and are at home where you can't see them.

Unless you go and talk to every single person you see out and about appearing to enjoy their money AND then seek out all the ones staying in, not doing that, you will get a skewed picture of what is going on.

I guess it's something for the covid deniers to do. Deny there's a financial downturn. It's nice they have a hobby.

So I don't know about others. But I've certainly been throwing caution to the wind a bit. With the way things are going I won't be able to enjoy myself much longer. So might as well forget about saving every penny I can and enjoy it. Normally we'd never eat out and go to the cinema on rare occasions. But since my money seems to be worth less every week that passes, I want to make the most of having a little disposable income before it's gone.

I can imagine a lot of the more cautious people like me are feeling similarly. I've got my rainy day fund. I can see the rainy day is coming. So let's enjoy the last of the good weather.

We went to the pub for dinner today we got small portions as we don't need loads. I don't drink alcohol much meal for 3 was £30. I used to eat out 2-3 times a week or have takeaway. I now only.go once and do a bigger food shop.

Like during covid, some people did well, others didn't. The COL crisis is the same. It's unrealistic to think everyone is affected in the same way. There are always winners and losers.

We could all just stay at home and kill ourselves if you prefer? 🙄 the majority of people will still have some money left to spend on luxuries, it might just be one ‘treat’ a month instead of three or four. If a meal out or ticket see to Peter Kay gives you a reason to keep going in grim times, then great.

Lloyds is good for headlines"lloyds customers have only £500 in savings" was the last.
No wonder you stingy twats with 0.1% on savings😂
They are stingy banks, good for basic banking though, and it shows on their customers' behaviour

I often think some people spend when they should save instead - taking an almost ‘sod it’ tyoe approach. A bit like the ‘I’ll start the diet next week’ and eat ten cakes this week because I feel down approach. Some people may still be economising - we have generally kept doing stuff where we can but have definitely been selecting cheaper options to help ensure we are also tightening our belts. Examples include cutting back on treats or more expensive brands when food shopping, spent 1/3 on holiday compared to previous years, may still have eaten out but definitely less often and cheaper places than before:

It's exactly the same as Covid. Mass hysteria and the media exaggerating for clicks. No doubt things have gone up, but so have most people's wages. I know a lot of people (myself included) who have increased hours and/or moved to better jobs. Those on benefits are no doubt struggling but were unlikely to have been buying expensive theatre tickets anyway or going to expensive city centre bars. Everywhere I go is rammed.

As long as some people still have money to spend on recreation, there are still jobs for people in those industries. If people who haven’t been hit as hard by rising prices stop spending entirely, it is the workers who are most vulnerable that are going to be impacted. Would you rather people in service industries just be out of work now?

Well, evidently benefits and the basic wage are MUCH too generous and all of the poor should be sent up chimneys, down the sewers, or into hospitals to wash backsides for their impossibly generous pittance. That's before sloping home up the potholed litter-strewn streets to their delicious supper of bread and water to sustain them until 5am when they can get up and do it all again.

That's in between banging the underside of pans as directed and tugging their forelocks as our amazingly beneficent overlords ride past in their limousines.

If you're poor you don't deserve joy or anything to look forward to. It's your own stupid fault for being born poor. You should have been born rich like all those clever "self-made" folk in parliament and running companies. <Sarcasm off, for anyone on here unable to detect the tone./>

Is that what you wanted to hear, Jeremy Scrooge??

How do you know people being in the pub isn’t actually a sign that they’ve got less money so they’ve “traded down” their entertainment? Maybe they’d normally go out for dinner on a Saturday but they’ve chosen a few pints in their local instead as a cheaper option. Or that they’ve cut back on something else to be able to carry on going out once a week?

Ditto Peter Kay tickets - maybe people who would ordinarily have had a second holiday - or even a holiday at all - are booking those tickets as an alternative something to look forward to that works out cheaper.

Meh I can sort of see OPs point. Yes it's obvious that you won't see the people who are really struggling out and about spending money so you'll never get an entirely accurate picture of the whole of society, but if you only paid attention to MN threads and the media you'd get the impression that we are in the biggest financial crisis the country has ever seen, and that everyone apart from the 1% would be struggling to eat and feed themselves and their kids, let alone think about spending on luxuries. Whereas actually that's clearly not the case.

I think it's hugely relevant to be aware of disconnect between what the media is telling us and our own experiences, personally, so not sure what the big issue is?

Apart from anything else, it's hugely relevant from an economic POV to see what things people cut down on and what industries still thrive etc.

What does HTH mean?

Why do Mumsnetters often pretend to not understand that millions live in massively different circumstances to them?

Yes, some people still have £50 to spend. Baffling, I know.

I think the media blows a lot of things up.

I hear you @MakeMineALarge1. No sign of any cost of living crisis where I am, in fact completely the opposite. The gap between the haves and have nots is getting bigger than ever.

Shhhh. Don't come in here all reasonable

The local high street is 10mins walk from my house, it's full of bars, restaurants, cafes.
I walk up most days as its on the way to my allotment.
Pre pandemic - it was always very busy but its never recovered from Covid - Monday is dead, Tuesday is slow, Weds its showing signs of life, Thursday it stats picking up, weekends are busy but not like it used to be. Several restaurants close at 7. The chippy which used to have queues outside at pub closing now closes at 8.30.
Its quite clear there is an impact

So long as you know that a lot of the "haves" aren't the children of millionaires and don't own factories or the like.

Many went to the local state school and progressed to doing jobs like being a solicitor of the like. They aren't "the 1%".

I'm sure some people (not saying you) would like to lump them all in together and tax/punish people who work hard and, yes, who have earned a few more quid than some others have.

It's the bloody Torie's bots innit...

On Mumsnet, we (apparently) only sniff a thimble of sherry at Christmas. We then beat ourselves with a stick for 10 minutes. Any more than that and you are an out of control drunk who needs to go to AA.

That's right. isn't it mumsnet? [hick!]