How are people surviving

[Truthseeker456]

I don't get it. One income and I am on a what was a good wage 53,000. My mortgage is likely to double next year I have nursery fees and 3000 take home and always in my overdraft. How are people surviving, we don't hear anything in the media. Rents are also though the roof

I haven't been living right up to my means and will be able to afford my mortgage going up by the £700 a month it will if rates are where they are now in 4 years' time when my fix is up.

It is going to make a big difference to my lifestyle though.

Nursery is £15 a day, and we spend around £60/70 a week on the food shop so £150 less and nursery is around £120 is a month so £550 less than. Never had a credit card between us, but I wish I did have secret funds 😂 so leaves us around £1000 after mortgage, food and nursery fees which seems quite liveable for us currently. We also get child benefit which I always forget to include.

@usernamealreadytaken I didn't say we couldn't go out, it's just that we can't do the ad hoc meals out like we've always done in the past. I think the point I wanted to make was that we don't have a lavish lifestyle but due to costs spiralling we no longer can save much and have to think twice before doing things and if we on our salaries are fed up how on earth is anyone on lower incomes managing?

Plenty are managing fine around here pubs and restaurants are full every weekend, look at all the festivals happening this summer at hundreds of pounds a ticket.
Our shopping bill is terrifying for 2 adults 2 kids one on us is on a gluten free diet so £3 for a tiny loaf of bread kills us
Our mortgage gone up £400 a month not sure on utilities but up, just thankfull we don't have childcare costs anymore but not sure where that money has gone.

The COL crisis is affecting some people hugely but others hardly at all. Most homeowners do not have a mortgage (I was surprised to learn this) so guessing the older demographic , particularly those in the south east, who are not paying mortgages or nursery fees are doing fine. Childcare is horrendous but made even worse when costs are spiralling. Also, pensioners who are not homeowners and who do not have a significant pension income will also be struggling I imagine. There are stages of life when you have more outgoings and if you are at one of those now , then things are tough.

How is your nursery only £15 a day??

But even getting UC will top you up significantly

Hate these kind of responses. Always one who is determined to race to the bottom first! Yes ok you might be struggling but that doesn't mean others can't be too. So narrow minded.

@Winterday1991 I assume they get the 30 hours free childcare? Or their child only goes to nursery for 1.5 hours

Jesus my nursery is 60 pounds a day, 1200 a month.

What is that total value of your benefits package? Including the housing benefit?

You're getting tax free childcare? As mine is £70 a day and about £900 a month due to tax free.

DS and I have moved in with my mum. My tax credits and maintenance will end in August and I’ve been turned down for PIP twice.

I’ve deliberately engineered my situation so that I can still eat well and have a reasonable quality of life because my health is temperamental. If I’d had to live in a camper van to facilitate this then I would have. I think the stress, crap food and lack of NHS is a recipe for disaster.

Me too.
Try living on two state pensions plus a small NHS one that ensures you get too much for benefits.

I do dog boarding for people when they go on holiday, or have weekends away etc.

My diary is jam packed, so there are certainly people who aren't struggling.

I guess it's all circumstantial. If you have a low mortgage, or no mortgage, and no childcare fees, you will be more likely to absorb a hike in food prices.

Oh come on, have a day off!

im not doubting your bills have gone up, but you’re some of the top earners in the country but I think your definition of ‘feeling the pinch’ maybe very different to others

It's very much circumstantial. If you have no mortgage, or you are on a long term fixed mortgage at a low rate, you will not be feeling it as much. In fact you will be celebrating energy bills coming down and probably having more money to spend elsewhere.

Well 50k doesn’t seem like enough to support a family now, depending on where you live etc. I am incredulous that you say there’s nothing in the media though, there’s literally a whole tab on bbc news homepage about the cost of living and it’s being spoken about constantly.

There’s a huge disparity between what’s considered struggling in this country.
I know people who rarely eat anything other that 20p noodles or budget brand cereal. They only get veg when it’s in a school dinner. They’re the third child to wear their school polo shirts and it shows. They’ve never had a birthday party or a salon haircut or been on any sort of holiday. These children are often encouraged to play outside until late at night and then go straight to bed because there’s no electric in the meter indoors.
Then you get the ‘feeling the pinch’ household who are stressed about the bills but have never used a foodbank or had to skip a meal and always have a holiday. But now might have to go down to using one car.
theyve got a nice house in an expensive area which is now too much money and they might have to downsize.
both valid, stressful situations but not comparable at all.

It's a community pre school, so not for profit I think? 🤔

Its really bad for the economy when such a high proportion of people's wages goes on housing and food costs. They spend less on leisure activities, spend less on going out, beauty treatments, clothes etc etc.

Is that for full time, year round?!

When you had more money to begin with, there are so many ways to cut down. I used to use Ocado (alternated with Tesco's), would also buy coffee/lunch or dinner out if I went somewhere. I had various subscriptions, spent a fair bit on clothes etc. So now all that has stopped and I'm doing ok.

The people I do really feel for are the ones who had nothing left to cut. Where do they go from there? Yes it's a bit gutting I can't afford the things I used to. But I am thankful every day that I have enough to live on with still a bit of a cushion. But then I've been poor in the past so I still remember how soul destroying it was.

I can't really muster up any sympathy for people who have to downgrade their lifestyle (even though I'm in that group!) when there are people with not enough to eat and worrying about keeping a roof over their heads.

Well, the tsunami hasn't hit yet.
Only a third of people own their home outright. The rest are renters and mortgaged. The cost of living with food and energy prices has taken many to the brink and beyond, but the impact of rate rises will start to hit from now and for the next year+ and will be as bad, if not worse.
Lots of people aren't going to be able to afford £400+ increases per month. They simply won't.
Credit is going to get more expensive and financing new cars etc will be harder.
There will be lots of people that will be ok. But lots won't. People have been encouraged to borrow at low rates when credit was cheap, overstretched, and almost overnight it's going to have massive implications for their lives.
Bad times ahead for many. Mumsnet maybe not a great barometer as most claim to earn 6 figures, but maybe they have massive mortgages......

Inflation is the reason money sloshing around needs to be taken out though

Inflation is bad for the economy, well bad for us generally

Only issue is whether it’s the best way to go with supply side inflation but it’s all BoE have got to use