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

You are a one income household with children, I’m not in your demographic. The only single parents I know also have a hard time of it.

That’s the hardest part of life finding a decent long term partner to share the economic and mental load.

@crossstitchingnana We are the same and have no mortgage. But due to rises we do stuff like eat out less and as much as some may think well balls to you lot I can’t even pay my gas bill it’s impacting business when people cut back. Two of my favourite independent restaurants have shut down and a cafe in our town has vastly reduced hours.

I think it must be the mortgage costs. I can't think what else it would be. Council tax if its a bigger house I guess.

Our mortgage has just gone up by hundreds per month, we are getting a lodger, we will then see if we need to turn the lounge in to another bedroom and get a further lodger if things are still tight. I grew up eating egg chips and beans, and jacket spuds, and my dad had a day job plus a Nightshift, so I realise we have been living in relative abundance for the past few years and it's over for now.

On food cost, we are managing to keep our weekly shopping (inc. Cleaning stuff and toilet roll) to £60 - £80 a week for two of us, but it has involved some more careful thinking recently.

We eat the way I was always taught to - seasonal fruit and veg, no pre made sauces or ready meals etc..., cook from scratch using a lot of veg and beans/pulses to bulk things out, spices and herbs bought in bulk from Turkish shops, make good use of the freezer (I buy a lot of yellow sticker meat and fish bung it in the freezer and then consider how to use it later). We also switched to Lidl for things like wine, crisps, biscuits, yoghurts, cereal etc..

I am lucky that I have a subsidised canteen at work so can get a decent cooked hot lunch for £3.50.

It feels like (almost!) everyone's standard of living has dropped so significantly. So people who were just making ends meet or already struggling are in dire straits and unable to afford the very basics. People who were very comfortable are tightening up and cutting down. Not being able to feed your family or pay bills is very different to not being able to afford a holiday or put money in savings every month. But either way, people have seen a precipitous decline in living standards. Everyone is paying more to receive less. And I can't understand how restaurants and theatres etc can survive this - all the 'nice to have' things about life are getting stripped away. It's not life-or-death, but we aren't in a race to the bottom.

It's in the media all the time!

We are at around £130 per week for 3 of us, including all toiletries and cleaning supplies. Not much meat- except DS- and no alcohol though, everything cooked from scratch mostly.

The rise in the cost of food is not the reason your food bill is £1k. You need to learn how to shop more wisely sorry.

We have two children in childcare and a big mortgage. Both work and are on a decent wage. It's very stressful at the moment. We're managing to keep food costs down a bit by shopping at Aldi, batch cooking once a week and cutting out treats/snacks, but we still need to work on getting it down more. My eldest goes to school in September which should save us a bit on childcare, although we'll still need to pay for wrap around care. Every additional expense is a worry. Currently stressing about school uniform costs. We have no savings and no buffer if anything goes wrong. It's not a comfortable place to be.

We have a joint income of only about 47k here. Our mortgage will be about £1300 soon and we have two school aged children (so luckily no childcare). We also don't have any other debt, but I'm dreading life for the next couple of years. We try so hard, but just can't secure jobs that pay any more.

I'm nowhere near that but it's very well publicised right now that middle earners are really feeling the pinch.

Many also haven't had payrise.

They tend to own the bigger properties and have massive mortgage increases when they already have bigger mortgages.

Affected greater by energy costs.

Also these are people who often commute further to work and so have been effected by fuel costs and train strikes.

I'm a lower earner but get PIP and some UC because I'm a carer for my ds (wouldn't get it on my wages alone). This has increased so that's helped.

I'm also in a HA property and therefore although I've had a significant increase (£50 a month) on my rent being on UC credit has meant this impact isn't as much for me and this is the biggest increase since I moved here in 2007 and even had a small decrease about a decade ago.

I'm not saying I'm more well off. I'm still feeling the pinch due to costs rising like everyone else.

But we are not doing the country any favour by ignoring the fact that it's not just low earners and non earners anymore feeling the pinch and struggling with costs of living.

By recognising just how far up the tree it's spread we are more likely to react and stand up as a country and say enough is enough.

We are ALL being failed (unless your Uber rich and Tory MPs mate!)

Times are very tough right now but it's also exposing the extremely low levels of financial capability in this country too. I work in finance so I appreciate I am more savvy than most but I'm genuinely shocked at some of the posts I've seen over recent weeks. People with fixed rates ending who could have secured a much cheaper deal 6 months ago or people with huge childcare bills who don't realise the government will pay 20% of the cost or people with huge interest only mortgages who don't realise they need to repay the capital etc etc. I know renters are in an awful trap and food costs are impacting people on the lowest incomes etc but I suppose it shows how good times have been.

Our household income is 65k. Basically we are hanging on by the skin of our teeth until the eldests funded nursery hours start. Thankfully my car was paid off last year or we would be going under by now. I'm well aware that it's a decent take home and without 2 lots of nursery fees we would be doing ok. Compared to lots of people we probably are already.

So people who work hard with modest incomes aren't allowed to feel the pain. Because you're in a worse position?

🤔

It's not always fair to say that people on 50k+ have the capacity to reduce outgoings - childcare costs what it does until you are out of those years, train fares or petrol to get to work is not within personal control. People can't sell and buy cheaper houses - they might be stuck in a location for work/school and even if they could sell, would be battered by the costs of moving and new mortgage. Assuming they are living in a bigger house than they need in the first place.
Sometimes you are just stuck and apart from food/leisure costs, there's nothing you can really do!

For many, whether they are getting by okay is just down to luck - like whether their kids went to uni a few years ago or are going right now on the middle of a CoL crisis. Or when their fixed rate is up. Or their kids get out of paid childcare.

Its so tough for those years before free hours at nursery and then school OP but there is an end in sight just hang in there. When mine started school and I suddenly had an extra 800 a month I felt like a bloody millionaire.

For many, whether they are getting by okay is just down to luck - like whether their kids went to uni a few years ago or are going right now on the middle of a CoL crisis. Or when their fixed rate is up. Or their kids get out of paid childcare.

True. Ours are going to uni. A decision made when CoL wasn't so high. We will get by as we were lucky- and it was pure luck-to have savings. I feel sorry for the young.

Yes this.
We aren't struggling thankfully, but every aspect of life has been downgraded so that we can still save plenty each month.
It's out with the salmon en croute and in with spag bol bulked out with carrotts and mushrooms.
Out with our local wine bar (£9 per glass) and in with Wetherspoons (ours is a pretty nice one).
Out with a weekly meal out and in with a fortnightly takeaway.
Out with trips to our nearest city for lunch and shopping (£30 alone in train fair) and in with pottering locally.
In actual fact, I guess without thinking, we're almost reverting to a 'lockdown-lite' lifestyle to cut costs.
And I'm not complaining, I'm just stating a fact, before someone says 'first world problems'.

Moaning that you are struggling with a combined income of £125k, even in the current situation, is tone deaf at best, goading at worst.

Your post shows you're not as financial savvy as you say you are. How could people have known that rates would rise in 6 months' time in the way they have? Market experts have low confidence in the trajectory of interest rates, and frequently get it wrong, so why would members of the public.

I totally resonate with this. We're high earners so not struggling but we have 2 kids with outgoings and bills that like everyone else, we can't not pay. So we cut back on all the non-essentials. We don't go out for drinks or food, we don't do expensive day trips with the kids, I buy and sell on Vinted etc. Used to love regular trips to the cinema or going to gigs but I just equate everything to the cost of a weekly shop these days and don't feel we can justify it. For that reason we aren't feeling the pinch too much, we've just adapted our lifestyle to cope, but us not spending will have a knock-on affect on businesses.

Totally agree with @graygoose

They wouldn't have but if they'd started looking when they were allowed to lock in a rate they would have a lower rate. They let you lock in a rate and then if it goes lower before it starts you can swap. I definitely heard about it as I did it. And I'm not particularly savvy.

Restaurants and theatre are packed where I am, in Zone 3 London. Not everybody is struggling. Or maybe they are cutting down on other stuff.

guineacup mortgage rates dipped in April and May following the chaos of Truss at the end of December and at that point no one was predicting a drop in the near future. That would have been a good time to fix ahead.