Cost of living. I'm having a meltdown tonight.

[TwentyTwenty20]

I put my heating on for an hour or so this morning because I forgot to dry my son's school uniform, and my landlord won't let me install a tumble dryer. It cost me an extra £2. I didn't put my heating on until January last year. We lived under the duvet until then. I got my son changed under the covers. I used to just get in the bath and stay there in the evening to keep warm. I'm a lone parent, I take home £2100 a month and get £140 UC, £96 child benefit. My rent is £1000 a month. Council tax £150 with SP discount. Electric, gas, petrol, car insurance, Internet, school uniform, food, life insurance, water bills, £130 on before and after school clubs so I can work, then there's failed MOT which I had to put on a credit card which I'm paying off, tv license, phone bill etc. Then there's life and scraping by so my son can continue his gymnastics hes been doing since he was 2. Council is awful and you can't apply for any of the cost of living stuff unless they have 'identified you'. I've done income and expenditure with a professional and they've said I've pretty much cut back as far as I can. They fine tooth combed my bank statements. How is the amount I make not enough? I have applied for 6 cheaper houses in the last month and none will rent to me. I'm 400 and something on the list for council housing. 10 years ago I was on 18k a year and comfortable and saving.

Will this ever get better? That's a genuine question because I can do all the cutting back I can but if I keep getting knocked back for cheaper housing and higher paid jobs I just don't know how I will go on. It is no life and I don't enjoy getting out of bed in the morning anymore.

This is everyone who wanted to leave the EU fault now we are all struggling

Now that is just too silly for words !

When all else fails, blame it on Brexit !

@Mydogmybestfriend I guess you think it's super in France, Germany and most of Europe then?

I hope you were opposed to lockdown.

Germany has foodbanks https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/german-food-banks-struggling-to-keep-up-with-rising-demand/2836661

Much the same story from France ; https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20230301-french-people-flock-more-often-to-food-banks-as-inflation-accelerates

It's not rosy in Spain either;

https://www.euronews.com/2022/11/22/we-cant-manage-anymore-spains-hunger-queues-lengthen-as-inflation-soars

https://1949graham.medium.com/food-banks-in-the-eu-eight-examples-19ea5c709fc

Is there a car boot you could do on a weekend?
Could you sell anything on Facebook market place, provide a service, batch cook; make soups, shop in charity shops.

That is the most shocking advice I've ever seen. Who in their right mind would deliberately get themselves evicted. She has a 4 year old for crying out loud. No mother would put their child through that. He needs stability.

You don't need to do that! Tumble dryers don't need a water supply, ours is in the bedroom (near a window as it's a hose one not a condenser). A condenser one you could put anywhere, they're literally plug and go

Sorry OP I don't have any practical advice to add to what others have said, but to answer your question, is it going to get any better? No, because we still have high inflation, so prices will barely come down and all that inflation will still trickle down to services we use. So bills will keep going up. Housing crisis not going to ease anytime soon. Energy prices won't shift much. That's the reality, anyone saying any different is misinformed.

🤔

Also car insurance is going up / has gone up. Any cuts in utilities has been taken in that for car drivers like op.

Look on Money Saving Expert and try to make sure you are doing what you need to do.

Martin Lewis says make sure you do car insurance comparisons/quotes etc at least 21 days before it is due.
I didn't seal mine and when I went back the day before it was due it had gone up by over £400. These small tricks don't make you rich but help you Pay less.

I've been driving 30 years and this year my insurance is more than it ever has been even when ex husband was on it with 19 points ( never turned up in court so never got banned before I met him).
I have 15 years no claims blah blah blah still well over £1000.

Ridiculous comment

SMALLER PROPERTIES ARE CHEAPEER.
You shouldn't be advising on here .

How are you doing OP?

Things won’t improve any time soon. Me and DH both earn more than we ever have and we still struggle. Mortgage just gone up by £500, kids clubs have increased their prices, the breakfast club has just announced closure so we are now looking at reducing working hours which is the last thing we need right now. We don’t live near family (never got any help even when we did). Home insurance quote just came through 100% increase on premium compared to last year. We’re mid-renovation and I can’t see how we’ll finish. Our house is so expensive to heat (£200 electric/£160 LPG pm) and we’re not entitled to any grants for heat pumps etc even though constantly bombarded with letters for it being off grid. I check Right move every day to see what the market is doing and if we should move somewhere else. We both have second jobs we do in the evenings so perpetually exhausted. I feel some radical action is required but just don’t know what. The only people I know who aren’t struggling either have massive inheritance or get help from their ageing parents. It’s a diabolical state of affairs.

I don't know how we as a nation have tolerated our standard of living gradually being eroded. We are on professional (public sector so not huge) wages but still struggle to pay everything and keep paying for our 2 teens' stuff, but even outside the home things have gone to shit. You risk your car by driving down our city roads with all the potholes (my parents actually broke their manifold!), there's rubbish everywhere, with bin collection erratic at best. People don't bother to report many crimes because police are to stretched for victims to even get through to them, let alone for them to investigate anything less than rape or murder. Schools, social care and NHS are buckling along with the rest of the criminal.justice system. People are working themselves to the bone just to make ends meet. Give us the Scandinavian model, and do away with following America or China. I'd rather pay high taxes that I can afford alongside a better quality of life. Our politicians cream off profit from big and dodgy contracts and handshakes with lobbyists for their own benefits, not ours. This is not democracy and we don't want it. No wonder they've introduced the need for photo ID at the polling station - a great way to filter out the less wealthy voters who don't have photo ID. It's very depressing

The UK has been broken country for more than 50 years and has a political class that has stripped its carcass completely bare.

There is nothing left to sell worth buying anymore and this includes the ramshackle legacy National Health Service. Its profitable bits were hived off years ago.

All that remains is real estate and the common law legal system that enshrines property rights. UK housing is now an international store of wealth and capital.

If anyone wants to see where this is heading I suggest watching a few Youtube videos made by former Citibank trader and economist Gary Stevenson.

Not sure why some pp are saying £1k a month is a lot? It seems to be the going rate now. My hometown is a run down seaside town, and my sister is now paying £800 for a two bed house. It’s absolutely shocking.

It can be the going rate and still be entirely out of proportion with salaries.

If anyone wants to see where this is heading I suggest watching a few Youtube videos made by former Citibank trader and economist Gary Stevenson.

He is v good. I find his videos informative, although the future he paints - and what we are already seeing happening, living standards dropping for all bar the wealthy - for the majority of us makes it scary viewing albeit necessary to know.

Not enough people work here to follow the Scandinavian model. That would mean everyone paying higher taxes. No capping themselves to 16 hours and getting state help etc. Everyone pulling their weight. No enough are right now.

Thing is you would get state help but it would not be monetary.

Yes but the issue is: we have a significant part of the population who are not economically active or do the bare minimum. It’s not an easy unpick. It would mean the basic rate of tax should be about 30%. Wages would have to be comparable, companies would have to change, etc, etc. Everyone pays a fair share and the tax pyramid is wider instead or relying on the ever dwindling higher PAYE earners.