Cost of living....struggles....rubbish!

[IwishIcouldconfess]

Been into Manchester today.

I'll be honest, shops full, restaurants full, pub's standing room only.

I thought as a country we were in a cost of living crisis, not in Manchester, the amount of cocktails, bottles of wine i saw being knocked back today made me wonder, ate things really as bad as as the narrative we're being sold?

Lots of people have lots of money, lots of people are past living paycheck to paycheck, lots of people are drowning in debt and just enjoying what they can until it all comes crashing down.

It’s the media doing what media likes to do - distorting reality to play on our fears. I live in Manchester and it’s pretty busy during the week, as is Stockport. Not just people milling around, it’s people buying stuff and eating and drinking in bars and restaurants. I’m better off financially than I was before the inflation rises hit four years ago and I don’t earn mega bucks.

We had Restaurant Week in our city a couple of weeks ago. Everywhere was packed on Saturday and Sunday.

Wellpayday weekend Innit! We live on SC .our little town was heaving on Wednesday. Cakes all sold out. Full up in cafe . No sign of COL crisis here. I do wonder though as only people who can afford it come out.maybe there are many more at home who knows.

You can't seriously think there is no cost of living crisis, based on a visit to a city centre on a Saturday, at the end of January? The people struggling to put food on the table aren't going to be living it up in Manchester, eating and drinking and buying expensive stuff. They will be at home trying to keep warm.

I don't deny that the the links I have drawn from my observations are flawed, but, I'm seeing it more and more

Maybe I just go out the sane day everyone else does

I work with apprentices in Northern college. They don't obviously earn a great deal but Manchester and Liverpool are where they like to go to spend time and money. This will be maybe once a month but will tail off as they save for a week in the sun.Young ppl have some disposable money, also young professionals working and living in the city will be out too, as it is indeed payday weekend. I very much doubt everyone is out all the time.

I think many are struggling and many aren’t.
I have friends from all walks of life; some of them can’t afford a meal out and others flew off in a private plane over the weekend!!! It’s not true that ‘everyone’ is struggling. There are some people who huge amounts of wealth whilst most people have much less.

We went out as it's pay day weekend. Cannot afford to do it again this month.

I don't know how other people afford it. There are plenty of people I know who complain at cost of school trips, after school clubs etc but still go out every week.

I find myself with similar thoughts when I go out. For me it's more, the price of food and drink out now is astronomical and I really resent doing it once every few months and feel like it is definitely not worth it and I've been ripped off. So I stare around in wonder at the tables full of people, young families and think, why are they enjoying this? Do they do this all the time? How do they afford it? Are they hating it as much as I am?

It is just a curiosity to me. Probably definitely being ridiculous.

I agree OP. DH and I household income is in the top 5%.

We do have several too many DC but we earn really well. We can't afford lunches out at nice restaurants regularly. Because that's £30 a head at least. Every now and again, sure, but not as the norm as we wander round a shopping centre.

DM and I went out "treat ourselves" shopping today, the first time in about 6 months and every restaurant was full. With people who were well dressed, dressed in cheap stuff, with several kids, without kids, all loaded with shopping bags. It was very clear that not everyone here was on a special day out. It was a normal Saturday. Every restaurant fully booked with reservations! We managed to squeeze into a walk in, and spent £75 on frankly quite shit food, in a trendy pop up food place that was absolutely rammed and we had to share a table (akin to wagamamma). It had two floors and could seat probably 600. Full.

How the fuck all these people are affording this when the country is purportedly on it's knees, and as high earners it's not doable at this level of flippancy for us, was a topic of discussion on the way home with us too.

I actually think The North is booming. Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool have all had massive house price growth the last few years and the affordability is there still, unlike the south. People are probably psychologically feeling much richer than anyone living in the south. Good for Manchester !!

In the US, the top 10% of the income distribution are doing 50% of the consumer spending.

The UK will be similar with the top 10% doing 40-50% of the spending.

I personally go out less with the family as prices in the UK (restaurant wise) are high and food quality/service has gotten worse. Value for money equation doesn't feel balanced to me. Better to spend money on vacations abroad where you get much better value for money.

I reckon after pay day in the longest month of the year is going to have more out than average, yes!

If you had just walked past my bar 20 mins ago you would have seen me at a bar knocking back a couple of drinks gayly laughing but I am over drawn ( have been since my last child was born ) living on the edge every month
food bank adjacent three times since baby was born

i work full time long hours but I am always skint - occasionally. Go fuck it and have a couple of drinks or go for a meal - doesn’t mean the economy / country/ my bank account isn’t fucked

I was in Sainsbury today in quite an affluent area, and so many people looked totally fed up, people complaining about prices and putting things back, loads of people crowding around the yellow stickers. I notice it’s lots of young people splashing the cash, the ones still living at home with not many bills to pay.

I agree.

There is some awful poverty here, but there are also places where people on lower incomes can live more cheaply than in many areas- those bits are sometimes pretty grim but they're close to more attractive places to go out. There's also a class of us, not necessarily the majority but enough, who've bought cheaply and have seen incomes increase. You don't have to be that old here to have got a family home for not much. Then as well as that there's people who just have loads of money and live in the dearest places in the region, but they like going out in buzzy city centres too.

Same as my city. It’s always heaving on a Saturday afternoon and night. Every week.

An increase in the cost of living means lots of people have less disposable income than they used to, not that they have no disposable income.

I go out a lot less since the COL crisis, so maybe some of those people you see are like me, having a rare night out rather than a regular one. Also woth bearing in mind that Manchester is a bit of a destination city for weekends away so maybe some of those people had saved up for a big treat and as others have said it is finally pay day weekend after the ten week month of January. I live in a reasonably big city in the East Midlands and of course people are out and about but nobody knows what they area spending, how much of it is on credit cards, or if they are using money that could go on bills to have a good time. Let's face it we live in "interesting" times and people want a break from grim reality

There’s a LOT of money sloshing about. It’s just most of us don’t have access to it. Inequality.

Agreed. For as long as I know the North was known as 'poorer' than the South.
Now so many people literally can't afford living down south whilst the North is benefiting from low living costs and increased wages. We seem to be doing pretty good up here!

Since when did the phrase affluent pensioners imply that all pensioners are aflluent?

Both DH & I are in good jobs above minimum wage however have barely any disposable income each month, never eat out, I don’t drink. Have to budget every food shop. We have two kids and the price of our bills and childcare we are drowning so working every hour under the sun for what feels like nothing. We qualify for no help either. We will probably never go on holiday again…. All my kids toys & clothes are second hand or hand me downs. There is definitely a crisis!

You think because places were busy, EVERYONE was out?

There will have been loads of people not out spending money. You just saw full premises in a very busy, very touristy city. Not an entire village out in the pub.