To be absolutely sick of hearing about the cost of living crisis

[Katypp]

I surely can't be the only person sick to death of hearing about the cost of living crisis?
I am tired of reporters interviewing middle-class (usually) mothers inside paid activities such as soft play and hearing them moan about how they are struggling to make ends meet.
Have we completely lost the ability to cut our cloth according to our means or does 'struggling' now mean carrying on spending as usual then complaining when there's no money left?
There have never been as many massive new cars on the road, towns are full of hairdressers, nail bars, brow bars, tanning salons, soft play, play cafes, coffee shops, ice cream parlours, dog groomers, most of which didn't exist 25 years ago and are probably the recipients of the money of the families who say they can't keep up with spiralling costs.
Yes, some families will have been hard up before prices started to go up and will have nothing else to cut back on. They have my sympathy.
But i am utterly fed up of hearing how hard households ars being hit by the cost of living crisis when all that's needed is a few minor cutbacks which they don't want to make.

I wish the same for the people I encounter and it's grossly unfair that they don't have the bare minimum
Who doesn't have the bare minimum? Not the posters here. Those who are homeless or living in appalling conditions and are starving have all my sympathy. It's a totally different issue.

I note you said you commuted 2.5/4 hours each, every day. How did you feel being away from your child for that long every day? Who actually raised them while you did that?
My child traveled with me. Her childcare provider was next to my job. We left at 6:30 every morning and we're home around 6pm.

I missed them, but I just accepted I wasn't one of the lucky ones who could spend the whole day with my kids whilst still enjoying a nice lifestyle. My mum had to work FT long hours and I spent a lot of time with childminders myself. I didn't suffer from it nor did my children. We are all extremely close and grateful for the opportunities that earned money gave us.

The problem is, you shouldn’t have to be ‘genuinely struggling’ to have any sympathy. This is one of the first generations with two working people in a household, most people are working 40 hours each a week with more responsibilities than ever as the number of jobs decrease and the minimum wage rises
No it isn't. Many families had to working parents generations before, and many worked closer to 50 hours a week.

People nowadays have less responsibilities than before as indeed, there is a lot more convenience to make life easier. Online banking, bills all paid automatically, texts instead of writing letters, microwaves and the rest.

The only difference is people got on with it and didn't expect an instant reward and sympathy for their hard work.

How does it not make sense @ForWittyTealOP? The OP is tired of people complaining about Col when they seemingly have money. I said those working full time are sick of seeing their lifestyles eroded when they are working their socks off, their lifestyle has reduced to be similar to those on benefits who don’t work full time and get all the additional stuff.

When did you earn £18k, @Passaggressfedup ?

The real wage value of £18k in 1995 is £48,600 now, according to measuringworth.com

The real wage value of £18k in 2000 is £42,560 now, according to measuringworth.com

There are people who genuinely struggle for various reasons and genuinely can't afford luxuries.

But this thread has shown exactly why some are fed up. Those who can afford nice luxuries, believe they are entitled to all of them because they work hard, but then moan because the cost of the weekly family meal out has gone up and it's not fair!

“You’ve never had it so good”.
The favourite phrase of those who’ve always had it better.

@User79853257976 I’m in my 60s and I don’t know any of my contemporaries, mostly middle class graduate professionals, who had a set-up where only one parent worked. And maternity leave was only six months when I had my children in the late 90s.

I've said more than once who I'm talking about, why are you acting like you don't understand? Tbf I don't see anyone out of the ordinary, it's just people who've been let down by successive governments.

The UK has the 6th highest disability allowance in Europe, despite also having one of the highest disability rates in terms of percentage of the population. Is it any wonder that the system is struggling?

My question wasn't entirely clear! I wondered when @Passaggressfedup earned £18k a year, and their partner, and how old they were at the time 🙂

I earned £19k in 1998 (£47k in present-day real wage terms). I'm now on £49k, though at a higher grade & vastly more experienced, with scarce skills. I didn't go part-time after having children.

I don't understand where the benefits/envy aspect came into it. And why wouldn't people complain when times are tough? I get it was an attempt to create a bit of division, it seemed like a shoehorn to fit in how people on benefits are lazy and get loads of money and perks.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/19/third-university-students-think-ai-job-losses-cause-social-unrest-poll

Just throwing a future cat towards the pigeons.....

NHIS here, single income. Am I poor? Nor to look at. But my debts are increasing as I struggle to meet all my costs, spent 2 years working 6 days a week and ide nearly killed me. Lost my 2nd job last June and all the replacements are paying half what I made before. I have had to start telling people I can't afford things. Maybe some think I am moaning. Certainly some of my friends who are further along in life don't seem to believe me. So yes, YAB VU

People nowadays have less responsibilities than before as indeed, there is a lot more convenience to make life easier. Online banking, bills all paid automatically, texts instead of writing letters, microwaves and the rest.

How on does texting over writing a letter equal less responsibility?! 🤔

Many families had to working parents generations before, and many worked closer to 50 hours a week.

More tosh, there really weren’t many families with two working parents each doing 50 hour weeks.

Can you explain how you came to that figure - don't forget to bear in mind the different welfare regimes across Europe (there are least three or four), different ways of providing "allowances" (some countries like Sweden provide preventative services, others like the UK give residual cash based payments), different ways of assessing disability, different healthcare systems and so on.

Then explain (please do, nobody ever does!) exactly how the system is struggling when the percentage of GDP and of government spending on benefits and pensions has been stable for decades and the majority of welfare spending is on pensions anyway? And maybe if you could say something about what our society would look like after a programme of welfare retrenchment, that would be great.

Only 50% of mothers (aged 25-54) were in paid work in the 1970s

There has been a steep climb in full-time work. In 2010, 25% of all mothers worked full-time; by 2022, this figure had almost doubled to 41%.

Average hours fell to around (46) hours by 1963 as union bargaining established basic 40-hour weeks in many industries.

63 yrs ago….

Why do people make stuff up when the data is out there?!

This post nails it for me.
I'm a band 7 NHS nurse.
DH band 7 NHS physio.
Both on top spine point.
Both slog our guts out at work.
Both working our arses off doing career development and progression with additional training at masters level on top of our work hours.
Both worked like this in the same career for 25 years.
Admittedly I only work 28 hours a week and before I get slammed for not working full time, I was always meant to be back to full time by now but both DC are ND/SEN and honestly I can't because of their needs.
Anyhow, we're fucking financially crippled.
Dishwasher just broke - can't afford to replace it. Washing up by hand past 5 weeks.
Oven broke a month ago - can't afford to replace it. Living off hob cooked or airfryer food instead.
DS needs new bedroom carpet, his is utterly threadbare - can't afford it.
Ditto stair/landing carpet.
Tradesmen prices have become absolutely bloody insane.
Need a new garage door cos it won't open and I'm hunting around trying to find someone, anyone, who would consider doing it for less than my entire monthly income.
Got our boiler repaired as an emergency last year and we had to cancel our summer camping holiday to Devon as a result.
Lived here 15 years and it was a starter home. 10 year plan to move up the ladder.
No chance of that happening now.
No
Chance
Whatsoever
Cannot possibly afford a higher mortgage repayment each month on top of the sky extortionate food bill, sky high petrol costs, severe utility bill rises. I mean our water bill has literally just jumped in April from £70 a month to £120 a month. That's a 71% increase overnight.
Can't afford to extend instead of move due to building costs doubling since 2020. My next door neighbour had a 3 metre rear extension for £35,000 all in in 2019. To do that same job now has been quoted to us by exactly the same builder at £100,000. How can the same job by the same person have trebled in 7 years? Cost of living increases he says, apparently.
DH's 10 year old car failed its MOT, cost £2,000 to repair, and we've had to take out a loan to pay it.
My 12 year old car will fail its MOT next.
So we're surviving.
But we're overdrawn.
We've had to get a loan.
And we're not going on holiday again.
And we're stuck in our little starter home with no entrance hallway, a 7 foot x 9 foot kitchen, and a cupboard with a window in it for DD's bedroom. We were supposed to have moved on by now.
Worst of all, we cannot save a penny every month and as a result we have ZERO opportunity to save for DC's future. We haven't saved a penny for them. We can't. So my DC have no financial backing for the future they face in this unbelievably high cost of living. I don't know how they will ever own a home. And ours is too small for them to live here when they're adults.
We're not saving for them - or for ourselves - because we are spending all our money on surviving.
So if you want to feel sick of me @Katypp then feel sick of me.
But I'm angry.
I shouldn't be living like this at my stage of life (45) and my stage of career (25 years).
I am sooooo depressed by how expensive every single thing is now. I hate it. I'm raging. Because things are only going to keep being this hard. There's no improvement in sight.
And when people are angry, you tend to hear them talk about it.

Agree. The idea that nobody has it hard nowdays because we have microwaves and online banking is insulting.

I'm so sorry things have taken such a turn for you. X

I actually think the OP just wanted to enjoy a bit of rage bait

There is another very good thread on here about habits people have from growing up poor. It’s a proper reality check from the era when poor meant sugar on bread for dinner and shoes with holes in them.

3 members of our family have nice suvs, on finance, pay ridiculous amounts like £700 per month in finance, live in council houses and on benefits, face done, nails done, hair done they look like from towie, don’t work, not disabled, but yeah always moan how hard it is to be poor. You’d be surprised how important to some people it is to have a nice car! Banks know it that’s why the finance to get them is so high.

Tell me you’ve got more money than me without telling me you’ve got more money than me!

To be fair they probably need them for their free tax payer provided goats when they need to go to the vets.

No they just call the Benefits Vet who makes an immediate home visit. Brings cake too.

Or...and its just an idea, but maybe we should aim to make society fairer and ensure that everyone can enjoy life a little, afford a take out coffee or a night at the cinema, afford to live near where they work so that they don't have to travel 4 hours a day.

I don't want mine or anyone else's kids to have a worse quality of life than I did, just like my parents didn't want me to struggle like they did.

You seem to think that because you struggled everyone else has to, without even contemplating the fact that even with the sacrifices you made you still had more opportunity than young people today.

You were able to live in London and save enough for a deposit - because rents were a lot cheaper and house prices lower - particularly in the South East

You were able to commute to work with a one year old either because you had family help with childcare or used nursery or childminders - both were a lot cheaper years ago with more availability than there is today. Nursery fees did not equate to 2/3rds or more of salary back then.

I live in the midlands - my commute into London would be 1 hour and 45 minutes excluding tube or bus transfers - but the rail fair would cost me over £1000 a month today - a two hours commute either means expensive train fares or driving - again, much more expensive with increased insurance and fuel costs as well as parking, congestion charges, ULEZ.

Add to that more expensive utilities, council tax, food.

You could not do today what you did then on an equivalent salary.