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.

What?

Minimum wage for an 18 year old working 40 hours per week is £1,600 - 1,700 per month.

Budget
£1,000 saving
£300-400 board and lodging (sufficient for food and contribution to extra utilities)
£100-200 transport (it’s not viable to pay more than this for NMW)
£100 phone/entertainment/clothing/gifts (for others)

Doing ‘absolutely nothing but save for two years’ is exactly what is needed if you want to own property at 20 years old, like the poster did. Many people stayed with parents until their late teens/early twenties. More recently, a significantly higher number of young people leave home to attend university. They live an independent lifestyle often funded by student loans and parents. There are plenty of graduates trying to survive in expensive cities and unable to save.

Public transport costs have significantly outpaced increases in wages. Rent has too, with private rent now 30-40% of net income, compared to around 15-25% 30 years ago.

Why would a 20 year old couple buy an average priced property (300k) as their first home? 180k will be sufficient for a first time purchase in most areas. Perhaps I was a little optimistic saying a two bed terrace, but certainly a one bed flat? If it’s not sufficient, they will need to buy in a cheaper area, given that they are only earning minimum wage and are 20 years old at this point.

Let’s assume a 40k deposit (the couple had a blow out and went abroad twice, had a meal out with friends now and then, plus purchase costs etc). Țhey need a mortgage of 140k. Seems doable, as their combined income is about 45k.

140k over 30 years @4.5% is about £715 a month. Between two. So less than 25% of their net income. Seems okay? Much better than paying rent.

If the 20 year old couple don’t want to sacrifice so much for 2 years or their parents require them to move out once they turn 18, it’s going to be more difficult. This wasn’t the experience of the lady my post was responding to.

I don’t accept that a couples joint minimum wages with no other responsibilities won’t be able cover minimal commitments in a first time buy. That suggests they would be financially incompetent.

£3,200-3,400 per month net income

£1200 mortgage (considerably more than the example given above)
£200 council tax
£50 insurance
£300 utilities
£50 phones
£400 food - to include takeaway
£400 travel to and from work
£2600 total

I can’t think of any more absolutely essential costs, but the may be some. There may be a service charge if they purchase a flat.

This leaves £600-800 per month for emergency repairs, small luxuries, entertainment and saving and will likely improve when the 20 year olds progress in their jobs. It might be enough to manage a cheap holiday, some gig tickets or even run a car etc, on minimum wage.

I’m not sure how this is so different to decades ago? Not a single one of my contemporaries purchased an averaged priced property as their first home, even my wealthy friends. Most purchased one or two bedroom run down properties in less affluent areas. Only one of my friends purchased alone, but took in lodgers to meet his costs (me being one of them!).

A minimum wage job can rarely support buying in an expensive area. A minimum wage job cannot support the purchase of an average priced property, first time round. It never did.

People work very hard, even if only earning minimum wage, but unfortunately we have been influenced to believe that we can have the lifestyle of much wealthier people and are left feeling dissatisfied when we can’t.

You can not accept what you like, but flats here (not London) are much more likely to be £250k. £180k doesn't buy you anything in many areas of the country, where there are plentiful full time jobs. Maybe where there are less jobs. But then, do they have the salary?

To clarify as well, 18 year olds NMW is £10.85, so 40 hours a week is a salary of £22,568. Pre tax that is £1,880, post tax more like £1,550.

As has been said many many times on Mumsnet most of us in the 90s only had to find 5% deposit which they are also bringing back the believe it’s Santander now only requires a £5000 deposit
People had to get second jobs to fund House deposits. That’s what I did. I worked in a bar at the weekends and most of my food money for the week came from Tips so that I didn’t have to touch the salary from the bar which I think was about three quid an hour, but that extra money meant that we bought houses

Well sweetcheeks, the cost of living crisis doesn't affect me. I'm minimum wage but semi retired and mortgage free. It does, however, affect my kids and my younger colleagues. So stop being a thoughtless c*nt eh.

Where are you referring to in the country and I will take a look? There will be unaffordable areas.

Apologies, I relied on Google for NMW net pay calculation. It seems the figure is just over 1.6k per month, so I stand by my calculations, which other than not accepting there are properties available for 180k, you don’t seem to dispute.

Up the budget to 240k and the monthly payment is still less than I allowed for, although this is getting close to the maximum borrowing capacity.

I agree that securing a full time job is not easy, so multiple part time jobs might be needed. I didn’t say it would be easy.

Let me know what area you think it’s not achievable. I don’t know the prices around the whole of the UK, so I expect I am going to be shown how out of touch I am.

I think Labour could give people the moon on a stick and something they would have agreed with if it came from ‘their political party of choice’ but pmrntu would then search for something to be churlish about simply because ‘it’s Labour’ -

@LuckyHazelFox Ah - the classic deflection.

Claims people saying that people who defend Labour record in government against Tory destruction are in denial and delusional and then refuses to engage when presented with evidence to the contrary.

Its like there is some kind of user manual "Right Wing Responses For Dummy's"

You want current data?

In the 7 quarters the current government has been in power, Q on Q4 GDP growth has been higher than in the last seven quarters of the previous government.

On a q by q basis with seasonal adjustments 6 out of the last 7 quarters have had growth above 1% - that level of consistency hasn't happened at any point in the last 15.

Debt as a % of GDP has remained steady - it was 94.5% when Labour came to power and has been lower than that in 4 out of 7 quarters. Unlike in the last 7 quarters of Tory control it has not gone above 95% at all and is starting to fall.

Overall public spending was at 44.7% of GDP in 2024, it is now 44.8%

NHS waiting lists have been reduced by 6.5%, health spending is up from 8.4% to 8.8% of GDP.

Education spending has increased from 4.1% to 4 2% and direct funding per pupil in schools has increased significantly.

Defence spending is increasing from 2.3% to 2.5% by April 2027 with plans to increase to 3.5% over the next few years. Police and justice spending are also increasing.

There has been a slight increase in unemployment from 4.4% to 5%, however, the percentage of the population who are economically inactive had reduced from 22.1% to 20.9% which means more people are in work overall.

The initial asylum backlog has been cut by 55% equating to a 35% saving on asylum 'hotels' and net migration has plummeted.

Overall:

GDP is increasing
Key public services are receiving more funding
But overall debt is coming down without an overall increase in spending as a proportion of GDP.

The 97 - 2010 Labour government did better than the Tories and its looking like the current one is starting to as well.

But you won't engage genuinely with the issues - you will either come back with another quip, or find another excuse to avoid it. Or you will claim.that you don't believe the data.

@Badbadbunny - Tory fiscal policy which kept public spending low increased debt as a % of GDP.

The increased spending in the second term is mirrored by bigger increase in GDP. There was some increase in debt as a % of GDP but prior to the crash it did not reach the levels it did in the first three years.

By emphasising the use of Tory fiscal policy in the first term, you simply prove even more that not increasing public spending suppresses growth and increases the debt to GDP ratio.

Why would anyone want the Tories to navigate this mess when they caused it 🤣

They may have inherited the mess caused by the financial crash (which was triggered by their friends in the US who had implemented the de-regulation of the financial markets and free market philosophy that allowed the sub-prime situation to occur), but they also inherited a top class health service with low waiting lists, a fully costed plan to improved school infrastructure, low crime rates and a population that was generally happy with services.

There had been 11 years of pre-crash growth which had out paced European growth and debt had been stabilised at around or below 40%. They had all of the foundations they needed for a fast recovery.

Instead they significantly damaged public services with austerity, suppressing growth and increasing debt in the process, gave us Brexit, mishandled the financial aspects of Covid and then, for a nice little cherry on top gave us the Truss mini budget. They further they stay away from trying to fix things the better.

I don't agree with everything this Labour government have done at all but they are investing in public services and things are starting to improve. They may not be making great strides in reducing debt, but they're not increasing it either.

You cannot possibly expect any government to fix the damage caused over the past decade and a half in two years.

Except anyone can go and you don't have to be on a low income?
If you do have to be on a low income then it's different to the ones I know where people go that take regular holidays abroad.

I'm amused by the references to 'holidays abroad' when holidays within the UK are so expensive. Have you looked up the price of even caravan holidays recently? I priced them up, adding on fuel, food and days out - extortionate, very little availability, and the weather likely to be shit.

Things are starting to improve? They can't even agree on a leader never mind anything else. Welfare and unions as well as appeasing Islam are this government's priorities oh and tax and more tax. As I said, so many years in opposition with no plan. That's why we've got u-turns galore. Out of their depth but that's what happens when you put socialists in charge of money.

You have literally been given the evidence in a clearly written post above and yet you still just parrot this kind of thing?? 🙄

Parrot? It's my opinion. Its mot going to change just because you dont agree with it. The tories will still be blamed if this shambolic government reaches its 5th year. They are digging deeper holes so plenty more Entertainment. The circus reopens at Makerfield.

They are actually trying to backfill the craters left by 14 years of Tory rule.

It will take way longer than 5 years to turn things around but I suspect they won't be given the chance and we will have to endure the horrors of an inept Reform government.

Can people really be that filled with hate that they will vote in a Reform Government? I hope not.

But when you listen to their more eloquent speakers they manage to make even the most unpalatable policies sound reasonable and people behave differently in the privacy of the polling booth.

I feel, like Brexit, it's something that we will almost have to go through at this point. Afterwards there will be many who regret their choice (not all) when they realise they have been sold lies.
But there is a sense of inevitability about a Reform government now.

Edited to add - I think it's clear that if you are wealthy you have little to fear from Reform and actually stand to gain because Farage will prioritise his billionaire backers and wealthy friends. This will also impact people's private votes once in the booth.

Biggest concern for me with 2 YA children is the lack of job prospects for them. Why my DD with a good degree can only find MW jobs right now. Why my DS doing A levels has anxiety about his post 18 choices.
I think for a lot of people they are not after a big flash lifestyle. What they want is the gnawing anxiety of paying bills and feeding their kids to go away.
Being able to afford the odd treat like a meal out or a haircut shouldn’t be a luxury in one of the largest world economies.

Exactly. I'm sick of people saying "well in my day....blah blah blah". That's not the point. As you say, if we're working full time, we should be able to have the odd treat, not just paying the bills...or else what the hell is the point?

Let your true colours show why don't you?

Oh here we go. My true colours are red white and blue. The same that this government is meant to represent.

I just wanted to remind sincere posters to report posts containing hate speech, personal attacks and which seem unlikely to be from genuine posters.

Crack on. A great way of stifling opinions you don't want to hear. I haven't spotted any hate speech. 'Sincere' posters always seeing racism whenever Islam is mentioned are part of the UK's problem. Instead, let's get people cancelled by banning them. The wonderful tolerant left.

Could you explain what you mean by "appeasing Islam" please?

Two tier intolerance among races and cultures. For all the talk of Starmer and his fight against anti-semitism he's done nothing to tackle the pro Palestinian protest marches which harbour oppressive material. The Muslim vote is very important to the Labour Party. I've seen that written plenty of times on MN. I'm not saying Islam is the problem, I'm saying some representatives of Islam as with other cultures, seem to have things more leniently. See the Agfhan refugee thread for similar views to mine. Im sure those sincere posters would welcome the support.