To think most people could save a small amount regularly if they prioritised it?

[BoldRubyShaker]

Obviously there are people in genuinely difficult situations who simply don’t have anything left to save and that’s not who I’m talking about. But for many workers, I do wonder whether saving even a small amount regularly is more achievable than it’s sometimes made out to be. Even something like £50 a month builds up over time - around £3,000 over 5 years (plus interest) and much more over the long term.

AIBU? I think that for a lot of people it’s more about prioritising than possibility.

Nice. If you haven't got anything constructive to say, fling some insults.
How old are you?

Yes I have.
No matter how little you have (and believe me, we had literally NO income for about 8 weeks), i have always had a safety net. I can't imagine buying lattes when it's using your last money for that month.

I think we have to accept the world has changed.

we are now in a world where the norm is to buy things on the never never (as my parents used to call it). It’s an ‘instant’ society and social media places expectations. We have expensive tech that never used to exist….

Sure, people can save, they can go without and live like we are back in the 1930s to do so, but it’s entirely up to the individual whether they want to do that.

When I was younger (despite being educated otherwise by my parents) I totally bought into the never never instant culture. Now that I am older I prefer to save and only have my mortgage as debt.

At the end of the day people have to do what suits them and it’s down to them to manage whatever choice they make 🤷🏻‍♀️, not sure it’s any of our business.

When you genuinely only have £10-20 spare a month then I think it’s pretty understandable that you might want to use it to go out for a coffee with your friends rather than putting it in savings only to end up with a couple of hundred in there after a year of going without.

Erm, did I ever say the article was primarily about the CoL? No. Things can relate to more than one element at a time! Very few conversations exist in a vacuum!

And, if you'd actually read the article properly it ALSO refers to takeaways in terms of their monetary cost as well as health, direct quotes:
"If you think about all the discount apps... they are making it cheaper and easier for you."
"He said he would "probably" get more if he could afford it"
"she could not understand how young people could afford that many"
"it is more expensive"
"people were seeing less difference in price"
and even, literally "the cost of living crisis was also having an impact."

I think so op. Obviously there will be lots of people who genuinely can't.

I guess the wider question is what you class as 'wasteful' and 'essential' and I would argue that sometimes luxury spending is actually essential in a way - we all need to have a little fun in life to protect mental wellbeing. So I guess it depends on how you're looking at that which makes your question hard to answer.

I think we could do more to educate people on how to save well. I was always bad with money until I learnt about having a longer and shorter savings pot so I've been prioritising that and it means I've been able to slowly build an emergency pot and a long term pot I never use which alleviates that stress of - I'm saving for xyz but never get there because something unexpected crops up . I also worked a second job in order to make that happen initially.

So yes some people probably could save more than they do but I'd say there are a LOT of people now who are really struggling with col.