What's your plan when your personal cost increases become unaffordable?

[Cactuses3580]

We're all being affected by the cost of living crisis in some way or another and many people are struggling.

I'm finding it difficult and I'm worried about the future. When my mortgage fix ends it will go up a couple of hundred a month, energy is going up by 20% in April and who knows how much it will be in 2024 and everything else like food, fuel etc is also continuing to increase alongside this.

My questions are:
--- when you look at your own finances, if the rises keep going up and you find you're struggling or cannot afford your living costs anymore, what is your plan?
--- how is the cost of living crisis affecting you?
--- if you're struggling, what are you doing to cut back?
--- What are you doing to prevent it negatively affecting your mental health?

I'd be interested to hear others views.

Absolutely. I write assuming anyone may read it and know who I am. I don’t try to hide.

Ha ha, even with the 'personal' "I'm worried about.." introduction, it's so obvious.. 🤣

OP, you need to try harder; in particular, lose the formal language and the bullet points...

But anyway, it's not too outing nor personal... We were lucky to be able to fix our mortgage for 10 years in the summer so only paying about £40 more per month than before... We're overpaying so in 10 years we should only have a few years left on it.

I also increased my hours at work, went up to 0.8 from 0.6.

Low income so already stick to my budget.
I'm already frugal in most areas through choice as like my money to go further.

Choices I already make are:

• Shop around for everything
• Use cashback and discount sites
• Sim only plans with cashback
• No tv subscriptions
• No subscription services
• No TV licence
• Low use of heating
• No extensive appliances i.e decided not to have a cooker 4 years back, mini oven/ air fryer thing is fab plus an instant pot, microwave and george forman grill
• Small engine car
• Buy quality items but at the best possible price. I have always been able to find great bargains and spend time to do so.

I can cut back on treats like uber eats and cut down on food treats which I only allowed since covid.

Can also cut down on clothing from ebay and sales and my occasional beauty treatments or having my hair plaited. (1 or 2 times per year for £50 which lasts 10-12 weeks)

Only got broadband beginning of 2022 so can save that cost and go back to using the data in our phones as a hotspot.

Can also walk more and use car less to save on petrol but don't go out that much, but probably 30% of the times I do go out could be walked or biked.

I'm really worried. We looked at fixing our mortgage too late when only really high rates were available. Currently on lifetime tracker of bank of England base rate +0.4%.

We've cut back on our heating and wear more layers. Eating out less but not completely stopped.

We have very little else to cut back on. We don't have sky etc subscriptions. Only buy things we need, wear clothes until they're falling apart, don't buy magazines etc. We did all this anyway pre cost of living increase.

Don't want to cut back on DCs sports activities.

Might not go on holiday next year.

DH started a side hustle this year which has done really well and we're hoping it will do as well next year.

I'm trying to think of ways of earning more money at weekends but don't know if I could cope as so exhausted after working all week.

DD is at uni and has got a part time job so don't need to supplement her too much.

DS is 16 and has also got a part time job so we won't need to give him pocket money.

We've lowered our pension contributions.

I think a lot of people will turn to the more 'victimless' crimes - shoplifting food, bypassing electric meter, falsely claiming coincil tax single occupancy discount etc.

Thank fuck I’m on a fixed rate with my mortgage until mid 2024. DC2 will qualify for 30 hours funded in September 2023. I’m on my knees with exhaustion working FT, looking after 2DC and the housework. I was hoping to go part time, but that has gone out the window due as everything has gone up so much. However, my hand may be forced as DC2 has additional needs so I don’t know how I will manage to work FT plus do any hour of therapy every night plus spend time with DC1 plus cook meals/do housework etc.

Increase my working hours

This.

We have very little that we could cut back on. We already don’t have holidays or restaurant meals, we buy the minimum of new clothes, the heating is on as little as we can stand. I could perhaps save a fiver a week by not having a coffee when I walk the dog - but how much will that help? If the cost of living rises above what we can afford then we’ll have to start putting things on a credit card. Probably build up a huge debt, then spend years paying it back - or maybe not pay it off at all if we’re still unable to.