not as comfortable as you were

[unicornwonders]

i know this is on a lot of people’s minds but i’m struggling a bit processing how many cut backs we’ve had to make. i’m great full that we still have food on the table and small things but we used to have days out, holidays, meals out etc. and it sucks going without we’ve done everything we can to maximise income and keep bills down etc but there’s been a lot of cutbacks and i’m struggling with it i know we’re in a better position that others but i don’t know how to deal with the fact that we’ve already lost a lot of things and there’s probably a lot more to come. It’s becoming really stressful, how is everyone else managing with this?

This is going to sound properly sanctimonious (especially as I’m not struggling too much yet), but honestly I think of my late mum and my late gran a lot. Both lived very tough lives and worked very hard, and there was never much money to go round. But my childhood was good overall. I was self-conscious of having less than peers at secondary school and the teasing from friends and bullying from others for having the wrong trainers/hair/bag/home/car/holiday did chip away at my confidence. But I learned to make do with less, and be content - and also to strive to better myself.

It’s not really an easy thing to grapple with “cutting your cloth” as an adult. Especially when the situation looks unrelenting and you can’t sleep for worry.

I do also find that winter is the absolute worst time to be struggling financially as bills are high and it’s too dark. I need to absorb sunlight, enjoy being outside, wake up in daylight so I’m counting the days until spring.

It helps that my parents brought me up to be more spiritual than material. Genuinely helps. To enjoy nature, library books, home-cooked food, a bike ride, a church service and coffee on Sundays, a visit from or to friends. We read, tend the garden, learn new card games and play puzzles and board games, watch TV and listen to radio and music.

We remind ourselves that travelling less and spending less is a good thing. That buying local seasonal food is better for the environment.

and we still give to charity, and the direct debit to the foodbank every month does make me pause and think. Sometimes I want to cancel it and spend the money on myself but I remind myself to be grateful, and to give is good for my soul. Or something like that.

This is all a bit of a ramble.

just remember if you’re managing to cut back and cope, you focus on your pride in doing that - it is not easy to give up nice things - and definitely don’t compare to others because that will ramp up your anxiety and misery about the situation.

It’s shit OP - I’m telling myself every generation has a recession and financial issues. It won’t last forever and I will try and earn more money.

I have started to buy more Nive a skincare and found it just as good as high end and way way cheaper. In fact I have stopped using a face mask as I no longer need to.

I do green juicing too though but alternate days to help costs.

this

I'm a millennial, I've had two recessions in my lifetime I was born for this shit. Never had "the good times".

Yes it sucks and it's probably never going to get better, but no point dwelling on what we don't have just be thankful for what we do have.

It is bad, and significantly worse than before. The Tories have already cut far too much - and in doing so trashed growth - the economy was recovering quite nicely under Darling.

I’ve had a really difficult life so this shit is just another crappy time. It’s probably easier for me as I’ve never lived up to the money we have coming in. As long as we can pay for the house and eat, the kids have what they need etc I couldn’t give a shit about holidays or meals out.

Same sort of message as above really. We have been preparing for this for the last 12 years since DH was made redundant and we really struggled. We have lived well under our means since then, when everyone else was enjoying days out and meals out we kept building up our savings ready for it all hitting the fan again.

We are pretty good at doing things on the cheap. All our shopping is Aldi, Lidl, B&M and HomeBargains. I've learned to cook all our favourite foods we used to eat out and now prefer eating at home. I utilise vouchers, cashback credit cards, cashback and receipt apps to maximise money back from everything we spend.

It's a mindset change from it's not fair, we can't do fun stuff to look at what fun stuff we've done at little cost. Minimalism blogs helped me through the worst of feeling hard done by.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ListoffrecessionsinntheUnitedd_Kingdom

Most of us have lived through a good few

This is lovely and so true.

We are just getting on with it
It is not the end of the world

No it was not
Darling was an idiot
When he left he left a note to say - there is no money left

I am not a tory voter but they did not invade Ukraine which has resulted in huge rises in food and fuel
They has the best vaccina programme in the world
Furlough kept million of people in a job and thousand of companies are going that would have closed without it

Yes totally agree. We have cut down everything...food shop, going out, holidays, clothes. Dh works...I'm retired.
Depressing. Not the life I envisaged. But as you say, a hell of a lot better than most. We will bring forward downsizing to the next 18 months which will release a fair bit. At least we have that option.

You are just getting a taste of what people on low incomes feel like. Obviously no one cared about that until they, the more wealthy, start feeling it. 🤷‍♀️ You get used to it.

Yep, we've lived like this for years. Im not seeing a whole lot of difference.

Furlough kept million of people in a job and thousand of companies are going that would have closed without it they'll all go under now thanks to crippling energy prices and scaled back government help

That's that lovely race to the bottom the UK media has been pushing for a while.
Ironically it isnt the wealthy that will suffer a change in lifestyle- it's people like me who just probably fall outside the limits for help from the government. Sad that you're told to be grateful in the UK if working full time you can afford food.

I was referring to not being able to afford holidays. Not food which the OP wasn't talking about. I meant it is only a cost of living crisis now it is touching the more well off but carry on reading things that I didn't say.

Interesting if you look at the history you often get a lift for for bottom people , a move to a more equal society after the larger recessions

Possibly shoving more people into the bottom heap of barely surviving makes the rich guilty or scared of having so many people with nothing to lose

I’m a massive saver and don’t have any dependents, and can cut back to very little (how fun…!). Regardless, I give to charity quite a lot as know what it’s like to be a poor kid with not enough food around.

But:

• that’s miserable for me to make cut backs
• private individuals shouldn’t need to raise so much money for others in this country - the state security should be much stronger at this time. I give and will always help, but am scared if some of the rich lot decide to stop (eg trusts) as we’re at the mercy of rich ppl philanthropy rather than having a properly reliable source of help for people.
• I can’t plan for the future - can’t buy a house, start a family with confidence, know I won’t be let go from my job etc. It’s like another lockdown in that respect.

What part of Global Economic Crisis did you not understand? The sub-prime mortgage crisis started in the US and no one was immune. The actions of Brown and Darling probably saved us from a total banking collapse.
The note was a (really, really bad idea) joke and Darling didn't write it.

The complete lie that Labour crashed the economy has been trumpeted by the Tories for the last 13-odd years.
OTOH, Truss and Kwarteng managed to do it pretty much overnight.

The poor can only be squeezed for money so far. The landed elite that make up the government aren't prepared to make sacrifices themselves, or let their Eton buddies pay out a fair share, so it's had to be the middle classes that are squeezed now to pay for brexit/furlough/eat out to help out/war/gas prices.

Not everyone is feeling the crunch. Some people in UK have done very well over the last 5 years. That's what makes my blood boil.

i was never exactly wealthy just enough to be comfortable and have the odd treat, but when that’s sucked back too it’s kind of like well what do you have to look forward to? we’ve cut back all extras and my daughter misses out on days out etc and it’s awful and leaves me filled with guilt yes she has what she needs and i’m great full but she’s noticing a difference in her life

How old is she? Is she old enough to be told why that is happening? I think even a young child you can say "mummy has no money today."

This is so obtuse, it’s not anyone in the uks fault energy prices are going up, and as a country we cannot afford to support everyone. So help,will be given where it’s needed most. We don’t have a blank check book.

it’s fucking crazy how some folks think we can pay for furlough, pay for energy, pay for everything but when taxes do actually increase everyone freaks. We have a set amount of money . We can’t keep bloody borrowing to pay everyone’s fuel bills