What‘s gone entirely for you / your family due to COL ?

[WhereIsTheSunshine3]

As well as cutting back on lots of things such as coffees, takeaways, meals out, using washing machine/ oven etc, there are quite a few things I’ve given up totally since cost of living has eroded disposable income :-

• Using tumble dryer
• cancelled Netflix
• monthly direct debit to charities
• giving stuff to charity shops (either keep it or sell it)
• Going to hairdresser (dye at home now)
• Cancelled cat insurance
• cancelled breakdown cover
• car cleans (used to get done every 2-3 months, now do it myself)
• Also thinking of cancelling Amazon prime when the yearly subscription comes up in May

what have you given up completely ?

Day to day nothing but we'll not have much of a holiday this year. It's an expense too far.

We're not being as careless with the heating and I'm going a couple more weeks between having my hair cut and coloured. We've also decided not to replace our second car, as it was not a necessity.

I know someone who drank water only.
He had a small stroke at 50.
Not sure if he still drinks water only. But I put two and two together there. I may be wrong. But either way, it has stoppped me going to water only.

Back along, people used to drink ale for health and wellbeing.

DH had wondered why we were so sickly in the last year or so (quite unusual for us!) And we think it's because we stopped drinking ale. So celebrated with a pint each 😂

ha ha
i dont think the water was clean though, hence the ale.
i am a frugal shopper
drink far less alcohol

School lunches. The cost went up, but portion size and quality went down.

We won’t be renewing our local farm park membership due to their price hikes either.

My careful-ish meal & shopping plan is now a super careful plan.

We can’t cut down on electricity or gas because of my youngest condition (so lots of medical equipment plugged in, multiple loads of washing, heating costs high etc) so having to be more cautious elsewhere.

Other than my job. I've had to cut down on groceries but now I have the time to prep and cook meals (whereas when I worked I spent more on quicker options!)

I cancelled our NT membership because pre 2022 - their events were all included in the membership "free for members" however since Christmas they've expected us to pay on top of NT membership fees. Which renders the membership useless.
Christmas lights, special story times, tours and now their Easter event isnt free for members either.

It was nice and useful for 10 years.

Pleasure.
Hope.
Optimism.

I use Autoaid which is far cheaper than AA, RAC etc and you can add a partner for free making it half the price if you have a partner at the same address

We are fortunate that we haven't had to give up much. We are not planning a foreign holiday this year but I'm not sure we would have done anyway. We have the thermostat set for 2 degrees less than last year but we'd could technically afford to pay more on heating, I just don't want to.

Nothing that I can think of, but we're not big spenders generally. Heating comes on when it needs to, which fortunately hasn't been that much this winter. We don't have a car, and I cut my own hair (always have done).

Having the heating on to be warm at home nearly all the time.

Take aways and family meals out.

Probably no holiday this year.

We had to cancel our 3 direct debits to charity at the start of Covid unfortunately (no furlough for my self employed husband) and have never reinstated them. I still feel guilty about that.

I never spent much on clothing or beauty treatments or anything like that so can't cut back there.

There's certain food products I won't buy now - Heinz soup and sauces, instant coffee, spreadable butter. All just too expensive, makes me wince.

Oh yes and how can I forget! the major one is having a cleaner . And our house really shows it and I'm the muggins who does 90% of the cleaning that does get done - and I hate it!

We're with Autoaid, had to call out once and they were brilliant.

I've given up shopping in sainsburys. Use Aldi now and love it. Went to sainsburys couple of weeks back to pick something up from their in store Argos. Saturday afternoon when it used to be quite busy. It was like a Wednesday morning in there so I'm guessing a lot of people like myself cannot afford to shop there anymore.

New clothes. My teen dd and I now shop only in charity shops and Vinted etc.

Tumble dryer is gathering dust and has become a cat bed when my moggy gets the hump.

Hair cuts like many others. I'm growing my grey out. I don't hate it 😁

As for holidays we stayed in a caravan last year. We'd usually book a hotel but really couldn't afford the prices. They had tripled!. So we booked the caravan and I loved it!. Got a cheap deal for this year and we won't eat out everyday, maybe twice. Will get some shopping and cook in the caravan.

Netflix went straight away.

I take a flask cup of coffee to work instead of buying in town.

I don't donate our old clothes to charity. Dd set up a clothes swap at her school. Most things go there. We found most charity shops charge a lot for clothes!.

Private therapy for a family member. This was a hard decision but they are doing very well. It just wasn't doable anymore. Still around six months till they hit the top of the nhs waiting list. Already waited 12 months!.

I've had to go full time at work to make ends meet. Which meant I am no longer able to mind my grandson two days a week. That was tough.

Oh we also stopped our direct debit to our local cat rescue. Saw last week that they are now having to close as they cannot make ends meet due to lack of donations.

We've recently cancelled DDs swimming lessons, she was at a point where we needed to decide if she was going to compete/take it seriously but she's far more interested in riding. Cancelling swimming has also meant cancelling the gym for DH and I as we don't get anywhere near enough use out of it. I love my gym, so I'm quite sad, but it's saving us £220 a month in total.

We've also cut back on food costs, traded in the diesel 7 seater for a petrol 5 seater, I've given up teacher training as just can't afford all the childcare and extra costs (fuel, professional clothes, dog sitting, cleaner etc etc).

We've also cut out takeaway coffee, paid for weekend days out (have National Trust membership and English Heritage to fill the gap). Holidays abroad will be a no-go after this year. We booked out first ever week abroad last year, to go this summer, as it's a big anniversary for us and we didn't have a honeymoon. Won't be able to do it again for the forseeable.

No new clothes other than absolute essentials.

Not putting the hot tub out all summer as can't afford to run it that much. May get it out for a month or so when the sun is at its best to capitalise on the solar generation that will offset.

We are incredibly fortunate though. We will have UK holidays, a stay at home parent (mostly due to a disabled DS, but nevertheless it's a privilege), won't be worrying about food, can continue to run two cars etc. No complaints at all.

@WhereIsTheSunshine3 join your local library for books. I am a huge reader and saves a fortune.

That said I would be wary of cancelling insurance and breakdown cover could very much be a false economy

same about heating and damp

Saving, home improvements, going out for lunch/dinner more than once a month.

Eating out/takeaways, heating.
I still give to the one animal charity I’ve supported for many years, I can imagine charities are suffering a lot as a result of people cancelling their monthly donations. Please think twice before giving up your pet insurance @WhereIsTheSunshine3, I know someone who did this and some time after they ended up with a large vet bill they couldn’t afford.

Eating out. We used to eat out every month or so but now it's maybe a couple of times a year. Travelling. We're going on less holidays and short breaks.

Haven’t used my tumble dryer since my fixed deal on electric ended in December.
I stopped buying coffee pods and have put the machine away.
disney plus gone.
no more impulse snacks for the kids whilst out.
next on my list will probably be my slimming world club.

Out of interest OP, what are you doing instead of cat insurance? What is your plan for your cat? I only say this as our first cat - we never had insurance and thankfully she was never really ill so we didn't ever have an issue with not having some.
Second cat - got insurance from kitten age as it was super cheap and I felt like it was a good idea (£7.50 a month as he's just a moggy). In his first two years of life we've had three overnight stays for him (turns out he has a bladder condition), plus he was hit by a car (he's lost at least three lives!!) and we've claimed back £3000+ from our insurance. I never expected we'd use it and I am so so glad we have it.
I'd now never cancel or go without pet insurance. But absolutely can see how Netflix/Prime etc can go if you have to.

We've stopped monetary donations to our church, I give my time instead.

Takeaways have gone from weekly to every 6-8 weeks and we actually enjoy it more now as really look forward to it.

Yearly trip to centerparcs has gone. Now we are staying a weekend in a premier Inn and that's it.

No popping out for a pizza with my teens if we were in town and just fancied it. Now we just eat at home or a takeaway sausage roll or similar on a bench.

In opposition to my username I've cut right back on takeaway coffee. It used to be 3 times a week now it's once (with one DC while waiting for another to finish a club)

Stretched out DC haircuts from every 6 weeks to every 10 or so. I only go twice a year anyway.

No heating in the day when I'm home alone. Have a heated blanket for at my desk

netflix gone
yoghurts gone - price per portion is high!
crisps - gone for now. they might be back!
mr kipling cakes - again high per portion.
church donations

I'm wondering if we need amazon prime?

i'm doing much more home cooking, a batch of flapjacks makes a lot more portions for packed lunches than one box of mr kipling cakes!