How has the cost of living affected your day-to-day life?

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For us, we are noticing a real change in our diet. Now we have a number of 'cheap meals' a week and just one or two meals that involve meat or any expense over a couple of quid. We also haven't been able to afford a summer holiday last year or this year. Just wondering how it is impacting other families?

We live more frugally than we ever have before despite our earned income not drastically changing.

We were quite frugal to start with in general. But from this we were able to take like hotel-stays, extra minivacaciones plus save up on the side for investments.

We continue to cook from scratch, but now we are more carefully considering the choices. Like fish is very rare since it's very expensive around here. We used to buy like very quality beef a lot and now there's more minced meat and chicked. Also liek the whole snacks area has gone down.

I used to enjoy cosmetitian a lot on a regular basics- body treatments, pedicures, different face treatments, doing my brows etc. Ive cut that out pretty much entirely and just do home treatments

We don't do the hotels stays and minivacations anymore. For this year we are mainly planning just one vacation abroad for like 1-2 weeks. We have done some like higher end stuff like all-inclusive, but this year will possibly be more of a budget travel

We were kind of considering between different options like buying a house with a garden with mortgage etc... as it seems very risky right now, we will just buy like a medium appartment this year. At least no loans.

We are both building on strategies to have like second-third incomes. Before Ive never sort of worked for money, but now i'm sometimes focusing like on the ways that would possibly improve my salary and all that.

Like the daily/weekly going outs is basically just walks in the part in the cities haha!! Like the events when you buy tickets for it are very rare and we kind of carefully consider the worth. Neither of us were interested on like take-aways, restaurants and all that, but I mean, now it's like zero of those XD

I don't do subscriptions almost any whereas before i could easily be hooked on some like suibscription for 6 month even if i barely used that

The things that i haven't changed - If i am going to buy like a wearable item, i'm always going for the quality. Usually not the higherhigher end, but for example Lilysilk type stuff. I still buy some of more like luxury items for myself and gifts for the family etc. My biggest recently was like a 4000EUR watch for hubby for our anniversary and i dont regret that at all. When we have to buy an item for home, we just go for the quality and what seems reasonable. I also still tend to spend on like selfcare and cosmetics quite a lot. I do go to gym also..

That said, reading through the comments was so therapeutic somehow...
I will now actually start like exact budgeting again and see to cut down the expenses.

As others have said. Our life is just a bit more boring now.
Pre-covid when Dh and I were dating but not cohabiting we would go out for dinner or drinks every week. Both our salaries were lower and our bills were higher (in theory) as we were both living alone/with flatmates. Now on dual income and sharing a (tiny!) one bed and we never go out for dinner. Even Pizza Express is too spenny. We stay in and watch netflix most weekends.
Already shopped at Aldi/Lidl but now count the cost of every meal to see
We can afford holidays, if we don't buy clothes/home stuff/social things. Or we can afford to improve the flat, if we don't go on holiday.
We are much more attuned to our finances, both personally and as a couple; no reckless use of credit, we budget sensibly, we appreciate what we spend our money on. If and when I build my work up again we should be able to start saving for a deposit with the changes we've made. We are fortunate that we can always pay rent, buy food, and have a bit of fun too. But it just wasn't what I pictured for myself five years ago when I was skint af but living alone in London and working part time trying to get a foot in the door in my industry. I didn't think that my own take-home doubling and becoming a dual income household would mean I was still scanning every supermarket for coupons and yellow stickers 😂

When I earned £10k a year and DH same we went on holidays to Spain every year. The pub on Friday/Saturday and a nightclub every month.

We ate out every week and very often had days out.

Our mortgage and bills was £500 a month. I was 25.

Now I do NONE of the above - never any holidays and £7000 of direct debits/standing orders a month a month. All we do is work and provide for grown up children/elderly family members.

@LaurieFairyCake £7k in direct debits a month? That sounds insane!

I've always bought own brand foods not top brands
We don't eat expensive meals so not necessarily the healthiest but the cheapest not ideal but it is what it is theirs only 2 of us so not a huge issue
Don't bother using heating much leave most lights off where possible
Takeaway is a monthly treat
We don't do Christmas tbh so that doesn't cost us much only do Christmas dinner
No presents exchanged
Birthdays we save up 5 months in advance and do special things we would like rather than loads of presents
No sky TV etc sim only deals
Holidays one a year it'll be a cheapy one in the UK or abroad depending on what's the best deal
Clothes all second hand vinted

We done a treat night the other night and went to the cinema which was very expensive so won't be doing that again in a hurry 😳

It makes sorting out the monthly budget a bit more frustrating and engaging than it used to; and I just can't make it go as far as I want,or it would have five years ago. We have essentials covered,and a little spare,but stuff often seem to come up so it's hard to build up a buffer quickly

I am conscious not to waste energy in an attempt to keep my bills low. Before I would put the tumble dryer on without thinking but now I only use it once clothes are 99% dry to soften them up. Meals are cooked in the Ninja where possible. Takeaways were weekly but now monthly

At one point I stopped having my eyebrows and nails done but then I realised I felt so much happier when they were done as I feel more presentable. I’ve switched from a full head of highlights to growing my natural colour out so now I only pay for a cut and blow dry every three months.

I don’t smoke, very rarely drink, I’m not a coffee person and nobody really socialises anymore so life is pretty dull these days.

We’ve stopped eating out as much as we use to. I’ve also stopped having anything like massages/manicure/hair cuts. I haven’t brought any new clothes for about a year. Haven’t brought new shoes for about 3 years.

We've been frugal for the last 10yrs but it has gotten tougher recently. Not been abroad since 2019. Always shop in Lidl/ Aldi and B&M. Only eat Pork and Chicken, priced out of beef and lamb. Rarely get a takeaway, if we do we share a value box/ set meal that will last us at least 2 days for around £35. Either buy stuff second hand or at the cheapest shops I can find or do without.

Reading all these comments has made me wonder how businesses survive when we’ve all cut back on takeaways, the pub, meals out and beauty treatments. Going from having customers who visit once a week to monthly or never must be crippling.

Same here... no alcohol. Looking back I used to drink a lot, now I might have the occasional beer or glass of wine, just the one. Lots of benefits plus it contributed towards me losing weight.

We were out yesterday had a soup each , dh had a cake afterwards & 2 teas , it came to £26.40 !

I think they’ve put prices up tbh. I don’t tend to do takeaway but I get a 7:50 lunch allowance from work. It was £4.95 for a latte and £4.50 for a scone in an independent cafe the other. It’s a very nice cafe (I needed the loo tbh) and it was busy so some people obviously have some £££. No idea when it became acceptable to charge a fiver for coffee I’m very much at the £2.50 ish internally.

We are over 50 and both reduced our working hours recently, so have to be careful with money.
We walk a lot, read books from the library, you can order in books you want online, so don't have to read what's displayed on the library shelves.
We don't eat out unless it's a special occasion, my husband is a good cook so we eat at home, or take picnics and flasks on days out, to eat in the car, which we love.
We do have TV subscriptions but only one at a time, watch everything we want then swop it out for a different network.
I cut my own hair and have never had my nails done etc but they look fine.
We save a little each month, and the more we save the more I don't want to fritter money away on things I don't need. I would rather have a night away a few times a year instead.

We do fakeaways now, instead of takeaway, as it just got to expensive and was usually rubbish food anyway. We always take a flask/snacks if we're going out for the day. Don't colour my hair anymore, I've embraced the grey! and leave longer between cuts, do my own nails and brows. We shop to a budget and try to meal plan and to avoid waste.
Buy everything we need second hand usually, Vinted, ebay, car boots sales, charity shops, apart from underwear. Kept a close eye on energy consumption in an effort to keep the bills down, no sky TV, Netflix etc, sim only contracts for phones,

I cut my gym membership and Spotify.

Rarely eat out or takeaways or go to the pub but I do like a coffee out which is not as often maybe once a fortnight. Buying all clothes from charity shops or in the sales. It must be hitting retailers and the hospitality sector. The basic costs to live have risen so much in 2 years that it’s quite scary.