Is the 'credit crunch' affecting your life?

[LyraSilvertongue]

There's been so much in the news about the credit crunch, rising food, petrol and utility costs etc over the last few months.
But is it really affecting your life?
Personally I haven't seen much of a difference. I don't use the car that much and I buy lots of special offers in Sainsbury's the keep costs down.
Who's really been affected by the current state of the economy?

Well it cost me £67 to fill my tank this week, usually £50 and my shop was £140 (usually £110ish)

Malory you can have my shed - for a price

has electric and water!

blimey piffle, surely changing job so he doesn't have a 2 hour each way commute is a good thing anyway though?

Diesel consumption is not too bad, We have to drop DD off at nursery and pick her up and do butchers/po on the way. Tescos deliver and we don't go vast distances anyway spending about £30 a week on diesel. It is the oil, we have been careful and our last delivery for hot water only has lasted us well over 2 months, but the 1000 litres vefore that lasted 6 weeks and cost over £500, needless to say this summer we are insulating like mad.

SP the thread concluded as much! Tonight him and I Talk About Things!

It means I have had to reduce my apartment by a few grand to sell it but the houses I am looking at a being reduced by more than a few grand. So, this might be a positive impact.

I have had to stop using the car. It used to cost £38 to fill it up, when we got it two years ago. Yesterday filled it right up for the first time, and it cost £56.00 . Positively - means I have to walk to work, which is no bad thing as I should be doing that anyway

Gas/electricity has gone up a lot - but its now summer so should not impact too much, and we have changed ALL our lightbulbs to energy, turn off lights as we should have been anyway, that kind of thing.

Credit cards have hiked their interest prices up - impacting quite majorly right now, cant get another card yet as dont want to do a credit check due to buying another property - this wont be long term tho as card will be gone in a few months completely.

SO yes, it is impacting, but it is making us change the way we live, less extravagant, think more about when we drive, when we use our credit cards, where we will buy our house, how much energy we use that kind of thing.

I think the extent to which you feel "crunched" is going to depend on how much you see a 10-20% rise in food and fuel costs as being a Big Thing.

If a 20p pack of sweets went up to 25p I probably wouldn't notice it, although DD might notice the impact on her pocket-money.

Similarly, I expect some people on six-figure salaries don't notice the difference between the weekly food shop being £100 and it being £120. But for some of us it makes a big difference, and I expect for some people it's life or death.

Yeh, I agree with that - unfortunately a six figure salary has always eluded me!! I've noticed a big difference in things like heating oil, petrol, the weekly shop etc - it might not be much if one or two things go up but it seems like everything is and that can be scary!

Sophiewd - we run a B&B also, and haven't noticed a drop in business yet. My worry is heating in winter - you can't tell the guests just to put another jumper on!

That's my concern also dweezle, but they seem to appear at weekends only in winter so we just turn it off during the week, where abouts are you?

Yep, our food prices have gone up and since i already shop at the cheapest places I cannot get cheaper prices.
We are blessed in the fact that we are loan-free, apart from the mortgage which will be flying up next month .
Petrol costs of course are ridiculous, we were using a big truck-type thing from work until the company car was delivered, and we spent £140 in petrol/diesel in a week - That's almost our monthly budget.
Although we are in a better situation than most,it still stings like mad, and my dreams of sahm have floated away, and back to work for me soon. I must admit that I expected to hear of more people going bankrupt and really struggling to make ends meet, but I guess the banks are trying to be a little lenient so that our economy doesn't fall on it's arse so quickly.

DP is an IT contractor, currently working for a big high street bank and he's had to take a 10% pay cut, which completely swallows up the money that I have just started earning as a p/t freelance after having ds2. Fortunately, I seem to have more work than I can shake a stick at.

We're planning to move the DSs to a nursery round the corner in the summer so that will cut the petrol costs.

Food prices creep ever upward as do utilities, and yes, we do notice it, even on a pretty good salary.

I haven't read the whole thread, just scanned it, but why do people who rent think they won't be affected? In the majority of cases, rented homes are still mortgaged by somebody (landlord) who will have to pay higher mortgage and, therefore, put up rent surely?

because, somer, i can walk out on a rented home.

i can find other places to rent which are farther out and smaller and therefore the landlord won't be able to charge a higher price for it no matter what his mortgage is because something for it is better than nothing.

or i can apply for social housing.

or i can leave the area and find another where rents are cheaper.

options that aren't available if i held the mortgage.

i'm not here to make a landlord who has a mortgage to pay's life easier, i'm here to make mine easier.

Oh ok, I think I understand. But if it keeps on like this, even the cheaper rents will be more expensive than they are now, no?

no, because there will always be a) lanlords who have no mortgage b) areas that will be cheaper c) renter in a position to negotiate as landlord desperate to make at least something.

Unfortunately that doesn't apply in London for the most part. Rent is almost on a par with mortgage repayments here.

And there will always be someone who can afford the higher rent that's being asked for. And family sized accommodation is thin on the ground even in social housing.

agree with expat - if my rent was to go up i'd have to look at somewhere else - could prob stretch to an extra £25 p/m but nothing more. so would have to sacrifice the area as this place is already the smallest DS & I could comfortably have (save a 1 bed) Fingers crossed he doens't put the rent up - how likely it is I don't know if the housing market takes a down turn surly rents would as well?

a low income person who can't afford market rents can also apply for housing benefit.

not so a mortgage holder.

The other big thing with renting is that you could get housing benefit, whereas homeowners get very little help if they lsoe their job etc.

Yes, because their house is an asset that a renter does not have.

Less of an asset in a negative equity position...

Hmm, my post seems to have disappeared so sorry if I repeat myself!

A lot of landlords don't like renting to someone who hasn't got a job. One of the first things they ask for is a reference from your employer, a reference from your bank confirming you have a regular income, 2 months rent/deposit in advance and HB can take 3 months to be finalised.

Still an asset as not everyone will be in negative equity. Also, many even if they sold would still stand to gain a profit through appreciation, even if it is not as great a sum as they would have liked.