What does the credit crunch mean to you?

[chelsygirl]

I#m watching what we spend as we are skint, having to really tighten up

what about you all?

Nothing ... at the moment.
Though all the hype has been good in that it makes me think twice before buying "3 for 2" offers.
Have also noticed prices creeping up in supermarket

yes, even the basics are expensive, not to mention petrol...............

Haven't got a car at the moment, only because it failed the mot. Haven't missed buying petrol or going to Sainsburys. Have been walking everywhere and going to my local lidl.
Nothing to do with the credit crunch, but has made me think about what and how I spend.
Am off to buy a new car today, but will definately walk more than I have been in the past!

Just generally being a bit more careful. Thinking twice before splurging.

Only really buying what I need and what I can afford, luxeries are out of the window.

Biggest expense for us is fuel, but Tesco is now down to 112.9 and if you spend over £50 instore, you get 5p off a litre voucher.

We live in London, so don;t use the car often. But next car we buy will be a more economical diesel one - good for the purse, good for the environment

It means a tighter budget for the household and fewer luxuries ..

I also worry about my husband's job - it is our only income - and banks are infamous in cutting staff when the going gets tough!!

really thinking about what i spend... how much i use the car.. when i get rid of this car will be buying one on the lower tax bracket .. although the one i have currently is a xsara picasso so hardly a big gas guzzler. trying to reuse, recycle and mend and not buy unecessary stuff

for me, it is the £5 here and there for this and that that adds up so really resisting urge to impulse buy

I add up the shopping as I go round and stop when I get to £100! Sadly the wine's in the last aisle so we're practically teetotal.

We'll be paying a big chunk off the mortgage when our 2 yr deal runs out in Spring, so the payments won't go up.

less petrol. less food for our budget, no telly during the day - have a battery run radio instead. 'picnics' if we're out for the day with squash instead of buying something out, and if we do have to buy something out DS/I share a sandwich. days out are now a train ride and walking the other end in the park or beach instead of things costing money as it were.

the prices of everything is going up, and as mum keeps telling me it's only going to get worse she thinks this time around they've less money floating about than in the 80's/90's - and this time she has a much better job/no mortgage.

shop in morrisons rather than ocado and just generally more worrid about money and the cost of things going up and up.

feel more cautious than usual, although that might be a good thing in mycase.

Not a huge amount, just have to watch the wine intake as I can't just splurge on bottles of wine as and when I fancy it and watch the luxury food items like fancying the odd peice of steak for tea.

I havent dropped brands or anything like that.

I've always shopped in Aldi despite DH and I earning good salaries because we don't believe in spending more than one has to. Consequently unaffected by credit crunch.

I have noticed that Aldi is much busier and a lot of people bring Waitrose, M&S or Tesco bags for their shopping.

I didn't think it had affected it that much but it has. We can't sell our house so we are renting it out and renting where we are moving. We have rented a more modest house than we would have done. We were going to use our inheritance towards a new house, a nice holiday and a campervan. Instead we have saved some and used the rest to clear our debts. We were also planning to have a baby next year and that wont be happening now.

It means i am glad i have unemployment insurance so that if i get made redundant (likely as am in construction related sector) at least the mortgage and bills are covered.

I'm returning to work full time for a year rather than part time. Not just because of increasing prices, but it was a factor.

on Fridays I now go to Lidl for my weekly "let's see how much we can get for £20 shop"

I feel really fortunate, as we've got no debt and are pretty thrifty in our habits, so the credit crunch hasn't directly affected us too much so far. In fact the biggest change has been that we now have a realistic shot at buying a house if we want to! Baby due in four weeks though, so expenditure likely to change after that

1)avoiding local garage at all costs-
petrol too dear
too tempting to buy £10-20 worth of treats and mags
non essential journey in a car( it is a mile away)
2) stocking up on cheap logs for fireplace which has a back boiler for heating water
planning to NOT use oil during september and october if possible
3)Cancelled holiday in Rep of ireland on account of 200 mile drive, and general cost of a week away. Planning to stay in our garden instead
4) Staring to buy Xmas pressies in the sales now- bit by bit.
5)Growing own veg

It has so far caused:

A drop in customers to my business coupled with more expensive costs, mening much less money made

all bills going up, making it harder and harder to pay for everything

food prices also going up, already on basics so a bit of going hungry in order to ensure DS gets a healthy diet

Landlord putting the rent up to a price I cannot afford, all other property equally as expensive now, so the prospect of being homeless in two months looming over my head.

can you not rent your house out smallwhte cat, rentals are booming at the moment.

The Credit Crunch doesn't mean anything to me as we aren't planning on moving house or getting any loans.

Inflation is more worrying, but we have scope for cutting back (eg we drink too much wine, so could put that money into essentials).