It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

nannygladys

As I've already said my dds are much more savvy with money than I have ever been, it took me years to admit I was doing things wrong, but was lucky I never accrued much debt, I just lived up to my salary and didn't save. Now as an oap I have saving pots for every bill, dd or annual bill, which I allocate to first and then divide out what is left for groceries, fuel etc. 
I'm no Angel though and still have the odd slight hiccup!!! 
I think one thing both dds do though is compare prices for everything to get the best deals and pay upfront for most things unless they want the safety of buying on a cc, and thankfully they guided me through it as well. The internet can be a wonderful tool as well as a horrible place.
So no it's not just the young, it's all ages and all groups.

thriftwizard

It's interesting that we're all seeing this as a long-term predicament, not just a little blip in the economy. Talking to people (many of them shopkeepers/traders) in & around our prosperous-seeming little town, I keep hearing, "Can't wait 'til things get back to normal!" as if Mr. Sunak could just wave a magic wand, right now, & turn the clock back. The idea that things - all sorts of things; accommodation, availability of exotic food, employment, business opportunities - may be very different in future clearly isn't occurring to many people. And yet, in a way, that's always been true! It's just that for the last 50-odd years we've been accustomed to having/desiring more & more, in a material sense. I wonder where we're going from here...?

Siebrie

I'm feeling as if with all the price rises, empty shelves, dds' and husband's preferences, and other changes, I'm loosing it a bit. I may mealplan around what I have in the house and what's in season, but if it's very expensive, or not on the sm shelf, I can't get my head around alternatives. I'm truly stumped at the sm.

If it were just me, I'd be happy with a boiled egg and a salad, but the rest of the family require more. It's a fine line between letting my dds have preferences, and them being picky, and I was the same as a child. I outgrew it, and hope the same for them, but the reality is that this week, this month, this year, I have to feed them properly.

EssexHebridean

In a funny sort of way it is possible that to a degree we - as in society generally, not us on here, we’re already enlightened! - can sort of turn the clock back a bit. By generally consuming less, demanding less and borrowing less people can change the economy, and also in time they will begin to start wanting less, as well - a situation I suspect many of us here can identify with? 

If everyone worked together to really start focusing on energy saving measures, began to shop more consciously and seasonally, began to shop more LOCALLY or at the very least using small and medium sized businesses more than huge multi-nationals, I suspect we could start seeing small changes filter through quite fast - although for many that’s not so easy. Our town has very few independent butchers left for example, and many of those there are are quite simply uninterested and apathetic - one actually opened up near us a few years ago and we were delighted- I went in soon after he opened, chose a quiet time deliberately and asked him about the provenance of his meat - quite simply not only did he seemingly not have a clue “I buy it from the market” was as good as it got, but almost worse, he seemed to have no grasps of why I was asking. Unsurprisingly we didn’t bother going back - I can get better than that by travelling a short distance to Morrisons, and FAR better than that by buying from the farmers market traders. What our town does have is an Al*i, a L1dl, A5da, Sainsbugs, no fewer than 3 T35co stores, plus a Farmfoods and a big “Food Warehouse” as well as a smaller Ic3land. And each neighbourhood has its own convenience store too of the co-op, Spar, Nisa type branding. It’s disheartening to have so much choice but to feel relatively little of it is a “good” choice. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Siebrie

My parents' 'green' butcher actually has the provenance of their meat proudly displayed, and it reads on a whiteboard (for instance): 'this week's beef is cow Joanna215, from farmer Johnson, Village Road 12, Village'. They will give you more details if you ask for them, and the farmers welcome visitors a few times a year.

GaleSF63

tooldle said:

All this talk of hot water bottles made me think of electric bed warmers. I had one, acquired from a jumble sale in the mid 70’s. It was pink in colour and basically a metal shell with a light bulb inside. Probably about the same diameter as a dinner plate. 

One of our cats appreciated the heating properties of light bulbs.  Sorry it's come out a bit big.

freyasmum

elsien said:

In defence of younger folk (I’m not one) I do think it’s important to recognise that phones/WiFi are becoming more essential in the modern world. 

Things like the higher savings rate bank account which are app only, companies which have abolished their phone lines and you can only contact online/via Twitter. 
Those who can’t afford broadband or ego don’t have it for their own reasons are becoming more disadvantaged. Tales of the old days are all very well, but we do live in a different world now. 

It's not even just banks and businesses anymore - my daughter's homework/timetables, school reports, etc - everything is done via an app. Even communication from teachers (letters re exams is either via the app or email. Which means that we need to have the app on our phones as well.

And it annoys the living daylights out of me. We get notifications on our phones when there's a new piece of homework - sometimes these come through at 1/2am on Sunday morning, or even in holidays!

EssexHebridean

Yes - the assumption that everyone uses DND overnight is one that needs to stop being made. It’s not practical for everyone to do so for a start, even if they wanted to, but the apparent theory that “oh well if you don’t use DND then it’s your own fault if you get woken up!” is disgraceful. 

Woolsery

thriftwizard said:

It's interesting that we're all seeing this as a long-term predicament, not just a little blip in the economy. Talking to people (many of them shopkeepers/traders) in & around our prosperous-seeming little town, I keep hearing, "Can't wait 'til things get back to normal!" as if Mr. Sunak could just wave a magic wand, right now, & turn the clock back. The idea that things - all sorts of things; accommodation, availability of exotic food, employment, business opportunities - may be very different in future clearly isn't occurring to many people. And yet, in a way, that's always been true! It's just that for the last 50-odd years we've been accustomed to having/desiring more & more, in a material sense. I wonder where we're going from here...?

I did have an answer regarding how I see things developing and the some entirely debatable reasons for the current state of affairs too, but MSE took it away as off-topic. Apparently we can talk about our predicament, but not speculate too much on the reasons for arriving here. All I can say is the modest pension I put into draw-down last December has since lost 1/5 of its value and I've drawn nothing yet, so if that isn't 'feeling the pinch' I don't know what is!

With regard to local meat, I'm involved in producing some very high quality lamb, but I cannot pretend to be as efficient as some corporate and other large neighbours so I think it's unlikely to turn up in Mr T's any time soon on cost grounds. The really big neighbours have converted to farming for bio gas and diesel, so their products are not even palatable now.

Looking at an aerial photo of my small home town in 1930 this week I was astonished to see how many acres were devoted to either allotments or market gardens and that gave me some pause for thought on the subject of food security. Nine years later they were needed. They're all under housing estates today.

Rosa_Damascena

OrkneyStar said:

tooldle said:

All this talk of hot water bottles made me think of electric bed warmers. I had one, acquired from a jumble sale in the mid 70’s. It was pink in colour and basically a metal shell with a light bulb inside. Probably about the same diameter as a dinner plate. 

Never heard of such a thing - did it work well? We never really had electric blankets as kids, rarely hot water bottles either, it was just another blanket on the bed. I don't remember feeling that cold. We did have double glazing, but didn't use the heating that much (it was air vent things that blew out hot air), I did have warm pyjamas and I remember drinking hot Ribena to warm me up. My teeth suffered from the Ribena, but otherwise good memories. We were happy.  

My parents had an entirely different solution - my sister and I had to share a bed and it wasn't pleasant.