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

tooldle

I agree, good public transport is essential. Our council offers free buses over weekends in the school holidays. These buses are wedged. Employers can do their bit in offering discounted passes. I have at times owned a car and sold my most recent car back in 2007. I can walk, cycle or use the bus. On occasion I use the train or a hire car. Enterprise car club is due to arrive in our city shortly and I’ll give this due consideration. Most cars are parked up for 95% of their life,  so are very expensive when all the costs are taken into account. Persuading people to give up owning a car and to try a club or public transport is a whole different ball game, even with the costs laid bare. 

Brambling

I live a couple of miles from town and in 17 years I've caught the bus twice, I usually walk both ways, if I know I'm going to have heavy bags I'll park at my sister's which is half way. There is a regular hourly bus but as it takes the scenic route it takes longer to get back from town than walking over 45 mins and is so expensive.  However I do know there are a regular group of retired people with bus passes who go down  most days and use the long journey to gossip. When I go into the office it's a 14 mile drive and TBH I wouldn't have taken the job if I couldn't drive as there are no direct busses or trains

Rosa_Damascena

TheAble said:

Unfortunately, for landlords there haven't been many good news stories over the past few years. Taxes have increased considerably, more eco regulations and difficulties getting their houses back from non-paying tenants. Many have thrown in the towel and sold up and you can't really blame them. Fewer rental houses available and increased rents is the consequence. 

Forgive me if I can't find much sympathy for LLs, they are making plenty of equity from their multiple properties. But equally I do wonder what the rush to go out and co-habit / rent is, why not stay in the family home and save if work is commutable.

Overall I'm very grateful to have been born in 1973.

Woolsery

Rosa_Damascena said:

TheAble said:

Unfortunately, for landlords there haven't been many good news stories over the past few years. Taxes have increased considerably, more eco regulations and difficulties getting their houses back from non-paying tenants. Many have thrown in the towel and sold up and you can't really blame them. Fewer rental houses available and increased rents is the consequence. 

Forgive me if I can't find much sympathy for LLs, they are making plenty of equity from their multiple properties. But equally I do wonder what the rush to go out and co-habit / rent is, why not stay in the family home and save if work is commutable.

Overall I'm very grateful to have been born in 1973.

Landlords with multi HMOs run rather poorly are probably still raking it in, especially in university towns, but 'accidental' and small time landlords doing a decent job are finding things much harder now for the reasons TheAble says.

My daughter's landlord in Bristol has been fair, but he wants them out now in order to sell before recession hits and the price bubble bursts. He and they know full well it could be 12 months before he gains possession under current circumstances, so they've negotiated a longer notice period.

Pressure on city housing is intense, so we've decided to take a punt on allowing daughter and husband to site a mobile home in our garden, now working from home is possible. We'll keep our fingers crossed there's no run-in with the council. Even if there is, it could take years for enforcement and meanwhile they'll be amassing funds. That's our 2022 version of 'staying in the family home.'

Ten years ago we wouldn't have thought this way. The problem doesn't originate from wealthy landlords, but from a political failure to tackle the housing crisis. Push people hard enough and they'll push back with whatever means they possess. We're lucky having the space to do this and it will hurt no one. It's the rural version of 'beds in sheds' and, hopefully, a little more comfortable!

[Deleted User]

Good morning everyone

It has been a little while since I posted on here. Linger, slightly warmer days means much more time spent outside with the animals, sowing and tending to fruit and veg and generally enjoying the fresh air.

I received my April electric bill yesterday and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I’d geared myself up for a shocker.

My March bill on the old rates was £66. My April bill on the new rates was £82.55. An increase yes, but I was expecting it to be well over £100. I’ll get that paid today and keep a very careful eye on our May use (we are aiming for 3kw/h per day max).

I can also honestly say I haven’t seen too many price rises on food round here yet. My local Lidl which is where I mainly shop at is still very reasonable and always has an abundance of the £1.50 F&V boxes which helps so much.

October is more of a concern when the price of energy rises again, so I am continuing my winter prep and chopping wood, collecting kindling and buying coal in advance. We will be relying solely on both woodburners this winter for heat.

Take care all, keep smiling and as Dory would say Keep Swimming xx

arnoldy

ladyholly said:

To change the discussion a little I really do think that government should do more to support public transport. It would nelp with the pollution problems, climate change etc. In my area some years ago the bus company had an experiment whereby fares to our nearest big city about 25 miles away were slashed to be very cheap (I cant remeber the exact amount) and guess what the buses were full.

The lack of public transport is one of the curses of the internet shopping & van delivery culture. Why get on a bus when you can anything  done for you by tapping away on a keyboard. It also affects things like village shops. Time maybe to tax deliveries at £1 each or so to reflect the true social cost of this business model?

leftatthetrafficlights

My CT rebate has finally hit my bank account- I'm leaving it in my current account so that it's available for my bills in the autumn when the prices will rise again. 

Like you @asparklyblonde, I'm trying to think more about preparing for the winter so have stocked up on logs (got to love a log pile - looks so pretty!) and will look at buying a bag or two of coal every week during the summer but if I can get some storage sorted I'll investigate a bulk delivery if possible. 

Need to do another food inventory too - although my storecupboard is very healthy, there are a few things that I use regularly that will need topping up so I'm going to write a list and keep an eye on when they are on offer to stock up. 

I really need to sort out my washing line and buy some more pegs - I've got one of those 'fold up, attached to the wall' lines and I'm ashamed to say that it's spent more time as a bug house than a washing line 🤦‍♀️ the next sunny day we get, I'm cleaning it off and bringing it back into use! 

Spendless

Rosa_Damascena said:

TheAble said:

Unfortunately, for landlords there haven't been many good news stories over the past few years. Taxes have increased considerably, more eco regulations and difficulties getting their houses back from non-paying tenants. Many have thrown in the towel and sold up and you can't really blame them. Fewer rental houses available and increased rents is the consequence. 

Forgive me if I can't find much sympathy for LLs, they are making plenty of equity from their multiple properties. But equally I do wonder what the rush to go out and co-habit / rent is, why not stay in the family home and save if work is commutable.

Overall I'm very grateful to have been born in 1973.

My guess is it's due to a lot of younger folk now moving out (term time at least) at around 18 to go to Uni. I have that sort of situation with both my 2. Eldest (22) finishes his degree at the end of next week. He has met his fiancée at Uni and they have plans to wed next year. The options on the table are both come back to us (better transport links to other places, less room at our house especially if DD remains here f-time), both go back to her parents (more room but not as good commuting options for DS and relevant work) or for DS to go where more vacancies are and both move away.

DD who is 19 finds herself in a more frustrating to her situation. Since the Autumn she spent 6 months attending a drama school in Scotland. Though the accommodation is still paid for until mid July, she got a job within commuting distance of here working as an actor at an immersive experience tourist attraction. It's p-time, seasonal work but currently it's probably mid season with the customers either adult parties or school trips (it's also educational based). When she's trained (as in learnt more scripts) and it's high season she should get more hours. She's also still applying for HE courses. Having had a taste of living from parents, she doesn't fully enjoy being back here and under all our house rules but she's not earning enough or in the position where she can do anything about moving out - if she had a long term working partner, it'd be something she'd be looking at. 

Re - fares, until around the mid 80s bus fares at least where I lived were subsidised. I only ever paid 10p per journey for however long is was (change buses for another leg and you'd be required to pay another 10p). It was a huge help in the days of my first experience of working. 

Rosa_Damascena

Spendless said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

TheAble said:

Unfortunately, for landlords there haven't been many good news stories over the past few years. Taxes have increased considerably, more eco regulations and difficulties getting their houses back from non-paying tenants. Many have thrown in the towel and sold up and you can't really blame them. Fewer rental houses available and increased rents is the consequence. 

Forgive me if I can't find much sympathy for LLs, they are making plenty of equity from their multiple properties. But equally I do wonder what the rush to go out and co-habit / rent is, why not stay in the family home and save if work is commutable.

Overall I'm very grateful to have been born in 1973.

My guess is it's due to a lot of younger folk now moving out (term time at least) at around 18 to go to Uni. I have that sort of situation with both my 2. Eldest (22) finishes his degree at the end of next week. He has met his fiancée at Uni and they have plans to wed next year. The options on the table are both come back to us (better transport links to other places, less room at our house especially if DD remains here f-time), both go back to her parents (more room but not as good commuting options for DS and relevant work) or for DS to go where more vacancies are and both move away.

DD who is 19 finds herself in a more frustrating to her situation. Since the Autumn she spent 6 months attending a drama school in Scotland. Though the accommodation is still paid for until mid July, she got a job within commuting distance of here working as an actor at an immersive experience tourist attraction. It's p-time, seasonal work but currently it's probably mid season with the customers either adult parties or school trips (it's also educational based). When she's trained (as in learnt more scripts) and it's high season she should get more hours. She's also still applying for HE courses. Having had a taste of living from parents, she doesn't fully enjoy being back here and under all our house rules but she's not earning enough or in the position where she can do anything about moving out - if she had a long term working partner, it'd be something she'd be looking at. 

Re - fares, until around the mid 80s bus fares at least where I lived were subsidised. I only ever paid 10p per journey for however long is was (change buses for another leg and you'd be required to pay another 10p). It was a huge help in the days of my first experience of working. 

Wedding young is nothing new and opportunities were far more limited in previous generations. No grown up likes living by another's rules but that was all the more incentive to prepare for the future: patience and saving were a standard approach back then. There's still an element of saving (although far less at the end of the month to save) but fewer of the younger generations who are used to having what they want in real time would pass the Marshmallow Test.

Today I have heard stories about people eating one meal a day so their kids can eat. Whilst the sacrifice is understandable, I was a bit surprised that adults expect to eat 3 times a day. Do they?

OrkneyStar

EssexHebridean said:

Cheesephetamine said:

Brambling said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Average monthly rent is over £1k, how do people on the national minimum wage manage?!

In many cases they don't! Average rent prices here for three bedroom house is £1550 making it impossible to save to buy and social housing as scarce as hen's teeth.  TBH I've heard trying to buy here is almost impossible too with EA only arranging open houses and some asking for sealed bids within two hours of viewing and then giving you one chance to increase your bid even if you are the highest bidder

I've worked from home since March 2020 additional household bills aren't covered by what I'm saving on petrol it's just as well I have a supply of thick woolies!  Unfortunately as a single person household some bills are always going to be the same as multiple households.

I live in a decent sized two bedroom semidetached house In the south/east, 45 mins away from the city by train, with a HUGE garden and pay £850 for rent. Where are those prices at??? London??? 

Could be an awful lot of places - the area I work in is outskirts of London and would be well above that level for a 3 bed house. I just did a Zoopla search for similar sort of properties in oxford - that indicates that the lowest you're likely to find is around £1400 and most are in the £1700 - £1800 range as a minimum, Chelmsford is slightly lower than Brambling remarked on, but once you start looking down in places like Kent you're edging nearer to £2k a month. Even in the area I live in which is generally on the low side of the property market price wise, you're not going to get a house of any description for below £1k a month - not a chance!

@OrkneyStar I believe the Orkney co-ops are on the "special system" the same as the Hebrides ones are - this means they have differing reductions policies to the mainland stores as they are expected to price items to sell almost at all costs, rather than the mainland stores not dropping below a certain level. This system can sometimes meet with issues when someone new starts looking after the ordering side - some years ago with a new person at the helm at the co-op head office the order from the Barra store for Turkeys ahead of Christmas flagged up as being incorrect - it's a little teeny tiny store, smaller than most areas "convenience" type model, so when the order for something like 100+ turkeys was seen, the assumption was that it was incorrect and someone had mistyped....thankfully the alteration down to something like 10% of the originally requested amount was picked up on ahead of the vehicle being loaded at the warehouse - it would have caused chaos otherwise and left the majority of the islanders with no christmas dinner! 

I have no idea what other Coops do, I just know what we did when we worked there.  I do remember an an incident where the dairy manager ordered a pile load of chicken which he 'thought' was still on offer. It wasn't. It all had to be reduced to even attempt to sell it, as it was fairly pricey and there was a lot of it! Unhappy manager as a result. 

Regarding the rents thing, my days of renting are long gone but I am thankful it was in the days where it was affordable (maybe not cheap but affordable) and I was able to buy my flat (which I no longer own) after saving for a few years (not the ridiculous amount of time it would take to save any sort of deposit, on am average income, nowadays). I really feel for those who are paying out so much of their income on rent. I realise not all landlords are making profits, some are simply making a little income on top of an expensive mortgage.  It just seems like it's challenge after challenge, yes all generations have challenges but the current cost of living situation is shocking, and of course hits those with the least to start with the hardest.