Cost of Living Crisis - How are you coping?

[Deleted User]

Sorry of this isn't the right place to ask. 

When I moved into my place 7 years ago, my gas and electric bill was £65 and I actually got some of that back each other. We were out of that house for work most of the time so makes sense. Bring on the children and working from home, that nearly doubled to £120 a month. Now, my deal is set to come to an end in August and I've just been quoted £240!

Used to cost £45 to fill my car and now it's over £70. I used to visit my family once a month but now I've stopped due to petrol considerations.

My wife and I recently got pay raises and earn £55k each. We don't drive a fancy car (same one for 9 years, no debt on it) and the only bill that is not a necessity is the £60 a month we pay for the kids activities. Even our house is a very modest two bed we got for £280,000 years ago. With that said, each month we find ourselves dipping into savings or using the credit card to get by.

I just look at our salary and think if we're struggling a little, how the hell is everyone else coping? Especially those with nursery fees and, relatively, lower income. 

elsien

You’re on 110k between you. I have to be honest, I’m wondering what you are counting as a necessity if you’re having to dip into savings to get by on those salaries. 

Sea_Shell

Where is it all going?

onomatopoeia99

Deleted_User said:

My wife and I recently got pay raises and earn £55k each.

I earn less than that, and unless you are making humungous pension contributions (which is still your money) you are both going to be clearing comfortably over £3k/mo each in take home.  What is that £6k going on?  £60 for kids activities is 1% of it.  Even your revised fuel bills are only 4% of it. 

otb666

We are on 18+5=23k pa no mortgage. We have a car but kids left home now. We adjust our budget accordingly and manage fine. You need an SOA on the debt free board or a spending diary to see where your money goes.  This is non judgmental as when we had kids at home we run up 50k in debt but luckily we both got redundancy at right time

Longwalker

We are on under £30k and we are still living quite well. although we dont have children at home, we have grandchildren we help with - school uniforms, the expensive birthday / Christmas pressie, school trips 

We get by as we have no debt. My husband uses a credit card because he disciplined and pays off in full. I use clear pay or Klarna as I earn very little in comparison and only buy one thing at a time, pay it off, then go again. I do have credit cards for my credit scoring which I use once or twice a year on purchases Ive saved up to pay for, pay on the CC and pay off before the bill comes in

If you are really struggling a SOA needs to be filled in ( statement of affairs ). I understand theres one on the site somewhere, then you post that on the Debt free forum on here and people will help by pointing out where savings can be made

Things are getting tight for everyone, my diesel for example had doubled and Im dreading the electricity bill, but I still have a wee bit of wiggle room in the budget so I think we wont be too scathed. 

Its knowing the cost of everything that really helps me. I log the prices constantly, ( in my head and on electronic receipts ) and I adjust my shopping accordingly . Today for example I went to lift my usual Sunday treat of a chilled coffee, up ten pence since last Sunday - I left it ( got a perfectly good coffee machine at home )

lisyloo

Deleted_User said:

Sorry of this isn't the right place to ask. 

When I moved into my place 7 years ago, my gas and electric bill was £65 and I actually got some of that back each other. We were out of that house for work most of the time so makes sense. Bring on the children and working from home, that nearly doubled to £120 a month. Now, my deal is set to come to an end in August and I've just been quoted £240!

Used to cost £45 to fill my car and now it's over £70. I used to visit my family once a month but now I've stopped due to petrol considerations.

My wife and I recently got pay raises and earn £55k each. We don't drive a fancy car (same one for 9 years, no debt on it) and the only bill that is not a necessity is the £60 a month we pay for the kids activities. Even our house is a very modest two bed we got for £280,000 years ago. With that said, each month we find ourselves dipping into savings or using the credit card to get by.

I just look at our salary and think if we're struggling a little, how the hell is everyone else coping? Especially those with nursery fees and, relatively, lower income. 

There is something going wrong there.
ive been working on a retirement budget recently.
its around £30k. Pa but that includes £10k holidays !!, £3k car capital, £1k health, £2k house improvements, so it’s quite an “extravagant” budget for £30k.

something not adding up.

you need to do an SOA, I know exactly where my money in going, 

Keep_pedalling

I would love to know what these necessary expenditures that eat up that level of earnings are. The only big expense I can think off is private school fees.

tooldle

High mortgage and two kids in nursery / childcare/ private school, would cost a considerable chunk. A bit hard to tell from what has been written if this is indeed the OP's circumstances. 

Choirgrl

Deleted_User said:

I just look at our salary and think if we're struggling a little, how the hell is everyone else coping? Especially those with nursery fees and, relatively, lower income. 

☑️ for having the empathy to wonder how others are coping. Not everyone in your (our) position asks that question. 

People are coping by putting stuff back at the supermarket when the checkout total reaches a certain point, by skipping meals so their kids can eat, by planning now for a winter with very, very little heating. And more.

Speaking as someone in a similar economic situation to you (adjusted for household size) I’m pretTy sure that what feels like struggling a little to you can be addressed by really looking critically at what you spend money on and then making some choices about what you want to prioritise. Lifestyle creep happens to the best of us ( I know it did to me), but we can do something about it. As previous posters have said, there are places on the forum that can help you identify what it might be tricky for you to see yourself. 

lisyloo

Choirgrl said:

I’m pretTy sure that what feels like struggling a little to you can be addressed by really looking critically at what you spend money on and then making some choices about what you want to prioritise. 

I am doing exactly that but mainly for retirement planning pre crisis.

Quantifying I find quite easy.
I simply make some categories e.g. travel, gifts, car costs etc.
And then put everything i spend into one of these categories, if you don't want to do it constantly you can do it monthly.

It is really making me think.
For example at the moment holidays comprise about 30% of my budget, which for retirement is pretty ridiculous.
So I need to work out how to change that.

A second car costs me about 10% of my budget, so I'm definitely questioning that.

I have found that there are some larger items in there that need concentration rather than worrying about what food to buy or switching the lights off.
I'm sure for those on fixed budgets the minutae really matters, but for those on higher incomes there may be some big ticket discretionary items like cars, holidays etc.

I'm also noticing my solar panels making a big difference which means I really need to concentrate on energy in the winter and not so much in summer.
This might be obvious to a degree but the solar makes it even more the case.