£400 & Monthly Direct Debit Payments

Mstty

Recession is here in all but name.

CKhalvashi

I'm treating it as a full £400 later in the year, but then I tend to budget annually and adjust as necessary.

Building up a credit of about £10/month (knowing that probably won't cover the winter on its own) by ignoring the suppliers direct debit suggestion at the moment, although a rise in electricity payments is figured into preliminary budgets for next year. The account was in credit anyway.

It's probably worth noting that we've structured our business to be recession-proof (probably actually with some growth) through the last 2 years in terms of both costs and the work we're taking on (our unit costs are about 20% lower than most competitors on average at the moment and we've got a lot of flexibility in pricing we can offer, paired with a possibility of halving our highest fixed cost in 2024), so others may wish to adapt a strategy like this to their own circumstances, especially if it's going to cause problems with affordability later.

MattMattMattUK

Mstty said:

Recession is here in all but name.

We are not. A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth, but the economy is still just growing, albeit at a measly rate. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/13/uk-economy-returns-to-growth-thanks-to-holiday-boom-and-gp-visits

What are are facing is high inflation, which is generally a bad thing overall, but it is not a recession. 

CKhalvashi

MattMattMattUK said:

Mstty said:

Recession is here in all but name.

We are not. A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth, but the economy is still just growing, albeit at a measly rate. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/13/uk-economy-returns-to-growth-thanks-to-holiday-boom-and-gp-visits

What are are facing is high inflation, which is generally a bad thing overall, but it is not a recession. 

The definition is true, but I'd take the view that 2 quarters of growth below inflation by a significant amount (which we are experiencing) will bring recessionary-like results. This definitely is being experienced now.

I would therefore consider 'recession in all but name' to be completely accurate.