Fairly low earner here, not looking forward to massively increased fuel bills. On the bright side, my car loan finishes in a couple of months so that’s an extra £227pcm to spend on utilities. 🙄

Is it case of everything being so cheap for the last 10 years?
Food
Loans
Fuel ect
It’s all been peged down by global influence especially china. Some people have never know interest rates above 2%
It’s going to get hard for people on all different wages.
Buy now pay later really will come home

I wouldn’t be supprised if we had the 7th richest poor people in the world..

Again, wealth in $ or £ terms is meaningless, plenty of people can survive on a few $ a day in parts of Africa, but you would freeze / starve to death in the UK on that.

You need to look at wealth in terms of what it can buy in your country eg loafs of bread or average rental on a 1 bed flat etc. You could be a millionaire but if a loaf of bread cost £5m you’d still starve to death.

In my role I attend lots of community meetings with various charities, groups etc. All are worried about those on UC and low incomes. Food banks are struggling with demand already, mental health charities are seeing increased demand, many of these new referrals are farmers. We’ve seen a huge demand for our financial literacy courses.

It is going to be horrific for many people over the coming months possibly years. Increased repossessions, increased suicide, increase in mental health referrals. Strain on public services as a result. I work in East Devon with relatively low levels of economic deprivation, so would hate to think about other areas with higher levels of deprivation.

I am getting twitchy, I’m on the average wage, wife on maternity but her savings will run out quickly with increased costs. So will have to go back to work earlier than she wanted. Belts have been tightened already in preparation.

It’s “really grim” for MP’s on 82k according to some Tory idiot. Seriously who votes for these ****?

https://metro.co.uk/2021/10/06/tory-mp-asks-for-payrise-as-living-on-81k-a-year-can-be-really-grim-15371935/

And that £82k is before they add on all their expenses eg travel to/from constituency etc.

https://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/members/pay-mps/

My daughter starts nursery next month, costing £1300/month. This feels like poor timing…

Probably is poor timing, but if you can afford to pay 15,000 pa, (after tax) for nursery place for one, you’ll be fine. (Of course I know nothing about your situation)

but if you can afford to pay 15,000 pa, (after tax) for nursery place for one

My other half effectively paid to work for years.

What people have to pay, and what they can afford to pay, aren’t the same thing.

A key thing to remember when talking about the year ahead… many people will keep paying rent, energy bills, commuting costs, child care… if the alternative is unemployment and still having outgoings they can’t afford. And if they choose to give up a job that doesn’t pay the way, and can’t get into one that would, they’ll be labelled a lazy and get caught up in increasingly punitive benefits system if single or their other is on low pay.

No, but you’d all need to be working part time. Suddenly “free” becomes… “on a reduced income”.

When I was at primary school in the 80s I was in a class of 13, none of those mothers worked. There were a few with working mothers in my class of around 30 at secondary school in the 90s but that was unusual and I think all part time.
.

The unintended consequences were less favourable though, two income families did as much for house price inflation in the 80s as right-to-buy did, in fact inflation as a whole. Things quickly evolved from “we’ve got a much better ‘lifestyle’ because Mum’s got a job” to pretty much every family needing two incomes to be able to rent, let alone buy a family sized house. Also, as we know, being a housewife/husband/full time parent is hard work, and that work doesn’t all go away just because the house is empty all day.

That is a big problem. Two incomes are now, in a lot of cases, a necessity. Unless we collectively agree to go to back to single earner households and make the price of houses plummet I can’t think of a way out of this

Is that residential or commercial?

 Belts have been tightened already in preparation.

Just yesterday I cancelled a Patreon sub, a monthly beer sub and cancelled a bit of the telly package that we don’t really use much, all of it’s about £40.00 in total. Not massive but over a year…It all adds up. I doubt we’re the only people in the country doing it.

Ref Nursery…

Jr turned 3 in August and thus we now get the ‘free’ 30 hours. Firstly, dont be fooled by that, its not free, and its only during term time. You still have (optional technically, but not realistically) to fund the food, trips, extras etc.
Given that he goes 3 days a week, my bill when averaged out has gone from about £600p/m to about £280p/m. Obviously I am using the maximum allowance I can in terms of tax free vouchers etc.

I just thought that was worth noting, as its often quoted that ‘its free when they turn three’ but its really not. Another year till he joins reception and it’ll drop again.

I’d pay it all again in a hearbeat as A) its superb, I cannot possibly imagine why even the wealthiest family with live-in 24/7 nanny wouldn’t still send their child to a Nursery, its so good for them, and B) it allows my partner to work part time, because as well as a Mother shes also a person in her own right and deserves a career and all it brings. Financially in the short term theres not a lot in it – but long term a bigger difference.

Chatting to people at work who come back part time after having a child, they basically work for free, all their wages go on child care; they just come back for the social / career aspect.

Are nursary fees that much more down in England. Other halfs a teacher which while “well” paid hardly ground braking and has gone back part time.

It’s not nearly working for free. But then potentially nursary fees up here are much less ??? £750/month less tax.

But still like most I can’t wait till she turns three for the “free” hours. Should just about cover the increase in NI and utility’s

We did have a JDE admin at work who was ok after baby 1. But baby 2 tipped it in favour of not working at all. Even with the wife as a teacher I can see that -and it only gets worse with each kid more.

Did they pay all the staff the same? Is the building of the same value (so mortgage or rent the same cost)?

y I cancelled a Patreon sub, a monthly beer sub and cancelled a bit of the telly package that we don’t really use much, all of it’s about £40.00 in total. Not

That will cover the spring energy cap increase. A £400 increase on top of current increases likely in spring according to Radio Scotland today.

I’ll be coming off a 1 year fix in March. Expect my Bill’s to go up £60 a month.

Pity the UK gas fracking was strangled at birth by over regulation. Pity we have little storage. Depending other countries for basics like fas and electricity is a bad idea when there is an alternative.

I’ll do a bit of overtime if I need to for the higher hills. Not an option for everyone though.

Firstly, dont be fooled by that, its not free,its paid for by the tax payer and its only during term time

FTFY.
It annoys me when politicians describe things as ‘free’, the words tax-payer funded are much more accurate. Someone, somewhere is paying for it all.

Pity we have little storage.

Gas storage is key… but in the UK we twiddle with the market in the hope that it will result in storage being kept/increased… which hasn’t worked out well, has it? Other countries take other approaches.