Cost of living crisis?

Maybe it depends on where you live Aveline. It's like that here with bars and restaurants.

Our local pub is always heaving lately. We've been going to the weekly quiz for years but now we have to book as free tables are rare.

Maybe these are pleasant distractions. Sales up in November too. Quite positive really yet not noticed

Maybe it's all being done on credit cards. The shock might come later this year...

I live near a trendy suburb of South Manchester and it is like that here. My plumber went out for some lunch and he did seem surprised at the numbers of people jamming the pubs and trendy wine bars in the middle of the day. Yes I think there will be some shocks when the credit card bills roll in.

Spot on MaizieD.
The s..t will hit the fan at the end of next year,when people still haven`t paid their credit cards off and they start to use them again for Christmas.
As for bars etc being full,i still think Covid has a lot to do with that,FREEDOM at last

Things are as bad as the media is making out, for many people but not everyone.

There are always the haves and have nots - I'm sure there are the same number, if not more, at home feeding their energy meters to keep warm.

I suppose the point is, not everyone is struggling. Young working people still living with parents (which many do) will have more disposable income than say a couple in their 20s who have a child and live as a family unit

Many more examples could be added

The bar staff and kitchen porters who'll be going home on the night bus won't be the ones booking £3000 holidays.

I don't know how anyone can doubt that there is a cost of living crisis.

Simply put, some people having the m't preclude millions of households struggling to cope with the cost of living being barely able to afford the shoe leather to walk to the nearest food bank.

Remember also the many stories of pubs, clubs and entertainment places closing down. It was in the news that a minor burger chain was closing down, and any walk down a high street will show boarded up shops/cafes/pubs.

Many people saved a lot of money in the lockdowns, furloughed for months, no work expenses - bought lunches, coffee takeaways and travelling -

Recessions, inflation are never all bad. even the Great Recssion of the 1930s was mainly a northern phenomena, London and the southe east boomed. Both my parents left school durng the 30s and walked straight into jobs at 16, in London, and look at the millions and millions of interwar (1939s) semis that surround every town of any size almost countrywide, they wouldn't have been built if there were not people ready to buy them.

Bit of first line seems to have deleted it self.

It shoukd read ,,,,,some people having the money doesn't preclude.....

The media tends to concentrate on those who are struggling with the cost of living but there are many who can absorb the rises and still enjoy their leisure activities. It is a very unfair world we live in.

Riverwalk

The bar staff and kitchen porters who'll be going home on the night bus won't be the ones booking £3000 holidays.

I don't know how anyone can doubt that there is a cost of living crisis.

yes, this is a good point too and this most probably isn't their only job either

From the Guardian, but widely reported at the beginning of this month.

‘Credit card borrowing in the UK soared in November to its highest monthly level since 2004 amid mounting pressure on households from the cost of living crisis.

The latest snapshot from the Bank of England showed individuals borrowed an additional £1.5bn in all forms of consumer credit, of which £1.2bn was on credit cards, as concerns mounted over the impact of high inflation on struggling households.’

Millions are living on a prayer that things will get better for them very soon.

In a cost of living crisis, there are still many people that it does not affect.

In the summer when airport chaos is a newsworthy subject, it will be reported how 1000s of people are having their holidays ruined.

Riverwalk

Things are as bad as the media is making out, for many people but not everyone.

There are always the haves and have nots - I'm sure there are the same number, if not more, at home feeding their energy meters to keep warm.

Exactly! You may see the people out having dinner, hear of people booking holidays, but they are not the people sitting in a cold house watching their meter run out of credit. If I look in s shop window in Knightsbridge and see a handbag for in excess of £1k, I don't think that everyone in the country is doing fine if they can afford to buy luxury items like that.

What we’re not told is how much of the money spent by credit card is actually repaid in full when the statement arrives. Putting a figure on credit card spending is very confusing.

We also have no idea what the credit card spending has funded. Many imply that it is frivolous, unneccssary items such as going out to eat, but it could well be filling the car with fuel to get to work, or paying the supermarket shop. I have been that person; during an earlier recession when DH was unemployed, I used the credit card and hoped for the best, just paying off what I could, when I could. Yes, I know it should be paid off every month, thank you, but needs must.

I often use my credit card to pay the electricity bill because it’s much easier whilst on the Ovo website reading the statement rather than going into online banking- and I never, ever use my debit card online. The card is always paid off in full each month. So not a lot can be extrapolated from my temporary debt.

Gsm I agree - I’m still hardly using cash at all. My credit card statement is long - often 3 pages, but made up of so many small purchases where I’d previously have used cash. Always paid off in full, although I occasionally go for a balance transfer for a very expensive purchase (holiday). Years of financial education has finally produced results!

I remember the last 'downturn' as the BBC called it along with their doom laden graphic. It was 2008. DH had his own business then and we braced for disaster. It was a horribly worrying time. However, somehow, wonderfully, it was all right. The customers kept coming and kept paying their bills. We were well aware of being very lucky.
As someone said upthread not everyone is affected by the current crisis - but many are.

Just to clarify, the credit card figure is for outstanding debt. If a card is paid off at the end of the month it doesn’t accrue interest, so my understanding is that wouldn’t be classed as outstanding debt.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of consumer debt in the UK.
www.nerdwallet.com/uk/personal-finance/the-household-debt-report/

Casdon

Just to clarify, the credit card figure is for outstanding debt. If a card is paid off at the end of the month it doesn’t accrue interest, so my understanding is that wouldn’t be classed as outstanding debt.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of consumer debt in the UK.
www.nerdwallet.com/uk/personal-finance/the-household-debt-report/

(At the end of the month in which the expenditure occurred)