Cost of Living Increases

Primrose53

I have never in all my married life spent as much on our food bill as I am now. Last week my bill was about £30 more than usual. The lad on the tills scanned through for me (when I expressed my horror) and there were no duplications or obvious errors. I checked it again when I came home and it was correct.

I have always shopped carefully so it can only be that many items have gone up by about 50p making the total much bigger.

This govt promised so much but, for our family, it’s 10 times worse.

Food prices have certainly gone through the roof . I cook must things from scratch, which does help, and i buy and freeze reduced items but I also shop for my very elderly mother and her bill seems to have doubled in the last 2/ 3 years .

My friend was complaining to me that , due to the cost of living , her son might have to sell one of his classic cars . She got no sympathy from me .

I have been managing, just, as a widow with a work and state pension but have eaten into my meagre savings to pay my many unexpected large bills mostly to do with my large old house.
I plan to downsize this year but things are going very slowly.

Meanwhile my lodger, whose rent helped to pay council tax and one or
two little luxuries, has moved out so that I'm now glancing around to see how I can save.

I have subscriptions to a few things and I pay a gardener once a week. I donate to charities and like an evening out occasionally. I have very few holidays although I visited my DS in NZ last year.

I think I may have to have a new lodger on a short term basis until I move. I do like to be generous too and not always be the poor one.

I think Finny1 needs a separate thread as well.

The old adage “Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves” isn’t quite true, Cabbie!

I was thinking this myself this week.
Doesnt really ring true anymore. Sadly.

Finny1

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask this question. I have 2 adult children. One married with 2 youngsters & 1 not married. Both are presently renting....with the cost of living going up & up they both frequently ask me for money to help them out...I don't have alot of money & am on the aged pension...The question is - when does the point come when I say No...is it when I've got no rainy day money left...I didn't think I'd be supporting them in adulthood...
Are others in this predicament as well...The bank of Mum is getting squeezed...

None of my children have ever asked me for money.
I think you should start saying no now , firmly.
How are they ever going to learn to stand on their own two feet if you keep helping them out ?
Do they work. ?

It might be better if you start a new thread Finny1.

As you can see (not your fault or Primrose53’s) posters continue to discuss/comment based on the original title of the thread, probably not having read your previous post.

I have never in all my married life spent as much on our food bill as I am now. Last week my bill was about £30 more than usual. The lad on the tills scanned through for me (when I expressed my horror) and there were no duplications or obvious errors. I checked it again when I came home and it was correct.

I have always shopped carefully so it can only be that many items have gone up by about 50p making the total much bigger.

This govt promised so much but, for our family, it’s 10 times worse.

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask this question. I have 2 adult children. One married with 2 youngsters & 1 not married. Both are presently renting....with the cost of living going up & up they both frequently ask me for money to help them out...I don't have alot of money & am on the aged pension...The question is - when does the point come when I say No...is it when I've got no rainy day money left...I didn't think I'd be supporting them in adulthood...
Are others in this predicament as well...The bank of Mum is getting squeezed...

So am I, MorningMist, so am I 😳

Mt61

I can’t believe this government thinks we are £500 quid better off, our bills are extortionate. I’ve stopped using my credit card, I take cash out of the bank machine & stick to a budget, otherwise I usually overspend. Luckily I can knock up good, nutritious meals from not much.
It’s these young ones/ families I feel sorry for, who can’t cook a boiled egg. Goodness knows how they afford takeouts.

I have heard this said by the government, followed by ‘by the end of the parliament’, i.e. 2029, but afaik the OBR haven’t predicted this. Jam tomorrow if you’re lucky. I’m more interested in today.

Definitely a significant rise in the cost of living and no end in sight

I am coping now by dipping into my savings, several bills came this month. I also pay into various savings accounts with high interest rates, all mature just before christmas. It is very helpful for the bills that start coming soon after christmas. Halifax, principality, nationwide

I will not be stopping organic food and now have an allotment. Only me at home. My varied hobbies are very important to me but I accumulated a lot of stash over many years, fluff for spinning, yarn for knitting , patterns and fabrics for sewing. Books by the score mainly from cs and my 3 bikes were bought quite a while ago, they have different purposes and all are used. My hobbies are at no cost at present

Washerwoman, I used to trade shares then I took over managing my husband pension pot. He died and soon afterwards I put everything into low risk gilts. This means that I get a fixed income, same as an annuity but when I die, the gilts will still have a value, they will not die with me

Everyone close to retirement should put their pension equity into a low risk vehicle. I have seen a few of these dreadful sudden share plunges , they go down fast and take much longer to recover. Next stage is businesses suddenly closing, when all share value in that company becomes zero

It's all a bit depressing really.Probably shouldn't have looked but my pension pot has plummeted by at least 15% thanks to Trump and although the advice is to wait for recovery easier said than done at our age just as we are about to start drawing some down.We've weathered slumps before when DH lost his business in the recession early 90s.Then redundancy years later.The covid hit our finances. It just feels the older you get the less time to catch up and rising costs of everything-aaargh !

I can’t believe this government thinks we are £500 quid better off, our bills are extortionate. I’ve stopped using my credit card, I take cash out of the bank machine & stick to a budget, otherwise I usually overspend. Luckily I can knock up good, nutritious meals from not much.
It’s these young ones/ families I feel sorry for, who can’t cook a boiled egg. Goodness knows how they afford takeouts.

My DD for fuel has come down so that's good for me.
I've got to the stage now where I don't worry about money.
I know what's in the bank account and if I can afford it and want something I buy it . I always get by some how.

The old adage “Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves” isn’t quite true, but provided calculations show there is enough coming in to balance the books, being careful with everyday spending is an attitude which pays off. I’m fortunate to have enough coming in to live on, but I consider carefully what I spend.
My Direct Debit for energy has gone up hugely, but with Octopus I can control it, so I am reducing the amount, otherwise it builds up too much credit over the summer. I’d rather put the spare money into my own savings, (attracting interest) to cover the winter months, than give it to the energy companies to save for me.

Reported

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Microsoft money may have been discontinued, but it still works fine. I have it on windows 11 without any problem.

Dee , check their estimates against your actual readings . This will give you an idea of how much the estimated cost differs , if at all., from what you have paid . You may be better to switch to a new provider if you feel their DD is not realistic.

Thanks to those who responded.

My previous provider stopped trading so I've been transferred to EDF.
Despite submitting meter readings when requested, this is all based on estimated readings!
I'm hoping it will be resolved when I actually manage to get in touch with someone. I've tried for 2 days and eventually emailed.

Definitely contact them . Unless you have been paying estimated bills and you are already in debit this is far too high an increase. EON have increased our DD by approx 1/3 . Do you have a smart meter installed ? .

We've noticed the increases but are fortunate that they're not causing any problems despite the fact I wont be eligible for my state pension for another 4 years I think.

We've budgeted for our gas and electricity bills to double.

I use a spreadsheet for what was the old " envelope system ". When we retired we budgeted for each "pot" and for annual increases until we get to state pension age . We also factored in a bit of a buffer in case prices when up more that expected. Even with all this planning we never imagined the huge and immediate rise in energy costs alongside rising food prices . Now our extra money from the small amount of work will be more of an essential than a luxury but I am grateful we can still cover all the basic bills and dont ( as yet ) have the heat or eat dilemma, which I know is a reality for some people of all ages .

I have always been a careful budgeter and saver. I used the Microsoft money programe for years until it was discontinued. I now run a couple of apps on my phone (wallet) and on my iPad (balance guide). I list direct debits and every transaction that I make on a daily basis on both apps, they are slightly different. At any point I can see exactly what is in my accounts and what the end of month balance. Then on a daily basis I divide this by the number of days left in the month. So for instance I have £30 per day and I only spend £20 then I know that I’ve got £40 that I can spend the following day or a little bit more each day till the end of the month. This is quite time consuming but worth it. I can see my daily balance increase as the month goes on if I’m careful then I know that I can splash out a bit towards the end of the month.
This works for me and I’ve never been in debt in my life. However I’m dreading the time when my gas and electricity accounts ends the fixed rate period which I arranged last summer for 2 years runs out. I suspect that im in for a huge shock.

I know I can cut down on some things but some people have no leeway and end up not being able to afford essentials.
I will be looking at my shopping lists to see what is not really needed like chocolate ? and check my account more carefully.