[Misc] How do you feel about spending at the moment?

[Munkfish]

Went on holiday snowboarding recently and while I was away I told myself to enjoy it and paid 8euros a pint and didn’t think much about it. Went for a few Saturday beers today and was paying £5.70 a pint. Outside of football I won’t be doing that again anytime soon. Also had some very average food for £15. It’s just not worth it.

As for other spending. If it’s needed what else can you do. You pay and suck it up. But as someone who has never really thought about money not through being well off just more careless/carefree certainly a wake up call.

 

[Berty23]

I don’t think the penny has dropped for most people who hard it is going to be for a while. I got very lucky that my gas supplier went bust this time last year and the new company put me on a fix until sept 24. Fully expecting some small print to come into play.

Everything else is just brutal. Shrinkflation is the thing I am noticing more than anything. My coffee is same price but 90 grams instead of 100. They would not dare show double digit price rise. I am still not convinced interest rates will go up too much to counter inflation. Maybe this will be the time people realise house prices are ridiculous and stop supporting price increases like they are a good thing.

 

[dazzer6666]

Massive pinch-point either already here (for those that realise) or incoming (for those a bit slow). The oldies that saved during lockdown, don’t drive much and want higher interest rates will be ok…….those with businesses, travel costs and mortgages not so much. Split society.

 

[Weststander]

Massive pinch-point either already here (for those that realise) or incoming (for those a bit slow). The oldies that saved during lockdown, don’t drive much and want higher interest rates will be ok…….those with businesses, travel costs and mortgages not so much. Split society.

It’s a varied picture for businesses eg in construction, trades, the raft of professionals that support planning applications.

In the last 6 months I’ve seen chippies, tree surgeons/landscape maintenance people, bricklayers, builders who do extensions, all up their labour only rates hugely, twice.

The reason given “Costs have gone up”, they’ve all got work coming out of their ears.

 

[Bozza]

Echo many of the sentiments above in terms of being very much "spend conscious" currently. Simply, if we don't need it, it's not being bought right now.

I've cancelled both Sky Sports (via Now TV) and BT Sport. I don't use them a huge amount and, frankly, I can get by on dodgy streams on the few occasions I feel compelled to watch something.

Utility bills, for us, have now doubled, although we're trying to reduce consumption, particularly with gas. We'd always lob the heating on without a second thought. Council tax is up, I think, 11% and we all know the story with petrol and general groceries.

 

[Gwylan]

Ours was already £142 with Octopus (ended up with them after two of our suppliers went bust, each time automatically switched).

Waiting to hear the new DD news.

If ever there was a lesson to turn off a house of lights on or the heating on with a window open, this shirley must be it!

We're Octopus too. The new DD was quite a shock. We've got a smart meter so I'm turning into Warden Hodges, going around the house urging people to put the light out.

The only thing that softens the blow is that my mortgage is coming to an end in a few months, I can't imagine how people are coping with interest rate rises and rocketing power bills

 

[usernamed]

Expenses rising fast while income rises significantly more slowly, the tide will reach a lot of us eventually. Belts have been tightened here, and there are no non-essential purchases planned.

At what point can we acknowledge that what’s happening here is pretty broken?

 

[Weststander]

We're Octopus too. The new DD was quite a shock. We've got a smart meter so I'm turning into Warden Someone, going around the house urging people to put the light out.

The only thing that softens the blow is that my mortgage is coming to an end in a few months, I can't imagine how people are coping with interest rate rises and rocketing power bills

The BoE interest rate rises are avoidable.

Traditionally a tool to dampen demand if a boom/consumer spending gets excessive. This isn’t that moment.

Inflation here is being driven by external to the UK factors - restricted supply chains from the pandemic (China and containers), global prices for food, petrochemicals and building materials.

Seems madness at this time to start hammering variable mortgage rate households.

[Brilliant news for you though to see the end of that debt & monthly outgoing ].

 

[KZNSeagull]

Yup, cancelling Now TV for a start. Have turned the temperature down on the central heating boiler and that seems to be saving a bit. The only bright point is that this area has a Tory council for the first time ever and they have not increased their portion of council tax this year at all, so our bill for the other parts has only gone up by £10 a month. Am not looking forward to October when the price cap goes up again.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

I've had a few people cancel their bathroom refurbishments recently

Sent from my SM-A326B using Tapatalk

 

[bWize]

I've cancelled both Sky Sports (via Now TV) and BT Sport. .

Good example to set in my humble opinion!

 

[WATFORD zero]

We don't tend to have a particularly expensive lifestyle and day to day expenses for just the two of us aren't huge. Holidays and Eating out were our two big expenses, although me and Mrs Wz are quite happy with an apartment and a car in the med in the summer, which doesn't cost a lot. During Covid we cut down eating out almost completely and haven't returned to anything like previous levels.

Our one expensive treat tends to be skiing (we're in France at the moment), but this may be the last time I pay for everyone. If times get harder (and I'm sure they will), I think my kids and their partners will be paying their own way next year.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

I've had a few people cancel their bathroom refurbishments recently

Sent from my SM-A326B using Tapatalk

We have ben getting quotes for new bathroom and en-suite.

First chap came around in January - talked through our plans and all looked good. Said he'd send a quote and then a week or so later sent an email saying due to family covid in December he wasn't going to be doing any more quotes for a while. Errrr ... surely he knew that when he saw us in January after the family covid event!

Have had two more round that have both quoted. Both seem very good ... great check a trade reviews. One slightly more expensive - but when you then add on the fact he's VAT registered ... the other one isn't ... the difference was around £4k!

So we are waiting for a date from the other chap - which we know is going to be in 2/3 months - which is fine. But we've been waiting for that date for over a week now!!

The chap we are hoping to go with did say that some of his customers have postponed their refurb because they've decided a holiday is more important at the moment!

 

[Bold Seagull]

Nice job of circumventing the advertising rule!! lol:


Televisions you say.
What have you got that's decent, not all bells and whistles, in the mid to upper 40 inch range?

40” - isn’t that a large tablet rather than a TV these days?

 

[Stat Brother]

40” - isn’t that a large tablet rather than a TV these days?

Come on:-

"mid to upper".

I'll take a 44, 46 or 48.

At a push 47!!!!

 

[Milano]

The whole energy price thing is political. This gov will let the average punter feel the pain for a few months then just watch toady announce a deal with Saudi that ‘halves’ household energy bills and takes 30p a litre off at the pumps, of course prices will still be higher than they were at Xmas but the dipshit masses will swallow the BS as usual.

 

[BLOCK F]

I am retired and comfortably off.My wife works part time in her own business.
We live a modest lifestyle in general….no takeaways or expensive meals out and haven’t had a holiday since December 2019,with nothing planned at the moment. We have spent quite a lot on the house and have a garden landscaping project due to start soon.That has been a task on its own, getting very busy contractors all lined up!
Luckily, council tax hasn’t gone up much, but it is already circa £3000 pa. Fuel bills are the biggy, with the DD rising from £160 a month to something over £300.Thankfully, the warmer weather is coming, but October wont be fun.
Have put off changing my car. I buy used, but the prices of the car I want have gone up, due to the semi conductor shortages ,so I have put that off.
We’ll be fine, but I do feel for those on a tight budget juggling the family budget to try and keep heads above water, with all the price rises that are going to hit.

 

[BLOCK F]

The whole energy price thing is political. This gov will let the average punter feel the pain for a few months then just watch toady announce a deal with Saudi that ‘halves’ household energy bills and takes 30p a litre off at the pumps, of course prices will still be higher than they were at Xmas but the dipshit masses will swallow the BS as usual.

I don’t think so!

 

[Stat Brother]

I don’t think so!

Neither do I but you've got to admit it's a strong premise.

 

[BLOCK F]

Neither do I but you've got to admit it's a strong premise.

I think he is way off beam on this one.
According to the Sunday Times, we may see some action on fuel duty in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, but I’m not holding my breath for anything too cheerful.