Cost of living squeeze in 2022

[bitchstewie]

roger.mellie said:

I think I’ve said before I’ve bought a few of her books. I buy loads of cookery books. I’ve got more “Tuesday night” recipes out of hers than many from Rick Stein or Gary Rhodes etc. pretty sure many of those recipes are on her site and I’d never criticise her for making a living. I may not be cooking on a budget but time and materials do matter.

She knows her subject much better than many of her critics. Given how many attacks she gets, if one oversteps the line I’d have no problem with her taking them to the cleaners. An apology would be the better outcome, but that she’s not obligated to accept it is an important principle.

Honestly when you look at it it's very odd how Monroe can come out as the bad guy on this one.

Personally I thought Anderson had been slightly hard done by over his comments in the Commons but as usual once they think they're in a friendly safe environment where they can speak freely the mask slips a little.

[Sway]

I've far more time for someone like Lorna Cooper.

[m3jappa]

Thankyou4calling said:

okgo said:

Putney pubs all busy tonight. Over £6 a pint. Nobody cares.

Controversially I’ll make two points.

1. I agree with you! That’s probably the biggest.

2. Pundits (the Martin Lewis’ and David Lammys of this world ) are MASSIVELY over egging this “Crisis”

I know there are plenty who struggle to pay the bills, struggle to fill there trolley and drive on fumes

BUT

I’m seeing a veeeeeeery different scenario.

Incredible levels of home improvements, car upgrades, holidays, eating out, discretionary spending.

I’m just not having it.

totally agree.

The media is hyping it up.

I said it before and ill say it again, its the poorest who will feel the pain, at least initially.

As a family i am yet to see any difference at all. our gas and electric has actually gone down due to lowering consumption, mrs said food shopping a little bit more but not a lot.
we dont travel thousands of miles in the car so fuel not a great deal worse.
just fixed our mortgage last month on a rate lower than the previous 5 years (pure chance tbh).

we aren't massive holiday people, we dont really eat out, neither are big drinkers, aren't into designer clothes etc.

However as a small business doing paving i am seeing less calls (or am i seeing pre covid enquiries?) and winning less jobs (or is it pre covid levels?), or am i winning less jobs because the enquiries i am getting dont want to wait until september (they regularly say that) .
No problem for now as i have lots of work (which i am earning less from tbh as materials have risen). None of my customers are phased at all, basically stating what i have said first above.

The only cancellations i hear about are when the builder gets to the 11th hour and tries charging more due to materials going up (which is fair enough) but having done this a long time i know you've got to stomach it.

so i put the lower calls down to either fear - which i dont get as the people i work for are generally professional families or retired and seemingly well off. or they are going on holiday this year.

Im not worried about the cost of living im worried about my business, all great now but if a lower enquiry rate continues then next year will be bad as by default enquiries are low to non existent November to feb......

granted if you are a long family, even on good money then there may be a shock, if you want to eat takeaways, go on holiday, buy expensive designer clothing, drink £15 cocktails every saturday night and have 2 new lease mercy outside the house which you have 10% equity in then yes they are going to feel it.

However, having been on here for years myself i am used to the regular threads predicting the end of the world for the usual doom mongers.

[glazbagun]

Thankyou4calling said:

okgo said:

Putney pubs all busy tonight. Over £6 a pint. Nobody cares.

Controversially I’ll make two points.

1. I agree with you! That’s probably the biggest.

2. Pundits (the Martin Lewis’ and David Lammys of this world ) are MASSIVELY over egging this “Crisis”

I know there are plenty who struggle to pay the bills, struggle to fill there trolley and drive on fumes

BUT

I’m seeing a veeeeeeery different scenario.

Incredible levels of home improvements, car upgrades, holidays, eating out, discretionary spending.

I’m just not having it.

Sampling error, surely. Pubs in London were always rammed when I lived there and Aston Vantages and Porsches were as common as Golf Gtl's. If 10% of them vanished I doubt I'd notice.

If you own enough of your house, I reckon you're sorted. But much if the labour force is capital poor and has limited ability to absorb shock.

[roger.mellie]

Sway said:

I've far more time for someone like Lorna Cooper.

I know what you mean, she stays out of the political side and does much of the same.

I like Lorna too. Weirdly I even like Nigella now (settle, not that obvious way, although I do too) as although she has a life of privilege that would normally have my dander up she’s quite good at promoting others including the likes of jack and Lorna.

[bitchstewie]

Haven't heard of her as to be fair I'm not exactly Delia and when I am it's less about budget and more about not setting the house on fire.

Turns out it was Laurence Fox's podcast which seems a bit odd.

Anyway maybe a donation to a food bank is a sensible way to make it go away.

[roger.mellie]

bhstewie said:

Haven't heard of her as to be fair I'm not exactly Delia and when I am it's less about budget and more about not setting the house on fire.

Turns out it was Laurence Fox's podcast which seems a bit odd.

Anyway maybe a donation to a food bank is a sensible way to make it go away.

OT but in nearly 30 years of knowing my wife she hasn’t cooked once “because I’m so good at it, flutters eyelashes”. I fall for it because I like cooking.

Laurence is a bit of an enigma to me. Why would an actor get so political and ruin their career. Obviously he doesn’t need the money. But he’s arrogant and wants publicity, he’d have been better off sticking to morse or whatever as it has much better longevity compared to yet another opinionated mouth.

[JagLover]

Thankyou4calling said:

Controversially I’ll make two points.

1. I agree with you! That’s probably the biggest.

2. Pundits (the Martin Lewis’ and David Lammys of this world ) are MASSIVELY over egging this “Crisis”

I know there are plenty who struggle to pay the bills, struggle to fill there trolley and drive on fumes

BUT

I’m seeing a veeeeeeery different scenario.

Incredible levels of home improvements, car upgrades, holidays, eating out, discretionary spending.

I’m just not having it.

I think this comes back to that headline inflation approaching 10% does not necessarily mean that your monthly expenses have gone up by the same amount.

What is the biggest item in most people's spending?, the mortgage, and those on fixed rates deals are likely seeing little change and might well have locked in very low mortgage rates while they had a chance.

Also high petrol prices is mitigated somewhat for millions by being able to WFH at least some of the time.

So it wouldn't surprise me if many people's net disposal income is higher than it was a few years ago at present.

In the future though energy bills are going to hit harder come the winter and mortgage rates are going to reflect increases in BOE base rate.

[Throttlebody]

Official UK inflation numbers out this week. Lots of speculation it will hit 9%. Big rise, no real surprise.

[tannhauser]

Throttlebody said:

Official UK inflation numbers out this week. Lots of speculation it will hit 9%. Big rise, no real surprise.

Get those interest rates up!

[Deep Thought]

tannhauser said:

Throttlebody said:

Official UK inflation numbers out this week. Lots of speculation it will hit 9%. Big rise, no real surprise.

Get those interest rates up!

I'm sure your landlord will bump your rent up to cover it if it happens. They need to keep their pockets well lined

[JagLover]

roger.mellie said:

Laurence is a bit of an enigma to me. Why would an actor get so political and ruin their career. Obviously he doesn’t need the money. But he’s arrogant and wants publicity, he’d have been better off sticking to morse or whatever as it has much better longevity compared to yet another opinionated mouth.

He was dropped by his talent agency soon after his appearance on Question Time when he made fairly innocuous comments but ignited lots of controversy anyway. So his career as an actor was effectively over before he started all the political stuff which doesn't seem to be going that well for him.

It was of course a fairly stupid thing to do if he wanted to continue his career but it wasn't like he suddenly became a political campaigner and that derailed his acting career.

[Mr Whippy]

JagLover said:

Thankyou4calling said:

Controversially I’ll make two points.

1. I agree with you! That’s probably the biggest.

2. Pundits (the Martin Lewis’ and David Lammys of this world ) are MASSIVELY over egging this “Crisis”

I know there are plenty who struggle to pay the bills, struggle to fill there trolley and drive on fumes

BUT

I’m seeing a veeeeeeery different scenario.

Incredible levels of home improvements, car upgrades, holidays, eating out, discretionary spending.

I’m just not having it.

I think this comes back to that headline inflation approaching 10% does not necessarily mean that your monthly expenses have gone up by the same amount.

What is the biggest item in most people's spending?, the mortgage, and those on fixed rates deals are likely seeing little change and might well have locked in very low mortgage rates while they had a chance.

Also high petrol prices is mitigated somewhat for millions by being able to WFH at least some of the time.

So it wouldn't surprise me if many people's net disposal income is higher than it was a few years ago at present.

In the future though energy bills are going to hit harder come the winter and mortgage rates are going to reflect increases in BOE base rate.

/Tin foil hat on

Makes you wonder… very easy to bring about UBI in this climate of financial fear.

I too don’t get it really.

BofE raising rates to increase job scarcity and keep salaries down.
Government worried about poor people having no money and stuff.

Which one is it?

[Welshbeef]

Mr Whippy said:

/Tin foil hat on

Makes you wonder… very easy to bring about UBI in this climate of financial fear.

I too don’t get it really.

BofE raising rates to increase job scarcity and keep salaries down.
Government worried about poor people having no money and stuff.

Which one is it?

Stepping up NLW by what was it 6-7% is inflationary

[roger.mellie]

Mr Whippy said:

/Tin foil hat on

Makes you wonder… very easy to bring about UBI in this climate of financial fear.

I too don’t get it really.

BofE raising rates to increase job scarcity and keep salaries down.
Government worried about poor people having no money and stuff.

Which one is it?

Would you have a problem with UBI? I know the pros and cons, I see no evidence of it being promoted in the current climate. If the BoE rate rises are to increase job scarcity I’d love to hear your reasoning, and stuff.

[Throttlebody]

tannhauser said:

Throttlebody said:

Official UK inflation numbers out this week. Lots of speculation it will hit 9%. Big rise, no real surprise.

Get those interest rates up!

The rapid UK inflation rate increase will force a more aggressive BOE interest rate rise policy. Wage growth data will also be a key influence.

[Welshbeef]

roger.mellie said:

Would you have a problem with UBI? I know the pros and cons, I see no evidence of it being promoted in the current climate. If the BoE rate rises are to increase job scarcity I’d love to hear your reasoning, and stuff.

I genuinely wouldn’t.
Everyone from say 18yo gets the UBI which would also replace state pension. I’d go as far to say the annual value of it should be linked to the tax free allowance. That means there is never the issue of cannot work over 16 hours as the marginal hourly rate beyond that is a pittance.

Then take it back at £xk maybe there is a 10/20/30/40/50/60% thresholds

[loafer123]

UBI is lovely in theory, but the required increase in tax rates would send the Laffer Curve off a cliff;

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/universal-basic-inco...

[vulture1]

I got a pathetic 3% pay increase.

last 2 years not had a single day off. Worked all through covid in a big supermarket. Big supermarket just announced huge profits. I am responsible for 25-60 people who all got a near 6% increase. Feel well and truely mugged off.

[Sway]

loafer123 said:

UBI is lovely in theory, but the required increase in tax rates would send the Laffer Curve off a cliff;

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/universal-basic-inco...

What I can't see in there, is whilst 'tax rates' would increase massively, that's countered somewhat by the UBI itself offsetting against that.