What cut backs have you made recently?

[James6112]

Reviewed the household gadgets around the house, the low hanging fruit.. the daily electric kwh has halved from 15 last year to comfortably under 7.5
Had major building work earlier in the year, all new efficient appliances & boiler. Also a nicely insulated extension replaced conservatory..
Was looking at replacing one of our ageing cars with an EV. Parked that idea, now looking at a petrol/lpg Dacia @ under half the initial outlay.
Cancelled SkyTv, other regular DDs reduced where possible .

Aldi yesterday rather than Ocado. Was good, definite saving there.

None of the above has adversely affected me. Apart from having to turn off the lights, rather than shouting at Alexa!

Edited by James6112 on Saturday 27th August 08:41

[Exacting_checks]

I’ve completed my “doomsday prepping” this week
and fixed the mortgage at 3.6% for 10 years. It’s a bit of a gamble, but my view is the most we can “lose” by fixing is the approx £150 a month extra we’re now paying vs what we were previously paying. If we’d gambled the other way and stayed variable then in theory the sky was the limit.
My guess is that we’ll see 5/6% for the medium term.

Last month I paid off a personal loan I had for the car, trimmed a couple of direct debits that were on the borderline of whether we actually needed them.
Monthly fixed outgoings are now at the minimum they could be whilst still insuring against to much risk.

Feels nice looking at the current list of outgoings, for a few seconds until I realise in a few months the savings will all be p***ed away on energy!

[Shnozz]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I totally agree and I’m of a similar mindset. I hate giving away money unnecessarily, even when it’s a only a few quid. Despite spending far too much on dinners and drinks out I can be frugal as hell on phone contracts or gym memberships or car/home insurance.

The wider issue here, however, is that as more middle/high earners look to scale back, the implications on the economy are going to be devastated. Discretionary spending on “stuff” is what maintains a huge proportion of businesses and sustains many, many households.

[Shnozz]

Talk about brilliantly tailored marketing whilst reading this thread

[Fusion777]

Shnozz said:

I totally agree and I’m of a similar mindset. I hate giving away money unnecessarily, even when it’s a only a few quid. Despite spending far too much on dinners and drinks out I can be frugal as hell on phone contracts or gym memberships or car/home insurance.

I'm the same. Worth mentioning though that assuming £12k/month net household income is split evenly (which it may well not be), even not accounting for pension contributions that's a salary over £116k each. I can well understand keeping on top of spending, but I wouldn't have thought a household with two six-figure earners would be worrying about whether to ditch a car or not.

[CrgT16]

I think some people will be cutting back to make ends meet which is a sad state of affairs and energy-wise it shows a lack of long term planning from the government.

It made want to look at our monthly expenditure and there is a lot of wasted money in my household, from subscriptions mainly to energy. I think I will save around £200 a month by tweaking this. It wouldn't bother me in normal times and I can afford to keep going but I am just thinking... why should I waste unnecessarily? It's laziness and wrong. Going to make it leaner whilst keeping my standard of living. On the other hand we don't really drink or smoke so maybe it evens out. But looking to get rid of things I don't use that much.

[johnnyBv8]

Fusion777 said:

Shnozz said:

I totally agree and I’m of a similar mindset. I hate giving away money unnecessarily, even when it’s a only a few quid. Despite spending far too much on dinners and drinks out I can be frugal as hell on phone contracts or gym memberships or car/home insurance.

I'm the same. Worth mentioning though that assuming £12k/month net household income is split evenly (which it may well not be), even not accounting for pension contributions that's a salary over £116k each. I can well understand keeping on top of spending, but I wouldn't have thought a household with two six-figure earners would be worrying about whether to ditch a car or not.

It’s not an even split. Part of the reason for so many people not having financial resilience (I completely appreciate that not everyone’s situations allow this, but far more could have resilience than do) is the tendency to make lifestyle/spending decisions based on current situation. I may have no income next year; who knows. I still have a mortgage, so money I spend now is effectively money I owe someone else. Of course there’s a balance, and I spend on things that are important to me, but I don’t spend based on monthly income.

The thoughts on reducing number of cars isnt a worry - it’s just that they sit outside all day (I wfh, cycle to office, or use train/plane for further afield).