Andy Burnham has pledged to lead a 'cost of living government,' as his Cabinet met in Downing Street for the first time since the Makerfield MP swept to power as Prime Minister.
If you've not been in the position where finding a £20 note in a jacket you've not worn in several months is feeling like winning the lottery and a huge relief that for the next 2 or 3 days you're not in a mess. Then you have no right to judge. Walk a mile and all that.
to be having this conversation in 2026 is wild, I recognise this from my own childhood(1970s)...but you only need to scroll down the comments to see the total disconnect and apathy...
Thing is, many people don't know what it's like to actually be poor, genuinely poor, where you're deciding between eating and heating..
where you can't afford to warm your flat, so you wear extra layers and outside clothes, live between the bedroom and the kitchen because they're the less coldest rooms in the place.
Where you go directly to the reduced section in the supermarket, where you go to street markets at the end of the day to see if you can pick up some of the damaged, left over veg.
living off rice & beans, pasta and sauce everyday!
2nd hand shops, charity shops and car boots are your normal rounds because you cant afford 'new' stuff...
No just for a week or two or a month or so, the whole time...
Playing catch up all the time, never being in credit or in the black...
Some of us have been there, at lot more of us are going there, even more than you know are already there...
this is just the tip of a much larger issue...
I always try to remember a story about a woman that got a parking ticket, could not afford to pay it and subsequently lost her car, her job and her home. That is precariousness to me. It is a situation that society could have solved to everyone's benefit at a minimal cost.
For those that think £45 a year doesn’t make a difference, it’s enough for a loaf of bread a week and two pots of jam a year to put on it and for some that is a massive difference. Not everyone has a mate who will give you £5 million to spend on luxuries.
I know exactly what you are saying. Living on Social Security, I've had to do that for years. Putting water in the shampoo bottle to get every last bit. Saving soap chips to melt together to get enough to wash with. Paying heating, phone, electric, water first so they don't get cut off, and then making do with everything else for as long as I can. I repair my clothes and glue my shoes, and make soup with leftovers. Many millions of people live this way. I have turned a dress skirt into curtains and then those curtains into a skirt and then that skirt into dish towels.
It’s the same generation / audience that thinks cancelling Netflix and the Gym allows you to afford a mortgage deposit, that think like this also.
My wife and myself are both teachers, and would therefore probably be considered “middle class” traditionally. Yet we can’t afford a mortgage, and at times have to wait for food in the cupboard or new heads for the razor. That’s where the countries finances have gone since the 80’s. And we are still better off than a lot of families sadly, yet here we are unable to own a home or put tins in the cupboard.
Reading the comments actually gave me a bit of relief. I've spent a long time wondering whether I'm just financially irresponsible for splurging on Heinz beans over Aldi's own brand, but seeing so many people describing the same struggles makes me realise I'm far from the only one trying to keep their head above water.
Both myself and my partner work full time. I would never consider myself "in poverty" but I absolutely put off buying new clothes until older stuff is thoroughly worn out. I have had leaky shoes because I couldn't QUITE afford new ones that month and would have to rethink my budget for the next month.
And why are my shoes wearing out? Because I can't afford more hard wearing shoes and walk or cycle everywhere because I can't afford to drive.
The people want to pretend we aren't in a cost of living crisis, do so because they are on the other side of the coin. Those who profit from it.
How is the UK the 6 th richest country in the world when I have recently been to Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic and seen no run down town centres, no potholes in the roads and no homeless living in tents ?
The worst one I had (albeit it was a long time ago now) was going down the shops to spend my last £10 on food only to discover the bank had nicked it for an overdraft charge. Had to eat leftovers out the bin for about 3 days.
£2 bus fares and 5% off electricity will save me in the region of £750 a year. This is just day 1. Thank you Andy for understanding normal working people.
Read George Orwell down and out in Paris and London makes the point that having so little money in the first place inevitably drives people further into poverty as they have no financial buffer zone and cannot manage unexpected spending needs, or managing when something increases in price unexpectedly ...he wrote this decades ago
Recently had to have a tooth extraction. Had enough petrol in my car to get there and back, but no money for parking. Or, indeed the bus. This new policy of capping busfares at £2 is brilliant for me!
Every month is a juggling game. Especially around the energy bill. Sometimes it gets paid, sometimes not. Right now, it's the excess on vet bills that I am having to make arrangements with my vets to pay off. So, flea and worm treatment will have to wait. Luckily, my car passed its mot yesterday, so, no extra expense there.
I think this is something people often miss. The cost of living crisis isn't just about people who can't afford food at all. It's about millions of people gradually losing the little luxuries and financial breathing room they once had.
Pre-COVID, I could afford the occasional takeaway or meal out without thinking too much about it. Now, with supermarket prices where they are, I sometimes struggle to justify making those same meals at home, let alone ordering them.
I've lost around 3 stone, which has probably done wonders for my health. But I can't honestly say it was a conscious lifestyle choice. It was, at least in part, a consequence of food becoming so much more expensive. That's what precariousness looks like: not necessarily having nothing, but constantly lowering your expectations of what you can afford.
"Wash your hair with washing up liquid" is not a solution to a problem, it's an instruction on how to be poor more quietly.
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Thing is, many people don't know what it's like to actually be poor, genuinely poor, where you're deciding between eating and heating..
where you can't afford to warm your flat, so you wear extra layers and outside clothes, live between the bedroom and the kitchen because they're the less coldest rooms in the place.
Where you go directly to the reduced section in the supermarket, where you go to street markets at the end of the day to see if you can pick up some of the damaged, left over veg.
living off rice & beans, pasta and sauce everyday!
2nd hand shops, charity shops and car boots are your normal rounds because you cant afford 'new' stuff...
No just for a week or two or a month or so, the whole time...
Playing catch up all the time, never being in credit or in the black...
Some of us have been there, at lot more of us are going there, even more than you know are already there...
this is just the tip of a much larger issue...
My wife and myself are both teachers, and would therefore probably be considered “middle class” traditionally. Yet we can’t afford a mortgage, and at times have to wait for food in the cupboard or new heads for the razor. That’s where the countries finances have gone since the 80’s. And we are still better off than a lot of families sadly, yet here we are unable to own a home or put tins in the cupboard.
And why are my shoes wearing out? Because I can't afford more hard wearing shoes and walk or cycle everywhere because I can't afford to drive.
The people want to pretend we aren't in a cost of living crisis, do so because they are on the other side of the coin. Those who profit from it.
Every month is a juggling game. Especially around the energy bill. Sometimes it gets paid, sometimes not. Right now, it's the excess on vet bills that I am having to make arrangements with my vets to pay off. So, flea and worm treatment will have to wait. Luckily, my car passed its mot yesterday, so, no extra expense there.
Holidays- don't happen. Cinema- doesn't happen. Nights out- don't happen. Meals out- don't happen.
It's a juggling game.
And yes, my mum is 89 and Im 57 and have had to borrow from her a couple of times. Im an adult. It's embarrassing.
Pre-COVID, I could afford the occasional takeaway or meal out without thinking too much about it. Now, with supermarket prices where they are, I sometimes struggle to justify making those same meals at home, let alone ordering them.
I've lost around 3 stone, which has probably done wonders for my health. But I can't honestly say it was a conscious lifestyle choice. It was, at least in part, a consequence of food becoming so much more expensive. That's what precariousness looks like: not necessarily having nothing, but constantly lowering your expectations of what you can afford.