You can’t turn on the TV right now without some mention of the cost of living crisis. It’s an incredibly tough situation that impacts every one of us.
Even if you have the resources to cope, you’re still affected.
Your food is more expensive, fuel is more expensive, gas and electricity are more expensive. Literally everything costs more now.
And, chances are, you haven’t had a pay rise anywhere close to the rate of inflation.
I can’t solve the cost of living crisis, but I do have some actionable tips to help you cope.
I really do hope they help, even a little bit.
5 tips for surviving the cost of living crisis
If you’re a regular reader of Saving Superstar, you will have seen a couple of these before, especially the first one. I cannot emphasise enough how important budgeting is to make it through.
1. Create a household budget
A household budget is the cornerstone of life. It shows you in black and white what money you have coming in, what you’re spending and how much you have, or don’t have, at the end of the month.
It’s essential to have a budget, even when there isn’t a cost of living crisis going on.
Use a free spreadsheet app, have one column for income and another for outgoings. Make sure to include all spending, no matter how small.
Subtract your outgoings column from your income column and you have a basic budget.
You should know whether you need to cut back and identify areas where you can. You can also see how much you could potentially put away in savings too, which is almost as important.
2. Haggle with your providers
Whenever you have a contract up for renewal, haggle. You don’t have to always do it in person, sometimes you can do it online.
Compare all providers, use 2-3 comparison sites to cover the market and select one or two of the cheapest. Make sure they offer the same or similar features and are well reviewed.
Then talk to your current provider about leaving. Tell them the best price you found and see if they will offer to match or beat that offer.
Many providers will do what they can to beat it as it’s cheaper for them to keep a customer than to attract a new one.
Either way, use competitive markets to your advantage.
3. Check for benefits and grants
You don’t have to be out of work or a carer to receive benefits. They are there to help anyone when they need it.
There are billions of pounds of benefits left unclaimed each year, make sure yours aren’t among them.
It isn’t just benefits either.
You could get cheaper broadband for those in receipt of benefits, grants for new parents, grants for essential home repairs and a wide range of other help.
Check the government’s benefits calculator or use a website such as Entitleto. They can give you an idea if you’re entitled to any help or not.
Be selective about the website you use. Make sure it’s a legitimate site as you will have to share a small amount of personal information for them to help you.
4. Make your own meals
It may sound obvious to some, but the takeaway and ready meal culture is so strong, we often don’t think of it as an indulgence.
Takeaways and ready meals are expensive. They are also usually full of salt, fat, sugar and other things we need to moderate.
Mostly we’re interested in the cost here.
Make your own meals and you not only reduce the cost, you also control what goes into it. You save money, increase the nutritional value while reducing fat, salt and sugar.
You don’t have to turn into the next Michel Roux Jr., think more Jamie Oliver’s £1 meals. Basic but delicious food you can make from core ingredients to feed a family.
Yes, it takes more time than using Deliveroo or the microwave but you could save serous cash while also living a healthier life.
5. Identify your spending triggers
Spending triggers are those times, or situations, that make you spend more money.
I have a mantra of ‘never go food shopping when you’re hungry’ as hunger is a trigger to spend more on food. You don’t think straight as your body is saying ‘feed me’ and your mind is programmed to do just that.
Your triggers could be emotional, situational, a place, time, smell or something else.
It may be tough to identify as we’re all different and we’re often blind to these things. Perhaps ask your nearest and dearest if they know, or if they could work with you to identify the triggers.
Once you know them, avoid them.
It could be something simple like eating a banana or a handful of peanuts before going shopping or staying away from Amazon when you had bad news.
They work for me!
Surviving the cost of living crisis
Nobody knows how long inflation and the overall financial situation will last. It’s best to plan for the long haul but we just don’t know.
The good news is, learning and following these tips can help you regardless of what else is going on in the world. They don’t have to impact your life too much either.
