The Cost of Living Crisis

[George 1978]

I have been thinking about starting a thread about this important subject for a few months now, and I have finally decided to do so after some thought. I don't know whether anyone on here has been affected by the Cost of Living Crisis, but personally it wasn't until May this year when I realised that I had been bit by it. I first found out when I tried to do two online food shops with the second one failing after the first one had failed, paying with two different cards, and both failed. I found the truth when I saw my online bank account - I didn't know it was that bad. I know that I have had a reluctance to see what I had in there, but what I saw was a nightmare. Three months on and I feel almost the same as I did when I discovered what had happened. Although the crisis has been with us for a couple of years, I had managd to live what I would regard as a normal life last year and the year before, and so the Cost of Living crisis had been a secondary thing to me. Now I think of it as being a lot more urgent to me - it has increased my anxiety and depression (and I get anxious and depressed very easily), and I feel that life is a dead end with nowhere to turn to. I have felt a lot more depressed about this than when my parents passed away to be honest. Writing on here sometimes keeps me going but it doesn't solve my problems in the long run.

My birthday is on August 30th just as it is every year; just before that date I like to celebrate it by going away for a few days to somewhere in Great Britain and coming back in the first week of September. As early as February I decided to visit Cardiff and I had even booked my ticket at the Donald Gordon Theatre to see a musical there. Little did I realise about the problems I would have just a couple of months later. Living on my own, I hate the idea of having to stay in my flat on my birthday, and it almost happened in 2020 due things being cancelled as a result of coronavirus. This is a lot worse than covid, and it is worse than any recession. I just don't know whether I can afford my Premier Inn room and have money for utility bills at the same time as of course, I cannot spend the same money twice. I want life to be as normal as possible, and I don't mean a "new" normal either. I have never had to make this decision in orevious years. Who is to blame? Vladamir Putin? Coronavirus? Brexit? The Bank of England? Inflation? Rishi Sunak? All the wars going on in the world at the moment? Who knows? All I can say is that I am probably about to find out how frustrating and depressing life is going to be, and my birthday is a real acid test as to my emotions getting the better of me, and my depression getting a lot worse. What I know is that my own birthday coming up in two weeks' time is really depressing me - as an adult, I have often dreading birthdays and Christmasses now that my parents are no longer with us. I would love to have a family of my own and I have spent 25 years to even try and form relationships, but I find it so difficult.

I am a great writer as lots of you can see on here - I love writing about various subjects on here and having the pleasure of visitors reading what I have written and also inspiring them to write on here as well, but at the same time it has frustrated me so much that I haven't been able to put that to use as an occupation and have made it to an advantage where more money can be in my bank account. Thirty years ago I was bullied out of school so much that I left school early, and that stemmed into the difficulties that I have had later on in life - I am very angry and bitter about it. I wish I could earn a career as a writer and express myself for what I am really good at, but I have found out, it is not as straightforward as that - at the end of the day, the bullies always seem to win - it's a pity that I don't get paid for my writing on here, for example! I am so angry as well as frustrated, and to be honest, I have never been able to prepare myself for such a situation as this because I basically didn't think that it wouldn't be that bad. I live on my own; I am so worried and I feel so sick - I have no wife or family living with me. I feel that I have had enough of life. I hate the 21st century; at least this froum is about the 20th century, just about. Why aren't all humans treated equally, and more to the point, why don't all humans have the same amount of money? Why do we have some people who are multi-billionaires while some have to save for a month in order to purchase a penny chew? We do all live on the same planet, don't we?

I have even started a GoFundMe page last month as I thought that it would help me recover from this situation, but despite telling lots of people and even going to social media, the results so far have been very disappointing not to mention depressing. I thought of it as being a final resort after exhausting all the other avenues that I could think of. (I would provide a link to it on here, but I don't think that the powers that be would like that). I know that there are a lot of people who are in the same boat but we all try and target it in different ways; some of us can breeze through it while others can be permantly stuck in the situation and hope that a miracle will happen as soon as possible, and that sounds like myself. After bouts of anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and even the odd chest pain and aching arms, I feel that I have gone beyond a nervous breakdown; I get up after being asleep, (not always in the morning), and I think "oh, not again" when it comes to what is happening around me and what I have to face now. This is 2024 and not 1824, but we have not gone forwards when it comes to the quality of life that people like myself are receiving at the moment. The Human Rights Act 1998 should be a huge part to the rights that we have as citizens and how we deserve to be treated.

It has been mentioned online that the Cost of Living crisis could end by the end of the this year, but even if it did, what about people such as myself? It's a case of closing the stable door - I will still be behind with money and payments and all that, and it is not just the amount of incoming money which is received increasing as well as the cost of bills going down, but it has got so bad that I think that we need some sort of compensation so that we can break even as well. It won't be the true end for that until the clocks can be completely turned back to prior to all this beginning - too much damage has already happened. Financially, budgeting is the financial comparison to putting a quart into a pint pot, and it doesn't solve in the long run the bigger picture of bigger costs which need to be cleared as soon as possible. I am sick to death of getting letters from the bank saying "there isn't enough money in the account to cover the direct debits - why don't you put more money into the account?" And where do they suggest I get the money from? A bank, perhaps? Yes, I am on benefits due to personal hardship and difficulties stemmed from things that have happened earlier on in my life, and sometimes, my home even feels like solitary confinement due to what is happening, and it is damaging my mental health so badly. No one should have to put up with that, not even my own worst enemy. I am so angry.

I feel so bitter after what has happened to me over the past few months. At least, I can vent my spleen and let it all out on here, and tell people how I feel at the moment.

[beccabear67]

It's never been easy to make anything like a living as a writer (or artist), in fact a lot of it has been luck of an opportunity, or just timing, as well as being capable. It is probably more hopeless now than ever if you haven't already had some substantial credits. I figure that getting paid anything for either has been in my rear-view mirror for a long time, and I've known it for a long time. I've also know people I consider more skilled or talented who are also idle. Print media seems to be going the way of the dinosaur, all the 'free' online 'content' comes at a very high price not enough have realized. Musicians are still able to make some money performing, but we've overproduced on them as a society as well as writers and artists; there are a lot of surplus people. Meanwhile we import nurses, doctors, teachers, and others from so-called poorer places which certainly are poorer without their most skilled members. Schools all had future nurses, future doctors and future teachers clubs when my Mother went to school, but I never heard of any when I was the same age twenty four years later on. I did look at one time into becoming an art teacher, possibly the kind of teacher we could've used less of? I don't know, I never made it to the starting line on it or much else. I worked in a small retail business for a few decades, delivered newspapers, bought and sold collectables at a profit on the side. Recently I had a problem crossing an international border for the first time because my income and lack of holdings at the time a year ago 'didn't make sense' to the border attendant. They held me up until the boat was leaving the first time and I said I'll come back with paperwork next time, and even then with the paperwork it was the same thing all over again except I did get to board the boat at almost the last moment (walking on the vehicle ramp). Perhaps If I had signed on for some kind of benefits or payouts I wouldn't have had that? I never have though. I did get low income cheques during covid a few times meant to help people deal with food price increases, but those stopped, and I do receive subsidies on prescriptions, but that's all... so far.

The safety nets have been used by enough people before us that I've figured if I do ever need them in any way, like you do now, they might simply not be there at all, or perhaps just enough to simply exist on. A fairly bare cupboard even after paying into social programs for many years when I worked full time. You're hitting walls I also will hit myself before long. This is it... you are where people who sign up at food banks are at. I remember when they were a very rare, small and limited thing... now they are everywhere with more people using them than ever; working people, seniors, the disabled.

I'm angry at how governments and councils have thrown good money after bad people too often, though I know that's divide and conquer, but drug addicts and the dangerously mentally ill should be sectioned and held, not provided caretakers/enablers and places to live among us; they have only made many places into psych wards and drug pushing and shooting galleries. I'm angry at office makeovers for bureaucrats who demonstrate mostly incompetence. I'm angry despite never having been in any union at the way scab labour has been allowed to decimate taxis via uber and lyft etc., air b&b to decimate hotels and motels (what haven't been turned into **** housing for people at the bottom), or so many other vulture capitalist scenes involving the internet replacing what used to be brick and mortar small businesses, and landlords who can destroy your business with a 'redevelopment' that leads to sometimes empty flats owned by someone outside your area or even country, or a not so human company with hundreds of such 'holdings'.

I know a lot of people just surviving, existing... collecting bottles even which they hadn't done since they were kids... and I have known a few that have fallen too. If one starts to vent does it ever stop? Cry not knowing if your eyes and nose will ever be dry again? The future ain't what it used to be, that's for sure. Everyone for themselves has never been civilization. Anger in an energy... perhaps through sheer bloody-minded anger you can set yourself to survive. Just to survive is what a lot of people around this planet can hope for, it was that way in poorer places and it's been that way for us as we collectively seem to have to relearn things the hard way too often. Find out what there is in your area and try to avail yourself of the help you need as best you can while trying to keep that upper lip stiff as we've heard of from times past. Getting help and helping back is what makes a society, not concrete and glass or numbers on screens... the people. Can you not become that person as others have? An enjoyer of the smallest most modest moments? It is neither easy nor fair, but that reality has been there all the time. There are so many in this world who wanted to live but who were robbed of it. Don't join them, but fight for what they would fight for if they only could. Maybe you'll find you can?

Good luck, I'm likely not so far behind.

[Cartimand]

I have been thinking about starting a thread about this important subject for a few months now, and I have finally decided to do so after some thought. I don't know whether anyone on here has been affected by the Cost of Living Crisis, but personally it wasn't until May this year when I realised that I had been bit by it. I first found out when I tried to do two online food shops with the second one failing after the first one had failed, paying with two different cards, and both failed. I found the truth when I saw my online bank account - I didn't know it was that bad. I know that I have had a reluctance to see what I had in there, but what I saw was a nightmare. Three months on and I feel almost the same as I did when I discovered what had happened. Although the crisis has been with us for a couple of years, I had managd to live what I would regard as a normal life last year and the year before, and so the Cost of Living crisis had been a secondary thing to me. Now I think of it as being a lot more urgent to me - it has increased my anxiety and depression (and I get anxious and depressed very easily), and I feel that life is a dead end with nowhere to turn to. I have felt a lot more depressed about this than when my parents passed away to be honest. Writing on here sometimes keeps me going but it doesn't solve my problems in the long run.

My birthday is on August 30th just as it is every year; just before that date I like to celebrate it by going away for a few days to somewhere in Great Britain and coming back in the first week of September. As early as February I decided to visit Cardiff and I had even booked my ticket at the Donald Gordon Theatre to see a musical there. Little did I realise about the problems I would have just a couple of months later. Living on my own, I hate the idea of having to stay in my flat on my birthday, and it almost happened in 2020 due things being cancelled as a result of coronavirus. This is a lot worse than covid, and it is worse than any recession. I just don't know whether I can afford my Premier Inn room and have money for utility bills at the same time as of course, I cannot spend the same money twice. I want life to be as normal as possible, and I don't mean a "new" normal either. I have never had to make this decision in orevious years. Who is to blame? Vladamir Putin? Coronavirus? Brexit? The Bank of England? Inflation? Rishi Sunak? All the wars going on in the world at the moment? Who knows? All I can say is that I am probably about to find out how frustrating and depressing life is going to be, and my birthday is a real acid test as to my emotions getting the better of me, and my depression getting a lot worse. What I know is that my own birthday coming up in two weeks' time is really depressing me - as an adult, I have often dreading birthdays and Christmasses now that my parents are no longer with us. I would love to have a family of my own and I have spent 25 years to even try and form relationships, but I find it so difficult.

I am a great writer as lots of you can see on here - I love writing about various subjects on here and having the pleasure of visitors reading what I have written and also inspiring them to write on here as well, but at the same time it has frustrated me so much that I haven't been able to put that to use as an occupation and have made it to an advantage where more money can be in my bank account. Thirty years ago I was bullied out of school so much that I left school early, and that stemmed into the difficulties that I have had later on in life - I am very angry and bitter about it. I wish I could earn a career as a writer and express myself for what I am really good at, but I have found out, it is not as straightforward as that - at the end of the day, the bullies always seem to win - it's a pity that I don't get paid for my writing on here, for example! I am so angry as well as frustrated, and to be honest, I have never been able to prepare myself for such a situation as this because I basically didn't think that it wouldn't be that bad. I live on my own; I am so worried and I feel so sick - I have no wife or family living with me. I feel that I have had enough of life. I hate the 21st century; at least this froum is about the 20th century, just about. Why aren't all humans treated equally, and more to the point, why don't all humans have the same amount of money? Why do we have some people who are multi-billionaires while some have to save for a month in order to purchase a penny chew? We do all live on the same planet, don't we?

I have even started a GoFundMe page last month as I thought that it would help me recover from this situation, but despite telling lots of people and even going to social media, the results so far have been very disappointing not to mention depressing. I thought of it as being a final resort after exhausting all the other avenues that I could think of. (I would provide a link to it on here, but I don't think that the powers that be would like that). I know that there are a lot of people who are in the same boat but we all try and target it in different ways; some of us can breeze through it while others can be permantly stuck in the situation and hope that a miracle will happen as soon as possible, and that sounds like myself. After bouts of anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and even the odd chest pain and aching arms, I feel that I have gone beyond a nervous breakdown; I get up after being asleep, (not always in the morning), and I think "oh, not again" when it comes to what is happening around me and what I have to face now. This is 2024 and not 1824, but we have not gone forwards when it comes to the quality of life that people like myself are receiving at the moment. The Human Rights Act 1998 should be a huge part to the rights that we have as citizens and how we deserve to be treated.

It has been mentioned online that the Cost of Living crisis could end by the end of the this year, but even if it did, what about people such as myself? It's a case of closing the stable door - I will still be behind with money and payments and all that, and it is not just the amount of incoming money which is received increasing as well as the cost of bills going down, but it has got so bad that I think that we need some sort of compensation so that we can break even as well. It won't be the true end for that until the clocks can be completely turned back to prior to all this beginning - too much damage has already happened. Financially, budgeting is the financial comparison to putting a quart into a pint pot, and it doesn't solve in the long run the bigger picture of bigger costs which need to be cleared as soon as possible. I am sick to death of getting letters from the bank saying "there isn't enough money in the account to cover the direct debits - why don't you put more money into the account?" And where do they suggest I get the money from? A bank, perhaps? Yes, I am on benefits due to personal hardship and difficulties stemmed from things that have happened earlier on in my life, and sometimes, my home even feels like solitary confinement due to what is happening, and it is damaging my mental health so badly. No one should have to put up with that, not even my own worst enemy. I am so angry.

I feel so bitter after what has happened to me over the past few months. At least, I can vent my spleen and let it all out on here, and tell people how I feel at the moment.

I'm no therapist, but it sounds to me like you're just going through a sh1t time right now.
Whatever you do, don't rely on the government or hope for a miracle to snap you out of this mindset.
The only one who can change your circumstances is you.
There are plenty of life-affirming activities you can do that don't cost much or anything.
Use this pleasant summer weather to plan a long hike along a scenic route somewhere near you for example.
Feeling the sun and wind (and maybe a few drops of rain) on your face while you burn up some calories and get yourself fitter is a vastly more positive thing to do than bemoaning your lot on an Internet forum.
A lot of my dreams never materialised - if they had, I would be a world-acclaimed archaeologist by now, travelling the world and making amazing discoveries. Oh and my attempt at becoming a horror/fantasy author never got past a few chapters languishing on my hard drive. I didn't beat myself up about it though, just went with the flow and tried my hand at something else. One of the best things I ever did for my mental wellbeing is to join a local pub cricket team - that guaranteed me many years of friendship, camaraderie and a host of happy memories. Team sport might not be your thing, but I'm sure there are other groups local to you where you would fit in to your mutual benefit. Ramblers, cycling, historical or astronomical societies, gaming (D&D etc). If anything seems even marginally interesting to you, don't just think about it. Sign up and give it a go. It it doesn't work out, you've lost nothing and can at least compliment yourself on giving it a try. If it does work out then great and I look forward to reading your positive results here!

[George 1978]

Here it is - https://gofund.me/6bbfdbf7

Anyone can donate, so if you could spread the word to anyone you know who could help, I would be grateful.

[George 1978]

I suppose I was a bit emotional when I actually started this thread. You can delete this thread if you like.