5 ms·

The actual sad thing here is that incomes have stagnated so much in the UK and the cost of living has skyrocketed so quickly, that people are desperate to save

The actual sad thing here is that incomes have stagnated so much in the UK and the cost of living has skyrocketed so quickly, that people are desperate to save even £30/year That's approximately equal to 3hrs worth of minimum wage work (£9.50/hr), and people are that desperate? But it makes sense when you realise that the median wage in the UK is ~£24k/yr...

jahnu 4y ago
If you make say 10 relatively simple adjustments to your life like this then it ( at the risk of being boringly obvious :) ) would be 300 a year which becomes much more significant. So learning about them is important or you can't make any adjustments.
- blitzar 4y ago
  If you cut out the take-away coffee and avocado on toast and you will have enough to buy many houses. Apparently going without 24,499 times would mean you have enough to put down a deposit for the average first time buyer in London.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  If you made 100 such adjustments it would be 3000! And so on... but really: how many such adjustments can you make? And how much inconvenience will that cause?
  - nicoburns 4y ago
    If you have a low income, then potentially much less inconvenience than not being able to afford things that you need.
  - jahnu 4y ago
    Well if you want to be silly about it, sure. (I even put in a friendly note to hopefully avoid such comments). But if we remain sensible then there is quite likely room for a dozen or so such adjustments in many lives where the inconvenience is negligible in proportion to the potential gains.
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      > But if we remain sensible then there is quite likely room for a dozen or so such adjustments in most lives where the inconvenience is negligible. I doubt that. Which is my point. You can try to forestall 'such comments' but then you probably should show where you believe 10 (or even more) such adjustments with negligible inconvenience can be made in the life of the people for who this sort of advice would matter. Because I don't believe that to be the case.
    - electroly 4y ago
      Could you name, say, two more? Reducing your use of heating or AC is the only other similar adjustment I can think of. I don't think 10 such adjustments exist.
      - jahnu 4y ago
        I’ll name the ones I do myself - Reduce heating as you suggested (we have a crisis going on in Europe and I reduced it even more recently) - Drive a little slower - Make sure I check for discounts at the supermarket and plan accordingly - Try to fill the dishwasher optimally - Cook more vegetarian meals - Check used goods online markets before buying new And that’s just a quick list
        electroly 4y ago
        Those go far, far beyond the negligible impact of turning off your devices when you're not using them. Nobody is claiming that it's impossible to save money. We're saying there are a limited number of options with negligible-to-no impact to you. Most of the things you mentioned are absolutely not worth it to me, I'd rather not save the money.
        jahnu 4y ago
        It not about you It’s about people for whom 300 a year is not negligible For those people the things I listed are worth doing and negligible effort compared to the reward I don’t understand why this is so hard to get
TazeTSchnitzel 4y ago
> incomes have stagnated so much I don't think it's about income change so much as what income bracket you fall into to begin with. An upper-middle-class person with a stagnant income won't worry about £30/year. But people living in relative poverty (a huge segment of the population) will regardless of how the economy is going.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  Upper-middle class incomes are not stagnating. That leaves 90% of people with stagnating incomes.
- Nebasuke 4y ago
  Median incomes really are stagnating. See e.g. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/real-wages-and-living-standards/ https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/real-wages-and-liv... That's until 2015 and doesn't even take the recent energy hikes into account.
willnonya 4y ago
So your position is that a majority of people in the UK are so desperate for an extra £2.5 a month that they're willing to follow asinine advice like this? People living under bridges would scoff at that much less the population of an affluent, technologically and image obsessed culture like the UK.

jahnu 4y ago

If you make say 10 relatively simple adjustments to your life like this then it ( at the risk of being boringly obvious :) ) would be 300 a year which becomes much more significant. So learning about them is important or you can't make any adjustments.

blitzar 4y ago
If you cut out the take-away coffee and avocado on toast and you will have enough to buy many houses. Apparently going without 24,499 times would mean you have enough to put down a deposit for the average first time buyer in London.
jacquesm 4y ago
If you made 100 such adjustments it would be 3000! And so on... but really: how many such adjustments can you make? And how much inconvenience will that cause?
- nicoburns 4y ago
  If you have a low income, then potentially much less inconvenience than not being able to afford things that you need.
- jahnu 4y ago
  Well if you want to be silly about it, sure. (I even put in a friendly note to hopefully avoid such comments). But if we remain sensible then there is quite likely room for a dozen or so such adjustments in many lives where the inconvenience is negligible in proportion to the potential gains.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    > But if we remain sensible then there is quite likely room for a dozen or so such adjustments in most lives where the inconvenience is negligible. I doubt that. Which is my point. You can try to forestall 'such comments' but then you probably should show where you believe 10 (or even more) such adjustments with negligible inconvenience can be made in the life of the people for who this sort of advice would matter. Because I don't believe that to be the case.
  - electroly 4y ago
    Could you name, say, two more? Reducing your use of heating or AC is the only other similar adjustment I can think of. I don't think 10 such adjustments exist.
    - jahnu 4y ago
      I’ll name the ones I do myself - Reduce heating as you suggested (we have a crisis going on in Europe and I reduced it even more recently) - Drive a little slower - Make sure I check for discounts at the supermarket and plan accordingly - Try to fill the dishwasher optimally - Cook more vegetarian meals - Check used goods online markets before buying new And that’s just a quick list
      - electroly 4y ago
        Those go far, far beyond the negligible impact of turning off your devices when you're not using them. Nobody is claiming that it's impossible to save money. We're saying there are a limited number of options with negligible-to-no impact to you. Most of the things you mentioned are absolutely not worth it to me, I'd rather not save the money.
        jahnu 4y ago
        It not about you It’s about people for whom 300 a year is not negligible For those people the things I listed are worth doing and negligible effort compared to the reward I don’t understand why this is so hard to get

TazeTSchnitzel 4y ago

> incomes have stagnated so much I don't think it's about income change so much as what income bracket you fall into to begin with. An upper-middle-class person with a stagnant income won't worry about £30/year. But people living in relative poverty (a huge segment of the population) will regardless of how the economy is going.

pessimizer 4y ago
Upper-middle class incomes are not stagnating. That leaves 90% of people with stagnating incomes.
Nebasuke 4y ago
Median incomes really are stagnating. See e.g. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/real-wages-and-living-standards/ https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/real-wages-and-liv... That's until 2015 and doesn't even take the recent energy hikes into account.

willnonya 4y ago

So your position is that a majority of people in the UK are so desperate for an extra £2.5 a month that they're willing to follow asinine advice like this? People living under bridges would scoff at that much less the population of an affluent, technologically and image obsessed culture like the UK.