Supermarket shop, socialising, subscriptions, savings and insurance: Brits leave no stone unturned on making cuts to tackle cost of living crisis

UK workers are increasingly making wholesale changes to their expenditures as the cost-of-living crisis hits. From changing their weekly supermarket shop, cutting back on socialising, cancelling subscriptions and reducing the amount that they are able to contribute to pensions or regular savings, new research into the financial wellbeing of 10,000 UK employees by Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP), shows that people are leaving no stone unturned as they tackle the cost of living crisis.

Key findings in the report are:

• The top area of household budgets for the cut is the regular supermarket shop, with over a third (36%) of people stating that they had made changes to cut costs.
• A further third of workers are making changes to how they socialise with friends and family (33%), as well as cutting back on TV subscriptions (32%).
• One-fifth (20%) have also reported cutting back on their regular savings commitments, while 17% have reduced their insurance outgoings each month.

Cuts to lifestyle will continue

With the cost-of-living crisis set to carry on well into this year, workers are considering how else they can make palatable lifestyle changes to make further cuts.

On top of grocery shopping elsewhere and finding more affordable ways to socialise:

• 15% of workers reported plans to consolidate their existing debts to better manage repayments
• Over one-fifth (21%) are looking to change energy providers to get a better deal with the cap on average energy bills set to increase from £2,500 to £3,000 from April 2023.

Looking ahead, workers are planning to make further changes to their outgoings, including:

• 33% are looking to further reduce their supermarket spend, which shows that many expect these challenges to be in place for the short to medium term.
• 30% are looking to make more reductions in their regular subscriptions, e.g. TV and other.
• 32% are looking to cut back even more on socialising.

And with employers increasingly discouraged from upping wages to combat spiralling inflation, workers will likely have to find more ways to save money and see out this economic storm.

Heidi Allan, Head of Financial Wellbeing at LCP, says: “The cost-of-living crisis has forced many of the UK’s hard-working employees to make difficult but necessary decisions about how they manage their daily expenditure. What is really stark about the findings is that people are making changes to things in their lives that are less visible to people, such as their mobile phone, insurance and financial providers, to avoid the stigma of being seen to be in financial hardship.”

“We would urge employers to ensure their people feel cared for and appropriate support is signposted, including Employee Assistance Programmes and financial education. Communication also plays a key role here, ensuring employees know and understand what is available to support them.”