Five cost of living trends households predicted to follow this year to help save money

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Recent data published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) suggests that 7.8 million people across the UK are finding it increasingly more challenging to keep up with their household bills, a rise of around 2.5 million since 2020.

The research shows that one in four UK adults are in financial difficulty or believe they could quickly find themselves in difficulty if an unexpected cash emergency popped up.On top of this, the latest statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), four million children now live in households where someone is claiming Universal Credit, half a million more than this time last year.

This, combined with the continued ripple effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the looming recession, plus multiple other financial factors, has resulted in us living in an era of poly-crises, said Dr Gordon Fletcher, Lecturer in Operations and Information Management, University of Salford Business School.He explained that while the economy is predicted to worsen before we start to see signs of improvement, recent figures show an unexpected and stronger than initially forecast bounce-back in economic growth in October.So, what does this mean?

According to Dr Fletcher, the outlook for 2023 isn’t all doom and gloom with some longer term benefits to look forward to as we navigate the squeeze.Dr Fletcher shares his predictions for the next 12 months.Dr Fletcher explained: “As disposable incomes tighten further, consumers will seek alternate forms of shopping and we’re expecting to see a surge in purchasing more goods from charity shops.”Not only are charity shops beneficial for households when money is tight, but they’re considerably better for the environment as they’re built on a