A Cost Of Living Deep Dive.
The cost of living conversation is everywhere right now, and as we prepare to head into a new financial year, we wanted to gauge how people living in the UK are coping.
In our last Vox Pops Pool, we went out to understand how people are coping and adjusting to the changes. Watch the video to hear what people had to say.
Feeling The Impact
All, but one, were feeling the impact of the Cost of Living and the main topics were around food, drink, housing and general bills. This is very much reflective of the research conducted by the ONS.
‘How am I being impacted by the cost of living in this country? We are in a recession regardless of what people say. The price of everything has gone up, but salaries are not commensurate with that price. You start to feel it in small things like where your money doesn’t go as far when you go grocery shopping.’
Food especially is mentioned a lot whenever we conduct this type of research, both in terms of buying for in home consumption and eating out.
‘Yeah. I did a food shop. I had one bag of shopping, and it cost me £40, and there were like six items, seven items in there. It was champagne, but that’s no excuse.’
Adapting To Change.
People are looking for ways of doing things cheaper, be it shopping, or eating out. Sites like Vinted are being used more and vouchers and online deals for restaurants help influence decisions.
‘simple as just going online and booking something. It’s like going online and seeing where the cheapest place is or the easiest way to use your money more effectively anywhere you go these days. Even eating out, it’s like, is there a voucher?’
This ongoing cost of living is creating a situation where individuals feel they are just ‘existing’ rather than ‘living, as they are forced to cut back on essentials like food and heating.
‘Yeah. I shop closer to where I work. So rather than going on a rest day, I’ll go as soon as I finish work, which is a longer day, but I’m not then travelling to go to the shopping as well. It’s getting there and there.’
Primary Concerns.
We then delved deeper into bills and the main source of concern are the ones that they have no control over, such as water and rates. There is no way of easily moderating those.
‘energy, council tax. The ones that you can’t really control. They’re the frightening ones’
‘Water is the thing that you’re always using all the time. You gotta drink it. You gotta use it to wash and all that. And the prices are always going up’
If you want this kind of video insight delivered regularly, our Vox Pops Pool is built for it. Each month we capture real public opinion on timely questions, with a mix of ages and backgrounds, then package it into shareable video your teams can use across insight, marketing, and comms.
Get involved here, or email us at: enquiry@voxpops.com
Written By
Frankie Dove
Client Engagement & Marketing Lead
