The New Essentials: Chardonnay, Croissants, Computer?

July, 02, 2008

Thrift is cool. Of course, we would say that because we don’t have a choice, so we might as well make being poorer groovy. For many middle-class families, a daring excursion to Aldi or choosing not to spend an extra week in Tuscany might seem to be the 21st Century equivalent of wartime rationing, but what actually passes for being ‘poor’ nowadays?

Those who actually remember the hardship of wartime Britain may consider much of what we fill our houses with today as pure luxuries. Even a youngster (!) such as I remember, as a teenager in the 1980s, feeling a tad deprived that we didn’t have a video recorder. My parents of course viewed it as an unnecessary luxury (after all, there were four terrestrial TV channels to choose from as well as the wireless!).

Nowadays owning a DVD could be classed as a basic requirement for most, not least because they give them away with petrol coupons (actually, filling your car up with diesel could buy you two or three DVD players).

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Add to this the modern definition of ‘relative poverty’ (i.e. the standard of living compared to the societal norm, as opposed to Dickensian workhouse living) and you have a more confused picture of what being poor actually means. Maybe this is the yardstick by which we should compare our new ‘thriftiness’ by.

So what do we really need to have a reasonable standard of living?

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a single person in Britain needs to earn at least £13,400 a year before tax to afford a basic but acceptable standard of living. After a two-year study by experts with extensive public consultation, the foundation has revealed what is needed to achieve this baseline standard. This is not simply enough to cover vitals such as food and warmth, but enough cash to make a trip to the cinema or the occasional meal out an option.

The research found to have an acceptable standard of living, a single person without children needed to spend £158 a week, while a couple with two children needed £370 a week, a retired couple need £210. These amounts exclude rent or mortgage costs. The report claims families without a working adult receive about two thirds of the minimum budget in state benefits.

So what items are essential in 2008?

In order to have a socially acceptable standard of living, the report breaks down a number of items which are deemed as essential by each group. What everyone agreed on was that film tickets, a bottle of wine and a bird feeder (I kid you not) were essential. I’m not sure if my house was repossessed my first impulse would be to grab the bird feeder, but there you go.

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The internet was deemed a luxury to everyone except families with secondary-school aged kids, no doubt with homework and social networking in mind. A basic pay-as-you go style mobile telephone also came into this category.

Cigarettes are considered a luxury, but alcohol is considered an essential treat (couldn’t agree more).

A single mum should have £15 a week for social activities and should be able to afford a Christmas Tree and nappies (I can hardly imagine nappies ever being regarded as a luxury, which puts into context the realities for many poorer people in the UK). A single person, with no kids, should be able to afford a pay-as you go mobile and new trainers (admittedly with a budget of only £20 a year, so no designer ones).

A couple with two kids should be able to spend a minimum of £360 on Christmas and around £450 on birthdays. Families should also have enough money for one self-catering holiday in the UK a year.

Like the bird-feeder, there were some unusual essentials. For example, pensioners cited Yorkshire pudding tins as a kitchen essential, whereas a blender or knife sharpener a luxury.

Crucially, the minimum wage doesn’t allow people to earn the sums necessary to achieve the basic standards in this report.

I asked my husband about what he viewed as essentials for a basic standard of living. Unsurprisingly, the answer was beer, wine, DVDs, books and a foreign holiday. He doesn’t mind the switch to Aldi, though (“we should have gone there years ago”) but is promising himself a trip to Waitrose for Christmas.

So what is essential and what is a luxury in your home? Email us and we’ll mention your replies when we follow the story up.

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   SaveBorrowSpend                      Philippa Adam