Callum Lyon✓

I still find it mad that school never taught us about mortgages, credit scores, taxes, savings or how politics affects our everyday lives. Nothing about budgeting, paying rent, understanding interest or avoiding debt when you finally become an adult. Instead, we spent hours learning cursive handwriting, algebra we'll probably never use again, the parts of a leaf, Venn diagrams and how to set magnesium on fire with a Bunsen burner. School taught us how to pass exams but somehow forgot to teach us how to actually survive in the real world.

The government are giving everyone £100 towards their energy bills in the new budget. Lovely. That should just about cover turning the heating on for a few hours before you have to turn it back off again to save money.

Landlords in 2015: £500 a month rent, £250 deposit, you have a job yeah? Great here's the keys. Landlords in 2026: We will need a £1200 deposit, £1200 first month’s rent, £1200 last month’s rent, a £199 admin fee, an £89 processing fee and another fee that we haven't made up yet. We will also need your payslips for your whole working career, 10 years of bank statements, employment history, 17 references, 4 guarantors, your credit score, a letter from your employer promising you won’t lose your job for the next 10 years, a DNA test, your family tree dating back to 1648, you can have a pet but it's £200 a month extra and remember to tell us if you get a pay rise so we can increase your rent Then you’re then handed the keys to a £1,200 shoebox with mould on the walls, a kitchen from the 1980's, windows that don’t open fully, a boiler that’s been “getting replaced” since 2006 and a bathroom fan that sounds like a fucking helicopter taking off.

For Halloween this year I'm putting a vending machine outside my house. Fuck giving away free sweets in this economy. Everything's too expensive and I've got bills to pay.

Owning a house in 2026 is easy, all you have to do is: Cancel all subscriptions Stop drinking coffee Have rich parents Inherit a house

It really should NOT be controversial to say that working a full time job should cover the basics like rent, bills and food without running out of money a week after payday.

Prices in the UK are absolutely mental. How is 2 carrier bags of food costing about £80? You literally could fill a trolley with that 5 years ago. A return train to London actually costs more than a return flight to another country. A "staycation" in the UK an hour from the nearest beach costs more than going abroad to somewhere that's actually sunny and warm right next to the beach. Fuel prices are getting that expensive people are coming close to not being able to afford to drive to work anymore. Budget hotels with beautiful views of the fucking motorway are now over £100 a night. Rent on somewhere that was around £600 a month 5 years ago will now cost you around £1200 minimum. We're literally getting priced out of normal life. This really isn't sustainable. The country is on its knees. We're absolutely finished.

People aren't asking for luxury cars, designer clothes or massive houses. They just want to work full time, afford their rent, pay their bills, do a food shop and still have enough money left to enjoy their lives. How have we reached a point where that's considered asking for too much?

Serious question, how the fuck are people in the UK meant to save money when rent, bills and food take up about 80% of your wage?

I need to know what's going through the heads of people who drive at 30mph in a 60, only to speed up to 40mph when they reach a 30. What is the thought process? Do they see a speed limit sign and deliberately do the opposite? You've got a queue of 47 cars behind you on a perfectly straight road slowing then all down, then suddenly you're Lewis Hamilton through a village.

Dating in 2026 is genuinely exhausting. Everyone's got 3 situationships, 10 backup options and an ex they're still living with. You can give someone your time, effort and loyalty and still get ghosted without explanation. People want all the benefits of a relationship without actually committing to one. At this point, you're not dating. You're just fostering people until they find someone else.

There's nothing more frustrating than Netflix suggesting the exact film you're looking for, letting you type the entire title, then telling you it's not available.

Can we please bring back £400 a month rent, £40k houses, £100 monthly bills, £30 weekly food shops, £500 a month mortgages, 50p a litre fuel, 29p cans of pop, £60 council tax, £5 takeaways, £2 meal deals and a full time job actually paying the bills without leaving you skint a week after payday.

How the fu*k is anyone earning minimum wage, or anything close to it, in the UK meant to afford living alone? The numbers simply don't add up. You can work 40 hours a week and bring home around £1,700 a month after tax, National Insurance and pension contributions. Then you're looking at £800 for rent, £120 in council tax, £350 on household bills and another £300 just to feed yourself. That's your entire monthly wage gone before you've even covered travel, your phone bill or an unexpected expense. No savings. No financial security. No money left to actually enjoy your life. Yet we're expected to celebrate every time minimum wage increases. But what's the point of a pay rise when you're still struggling to afford the basics? At what point are we going to admit that something has gone seriously wrong in this country?

Prices in the UK are backwards and have completely lost the fucking plot: £100 for a weekly food shop Fuel at £2 a litre Mortgages £1600 a month Rent that was £700 a month a few years ago now £1400 a month £15 for fish and chips for one person Hotels costing £100 a night £60 for an hours driving lesson Car insurance going up every year. Same car, same driver, no claims. £800 for a week away in the UK when you could leave for half of that. Over £2 for a bottle of water McDonald's for one £12 Even whetherspoons is getting expensive! We're getting robbed.

When my friends say they're skint they still have about £700 in the bank, a £300 overdraft and a £5k credit card. When I say I'm skint I literally have about £6.84 left and nothing else.

The UK has normalised being broke while working full time. You can do everything right, show up, work hard, work extra hours, stay consistent and you still end up with no money left a week or two after payday.

People are cutting back on absolutely everything. They're buying supermarket own brands, driving less, cancelling subscriptions, staying in instead of going out and putting off purchases until they can justify the expense. They're making sacrifices that would have seemed ridiculous a few years ago just to keep their heads above water. But when wages disappear into rent, council tax, energy bills, food and transport, even the strictest budget can only do so much. You shouldn't have to give up every little thing that makes life enjoyable just to afford the essentials. If working full-time still means you can't afford to live comfortably, maybe the problem isn't your spending habits. Maybe the system is broken.

How have we reached a point where people can work full time, pay their taxes and still struggle to survive in their own country? The UK is becoming unaffordable. Rent, food, energy bills and council tax keep rising, while ordinary working people are left wondering how they're going to make it to payday. People shouldn't have to spend their entire lives working themselves into the ground just to keep a roof over their heads. We deserve a country where hard work gives people hope for the future, not constant anxiety about how they're going to survive.