As prices rise, the cost of living crisis has reawakened the ‘thriftifarians’

theguardian.com:

In a typical British September, social media is littered with posts about people guiltily putting on their central heating. Now, well into October, people are talking about how much longer they can leave it off before it gets too cold for comfort.

You might think that this is one more sign of how hard the cost of living crisis is biting. Many of these posts are from anxious people who are genuinely struggling. But the very same expressions of restraint and concern are also coming from those with plenty of money to spend. You see them splashing the cash in restaurants, bars, theatres, cinemas and upmarket shops. Many haven’t seen their energy bills rise yet, and when they do it will be by about £3.50 a day; far less than the price of a pint of beer in most pubs. They can afford to put the heating on if they need to. So why are they pretending otherwise?

It’s uncomfortable even to ask this question. To publicly wonder whether the cost of living crisis is really as bad as it’s cracked up to be sounds privileged and insensitive. It’s obvious that millions of people are struggling to pay their bills and are facing appalling heat or eat choices. No one should doubt that. The question is why so many of those still comfortably off feel the need to talk as though they are on the edge too.

After the 2008 financial crisis, I came up with a name for a similar group of people: “thriftifarians”. These are middle- or upper-class people who take virtuous pleasure in the selective economies they do need to make, especially during times of recession. It seems the thriftifarian is back, only this time what matters most is signalling your fictitious need to economise, whether you actually do so or not.

Some thriftifarians are comically lacking