Do you know why you are struggling

Mortgage is over 1k a month (but we are overpaying as we bought late, my second marriage) and my eldest DS is in uni so I top up his rent.

I supplement my 3 DC because their abusive, controlling father refuses to support them beyond feeding them at his house so the nice stuff like horseriding, school trips, phones, laptops, cinema trips, gigs etc all fall to me. I usually have about a tenner left at the end of the month and do struggle to splash out on myself but I'm happy with that because my DC deserve it.

We are fortunate that our mortgage didn’t go up hugely and we’re now fixed rate for a while. However we became used to how we live our life and haven’t adjusted that much. We’re now very much finding that we are living month to month and have used most of our savings. I guess we’re lucky that we should be able to pay for bills and it’s just the fun stuff that needs to stop but still when 2 of you work in professional jobs and have done for 20 years it’s a bit soul destroying. Main costs we’ve seen are food and bills - probably £600 a month more than they were 2 years ago…:

we went on an all inclusive in Europe last year but same holiday costs £2k more this year so yup….:

I wish houses around here where I price you paid to downside.....they start at 350,000 for a one bed flat. Rent starts at 1500 for a 2 bed. Yabu if you can't understand that.

I'm not struggling but rent. Rent is a huge reason people are struggling. An average three bed semi here is £1600pcm

No you were not . You worked hard . You bucked down when you could have messed about and gone out on the piss . Yes I would say the O/P son is privileged with all the help he had / gets . Privilege is when you get given some thing handed to you on a plate for nothing , no effort in your part . Luck is when you get a windfall or are I the right place at the right time or who you know .

Where I live a 3 bed house in an area with ok schools would rent at £1,500 a month. We struggle to feed our family for less than £800 month. 2 teens, 2 adult, on uni student. Council tax is £300 a month. Utilities £200. So that is £2800 before you even start to think of clothes / holidays / car / childcare / presents etc. it’s the housing that is killing budgets in the uk. Housing is the issue.

I think it does make a difference where you are in the country. You can earn less and live well in lower COL areas, particularly with some UC top ups. In expensive areas, housing is very pricey. As a knock-on effect of that, HA tenancies are more sought-after and thus harder to get. Private renting is expensive and there is little security of tenure.

Also (madly) you can be a lot better off by earning less, particularly if you have DC.

If you are living close to the edge (in regard to money AND time), you simply have less capacity to manage other price increases.

I think it’s a bit of everything that makes people struggle. Cost of living - so even just buying the same products in shops is more expensive.
Interest rates are up so if you’re paying a mortgage or have a private landlord (I’m not sure about HA) prices have went up there.
I don’t pay for childcare but have a friend who essentially works for her pension and to keep her foot in the door at her job. The equivalent of her wage goes to pay for childcare, so although it would be lovely to stay to look after the children and she’d be no worse off in the short term it probably would affect her going forward

@Kittywittywoo privileged and working hard are not mutually exclusive. She is still in a lucky position, a lot of similar people may have worked equally as hard and not be in such a good place. This is a concept alot of boomers seem to struggle with, I obviously have no idea how old you are.

for example, I went to medical school and worked my arse off. I’m still very privileged I had the opportunity to do so. I was privileged that I had a stable home, an environment I could study in to get the grades needed to go to university, and good health to complete the course. I still did 80hour weeks and stayed up til 3am studying whilst other students went out drinking. I worked hard. But was privileged.

How is this privilege the O/ P had worked for what she's got .

Are you serious? You have grown up child(ren) you don’t need to pay for, so no dependants to feed/ clothe/ house, no childcare bills, and are mortgage free presumably having benefited from a rise in property prices also. Of course you’re not likely to be the ones struggling!

Your son doesn’t have to pay a mortgage or for full time childcare. I’d say yes, you do sound out of touch. Nothing wrong with having a holiday, but to genuinely not understand how privileged the circumstances you describe are, is out of touch.

So you're of an age where you don't have young children, you are mortgage free, so I'm nit surprised you're not struggling. Have you ever had to watch the pennies?

Your son has free childcare and doesn't have a large mortgage or the expense that comes with owning a home.

I am not struggling, but I certainly see why people do. Mortgages, cost of everything increasing, low wages, debt, childcare just to name a few.