To struggle on this salary?

Thank you!

You've got a weird obsession with this poster's car.

Surely you're capable of understanding why travelling in one car is preferable to two - e.g. parents taking it in turns to drive and have a drink.

If you drive to France on holiday, it would be pretty odd to pay for two cars on the ferry/tunnel. What about visiting family in another part of the country?

It’s nursery, but it won’t last forever.

@shuggles my car is not on finance (paid off a couple of years ago) if we were to buy another car it would be on finance.

Hence a jogger would cost more than my XC90.

As for driving 6 people around, going to school driving to work, you know everyday stuff, I can’t be late for work, and have to take the kids to school before hand. Weekends all going out together the kids have friends over, taking the dogs out means that a large car is what we need.

@StressedLP1

www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

This is one possible source - it's great fun

Wow that’s £1,300 more a month in just wages than I get!

Your £100 bedding set from 2008 will cost you £167.81 with inflation today, I purchased 2 sets plus fitted sheets.

Yes, that is one way of looking at it. It isn't the whole story though. 30 years ago when I bought my first house, I bought a bedding set for £25 for a king-size bed. I can still buy a bedding set for a king-size bed for £25 today in 2024. Bedding is one of those purchases which generally costs less in real terms today (of course, everyone is welcome to pay more if they choose).

Could you link to where these stats come from? Not doubting you, would just like to review my own situation. Thanks!

Seeing as the thread has been seriously derailed by talk of £500 bedding, I thought I'd share a tip.

We got ours from a hotel supplies company. It's good quality and fairly reasonable prices. It also saved the hassle of shopping around for bed linen.

https://www.outofeden.co.uk/products/2202_2205/luxury-cotton-micro-stripe-300-thread-count-duvet-cover

It's hilarious that on a salary of approx £50k plus £400 child support, and i think its hilarious to be that well off and OP is looking at UC. People on half that can't get much UC because of the cap.

She perhaps could utilise TfC

Based on OPs own figures she has £1000 pcm left after bills. And one of those is student loan which is likely taken from her wage before she gets her £3100 net pay.

The truth is we're all in a cost of living crisis but to have £50k+ salary, be single with a mortgage and car is quite a privileged position. The answer is the same as the rest of us budget. Set aside some of that £1000 after the listed bills for that jumper.

@TheSpoonyNavyReader I also live just outside an SE town outside of London. The town is half an hour away from London by train. I can fully believe paying over £300 for a cut and colour though. Some salons round here charge that! I just could never afford that. Our bedding was £25 from Sainsbury's and has lasted 3 years so far. I didn't realise M&S did such high end bedding!

You must be on plan 2 rather than plan 1? It varies depending on what year you took your loan out. On plan 1 you’d be paying back more.

Once you get past 40k to the 50-60k mark, the change to your bank balance is hardly noticeable on a month by month basis once you take out pension, taxes & student loan.

Could you get a live in nanny/ au pair to cut down on childcare costs or rent a room to make some money? Sorry things are so hard for you OP sounds really tough

@TheSpoonyNavyReader I think they mean out of touch as in people are aware how expensive stuff is
But I don't have that money to spend on bedding or fuel or a tumble dryer, and £1000 is a lot to me because that's more than half my wage
So it's not a choice for me to spend that amount on fuel or bedding because I can't

I can well imagine bills adding up to £1k, our council tax and energy combined is £500 and then water etc on top. Unfortunately you just have to swallow the nursery fees and just think when they are at school you will be £800 per month richer ☺️. Also the car finance? We just buy second hand but buy outright…do you have savings to do that?

I am not out of touch, just lucky that we can afford things to a certain extent.

£150 on fuel, £400 on a tumble drier, is over half of OP budget for the month not including food, and other items.

Your £100 bedding set from 2008 will cost you £167.81 with inflation today, I purchased 2 sets plus fitted sheets.

I think you should actually work out what things cost in real terms today… wages have not kept up, and yet you call me a moron…

Oh and a non essential jumper for Christmas jumper day at school.. god forbid

If a child had grown he can survive living in a pair of school shoes and joggers 🤣 obviously that's not going to happen every month but these things will hit at some point. And certainly not organic or designer clothes, I'm talking asda and next. Several pairs of joggers and jeans, some jumpers, trainers, wellies and a new winter coat for this year

@Chetto thank you

It’s a combination of things - he has two other children from a previous relationship so obviously his total payment is (rightly) split between me and his other children’s mum. Plus he hides some of his income through self employment / owning a business. A real prince eh?

It’s really frustrating, but I don’t have the energy to fight it. I’ll just keep doing everything I can and anything I get from him is a bonus.

We've all been there. Unfortunately this is the norm for so many with kids in nursery in the UK. It doesn't make it right, but it is so common. We had two kids in nursery at the same time under age 3, so didn't get any funding then, and despite earning a good salary I was losing money by going to work each day. We were basically hemorrhaging money. Still in debt from that. Worth it though - my career is great and we've almost paid off our debt. Once we have, we'll have lots of disposable income again. The nursery years aren't forever.

Same- I've got brushed cotton duvet covers from Asda and I absolutely love them. They feel so luxury. Would never buy from anywhere else.

Home hairdressers where I live are about £180 for highlights and a cut, what I have quoted is for a hairdressers in a SE town outside of London.
Where do you live?

A couple of years? It should last longer than that at the price!

People really don’t understand how much wages have been devalued.

Digging a bigger hole, I'm afraid. You're getting a tough time for sure, but seem to make it worse because the things you keep pointing out are essential...aren't. Only to you, because of the circles you live in.

Our duvet set from M&S (bought with wedding gift vouchers - we usually buy from Sainsbury's, Dunelm etc) cost less than £100. Going strong since 2008. Inflation means £100 isn't the same as then, but still way less. And if you choose enormous beds then enormous bedding costs come with that. Seriously, £50 (at a guesstimate for that size) from Dunelm would do you just fine for a good few years!

I get that you have the money to be able to spend that much on what you like, and don't blame you one little bit for doing so. But it really doesn't support your (not entirely inaccurate) statement that £1000 doesn't go far nowadays. In fact, it completely undermines what you say because you sound so out of touch with so many other people and their situations.