Is anyone else's full wage just going on living expenses?!

I think you're in a fairly good position if one of your salary covers all living costs and you have a whole salary for 'other things'

If you said that both of your salaries were needed to cover living costs leaving nothing at all for 'extras - days out/savings etc' then I would be more sympathetic.

You do realise there are many many people with absolutely nothing left over after living costs and that you are in a much better financial position.

You can easily cut down on your extras and save, or move out of London. You have choices that other do no have.

@Zippidydoodah “I’m assuming you don’t work”

@YouMustBeTheWeasleys “Agree with this”

Erm, read the first six words of the OP.

My partner and I both work

Give us all the details, all your salary and all your outgoings and mn will advise what cuts you can make. There are 1000's of threads like this. You say taking kids out for day trips, fear about changing that to free activities or very low cost ones.

That very much depends on if they had bank of mum and dad deposits and where in the country they lived.

I have worked in professional jobs since graduation and my income went largely on rent, which even in the era of low interest rates were very high in London. The later on childcare (which due to my industry means some evenings and weekends so more expensive). I did choose to have children, but due to health situations never had the option of delaying. The different is my parents had similar jobs and had children at a similar time and bought in their mid 20s. I’ll probably be mid 40s. But I live in London and haven’t had any inheritance, a deposit given or regular free childcare. For those in my situation, I’d say that’s a pretty average time to buy. Last time I checked the average age of a first time buyer in London was still 40s.

You do have choices as you’re both working but you have to be realistic as on your current income you presumably can’t afford to buy a property in the area you’re currently living in?

So either stay where you are or change something.

We moved when DS was 4 and sold our small house and used the equity to buy a bigger modern house with no mortgage. We left behind friends and family and started from scratch knowing no-one.

Property prices have risen a lot here in the last ten years, so I’m very happy with our decision. Equally, they could have fallen but without a crystal ball, you have to take some risks in life.

DH & I are Gen X, both high rate tax payers (for now, life long medical condition is nudging me into part time work in the next few weeks), we fall into the top 3% of earners. And yet, if we were starting out today, with the deposit that we did have when we purchased our current home, we almost certainly would struggle to afford the home we live in, despite our healthy salaries.

Life is unbelievably tough at the moment, I don't know how young families are managing today. Yes, houses are cheaper in other parts of the country than in London and the South East. However, for any family starting out today with a modest house deposit, every where must seem expensive. Plus it's not easy to uproot lives in the quest for a cheaper home.

We have just one child, now a teen, and I remember the eye watering full time nursery costs, there was just £96 difference in our monthly mortgage payments and our childcare expenses. However, it still felt doable. I no longer think that is the case.

Austerity has eroded public services and Brexit has severely damaged exports. Our standard of living has been gradually deteriorating. Add in the very real impact of climate change and things are tough for Gen Y and millennials. They can't even reliably expect a state pension! I feel we have failed future generations.

Low interest rates from 2009 not much use if you were born in eg 1989 though, as you wouldn’t be owning a property until a lot later. Average age for a FTB about 33 not 20.

Agree it’s even worse for the next generation, but it’s been pretty cheap for anyone born after 1985.

I’m a similar age to you (late 80s), and yes it has definitely been harder then some generations before with higher property prices but definitely not as hard as it is for generations coming up now. Low interest rates were around from 2009 so those of us now in our mid thirties did have many years with the low rates and had the whole of our working lives with these rates until they rose again a couple of years ago. Property prices were lower too than they are now.

This is interesting as very different to my experience, born late 80s.

Id say most people have got on the housing ladder by mid-30s but…. Astronomical mortgages, and far more modest properties than their parents were buying at the same time.

Most people I know only got a couple of years of the low interest rates, and are now still with 80-90%+ mortgages on 4.5%+ rates (on really high property prices).

I earn 80 and it wouldn't cover our living expenses. London, two kids. We need two incomes to cover it.

I would imagine that there are so many people where their whole salary if they are single or one of the salaries as a couple are going on living expenses alone. Doesn't sound unusual.

Not surprising living in Londin and with three children You are doing very well not to be in debt.

OP, your gas ans electric seems really high. We paying £165 but we’re in credit by a few hundred so I think it will come back down soon to £150. DH works from home most days so heating is on 18 all day, till the sun goes down then it’s on 19 for for a couple of hours before going back down to 18. Our electricity bills are far higher than gas because of all his PC equipment and the student kids being on PCs all day when they’re home from holidays .

we are in a 3 bedroom 30s semi. Do you shopped around for thinga like energy bills, insurance etc? No matter how much you earn it’s pointless paying more than you need to.

It’ll only be the very youngest millennials who won’t have been able to buy because of their age. Millennials are from 1981 to 1996. I’m mid way and most my age have been fine buying houses as long as we made his choices. Those older had more years of cheaper properties. The only ones I know struggling are those who prioritized traveling, days out etc. or having kids young, or are at the very younger end of millennial. We’re in the south east so not a cheap part of the country. Of course there will always be a few exceptions to this though who have gone through unfortunate situations like redundancies.

I wouldn’t like to be young now. We moved back up north from London to start a family, with a large deposit from buying a flat in London when prices were affordable in 1998. With a low mortgage up north I was JUST able to be a SAHM for 3 years living off just DH’s salary (slightly above average but not ridiculously so) but even then we had no foreign holidays until they were older and only ever had cheap self catering cottages or shared with family to keep costs down. Used Tesco vouchers for trips to zoo, cos it was unaffordable otherwise. No new clothes for a few years. Very budget conscious with meal planning, swapping energy providers, insurance companies etc. Didjt have days out at all really during summer holidays, just went local places or occasionally drove to the Lakes for the day to do free things like walking, taking picnic lunches.

this wss the early 2000s. It was bearable because the ability to be a SAHM for 3 years was an absolute bonus and made up for having no money. But it seems like now, even with 2 people both working, families are STILL having to live like we were 20 years ago on ONE salary. Whereas when I went back to work we then had “spare” money to use for things like foreign holidays, meals out, weekends away, new clothes, theatre tickets, new things for house, an extension!

the thought that now my second wage would be essential simply to get by with a basic lifestyle makes me really sad for my young adult children’s generation.

however I do think that some of them don’t realise all this, and have grown up with their parents having a fairly comfy lifestyle, with new tech, cheap foreign weekends away and meals out etc. Many of them are not used to having to cut their cloth.

Kids days out/trips etc - these are where your savings should be.

Ok.

You say it ‘boggles you’ reading ‘post after post of people struggling’ on these incomes.

Well that’s why. The cost of living is higher in other parts of the country.

For families starting out today, with no property equity, with childcare prices as they are… it can be very difficult even on what looks like a good income. An average nursery fee in the UK could be 50% of a £50k salary - not in London, just in the wider UK.

Great that £50k is good to raise a family on where you are, but it’s not the same story in the South East of the country, and having to move away from family / friends etc is difficult.

Three kids in one of the most expensive cities in the world without the security of a property - or at least the kind of savings akin to one- is a really bold move op and your appetite for risk is clearly far higher than mine. Do you both expect to see promotions down the line that will swing you out of just spinning the wheels and start to build a proper buffer?

Just don't live in London

Honestly, some people need to get off their high horses. As if it's that easy to completely uproot an established family and relocate to the opposite end of the country. Just moving to a neighbouring county has been a huge upheaval for me and my kids, let alone the entire loss of an established support network due to distance. London is where many jobs are and unless you work 100% remotely, it's almost impossible to correctly time and locate jobs for two people and nursery/ school places for several kids at the same time as finding somewhere suitable to live. It's not as easy as upping sticks and starting all over when you have a family so no need to berate the OP for her choices.

For what it's worth, @maria2bela1 , you have my solidarity. I am in the top 15% of earners in this country, but as a single parent my household income is in the bottom 38%. I own a shit ex-council terraced house (not bought off the council, but someone who gave up landlording and my god had he made a mess of DIY in here on the few things he bothered to maintain) on a dodgy estate with the friendly face of my local drug dealer at my front door (because that house is all I could afford, and renting is too insecure) and I just about make ends meet, and that is with only one child that still needs wraparound care. Luckily, I am a good cook, creative and reasonable at DIY, so I can stretch money further than many would in my situation. But I still fret when something large like my boiler breaks, because I've barely saved up and it's all gone again. Heaven knows when I'll be able to afford a new car, not the old and rusty banger I managed to drag through another MOT. With everything going up I barely manage month to month. I had less than £5 in my account before my last payday.

Life in the UK is hard right now, but my parent, who lives abroad, tells me it's going that way in my supposedly rich home country, too.

It’s not millennials that really have the problem. I’m mid-millennial and we have had over a decade of very cheap mortgage rates and property was cheaper than it is now too.

Plenty of millennials won't be on the ladder yet because of their age...

You need to cut down on the expensive trips out, you live in london ffs, so many free things on your door step! Paid activities, then food/drinks and transport (especially for three children) really does add up.

I am only in my 20s and my parents did ok financially but trips out that involved a paid activity (bowling, trampolining, crazy golf etc) were generally reserved for birthdays and the odd treat in the school holidays.

It’s not millennials that really have the problem. I’m mid-millennial and we have had over a decade of very cheap mortgage rates and property was cheaper than it is now too. Many of us have been able to save and buy during that time as many of us made choices to save rather than travel and go on nights and days out or have kids young, and bought in the areas we could afford. It’s Gen Z that actually have the problem now, they are facing very high property costs and high interest rates whilst they are in their first buyer years.

The problem is lack of housing and expensive rents.
Let's not pretend that previous generations who lived in London were financially more astute. Mortgages and renting were cheaper and more accessible and there was a lot more social housing and people had more dc...

Food prices are also extortionate!
A crappy panini in a local cafe was £9.75 (i didn't buy it) - You really do have to think twice about buying anything.