What is your household income, how much is benefits, and how are you coping?

A month, for a family of 6 most of the week? Where do you live, 2003?

I don’t get the bashing on these threads, the middle class is disappearing - this is a widely discussed topic today.

This is a spoof right? You have £6k a month and you’re penny pinching? Do fuck off.

I earn around £10k, a year get a further £10k (a year) in benefits. I’ve raised two children to adulthood on this. (I got about £2k more before my children were 18 due to child benefit & a token gesture of maintenance from their dad) I genuinely am penny pinching.

Our income over the last year has been about £26k in total. Not entitled to UC anymore (we're self employed and past the 12 month start up) and receive £170pm child benefit. 2 kids, no housing costs as I received an inheritance a few years ago and used it to pay it off, we need to earn around £1,300 pm between us to cover the bills/food. So we're managing ok, not lavish but not broke, and savings are still in tact.

This is very normal - I spend around 700 and it's all from normal shops.

Probably, they’re also earning more.

Like many on this thread, I’m in a higher tax bracket - I don’t moan about it, I earn more so I “lose” more, and gain less (nothing) from the system.

Just feels like a fairly fancy problem to have if I’m honest! 😂

Mines nearer 800. Its not extravagant either.

I’m single take home 1k a month on a good month, part time job in supermarket, desperately looking for a full time job but in my area they few & far between, live in a shared house, rent is half my wage, I’m not entitled to any help towards it as I have no dependents & earn too much!!!

I’ve come to terms with the fact I will never ever have a place of my own (rented) & will always be in shared accommodation now, I can’t afford a holiday, learn to drive etc….i walk to work 2 miles each way as can’t afford public transport

That’s £115 per week for a family - hardly excessive. I would therefore assume Aldi / Tesco / Asda - much the same as most of the population

I've seen families on benefit packages of £90k so good on them for paying their own way.

Your groceries cost £500 per month? Where do you shop: the Harrods Food Hall???

There are, but the person in the example won't be choosing between those. And meanwhile the tax take may suffer.

The £125k earner wouldn’t be paying £1k for the same nursery space though. They wouldn’t have the 30 free hours, or access to tax free childcare. The higher earner is probably paying double for the same nursery space.

Income is 7700 outgoings are 2500. No benefits, will have to resign soon as I have stage 4 cancer but right now I’m getting full pay. DH is managing partner of a law firm. No children

Agreed

It is literally the precise situation a friend of mine is in because the other parent is dead.

Why does it seem minuscule? The DH has the children 3 days compared to 4 so he’s providing for their needs on those 3 days.

Our combined income is 172k, one child and live in the North. We are very comfortable even with high mortgage and childcare. My pay is only 30k of this and nearly full time - however my mental health hasnt been great for a while and am currently signed off sick. I am saving in case I leave my job. However I realise I am very lucky compared to many many people.

Nursery was much more affordable before the various governments started giving " help"

I don't think there was any freebies hours when DD1 was born but the fees for nursery were copeable

Edit scrub that. Just read one was a a single parent family. Although unlikely to have 2 of nursery age for very long and if they are single and earning that amount likely to have had a baby daddy with a few £££ also so good amount of CMS

That doesn’t mean there is another parent there to care for the kids full time. Not everyone is a 2 parent household.

@Chippychoppishy But people are lucky re the 15h and the 30h from 3. When my 12yo was born it was only 15h from 3.

Honestly the extended hours are a con for private nurseries!
My 3 year old started before the Tory expansion and her full time rate for an under 2 in 2022 was £200 less than I pay now for her place with 30 funded hours.
I pay double for for my 1 year old now with 15 funded hours compared to when my older DC was 1 only 2 years ago and on full rate.

There’s literally nothing lucky about the funded hours unless you have lots of family help and can somehow work whilst only using a school nursery.

But you wouldn't need nursery if only one parent earning

Take home combined pay £10k per month.
This supports 5 teenage/ young adult children, their uni costs, child maintenance. Private healthcare for all. Mortgage £2.2k per month. No other debt. Driving old cars but like to spend on travel. After everything is paid we have about 3.5k left every month to do what we want with.

Yeah I’d imagine that if £2k of your salary was going on childcare, and the rest on bills, it’s fairly easy for some to establish that it’s not worthwhile.

£100k trap is still a fairly good trap to be in, there are worse places to be trapped!