I have a full time job and I’m a homeowner. My problem is that there is one of me, and two children, a house that needs a lot doing to it and my salary is around 30K.
Today I hit a new low, filled up my car and realised I had miscalculated my outgoings, forgot £20 I spent in coop. Card declined.
I realised that I was in the shit.
Credit cards all maxed out. £9 on debit card. I had to try to explain, and I wonder how universal this experience is? I look like a woman with a back up, a credit card, cash stored in the glove compartment, something that meant we weren’t standing there held hostage in a petrol station forecourt whilst I tried to call someone. ‘Mum, are we poor?’ Said my child who had just been choosing between two Pringles and had a mum who said ‘let’s buy both, one for tonight, one for tomorrows picnic!’
I returned the food to the shop. Excitedly watched as the £22 buzzed back on my card, my children sadly watching the Pringles and brownie surprise go in a basket to be left discarded on the floor, would they even go back on sale? ‘It takes 1-2 days to be refunded back to your card’ FUCK!
So I’m not asking for sympathy. I should have checked my balance first, a habit I have maybe neglected to do since my last pay rise. My spending habits are reasonable but not as ultra frugal as perhaps they should be. But part of me thinks ‘I’m working so hard, I don’t have huge nursery bills anymore, why can’t we have two packs of Pringles; it’s not like I was buying wine/ caviar/ burrata.
But it doesn’t feel like anyone else is in the same boat. Some of my friends have credit cards, money, savings, plans for the future.
Or my other closer friends are as broke as me but don’t have cars, or jobs or own houses. I feel both envious and lucky.
To be both scrabbling for holiday clubs places, after school club, to talk about putting down decking or patio, to want more time with my children whilst also working through weekends without a second thought, it all feels very middle class. I often feel left out of other conversations about endless summer days, doing school pick up, after drop off coffee mornings, PTA… but my finances are much more inline with of the SAHM’s, particularly if they’re single parents too.
Does anyone know what I mean? I couldn’t speak to any of my friends about what happened today, they would think I was asking for money, or pity. I don’t want either, I just want someone to get it, that £20 is the buffer and today I didn’t have it.