To think that life is too expensive?

I was going by what Google said.
(also bit embarrassed I said "£20 a month" when I meant a week 😳)

@Gffbjjgfddbjkkm can DS commute to university? Idk how far away from London you are, but people commute in from like Billericay.

And I’ve not seen a haven holiday in the summer break for £500 for a long time!

Life is expensive but I would love to only have 80K left on my morgage so you arent doing too badly

Slightly puzzled by the ‘one of the most expensive schools’ but not working 6 days a week as they are usually boarding school which include Saturdays. If it is a boarding school is there a possibility to move on-site? Then you can rent out your house

Youare still early career being only 4 years post training. Can you start looking for promotions - head of year etc….

Forgot they get nearly as much holidays off as teachers in Ireland😂

You don't have to apologise - it's more a case of a huge concern where all your money is going when you should have huge amounts left over.

I'd be going over everything VERY carefully - your DH doesn't have a gambling habit does he?! Who does all the financial stuff?

Hi @Gffbjjgfddbjkkm for me it’s your credit card debt that really sticks out as the potential issue here, you must be paying a fortune in interest atm. Can you get a 0% cc deal, a quick glance on MSE there appears to be some 24 month 0% cards, might give you the chance to get a chunk paid off?

I think you’re entitled to feel like the system is unfair/ isn’t working when your family is earning £80k a year and you can’t afford a holiday! Times have changed!

Whilst me and my DH earn similar to you, our situation is very different. We don’t have children, we have a very small mortgage, we have no credit cards/ no debt and we drive older cars (bangers 😂) so no finance. We scraped by on near enough NMW for years whilst we trained and got our qualifications and we’ve stuck with the same cars/house/ expenditure.

Have you looked over what you spend on per month with a fine tooth comb? Are there areas you can spend less so you can put some money towards a holiday?

Also, I worked 22 hours a week throughout my uni days to make ends meet as my parents couldn’t afford to help financially. They really helped by batch cooking meals and donating some kitchen items though so there are ways to help without sending loads of cash!

You will get some helpful responses on this thread @Gffbjjgfddbjkkm but you will also get a lot of people giving you snarky replies because you earn more than them. I find the replies from people making financial judgements about how you have a tiny mortgage particularly ironic given they clearly don't understand mortgages.

How long is left on your mortgage? Could you look at extending the term and lowering the monthly payments? You could always overpay and get it down quicker when things ease up in a few years.

Someone else up the thread suggested using the Money Board instead. Also Money Saving Expert is brilliant for advice and ideas.

Use their budget tool https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/#spreadsheet this budget planner. Go through your bank statements for the past 12 months and be totally honest about your outgoings to get a true position.

You don't have to share it with anyone (although the Debt Free Wannabe board offers brilliant advice if you share your budget there ) but it will give you a much better idea of where you may be able to cut down.

Make sure you are on all the best deals for your utilities, mortgage, insurances etc and are using the best bank accounts / savings accounts.

Regular savers that you have to put a fixed amount each month into for 12 months are a good way of saving for holidays if you include the monthly amount in your budget as it gets put away without you having to think about it.

I agree it’s not a particularly big income, depending on where you live.

Can your child not live on student loans and work alongside studying like thousands of kids do ? X

@Gffbjjgfddbjkkm I would like again to apologise for my first post towards you.
It was mean and bitchy and I shouldn't have said it and I asked Mumsnet to remove it (which they have).
Sorry again 🙂

YANBU OP. It’s not so much a cost of living crisis as a cost of capitalism crisis. These days without a big inheritance it is almost impossible for most families to be free from money worries. Meritocracy gone. Hard work for many no longer pays as its like playing monopoly with the board already owned. Don’t blame you feeling fed up and like it’s unfair. It is.
No offence caused here. Income is relative. Can have two neighbours. One (A) on pension credit low income and (B) family earning what you are. A will have CTax paid, get various extra payments and may own home with no work or family costs. (B) may have rent, full bills and education and other costs to meet so could be worse off.
Income alone no longer an indicator of a comfortable life. Inheritance and head start/hand up are. People can work very hard indeed and be no better off.

I work full-time teaching in one of the most expensive schools in the world.

I'm not sure why that is relevant. If it pisses you off working in a school with lots of wealthy parents, move schools so it's not in your face every day.

Sounds like you are both pretty new in your careers, so understandably your wages will go up in the future. Can you each take on 2/3 kids to tutor each week after school to bring in more money?

It is hard, OP; and I know this isn't your only expense, but it's worth remembering that there is more than one way to go to Uni. People don't have to go to Uni straight out of school - they can work for a few years to save for fees (which is what I did), there are degree apprenticeships available or, depending on what your DS wants to study, there are employers that will pay for further education.

It's not a surprise that parents potentially need to help their DC financially through university. I'm 53 and had a student loan (albeit a relatively small one) back in the 1990's!

DS earned approx £5K in the summer straight after his A Levels working in our local "Spoons" June - mid Sept. He also returned to work there for a few weeks at Christmas/New Year. The summer between Year 1 & Year 2, he earned a similar amount during a 3 mth paid internship so it's totally possible for young people to earn enough during the long summers to make up the difference if their parents can't support them financially. DS is currently at the end of his industrial placement year and this summer will be the first time he will have the entire summer off/not working/travelling.

Yes, where you live makes a huge difference.

Two teachers working in Fife would be earning a bit more than 80k in total [in the state sector] and would be able to buy a decent enough 2 bed house for about 150k.

[Edit in squared brackets.]

Yeah, about £30k. We did also have a goodly age gap between the two, so uni subs were cheaper for us, than the private schools together. We were in the dreaded 60% tax trap though. So although, as I said, income was higher, take home was not! We are now retired, but still subbing uni!!

I always think we must somehow live very frugally.

I do sympathise. It's much harder now, but even so, as illustrated by others, peoples outgoings are all very different.

Can your child get a job and work their way through university with a smaller amount of support from you and loans? Seven days a week at work without a break is unsustainable.

I am not unsympathetic but I fail to see why it is such a financial struggle with a relatively small mortgage.

A majority of people are struggling with the CoL because housing is simply too expensive, and it is a basic need that almost no one can do without. Governments could apply taxes to stabilise costs but they haven’t got the guts to tackle it.