Where is all the money going??

Nice bit of England bashing there.

I visit Scotland often and find the Scottish spend a significant proportion of their time being obsessed with their dislike of England or stressing over what England has compared to what they have. Coupled with the blatant and unashamed sectarianism.

I attended a wedding there recently and even the fucking father of the bride had a random dig about England in his speech.

I always want to say “Do you realise that literally no one in England cares?”

But to answer the OP’s question with examples of what I do to save money: sell what you can on Vinted, get free food from Olio and walk rather than drive to save fuel.

Times are hard.

You don't have to get a prescription if the medication is cheaper to buy, like paracetamol and other simple pain meds, and other things. The pharmacist will tell you (if you ask) if it would be cheaper to buy. The GP may not know that you pay for prescriptions.

I agree OP. I earn 35k after a career change and my husband circa 50k, no kids, 2 cars (one that costs fuck all to run and one normal one) , mortgage, only debt is 130 pm for the car, and there's not loads left for fripperies. We're in NI too so far cheaper housing wise than Britain and I just don't understand how a few years ago we were able to afford for me to go part time to study/retrain and save for our house deposit and now I'm back working full time there's just fuck all left. If I'd known the cost of living was going to increase so much I would have stuck with my previous dull as ditchwater but steady job.

Oh well those years of maxing your ISA will be a nice deposit to go move down south, off you pop.

Then do so if you think its so easy.

Unless you're a multi millionaire, everyone has to budget. It's a fact of life. We have a household income of £140k and yes we still budget because we're not fucking idiots and we want to a) see where our money is going and b) save for our retirement.

Honestly not sure what the point of OPs post was. Stuff costs more now - no shit Sherlock.

I am in Spain and just paid €6.19 for 4 slices of back bacon. Food is definitely not cheaper here than in the Uk (though yes, wine is - it’s cheaper than coke!)

If you want help around budgeting, then provide the information for people to give you advice on what you could do to improve your financial situation but stop sprinkling in comments about how it is so easy to get disability benefits blah blah. You are clearly not living hand to mouth if your mortgage is paid off and you are saving thousands into an ISA each year, you might be able to improve your financial situation, but noone can tell you how without further information

I feel like op isn't going to come back with any actual information about her budget. I get asking for help around budgeting and feeling the squeeze but let's face it, if she never budgets and is still able to save upto £20,000 annually into an ISA and is mortgage free, I think she knows damn well she isn't struggling. Bringing benefits into the conversation is ridiculous.
I don't think people should kick off at posters that ask for advice when they earn decent money, but then turning it into a thread where they whine about others claiming benefits is just being an arsehole for no reason

You don't have a mortgage and put over a grand in savings every month

That is not hard financially

Nah, there’s another one in Active. Thinking they’re all clever with their wide-eyed nativity, ‘just asking questions’ schtick, working it on a slow burn until around page 15 the slime starts to ooze out.

Yep we haven't had one today

I stopped working a few months ago. I thought my spending was low, however it really wasn't at all.

Ah, so this is yet another thread about the MN version of 'feeling the pinch' ie no longer being able to afford whatever you want all the time and max out your ISA allowance, without occasionally running out of money.

To answer your question 'where is all the money going'. You're spending it. Or saving it, which means you still have it to spend later. Unlike a lot of the population.

Spreadsheet of ins and outs for 2-3 months reveals a lot. Did this a few years back and our daily spending was over £20 on miscellaneous items like coffee, breakfast pastries and snacks (not lunch), curtailed this, started taking lunch 3 times a week, cancelled sky sports which was barely watched as we went to the pub for matches - not particularly difficult cutbacks

So are you just writing this to declare youre pissed off, rather than looking for advice?

Small pleasures can quickly become limitless...yes Vinted, I'm talking to you 😁

@Fragmentedbrain have you sat down and gone through bank statements, opened a spreadsheet and starting actually categorising your spend and income, that is the only way you are going to be able to see what you are spending too much money on and where you can cut back. If you are trying to max out your ISA allowance, then surely you've got a good chunk of extra income not going to necessities and you may need to reduce how much you're saving if you can't cut spend elsewhere

If you have worked out what income/spend looks like, could you post on here what that looks like so people could give advice on where and how you could potential cut back?

I understand OP, I'm kind of in the same boat, no mortgage, no kids, 2 adults working, etc but you aren't safe from the Cost Of Living Crisis either.

While it has taken you longer to notice as you were in a position to absorb the increase it has finally caught up with you.

Just be greatful you can feed yourself and heat your home as many people are beyong struggling, they are suffering immensely.

Because apparently there's other benefits to living in Scotland besides free prescriptions......aside from not paying uni tuition fees (which I appreciate are a lot but not everyone has kids going to uni!), I'm not sure what. Oh wait, a free eye test every 2 years......

I’m glad others are saying food in the UK is cheaper! I am frequently in France and Ireland and grocery shopping there is considerably more expensive than the U.K.

Look at boosting your pension contributions if you are employed or set up AVCs it reduces my scottish tax bill so I don't go over some of the newer brackets. I still pay more tax then English colleagues and I'm still a net contributor to tax collection but it's less painful.

Other then that it's budgeting actually look at what your spending is line by line over the month and see what can be reigned in or cut. Its easy foe things to amount by subscriptions going up by a few pounds or bills etc. Look around and get deals.

I reigned in our food shop by doing it online and every 9 days and reducing top up shops by freezing bread and milk.

I live in France and this is absolutely true. Food is not cheaper here than the UK (wine is though 😂).