To wonder how people are coping?

How many mothers consult their children when working out the budget? It is quite surprising just how even the youngest children understand what you can and cannot buy with money. All it takes is discussion. You have to tell them what money comes in and that makes them aware of confidentiality too.

If you go through expenditure, you can discuss the comics and mags they want. Don't forget to read them yourself. It helps to know what is going through their minds, and what they read tells you a great deal. Do it while they are in bed.

You are very fortunate @ellie09... but presume you have to return the gift in other ways.

We have a household income of 85k, we don't live in a big city and up North and we are doing OK so far but I am making more conscious choices when shopping etc.

What I have noticed is:

• Meat prices, particularly beef and chicken have went sky high, so I am buying more pork mince rather than beef
• I am having smaller portions to make food last longer in the house (particularly cereals, bread, fruit, veg etc)
• Sneaky hikes in subscriptions (netflix, spotify etc) so we got a deal on Sky with our netflix free and I am staying on my very old phone plan as I get spotify free too!
• Clothing is no longer cheap in supermarkets, primark etc so I am doing a lot more Shein buys
• Days out/trips are a lot less than we had before due to price of tickets, restaurants etc. I wouldnt have thought twice about tickets to a show, cinema etc a few years back

However, we still save almost £2k between us per month

I should note that we dont have mortgage and live in family members house for £370 per month (private rental agreement)

Guess depends on the fees. Some local to us are £3800/9 a term

ours is £20 per day for before /after so £100 a week

Life did used to be a lot cheaper in every way. I think getting on the housing ladder at that time has helped a lot of people cope with the increased costs today.

I stopped reading at £170K household income. What a slightly sad humble brag. If it helps with your financial planning, we're doing just fine on our £70K household income, but we've bought a small house in a cheap area. Maybe try that.

Well, you won’t need a Spotify subscription as you’re tone deaf 😄

When you get a mortgage they run a stress-test to check if the interest rates go up to 8% you can still make the payments. I don't know why this stuff always seems to take people by surprise, you should be buying a house that's within your budget if interest rates change. The low interest rates we had were never going to last, it's an economic certainty they were going to rise.

They've been 15% or more in living memory, it can happen again.

I am a working family and find the time for these things - appreciate its challenging to have the time and energy. However on a salary of £170k I imagine it is possible. Having even a much smaller salary it is also possible. These things do not take as long as you think. It takes much the same time to cook a meal double or triple the size as to do one meal - then you have extras to freeze for when you dont have time. It maybe takes me twice as long to cook a fresh meal as to put in pizza and chips for 20 mins - but having the frozen remaining meals to use that I can heat within 3 mins saves the time I would have spent otherwise. Batch cooking means you save future time. I have assumed its the food you are referring to as the other things you have to do whether you are working multiple jobs or not.

Given the OPs mortgage is still under £3k pcm she probably looked at a mortgage of under £1k initially and built in quite a decent amount of resilience in her budget. It doesn't sound to me as if it is a big extravagant house - probably a 3 bed terrace in a not great part of London. In the not great bit of London where I live a 3 bed costs about £1million. If earners like OP can't afford a modest terrace who the hell do we expect to actually live in London?

Also when OP bought the house VAT hadn't been imposed on private school fees and the CoL hadn't really begun so a sizeable mortgage rate increase probably felt achievable.

Well buying a house that you can only afford if interest rates stay abnormally low isn’t exactly sound financial planning / it might not be frittering but it’s certainly irresponsible

She remortgaged because her fixed rate deal came to an end - OP explained this upthread. WHen she remortgaged the best deal she could get was triple what she had previously - OP also explains this up thread. She has not taken the cash and frittered it away.

Some working families don’t have the time for these things…

I cannot imagine what I would do with that annual income. I can afford to live. I imagine that you have enjoyed a comfortable life living according to your wealthy income. Due to price rises you are finding you cannot afford to continue in the same way - this is just reality. We have adjusted my netflix down to a cheaper option. We still have Disney. We shop at Aldi / Lidl for basics with Sainsburys for other items (MS for the odd thing) but we are not OTT. We buy clothing in the sales and some items in charity shops. I look around to shop for best value for any other purchases needed.
A big cost saver is cooking home made food - bulk cooking and freezing. This is easier than it first of all seems. On holidays we find ways to reduce costs also. All these small things combine to make life affordable. I am very confident that on your salary you can find ways of reducing costs. Look at the larger costs in priority order down to smaller costs (which can add up). Solar panels with batter have paid for themselves in 3 years so you could look at this too. I have bought second hand school sports kit from facebook market place along with other things such as tents for the kids. I also dont have an expensive car - so my running costs are reasonable. Hope this helps. I am very confident there are many more ways you can reduce your living costs it just takes thought and a little creativity and trying different things. Some things can take longer to achieve - eg home cooking can be a process of switching over gradually. But for example things like pizzas are now ridiculous prices. Its not hard and much cheaper to make a batch of dough / batch of sauce and freeze it up - recopies are free to access online.

@CobbleWobble It's not that you're not earning enough, it's that you must have overstretched yourselves in terms of mortgage, private school, car finance, holidays, or whatever. Leaving no contingency for changes in inflation or taxes.

People don't stress-test their budgets anymore, we've had almost flat inflation for so long people have forgotten that prices can quickly spiral and wages never catch up. After seeing what my Dad went through during the 15% inflation of the 80s, I've always left plenty of contingency in my budget. As a result I haven't felt the "squeeze" at all, and I'm sitting on a very healthy savings pot that I amassed when times were "good".

For example, for the average person your mortgage or rent should be around 30 to 40% max of your net income. If you have multiple kids in private school, maintenance payments, or stabled horses, etc. it should probably be lower. The mistake people make is that every time they see their salaries go up, they get a bigger house or buy more expensive cars, they never "bank" that extra money, they just increase their outgoings to match the incomings. It's wealth accumulation 101, "rich" people don't splash cash they don't have, they protect their wealth.

There is no reasoning with some people in situations where someone has more money than them is there?

Annual wrap around was £4k at my local primary and the local private school fees were £8k when I did my calculations and chose where to spend my money. YMMV

Holiday clubs and wrap around are extortionate in some places. My local state school wrap around is 50% of the cost of the local private school fees, well it was before they went up 20% with vat anyway.

My back of a beer mat calculation makes your wrap around care about £80 a day (based on £5000 term fees for private and 63 days in state school term).
Is that right?

Um no

”She has a big mortgage on a money pit house”because she re mortgaged and has clearly frittered money.

The country can’t afford for people like op to be struggling. She has a big mortgage on a money pit house because the housing market is fucked, maybe that’s all that was available in the area she needs to live in to work?

Lots of employers don’t pay a living wage and wages have to be topped up by the state, I don’t see them offering to pay for op’s professional registration as it’s the right thing to do when a lot of other employers aren’t even paying enough to live on.

Holiday clubs and wrap around are extortionate in some places. My local state school wrap around is 50% of the cost of the local private school fees, well it was before they went up 20% with vat anyway. And if you want people like op and her dh paying lots of tax they can’t be cutting hours or changing jobs into ones where you can flex for 2+ hours a day to do the school run.

I’m glad op said she wasn’t going to cut her cleaner because we should want high earners to employ local people to do things like that as it generates income in our areas instead of every penny going to big conglomerates and the ‘shareholders’. High earners need leisure time to spend money in shops and restaurants and leisure facilities - this keeps loads of people in work. We should want more disposable income not less for more people, it’s not good for the economy if everyone spends their leisure time cleaning, batch cooking and gardening.

I dunno, op is not the enemy, her household pays loads of tax and she is struggling with budgeting now the price of everything is gone through the roof. It’s not morally wrong to earn lots of money, it’s not wrong to want a better lifestyle for yourself when you earn a lot of money. I’m sure if someone gave everyone on this thread 10k they would do something with it to make their lives easier/better/more enjoyable.

I agree the government hasn't shifted the dial on living standards at all. But what do you mean about unregulated energy companies? They're regulated by Ofgem - and there's a price cap.

I was thinking this

my council tax is c at 207 but as single it’s £157

water around £40/50

g&e 150

I don’t pay childcare but do work tho 200 seems very cheap a month compared to what some friends pay for cm or nursery

Also, there is the added advantage of both employers making pension contributions. Plus possible bonuses. But obviously there could be significant childcare costs if both parents are working and sometimes a cleaner, more money on convenience food, need for 2 cars etc. and own pension contributions. plus of course working is good for career, independence, job satisfaction etc

Yep, £10; when there is £900 a month spare. Even the children's 'after school clubs' costs for thus and last year but apparently just taken them out of private school. Our private schools end far later than state so costs for after school clubs minimal. Or perhaps OP is just useless at money management.

I don't believe you Op, this is a goady/braggy post.
Pathetic!!
Cancelling a Disney subscription at £10 a month when your monthly income is hundreds of pounds.
Talking nonsense!

The take home pay is a bit more than that for me but still less than 2 salaries . I guess we have potential savings/ peace of mind for the child with one person around though it is not good for their career or mental health !