To wonder how other families get to the end of the month?

My budget is £60 a week and that fills 2 of the Aldi reusable bags to overflowing

For us, our mortgage increased a year ago from 900 pm to 1400 pm. All bills have gone up massively so yes I am having to sell stuff and and may also need some kind of side job to keep afloat.

I'm surprised everyone else is feeling so comfortable - we're okay but very aware of money and cutting back for a bit - we go out a lot less and try and keep food bills down but shrikflation a real pain.

Our mortgage went up last year - but we felt it less as we'd been overpaying - and the amount it went up was less than the over pay - but everything else insurance - dental and no NHS for DH and I - cats, house/contents - utlities have gone up even when rate we used has dropped slightly.

We go out much less and when we do it's more expensive and service is often poorer. We do manage to put some saving away - so unexpected expenses can be covered. There more doing without or making last longer going on and has been for a while.

How people are only spending £70 a week on food is beyond me,that would literally get a basket in aldi.

were not,80k up north,our mortgage nearly doubled so that was a loss of £500 a month,weekly shop has gone from £140 ish to £200 week,utilities are around £400 a month now,they will go up again in April no doubt,school dinners you name it has all gone up,seems pointless working.

I’m on 28k and don’t qualify for any top ups as no children and have had a mortgage big increase
50k would be a dream

So the combined income is around £5,800 a month (assuming 5% pension contributions and 1257L tax codes). We have around £5000 a month coming in.

I'm amazed you can't make this last to the end of the month but without a full breakdown of mortgage/household costs, cost of cars, holidays etc, it is going to be hard to get a proper answer.

However, you have stated food bill of £180 per week. There are three of us, DH and 21yr old DS and I spend around £70 a week on food and that's without scrimping or looking at the cost of items. I cook from scratch every night. We probably have 2-3 takeaways a month and eat out once a month. We have one foreign holiday a year and multiple weekends away. DH has golf membership. I get my nails done every 2-3 weeks and a haircut 2-3 times a year.

DH has a company car but we have my car and a campervan to keep on the road.

OK, so we are probably further down the line in terms of the size of our mortgage but we put lots into savings each month.

@gundigirl you need to put everything into a spreadsheet and work out where you can save money. You're overspending somewhere.

We were on a combined income around £100k but now have dropped to a single income of £60k without drop in standard of living. It took us both 10 years to qualify in our professions and during this time we had a combined income of £26k and that's where our life habits formed.
When we started earning better we kept our lifestyle broadly the same and we saved hard so that when we bought our first house we had a good deposit. We continued that through the first few years of not having kids so that now our mortgage payments are a lot less than they could be. Our mortgage is now £700 a month on a £500k house.
We spend £80-100 on food a week for family of 3 + newborn. My daughter has a lot of food allergies so we buy whole foods only which keeps the costs down. We use a variety of supermarkets to make the most of nectar or clubcard prices as well as using Aldi for other stuff.
We keep on top of savings accounts which means we getting a decent amount of interest.
We have 2 cars but one is only used for 3000 miles a year and is a very basic car inherited from a grandparent that stopped driving. The other car we paid cash for so we don't have monthly payments for that
We buy basic smart phones outright so our mobile phone bill is £10 a month for both phones!
We don't buy clothes regularly and when we do we look for quality so they don't need replacing frequency. My main coat was purchased in 2006!!
Furniture is one thing we do spend a lot on but we treat them as one off purchases that hopefully will never need replacing.
Our summer holiday cost us about £500! When we started looking we look at renting a house but that would have been £1200, we decided we didn't want to spend that so we went camping instead which cost us £250. We spent another £250 on activities and days out. Our daughter had a ball and asked if we can go back next year.

For us the way we live is through habit! Start by making small changes and then make some more.

Agreed 👆

So it will be the mortgage🤷‍♀️.

Jointly, we earn about 60k ish and we live rather comfortably. Couple of abroad holidays, couple UK. You are doing something wrong here.

Why are there so many threads like this?
We earn a lot less than you, yet we save £1500 a month.
Learn to budget.

Who are the people getting their nails and hair done, eating out, deliveroo and takeaways, coffees etc? Who can afford to throw money around like this?

Yes it might be in London and surrounding south. 90k doesn’t get a lot

OP, we’re the same earn similar go you guys and it’s a joke. If we want treats as in a coffee or takeaway it breaks us, we have to use our credit card just to do basic l things, saving is a struggle. I was asked to go for a coffee with a friend the other day and had to say no, next time think I’ll just use my credit card so. I can go, it’s depressing.

I think you probably perceive you should be better off but a pre tax of 90k per year is no longer a guarantee of a very comfortable lifestyle. I’ve got friends on universal credit who can afford things we can’t but then our net income is not massively different from there’s (from all sources - UC, income, maintenance, passport benefits) Our net perhaps £8-900 higher but they bought their house years ago and have very low mortgages plus got and still get regular cash gifts from family that equates to the difference in our net income, so with a much lower mortgage and family help that they can afford a nice holiday. I was once a single parent on benefits living in a council house, not in debt and money to save, I was fairly frugal but we are now and don’t have any money to save

How much is your mortgage?

Mine went up to £1400 and we are struggling. This is not a huge house btw. 800sq ft in outskirts of London. Can’t move due to living where we grew up and being near family support.

OP prepare for a battering. Apparently on MN you can’t be struggling unless you earn below 15k. The point is that the ones on about 40k-50k are the ones who don’t qualify for any top ups from universal credit and in the last 2 years likely had a massive mortgage increase and bills increase.

For us, our mortgage increased a year ago from 900 pm to 1400 pm. All bills have gone up massively so yes I am having to sell stuff and and may also need some kind of side job to keep afloat.

I agree with the forensic look at budgeting and cutting back on subscriptions etc. but it is really shit that compared to 2 years ago we are so much worse off!! For the same amount of work if not more…

Give over. Most on benefits aren't entitled to all those things. Even the childcare help from UC depends on you paying it first.

These threads are so pointless - surely people earning this kind of money have the intelligence to sit down and work out exactly what they're spending? What's the point in asking complete strangers!?

For example, my income is less than one third of yours yet I can save nearly £1000pm. Does that help you in any way?

You must have a tiny mortgage? You have a monthly income of £3k and about a third of that goes on food and the gym.

What are you spending on mortgage, bills, holiday spending, clubs, birthdays, clothes, days out.

I just can’t seem to get spending to a reasonbable level.

Usually said by someone getting £30k worth of government benefits in the form of free housing, free council tax, free childcare, free school meals, free dental care, free prescriptions, free opticians PLUS what they earn.

How much is your mortgage? And what do household bills cover - just the essentials or do they include subscription services such as Sky/Netflix etc?

And "running two cars" can mean a lot of things. If you have two newish cars because you are in PCP schemes, (which really lock you in), as opposed to smallish 5 year old cars bought outright second hand, then that can make a big difference to your finances.

Probably the wraparound care cost? Is there any funding for this once they're in school or is it just nursery age?

If you run a 'side hustle' why does she need wraparound?

Food you could reduce a bit. But as a family of 4, I find it hard to reduce ours by much. Unless I shop in Lidl instead of Tesco, but that takes so much longer.

The cost of extra clubs and activities quickly adds up. Not necessary either, most children enjoy time at home just as much.

OP I have recently helped a friend (single parent, 2 teens) to do a complete overhaul of her budget. She is a formidable person, raising 2 fantastic kids, working full time and seeing costs rising inexplicably. She spins so many plates that she just didn't have the extra time or energy to delve into her expenses. The fact is that utility companies rely on being never shopping around, and sadly consumer loyalty does not pay.

You need to list out all your fixed costs and review with a fine tooth comb. Check if your household is on the best tariff for your utilities, make notes on renewal rates for insurance policies, broadband, mobile phones, mortgage etc and build in enough time to check comparison sites for the best rates. Look at all your costs and see if/where you can improve and trim back. It's a massive exercise but well worth doing.

I think lots of posters are jumping on the op unfairly but kind of proving her point.

£90k used to and should feel like a lot but in reality even good earners are starting to feel the pinch.

That spells tricky times for the economy ahead because when the 'well off' start to cut back business and the economy suffers even more.

An example is Wagamamas in my local town used to have a queue out through door on a Friday/Saturday night. Not anymore it's about 1/4 full. How long is that going to be sustainable?