£50

What makes you think it’s not real? Because OP has more money than you?? Genuinely baffled

As it is said so many times on this forum, it isn't a race to the bottom. Folk can have nice things and still have money worries. It doesn't detract or make light of the poverty that some others live in.

I don't doubt that the scenario in general is real. It's pretty commonplace. It is the complete lack of emotional intelligence and understanding of the current economy that gives it away as not real. Nobody who owns an almost mortgage free house, a car and dance lessons is that poor. A human would read the room and maybe whine about it with friends or family in a less distasteful setting as opposed to putting it on a public forum where some people are literally on their knees trying to feed their kids.

I'm often short for a few days depending on when I get paid. If I'm lucky I might have £50 left. Very rarely.

But my expenses are lower and circumstances different.

I guess you could reduce the frequency of the music lessons? So everything two weeks instead of weekly?
Are they both definitely fully into playing? If they're motivated to practice then I guess that might save some money?

Do you have dependent? Pay a mortgage or rent? And which city? There are so many variables.

I must live on a different planet.

I live in my own flat, walking distance to the city centre. I cover everything for less than 1k a month and save a few hundred as well.

It absolutely could be real. Similar theme to the thread about Panorama the other day. Lots of people may not be absolutely on the
breadline but feel like should be a bit easier when on paper they've done everything 'right' . There's nothing wrong with those people having a discussion. If it offends you, dont read it. I don't think these posters are unaware that they are more fortunate than some.

I have £70 left for a week till pay day. This is for food and fuel, although I don't need to really go anywhere so I should be ok with the fumes I have in the tank.

We've never gone that close and we've only ever had one income and two kids. Paid the mortgage off over a year ago, but even when we had a small one, we had a short term so the minimum payment was £750. We overpaid on top, at the beginning of each month so the money was gone so any temptation to spend the money was gone, because the money was gone. Never had an overdraft, finance, and only use credit card to book flights/protection. We had treats and long haul holidays. We just prioritised our budget on the mortgage and travelling.

On two incomes, money is seeping out somewhere. If you want to save money, you need to do a statement of affairs like they do on the MSE forum and list what comes in and what goes out. Do a spending diary. Although I've never been in debt, I quite liked the debt-free forum as much as the mortgage-free wannabe one. It was like mumsnet but with budgets and interest rates! 😂

Shit. Just realised car service + MOT + insurance will be this month's "fun spend".

I have more than £50. My income has recently increased (moved to full time) and our outgoings decreased (kids no longer need after school child care). The years of nursery being double the mortgage are still fresh in my memory though, so our spend on fun things is still less than it could be now we have a bit more money that isn't immediately assigned to something.

One DC about to need orthodontic work though, so I imagine this period of spare cash will come to an end soon.

Errrrr -£619. It’s annoying as we earn reasonably well but it just goes…..

I’ve got £8.54 left until tomorrow!

The OP ha £50 left after spending on things that many people can't afford. You have a car a tiny mortgage and f'ing dance lessons, you're hardly on the breadline.

FFS, I know these threads aren't real so I shouldn't rise to it but it makes me so angry that they're allowed. It's so distasteful when there are people who cant afford to heat and eat and yet we have AI bollox whining about dance lessons.

-£350 into the overdraft
Thankfully the car is full and so are the cupboards I'll only need to stock up on cta food and milk bread
Dp has the possibility of tips coming through this month of about £100 that's for the last year split between the team so that will help

I always end up in the overdraft as soon as we get out there's a birthday or childcare or I need to take a day off because a child is sick

I used to be in my overdraft every month but I realised that when I looked properly at my spending that little bits here and there plus rising costs meant that I had to be more careful.

When I’m paid I put enough with a small buffer in my bills account, then split savings between various accounts (holiday, car expenses, emergency fund, Christmas etc) and then a separate account where I allocate weekly spending depending on what’s coming up each week (lots of driving will mean more fuel that week, wax appointment one week, coffee with friends another week and working out meal plans for the week).

I feel more in control each month.

I put anywhere from £350-£500 in to my savings as soon as I get paid... account is normally empty by the time I get paid.. If there is anything left in there then I move that to savings too so I always start at 0 come pay day.

You don’t both have workplace pensions?

Contributions deducted at source from your pay, and with employer contributions also paid?

eta: this was supposed to quote OP’s reply to another poster

Normally ending in my overdraft, hoping to finally get some savings this year though and turn it around

About £100, payday is Tuesday. However, we save £600 a month into our holiday fund and separate money into savings and then our pension is automatically deducted from our salary. If we had to, we could take money from our savings but we very rarely do.

I don’t know.

I move money into savings when I get paid….by the end of the month I am invariably in my overdraft so move money back out of savings.

so I have no idea, really.

it’s all a bit robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I worked out how much I could afford to put in savings a while ago, but the money budgeted for the month is never enough due to rising costs of everything.

husband and I both earn around £50k so monthly incomings around £6k.

mortgage £1800, council tax £450, nursery £500,

no debts other than mortgage but not really managing to save anything.

in theory we have 0 as every cent has a job. But we save 2.5k per month. My current account has about 4k in it and then my savings are separate.

I had £6.10, but savings, investments, pension and holidays were already budgeted out so the £6.10 was truly purposeless money.

I usually take £50 - £100 out when I get paid and put it in my savings account, maybe you could try that now you know you can survive without it?

Same here. £750 mortgage and no cars on finance. There's not much point in comparing. The big strain on wages at the moment is housing costs which for the most part are not controllable.

The easiest places to save money are replacing a few meals with really cheap ones like jacket potatoes, going SIM only on phones, and getting kids clothes on places like Vinted but realistically if your mortgage or rent has gone up by hundreds in the last 4 years it's a drop in the ocean.