How do people afford nice things?

[Nocares]

Looking for advice or an explanation of some sort!

Me and my DP both earn a good wage and have no kids.

We both drive very old cars and just bought our forever house (doer upper) very cheaply due to the works.

I have 0 debt . We never get anything on credit/finance we just save up for everything.

Although our monthly outgoings are low and we have spare money to save and spend, I don't understand our quality of life compared to others.

So we need a new bathroom first in our renovations which will cost about 4K all inc. We would both like newish second hand cars too at some point. To get something reliable and decent your talking about 7k each.
A new kitchen would be 10K with discount including fitting.
That there alone is 28K

As we pay for everything in cash as we save, I just don't see how its possible to get those things in under a decade of us saving!

A lot of our friends drive nice cars (on finance), have new kitchens or other refurbs done on their house with average incomes.

Even if you were to put everything on credit, after your repayments on top of bills and mortgage you'd have no disposable income left for years until its paid off?

I would get that people did do that, but most people still go on holidays, take maternity leaves etc. So they must still also have disposable income after paying off new car finance, credit card, and doing home renovations?

I feel like maybe we're missing a trick?
I can't imagine every single person I know is in huge debt! Especially as a lot of people have recently bought new homes due to stamp duty. So must have good credit.

I just don't see how its possible for us to do what we want to do within a reasonable time frame without it taking us a decade whilst we also live frugally.

The everyday people we know also have average jobs and income so its not like were surrounded by wealthy people either!

Am I missing something?!

I see this thread has brought out all the not so stealthy boasters

@SakuraEdenSwan1 No, not ignorant, but incredulous. Are you always so rude? Many posters have queried her outgoings and very late in the thread she came back to say they had a tiny mortgage of £300pm for their dream house. Where I am, you pay almost that for a parking space at the station each month.

I understand your incredulity @LovelyUserNames.

Assuming a £25,000 deposit and ability to get the house for £120?000 (no one pays asking price round here), something like this would be £315 pcm (we've just been offered a mortgage at 1.4% on a 5 year fix so using 1.6% for ref here)

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/76879675#/

This is in catchment area of a great secondary school, with 80% GCSE pass rates, very well regarded locally.

It's a corner plot and with a bit of money thrown at it and no kids or just one child could easily be a forever home imo.

And you could walk to the train station in 25 minutes so no need for an expensive parking space

Finance for cars.
Find cheaper tradesman.
I have just had a kitchen quote, keeping units and appliances, but new doors, tiling and decorating.
Total cost for materials and labour £650.
I know the guy is good as he has just done my bathroom.

[quote QforCucumber]@LovelyUserNames not necessarily. Dh and I (before having kids and the joy of nursery fees) had similar outgoings. Mortgage 450 a month - 3 bed detached house. C tax 160 a month. We live in a small town in the North East, 1k a month household outgoings here is completely normal.[/quote]
Same I live in a small town in Co Durham and my outgoings are roughly the same as @Nocares yet all these posters saying she must have made a mistake with her outgoings!

@SakuraEdenSwan1 I am aware that in the NE you can buy a house for £40K or even less in some streets. Property is dirt cheap. BUT even so, a mortgage of £300pm means they have borrowed a tiny amount- £30K perhaps? So they must have had a very hefty deposit, or it was still a very cheap house. Most modern 3-bed semis or detached houses on an estate in small NE towns are around £150K, so I assumed they had bought something more £££ than that as a large dream home.

You answered you're question in the first few paragraphs

You have no debt. You save for things. You drive older cars

The people with the latest iPhone and brand new car will be paying them off for years. I work with a girl who has nearly paid her car off. It will have cost £22k, it's now worth £9k. She just had to spend £750 on servicing too

Keep doing what you're doing, you'll be mortgage free twenty years before everybody else

@MarthaWashingtonsFeralTomcat

I understand your incredulity *@LovelyUserNames*.

Assuming a £25,000 deposit and ability to get the house for £120?000 (no one pays asking price round here), something like this would be £315 pcm (we've just been offered a mortgage at 1.4% on a 5 year fix so using 1.6% for ref here)

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/76879675#/

This is in catchment area of a great secondary school, with 80% GCSE pass rates, very well regarded locally.

It's a corner plot and with a bit of money thrown at it and no kids or just one child could easily be a forever home imo.

And you could walk to the train station in 25 minutes so no need for an expensive parking space

what term is that mortgage over? Borrowing £90K and repaying £315pm?

DS has a mortgage of £75K and repayments are around £700 a month over 30 years.

What on earth interest rate is your son in @LovelyUserNames?! We have £225k over 27 years and are only paying a little more than your son. Sounds like he’s on an astronomical rate there.

[quote LovelyUserNames]@SakuraEdenSwan1 No, not ignorant, but incredulous. Are you always so rude? Many posters have queried her outgoings and very late in the thread she came back to say they had a tiny mortgage of £300pm for their dream house. Where I am, you pay almost that for a parking space at the station each month.[/quote]
Not rude at all, questioning her like she is lying is rather rude. Here in the NE you could live In a mansion for 1K p/m, her mortgage is not outrageous at all, mine is the same.

@WhateverJudy

What on earth interest rate is your son in *@LovelyUserNames*?! We have £225k over 27 years and are only paying a little more than your son. Sounds like he’s on an astronomical rate there.

I can't recall off hand but it is with nationwide and was very competitive 2 years ago.

It's over 30 years. With Halifax (so a fairly mainstream lender) borrowing £90000 @ 80% LTV over 30 years is £302 per month. That's a 2 year fix. 5 year fix is slightly higher interest of course.

BUT even so, a mortgage of £300pm means they have borrowed a tiny amount- £30K perhaps

The OPs mortgage is probably around £70-80k. They might have saved a good deposit, seeing as they have a good surplus.

OP, you're doing great, with salaries that provide a comfortable standard of living without having to live in an expensive area, and yours at least should be secure.

It's a very good place to be in. I'd stop worrying what others do and concentrate on making the best of your own situation. If you get the work done at your own pace and don't fall into the trap of a consumerist lifestyle, you have the potential to live a comfortable, financially secure, stress free life.

@LovelyUserNames the figures for your son's mortgage put him at 30% interest rate - is this really correct? He'll end up paying £225k for a £75k debt as pp have said .

Here in the NE you could live In a mansion for 1K p/m, her mortgage is not outrageous at all, mine is the same.

Only in SOME streets and areas. And council tax is not cheap in some counties.

I know the NE like the back of my hand. I only moved from there a few years ago.

@lightsoutminty I think I made a typo!

I can't recall off hand but it is with nationwide and was very competitive 2 years ago

Then it's not £700 pm for £75k over 30 years as those numbers simply don't add up.

OP, I’m 50, and nearing the end of our mortgage. We live in a modest sized house, in a semi rural area with OK schools. It could do with decorating. We saved up for 3years to replace the kitchen, and then 8 years to replace the carpets. In two years time it’ll be ours, warts n all. Friends if ours live in a house that looks like a spangly hotel! They are the same age as me, got on the property ladder earlier, have longer to go on their mortgage, and several home improvement loans to repay. They jokingly say “it’s all on tick. We’ll pay it off when we inherit something”. It’s just different attitudes to spending and debt, but in two years time when my youngest goes to secondary school, and the mortgage is paid off, we’ll feel like millionaires. We might even go on our first proper foreign holiday since ds was a baby.

@LovelyUserNames I think there may be an error there, over 30 years £75000 costing £700 a month is about a 10.5% interest rate. Competitive but mainstream rates are around 1.5% at the moment.

I think you can do a bit of both and not be puritanical about it. My parents taught me the value of saving for things but also how to use a no interest credit card move the debt around and pay it off quickly.
We remortgaged to have a loft conversion but still have plenty of equity in the house which has improved the value.
However I’m still living with the lounge carpet that came with house that is vile because I’m saving to redecorate the lounge.
The car thing finance I will never do and we have always had older second hand cars.
But I don’t see any problem with borrowing to live a little more comfortably if it’s low or no interest and can pay it off.
We had our first sofa suite oh HP interest free it was about £30 a month or something.
We have done things slowly and sensibly but there is no need to be totally hair shirt about loans and borrowing if you are sensible.

Your not missing any tricks . You choose to pay as you go which is a good thing. But if you need to make changes right away finance is the solution to a problem. And the more you borrow and pay back on time gives you a credit score .

It depends massively on where you live imo. The cost of living in London vs the cost of living on the outskirts of Durham are vastly different. I live in NE and work part time earning 21k and dh works full time earning £35k and this is enough to give us a lifestyle that we're content with. We could in no way have a similar lifestyle if we lived in, for example, Brighton (somewhere I'd love to live) but obviously there would be other benefits that would counterbalance the high cost of living.

Also I was brought up by parents who look down on anything to do with finance or debt and it took me until I was 40 to realise it doesn't matter. I bought a car for £1k cash and it lasted me about a year then the clutch went. I bought my next car cash with some redundancy money I had for £5k and it lasted me five years until things started to go wrong on it. Dh has a pcp deal and pays just over £100 a month - either way we've both spend (very approximately) in the region of £100 for every month we've had a car the only difference being I was then stuck with the hassle of getting rid of a massively depreciated car when I'd finished with both of mine.

@LovelyUserNames

Here in the NE you could live In a mansion for 1K p/m, her mortgage is not outrageous at all, mine is the same.

Only in SOME streets and areas. And council tax is not cheap in some counties.

I know the NE like the back of my hand. I only moved from there a few years ago.

Yeah I disagree with the idea you can live in a mansion in NE for 1k a month. Really depends on where you live. Places where there are 'mansions' probs not available for 1k per month.

Your finances change over time. We just got our house before we had kids. Within 2 years we had better jobs so could do the big extension on a mortgage extension. Better jobs still and end of kids in nursery (and not spending much for last 12 months means we have more money again and we’re doing a £10k job. Broadly speaking we have 2 more £5k jobs and a £10k then maybe a £2k one. Then our house will be sorted. Probably can’t spend more than £10k a year now and don’t see imminent pay rises so will have been here 10 years by the time we are done.
I would recommend thinking about wiring, radiator positioning and windows and if any need changing doing them early so you don’t need to redecorate again.

[quote LovelyUserNames]@SakuraEdenSwan1 I am aware that in the NE you can buy a house for £40K or even less in some streets. Property is dirt cheap. BUT even so, a mortgage of £300pm means they have borrowed a tiny amount- £30K perhaps? So they must have had a very hefty deposit, or it was still a very cheap house. Most modern 3-bed semis or detached houses on an estate in small NE towns are around £150K, so I assumed they had bought something more £££ than that as a large dream home.[/quote]
Sorry its really offensive to imply property in all of the NE is dirt cheap. You'd be buying a very poor quality home with few amenities in a deprived for 40k. Just because something is available doesn't mean that reflects the price across the board.

Why say priper9is dirt cheap then go on to talk about 150k that not dirt.