Fed up at how unaffordable life feels

[mousemosaic]

We havent had a great year so far

We are on the lower end of average earners and have had a really expensive year, my partner has had to pay just over £3000 for a qualification - course and exams - to progress with work (he applied for funding and they gave him a grand total of £100 towards it). We have just had a car repair bill for over £1000. The washing machine broke. We needed new chest of drawers x3 as the cheaper ones we bought were falling apart. We dealt with pregnancy loss at the beginning of the year. It’s just been so, utterly crap. I guess these are normal life things but I just seem to have a very low resilience threshold.

We were viewing properties and felt excited to get on the property ladder but weve stopped now as the climbing interest rates mean we’d be paying at £700 a month more for a mortgage than what we pay in rent. We haven’t got that £700, not if another unexpected bill comes up

I need to reframe my thinking, we have food on the table, we can pay all the essentials bills and thankfully have our health and our loved ones. Grateful for this. It’s just stuff and just money and it comes back.

I have just hated watching the small savings pot that we had diminish so much, amongst other things! Is anyone else feeling fed up at the moment?

Vinted is great to be honest. The monzo spending budget seems a good idea, might have to try it

I’m also scared about this. We are fortunate that our DDs are grown up, one graduating this month, the other has another year in Uni. So no cost of school uniforms and school holiday.

We are worried and I've started waking frightened in the night

There is NOTHING we can cut without selling the house

Our outgoings now slightly exceed our incomings - and before you all say 'so what' I'm having to work 17 hour days to have that

I've basically got 2 'average paid' full time jobs that neither know about to earn £5000 a month to have the above situation

There are no more hours to work, no more money possible to earn

I CANNOT earn my way out of this situation

It’s awful but then it’s how they will manage to have a good quality of life, and everyone else in their generation too!

Yes, I'm fed up too. Our mortgage and energy bills have gone UP by about £900 per month and at the same time our salaries have stayed the same and DH's freelance earnings (side hustle to his full time job) have dwindled away because he has to commit so much of his time to his full time work (teaching in a University). We are probably £2,000 a month down on where we were 2 years ago. It sucks and we are in our late 50s/early 60s and should be looking forward to working less not more. Sympathies OP.

That’s rubbish. You expect a side hustle to be lucrative otherwise what’s the point burning the candle at both ends. It feels dreadful doesn’t it. I have empathy for you at that side of things, we’re in our 20s and honestly it seems like such a bleak society to be in and doesn’t make me optimistic for the future at all

It's really depressing sometimes. We're a young couple on decent but not high incomes up north, can't buy even though we have a deposit because mortgage rates and house prices generally just going through the roof even though we moved from a city to a small town. It shouldn't be this hard to just have a normal life, owning your own home and holiday once a year and enjoying meals out/days out now and then. My parents were on a similar income when I was growing up and we were so lucky to have a really nice lifestyle not flashy but we were able to enjoy ourselves.

Op I agree with u, just wanted to point out that however that on chest drawer I dint thunk I've ever paid for any yet.. Free cycle
.. Care boot, very cheapest charity join free cycle

We are just the same. Are you waiting to buy till rates come down? Is it just the two of you? Costs are so so high I think it’ll affect lots of choices for people from where they live like yourselves to how many kids they have, if any

We're about to have our first (and at this rate only!) baby 😂 we will manage and we're lucky we have support, nursery will be a bit of a shock for us when that comes around but again, we'll manage! Of course I worry about knock on effects on the rental market and we may end up having to move a bit further north/east to outpace all that.

Hopefully if the housing market stabilises then we will buy but it's not looking promising in the short term is it 😔

It’s so depressing isn’t it. All I think about all day long (and night) is how much money we haven’t got 😭.

This is what's scary - we can't earn more, and costs are too high to 'frugal' a way out - you can turn off the tumble dryer and stop buying coffees out, but that amount doesn't come close to representing a monthly mortgage increase.

I do wonder if the inflation is being driven by the generation cut adrift from home owning - the adults living with parents, in their twenties and thirties, single, with an adult income that would otherwise have been swallowed by a mortgage or commercial rent. Not judging, but I question whether the chickens of high houseprices are coming to roost in unexpected ways.

Congratulations! Lots of people have told us we must buy a house before TTC else we never will but if we go by that logic we might never! Hoping we do buy but like yourselves it wouldn’t be the smart decision right now. To some extent we can’t predict the future none of us can

It’s terrifying.

I had to give up work to become a f/t carer during the pandemic and have just been working freelance/part time for the last year.

In that time my mortgage and utilities bills have increased by £200 per month, not taking into account cost of food and very day stuff.

In September my DD is (hopefully) off to uni…as a single parent I will lose maintenance and benefits to the tune of £600pcm and no longer qualify for council tax benefit. The amount I earn even working my current 20 - 28 hours per week at little more than minimum wage will knock out my universal credit entitlement completely.

Thankfully I’ve just been offered a full time job in a school from September, but due to the term time only factor and cost of living I’m looking at keeping on both part time jobs as well.

Really did not expect to work 50+ hours a week just to stay afloat in my late forties, but I guess grateful that I have the option.

It's just draining, always thinking about it. I think what's hard is watching the government telling us they are going to cause a recession, so we just know it is going to get worse.

I think worse is to come. Sorry to be the harbinger of doom. Lots of people are going to start defaulting on mortgages etc and then what? Rents are nutso and that’s if you can even find anywhere to rent.

I’m on a decidedly middling London salary but am a single parent, so single income household. Obviously we are not hand to mouth but it wouldn’t take much to push us to the edge and there is now no fun money - and by that I mean no money for fripperies like days out, holidays unless domestic cheap camping, expensive kids clubs, or major household repairs.

it could be so much worse if we were in rented. I think single parent renters have the absolute worst of most worlds. If you’ve also got any caring responsibilities or children with disabilities, you’re basically fucked unless you can get a social rented tenancy (yeah yeah, as if)

I hope not!

It is crap op and the same for a lot of people. We keep getting hammered by car repair costs and vets bills and everything is just going up and up.

Yeah, what is it with these car repairs and vet bills? Of course some would say pets and cars are luxuries which they kind of are but honestly… is this the hair shirt reality we have come to??

I know. I don’t think it should be a luxury. Anything in the future we’ll have to suck it up and claim through insurance for. Friend was quoted £2000 for a small part repair. What on earth

Just got kicked out of the NHS dentist (yes, I know I was lucky to have one!) and they are no longer offering NHS dentistry for adults. A standard checkup (20 min appointment I think) is now 101 pounds! More than a week's food/cleaning/pet food budget for our family of 4. It is scary.

Honestly what are you supposed to do instead? Can they even kick you out?

I think I am supposed to either pay up or not have dentistry. But I have issues with my wisdom teeth! It's not just me, they kicked out all adults. Luckily they are still seeing our kids. For now.

It’s a joke, I feel sick for those who literally won’t be able to afford it from now

Dentistry is another hair shirt luxury issue. Are we really supposed to consider basic dental treatment a luxury? That's just .... well. Words fail me. We aren't even talking preventive dentistry, this is just for things that hurt and things that are about to fall out, right??

This is how I found my dentist: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/how-to-find-an-nhs-dentist/#:~:text=Problems%20finding%20an%20NHS%20dentist

if anyone lives near Epsom I can recommend a really excellent NHS dentist that is still accepting both adult and child patients - I feel like I've stumbled upon rocking horse s**t, I can always get a timely routine appointment, they send me prompt reminders for checkups, they referred my child for NHS-funded orthodontic treatment. I also have a great GP. Living the dream.

In less positive news my 15 year old car has probably been written off because of the council's inability to repair the road near me, it's riven with kitchen-sink size potholes and also floods to about 45cm deep every time it rains. And same council wants me to pay £2,200 for some council approved workers to come for a half day to remove the existing curb and put a crossover in.

You win some, you lose some...