I earn £81,000…

[Sueretiredawhileago]

And (although clearly I am not on the breadline and understand how lucky I am compared to others) I have very little spare money. I am a single (co) parent and I live in London so mortgage is a lot. I used to have loads spare and felt ‘well off’ but now I’ve had to cut down on all the little spending I once never gave a thought to. No quick coffees, pastries for breakfast, no brunches, no magazines, new lipsticks etc etc.

If I can’t afford these things I don’t understand how ‘they’ keep saying that consumer spending is still strong and driving inflation. Who the hell has the spare money??!!!

I earn a lot more and never have any money. Massive taxes on a single income, train costs, kids activities, cars, everything just seems expensive. I'm obviously crap.

This!!! There is a strange assumption that people on a decent salary are rolling in money compared to lower earners.

But lower earners will pay less tax as a proportion of their income and are more likely to receive benefits of some sort.

also, to earn £50k + you are most likely to be working full time, paying out some sort of childcare etc etc

"I live in London"
If you cannot afford to live in a place, you have to find a way to move. I know that is easier said than done. (especially when you are coparenting.) And it does not have to be immediate, but you need to start looking. It's not only a quality of life improvement, it's your mental health too. Constantly worrying about money, especially for a single parent warrior, wears on you. You might not notice it at first, but it depletes you bit by bit. It's amazing what you can work out if you take it bit by bit. Open a folder on your desktop, and call it Zihuatanejo. Do you research. Bookmark pages. Feel out employers. Look at property websites.

"""
But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "couldn’t be done," and you’ll do it.
"""

It's the single adult family expenses thing. You're carrying the mortgage the bills the food costs... it's a lot.
DH and I have a joint income of about £93k, and London too so large mortgage plus childcare but even still until recently we felt very comfortable. Now it's tough and if I'm honestly I'm struggling to get out of the habits of coffees/takeaways not being a consideration. Our weekly food shop alone is now about £180 for a family of 4. It used to rarely reach £100.

£80K is more than our combined income! We do OK - we live in a Northern city , own a 4bed house and 2 dc. Professional but not well paid jobs - DH a social worker and me a university teacher. Neither of us have had a proper pay rise in years - it's always well below the rate of inflation - and not likely to change.

I work pt so a lot of my social life is the gym or meeting a friend for coffee. So yes I do still go to coffee shops and have been 3 times this week (more than average) but only spent about £25, which is much cheaper than an evening out. I

I'm sorry you're stretched on a high salary - hope things get better for you soon or at least that you have friends in a similar situation so you can have cheap get togethers.

Highly likely the OP wouldn't be able to earn that salary in those regions...

Yeah, but your take home might actually be more: because of your tax allowance and child benefit and OP may be paying student loans

How much do those lipsticks cost??

Unless you link to the specific articles you read that stated that nobody can comment on how the mysterious 'they' come to these conclusions as most reputable publications are predicting a recession.

However 81K gross pay = 50K net, 4.5K. With mortgage at 2K, childcare a similar amount that really leaves not much.

I CBA with this. So I moved out of London...

Or commuters.

Yeah, but your take home might actually be more: because of your tax allowance and child benefit and OP may be paying student loans

It's not. The thing is, i do empathise with op.

But we're not about to pretend that you can't survive in London on £81k as a single parent (presumably with spouse still involved).

Well, I know quite a few people who do, probably less in number than London. But that aside...
Why would she 'need' to?
As @CheshireCats said the cost of living is lower.
I used to live in London, did the sums, I'd need to earn MORE than double in London to live my current Manchester lifestyle. 4 bed house 20 min drive/train close to the city centre.
Not only that, people don't realise how much tax, NI and student loans at away at your salary, when you earn more you keep proportionately less, but with costs constantly rising and housing being a big whack that you can't cut back on, the numbers don't stack up.

*Oh please.

You don't need 'cheap' on £81k. You have options even if you're accustomed to a fancier way of living. Plenty of nice flats around.

How do I know? I have a 2 bed flat in London. I'm on less than half of OP's salary. Combined household is much less than £81k.*

@PiIlock are you renting or do you have a mortgage? If the latter, when did you buy - it makes a big difference if you bought a few years ago when house prices were lower, or if you are on a low fixed mortgage rate. OP may have a bigger mortgage than you because she bought more recently when house prices were higher or because she has a much higher mortgage rate than you do.

Also, do you have children? OP is a single mother, who won't be receiving child benefit (although if she earned £49k and she had a partner who also did so, she would). OP will also be paying childcare costs if working full time, a cost Londoners without children don't have:

Thirdly, a two bedroom flat probably isn't appropriate for OP if she has more than one child of different sexes. So a three bedroom home is going to obviously be more expensive than a two bed.

I have no idea op the Tories are the party who keeps on giving. No such thing as next day deliveries and have you you seen the fruit and veg aisles in supermarkets they are barron.

Disposable income is about what you have going out as well as what you have coming in. And even your basic costs are a lot higher than most people's, plus of course as a single parent the tax system disadvantages you. If you had a partner and were both on 40.5k, you'd get two personal allowances and child benefit.

Is that a Torie thing you are better off if you are married lark?

"Highly likely the OP wouldn't be able to earn that salary in those regions..."
What regions? I never mentioned a region.
Don't know OPs employment situation, but WFH options are massive. In the US, the CEO of Morgan Stanley complained about New York Salaries being earned by people who move to the sticks e.g. Nebraska! There was not a darn thing he could do about it.
Even if OP cannot WFH, with moving it's never a 1:1 fall. e.g. House prices lower by 20%, but salary does not take such a hit.
You have to bob and weave. Look for a deal that suits.

This which is why it’s even more economically illiterate when posters are saying “oooooh op we take home a bit less with two of us.” Amazing, two people still paying lower tax will have more despite having the same headline income. Whilst getting chb etc.

Mixture. It was the Tories who brought in the idiotic child benefit means testing but not. However the personal allowance thing was the same under Labour. And it makes no difference whether you're married to your partner or not, an unmarried couple with this setup would also have more take home than OP.

This is nonsense. I’ve never earned 81k but I have a great life in London. I own a flat that I bought with no help when I was on 45k and have been abroad 4 times this year. I also treat myself to coffees and takeaways. My partner moved in with me about a week ago but before that I was a single income household for about 5 years, living alone not in house shares. The difference is I don’t have kids, so my money goes further. But - and I’m sure someone will be along to tell me I’m wrong - if I manage to have this life I have now on 50-60k (self employed so it varies), I’m fairly confident I could manage pretty well as a single parent on 81k if I had a child.

It really grinds my gears though when people say “oh you can’t POSSIBLY live in London for less than 200k”…. of course you can, and you can have a good life too! If your absolute baseline for life is a 3+ bed detached house in specific gentrified areas of London and several cars and children in private school then no, you won’t do that on 81k, but many people outside of London can’t afford those things either.

It's not a brag. I wonder the same. I'm a Single parent of teens. earn 60,000
and no mortgage. Had to cut back and bills are huge. Really wonder how others manage.

Right and you bought when? If it was in London on 45k any one with half a brain can see it was either, a very long time ago or with masses of help.

I was in London today, looking at makeup as I have a big event coming up. The Oxford & Bond St dept store beauty concessions didn't strike me as particularly busy if I'm honest. I'm sure there are plenty of people with low housing costs (the ones who have paid their mortgages), but I think there are also a lot of people who are having to cut back their spending and having fewer treats.

DH & I are certainly feeling the pain. Our Mortgage has increased by nearly a third. I'm just so glad we no longer have childcare costs as I have no idea how we would have survived.

We're on a combined household income which is a fair bit higher OP, but half of it is going on the mortgage on our flat (also London) and every bill is on top of that and has also gone up by between 20% and 70% in the last year.

We've also got to put two kids through uni in the next four years, which is going to cost us around £12K a year to prop them up as they only get the minimum loan.

So I totally understand - we're not on the breadline, and I know we're in a much better position than most, but because our outgoings have gone up so quickly and so much, it feels very tight right now. We're back to doing second jobs and overtime, and holidays/takeaways etc are out of the window until things are better.

Neither. It was in 2021, I had no help. I had a 10% deposit on a one bed flat that cost 200k. There are still flats around that price round here, certainly a lot of options for less than 300k. I saved 20k myself over about 7 years.