Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Middle class but no money

516 replies

roopiea · 04/01/2025 10:18

Does anyone else feel like this?

We would say we are middle class. Both university educated and privately schooled. In our 50s now. Parents had similar professions to us.

We work for the public sector, a teacher and management in local government. We live in a pretty reasonable part of the country. But we still feel we have no money for being in the middle class? We probably earn a combined 80k a year but live in a pretty bog standard 3 bed semi. Have holidays in places like Spain or Greece.

Whereas our neighbours are blue collar workers but seem to have so much more money than us. My best friend and her husband work similar jobs and they have a nicer house and better holidays than us.

OP posts:
MyOtherCarisAVauxhallZafira · 04/01/2025 16:14

housethatbuiltme · 04/01/2025 16:03

As someone 'not middle class' I would love to live in a semi (instead of an over crowded damp rental terrace) and have holidays in Spain and Greece (we are lucky if we get a discounted uk caravan holiday).

That's not bog standard life, thats what millions aspire too and will likely never achieve.

As for 80k a year thats 3 times our family income.

Show quote history

If that's more than 3 times your family income, one of you earns minimum wage and the other doesn't work, most people don't raise a family on that

Bellyblueboy · 04/01/2025 16:14

AvidBee · 04/01/2025 15:09

48% of the country don't go abroad each year

16% don't go on holiday at all

Those holidays and nice cars will be on finance, and the payments will break them each month. Don't compare yourselves to others

Some will be - but some people just have more money than you!

people get so jealous about money😊.

Notellinganyone · 04/01/2025 16:17

Two teachers here - also in 50s. Honestly, compared to the younger teachers I see were bloody lucky. Bought in 1990s when house prices were cheap, childcare also comparatively cheap. We’ve put three kids through private school - albeit with fee reduction and have modest Victorian terraced house. Take home 100 k between us and once youngest has finished uni we might actually have some spare cash. Also good pensions.

Gall10 · 04/01/2025 16:17

Thewrongdoor · 04/01/2025 14:24

I sort of know what you mean. We’re similar but have a joint income of about 60k and live in London, so money doesn’t go far. I’d still say we are middle class, though.

To me, a northerner, a joint income of £60k in London is definitely not middle class!

EdithBond · 04/01/2025 16:18

Bungrung · 04/01/2025 15:43

A broke upper class person tends to have assets though.

And higher education. And useful contacts.

UpMyself · 04/01/2025 16:19

@Gall10 ,it's not income that makes someone middle class.

SockFluffInTheBath · 04/01/2025 16:20

Similar here but I twigged a long time ago that most of our neighbours’ cars/holidays/new sofas etc were funded by parents and grandparents, You can only spend it once OP and none of it is worth being in debt for. And stop looking- comparison is the thief of joy,

Ontherocksthisyear · 04/01/2025 16:20

Quinto · 04/01/2025 14:43

But why would you think middle-class people would be likely to have more money than working-class people? Money and class aren’t the same thing. I’m a senior academic, and our builder certainly earns considerably more than I do.

This

MolkosTeenageAngst · 04/01/2025 16:22

Putting people into one of three classes - working, middle and upper - is hugely simplistic when you consider the vastly different circumstances the 67 million people in the UK live in. Even if you add extra classes like lower-middle, upper-middle it’s still obvious that in each band, each containing millions of people, there is going to be a huge variation in people’s circumstances, what they earn, disposal income, careers etc. Obviously it’s also likely that there will be people who don’t fit neatly into a band, so those whose education or career might fit into the ‘working class’ bracket but with a higher infomercial/ disposable income than someone whose education/ career fit into ‘middle class.‘ If there are lots of factors that define class (income, education, parents, careers etc) but only 3 classes then of course there will be lots of people who aren’t easily classifiable.

Bromptotoo · 04/01/2025 16:24

Bungrung · 04/01/2025 16:14

I have encouraged dc to never consider public service and have highly supported educational attainment to so they can aim for a finance/Stem career if possible. We're also getting them EU citizenship so they can up sticks if things worsen.

The public sector has advantages particularly as you get older, better job security, far better pensions - teachers for example get 28% employer contribution, and often better sick & maternity pay.

The employer contribution is a red herring.

The Teacher's pension scheme, like pretty much all the others in the public sector is 'pay as you go', there's no fund and pensions are paid by the taxpayer.

Governments of all stripes have deemed that the cost is partly born by current payroll hence the so called 28%. Unlike in my charitable employer's DC scheme that money's not going into a fund with 'Miss Jones's' name on it!!

femfemlicious · 04/01/2025 16:25

Thewrongdoor · 04/01/2025 14:24

I sort of know what you mean. We’re similar but have a joint income of about 60k and live in London, so money doesn’t go far. I’d still say we are middle class, though.

Definitely not middle class with 60k in London 🤐

Sparsely · 04/01/2025 16:25

I think the difference is between being an employee and owning your own business (eg hairdresser, electrician, car mechanic). People think of the latter as working class but in reality they own their own businesses.

There are 3 big advantages to owning your own business 1) you have a much more favourable tax regime than if you are an employee 2) the harder you work, the more you earn 3) no one is creaming off profit from your labour

You can do the same: set up your own tutoring business.

WestwardHo1 · 04/01/2025 16:25

I'm post graduate educated but am the poorest person out of all the friends and family I have! I watch every £. Partly down to divorce admittedly which has left me paying a mortgage on my own, but also because the small business I set up 20 years ago, while successful on paper, is no longer going as far as it used to. Everything is so expensive now, and I can only put my prices up so much, or people will stop paying them altogether.

It's accommodation costs and inflation.

Ariadneefron · 04/01/2025 16:26

I mean...the minimum wage for over 21's works out at around 23,700 for a 40 hour week 52 weeks a year, so you might want to adjust your idea of where the middle income is.

BusyPoster · 04/01/2025 16:27

OP you sound rather ‘half empty’ about your financial situation. Imagine you hadn’t been privately educated and now did a working class job, think how poor you would be then.

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 04/01/2025 16:27

Pleaselettheholidayend · 04/01/2025 15:57

They are the same, it's deluded to pretend they are not. All this crap about your accent, what school you went to, where you grew up blah blah blah - it's just a coping strategy to distract from the raw numbers. We are all getting poorer, the average Brit has lost out massively on their earning and purchasing power over the last few years and will continue to do so unless something drastic happens.

I hate all this class shit because it a) deludes people to their actual circumstances (which is why there are so many of these posts like this atm - people who grew up with parents in 'professions' are not able to replicate this lifestyle as adults even if they are in similar job roles because wages are in the toilet) and b) it just reinforces and makes acceptable soft snobbery and prejudice towards each other. All the crap about accents and what your parents did, like it's a symbol of your moral worth. It's exhausting and stops us from approaching the economic problems we face with any clarity.

Show quote history

That's daft. Why do you think someone would actually think they have more money than they actually have, just because they have a posh accent? Nobody thinks it is to do with moral worth either. It's basically to do with sheer luck. Exactly how does it stop us from approaching economic problems with clarity?

It's not at all deluded to say class and wealth aren't the same thing. It's simple fact (unless you have unilaterally decided on your own definition of what social class is, of course...). Social class (in the UK at least) is defined by a (not always agreed) set of markers. Not liking it doesn't make it not exist.

SuperSaver23 · 04/01/2025 16:28

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

CatamaranViper · 04/01/2025 16:30

We're the same!

  • Combined salaries of around £80k
  • live in a nice town in Northumberland in a 3 bed semi
  • uni educated
  • I work in education, DH is a HOD in an independent business
  • holidays are very bog standard package holidays
  • one car between us
  • no major hobbies or activities sucking up the funds
  • no weird lifestyle or anything
  • weekly food shop in Lidl

and yet we really struggle to make ends meet some months. Would love another car but don't think we can afford that. Yet I know people who earn far less and can afford way more

AngryLikeHades · 04/01/2025 16:32

It's difficult because people don't fit in small little boxes. I have to say that I have both lower and middle class parts to me, but whether it matters or not is something else entirely.

Lordofmyflies · 04/01/2025 16:34

You are equating job to class...this is no longer the case. DH and I are both GP's with a household income of £120k. By the time we pay back our student loans of £90K, 40% tax, mortgage and cover the deficit of our kids Uni loans, there's not much left, but no doubt from the outside people judge 2xGP's and assume or income is huge. We would far better off moving overseas to practice or having done a trade.

billysboy · 04/01/2025 16:35

Money does not define class
Plenty of working lads I know earning in excess of £60k pa but definitely would define themselves as working class
One carpenter foreman I know is earning £60k and his partner is a freelance hairdresser earning not far off , they live in her house and his is rented out giving them further income

I wouldnt expect either of them would describe themselves as anything other than working people

DaphneduMaureen · 04/01/2025 16:36

Onlyvisiting · 04/01/2025 15:05

Did you expect some kind of subsidy to arrive purely because you are 'middle class' ?
Why do you think someone working in a trade should earn less than you do?
And it's no secret that teachers are chronically underpaid, but do you really think being a teacher makes you automatically middle class? And all the working class oiks are uneducated and should earn less money? Do you have any idea of the costs and time and amount of training involved in learning trades? How many hours a week they work? How if they are self employed they don't get holiday or sick pay?

Your entire post smacks of entitled snobbery to me.
Unfortunate as if you had posted and said you were disappointed that you had had a privileged education and were working full time in a job using your degrees and still found it hard to make ends meet/ cost of living is high etc etc then I'd have been sympathetic.
The aggrieved 'but I'm too posh to be poor!' really isn't a good look.

Show quote history

Sometimes someone will post a reply on here that is just pure poetry.

Clarabell77 · 04/01/2025 16:37

newyearnewme2025 · 04/01/2025 15:23

I don't think in todays society there is a 'middle class'.. you are either working class or rich. i don't even think there is a 'poor' class in the UK now. yes there are those with little money, but they don't have NO money!

i don't even think there is a 'poor' class in the UK now

i was thinking about this the other day… I know we have many, many more food banks now that we did before the tories came in, but I don’t personally know anyone who uses them, or would need to use them - obviously they might not want to broadcast it so they may use them and I just don’t see it, but everyone I know, even people on benefits, seem to afford the necessities and some luxuries (nights out, small holidays, vapes, cigarettes, Netflix, etc)… They’re not living a life of luxury and I don’t begrudge anyone benefits, so I’m glad for them, but the only people I would say I see really struggling to feed themselves and manage the very basics are people with addictions or other similar issues.

Reactor1 · 04/01/2025 16:37

Sparsely · 04/01/2025 16:25

I think the difference is between being an employee and owning your own business (eg hairdresser, electrician, car mechanic). People think of the latter as working class but in reality they own their own businesses.

There are 3 big advantages to owning your own business 1) you have a much more favourable tax regime than if you are an employee 2) the harder you work, the more you earn 3) no one is creaming off profit from your labour

You can do the same: set up your own tutoring business.

How naive.

Loloj · 04/01/2025 16:38

Yeah times have changed - I know architects earning very little in comparison to someone who decided to train in aesthetics and charges ridiculous amounts to pump a load of filler into peoples lips.

This also struck me the other day when I visited my osteopath - clearly well educated and trained to degree level in her profession. She charges less than my hairdresser for the equivalent time spent.

I’m not sure I will be encouraging my son to go to University when he is older as there are other more lucrative careers that won’t mean getting into a load of debt. Unless of course he has a strong urge to follow a particular career path that definitely requires a degree in the subject.