to be so fed up with working so hard and still having no money

[slipperandpjsmum]

I work full time 50 hours plus. I was paid on Tuesday. I have just checked my balance and I am £12.00 overdrawn, which means as I have a month to go I will be up to the max on my overdraft by the time I am paid again. I feel like all I do is work and then still can't say, well at least we can afford to have nice holidays etc. I am so fed up with being broke!!!!

So, how do we start the revolution then?

enabledebra - I read that one about 14 years ago. I think it's time to revisit it.

I'm not intending to be crass.

Did anyone else nearly die at the figure old charles gets for rent of dartmoor prison? I cant remember exactly now but it was near on a billion.

I think old Charles should also build a workhouse. He'll get good income soon, once all these Coalition decisions work their way through.

"I think old Charles should also build a workhouse. He'll get good income soon, once all these Coalition decisions work their way through." Good idea! Plus I think anyone who doesn't drag themselves up by their bootstraps and take advantage of this opportunity to live off the backs of the workhouse scum should be denied benefits for, shall we say, 3 years?

3 years only? They should not get them at all if they are paying taxes. But of course.

The workhouse would solve the problem of lack of affordable housing, too. Kill two birds with one stone, really.

Our mortgage is also lowish because we were fortunate enough to buy our current home 9 years ago before the market rocketted and I we were able to put down a 20% deposit. Interest rates would have to go up to at least 10% before it would be cheaper for us to rent.

I'm nearly 40 and we have a 30 year mortgage though however we are usually able to over pay something each month.

We have never had a holiday apart from house sitting for friends 3 times in 10 years!

i am so glad to discover we r not alone We earn in excess of 50k combined, both work full-time (although dh is self- employed and so his work is alot more variable), but we have nothing left at the end of the month. bought our flat 3 yrs ago- and have lived with bare plaster walls and uncarpeted rooms ever since- we just don't have any spare money to do any work. but we do both have some debts and 3 children under school age- so try to focus on the fact that in a few yrs time we'll be positively rolling in it

I agree it's the old divide and conquer going on, our huge savings are that we both can cycle/walk to work and school and we can dress casually so our going out to work costs are very low now the dc are at school.

We also live near the small "town" centre so we don't have to use our car often at all.

It is all these little things that do add up though.

The cost of commuting for some is huge. Breakfast club for £2 per child is a brillian too and dh works reduced hours to collect from school as after school care was £13 per child we have 3 to pay after school care for!

"3 years only? They should not get them at all if they are paying taxes. But of course.

The workhouse would solve the problem of lack of affordable housing, too. Kill two birds with one stone, really."

You are right of course. I should have sniffed out the opportunity to resolve the housing crisis. I console myself with the knowledge that council housing will now be a disincentive to work after 2 years and we will now all "know" that those in council housing are scroungers and not the deserving poor (unless I can plainly see the iron lung or amputation.) I will ensure a constant supply of rotten eggs to throw at their doors or else write weekly letters to the papers to register my disgust.

"we've never had it so good" because we're millionaires already and can make even more money on all those already down the pan

it's so grim

The biggest expense in working households is the cost of housing.

Who taxed pensions and let it get completely out of control?

I dont think you can blame the rich toffs for that one TBH.

Well, since you're blaming Labour for every present ill of society, what is your party, the Tories, doing to correct these over-inflated house prices?

Let's keep in mind not everyone is a homeowner.

So what are they doing about rising energy, fuel and food prices? Oh, that's right! Raising VAT to pay for the greed and poor-decisions their buddies in finance made (I have yet to hear of a Labour-supporter in the upper echelons of finance).

"Well, since you're blaming Labour for every present ill of society"

No - just saying you cant blame the toffs. They werent in power when this all kicked off.

"what is your party, the Tories, doing to correct these over-inflated house prices"

Forcing landlords to reduce their rents through tighter HB.

Tightening the amount of mortgage interest relief they pay, so that its not just a 6+% bung to homeowners who are paying historically low interest rates.

Banking regulations that make it much harder for people who cant afford houses to lie to get one.

Not bad for, what, 6 months in power?

VAT rate - remember it went DOWN for a long time to encourage growth and everyone knew it was going to have to go up by an equal amount at some point to claw the money back.

Tory toffs and banking buddies. I'm sorry, but who courted the finance industry for the last 13 years? It was a proper little champagne socialist love-in.

You should change your name to BrokenRecord.

I was not responsible for anyone's fuck ups besides my own.

Yet I'm being told I must pay for others' with a smile on my face ('We're all in this together') whilst we sink deeper and deeper into the hole, our earnings paying for less and less of the essentials.

So I can't say I'm enamoured of anyone who taxes our niggardly wage even more, all whilst cutting services I cannot afford to pay for, and tell me to shut up and be happy about it.

In fact, I hope such people rot and I wish them every ill possible in this life and the next.

We were in the same kind of situation, particularly as we were servicing debts too.

Have you looked at the price of your utilities? I was suprised at how much I saved just by swapping suppliers! I did this with gas, electric, telephone and mobile phones and saved in excess of £700 per year.

I also stopped the cable and home phone, as we didn't really need them.

Lastly I did a menu plan and stuck to it when I was shopping - suprising how much the food bill comes down when you do it!

On the debt front, we contacted all the people we owed to a got them to freeze the interest on each debt - we just had to provide them with details of incoming and outgoing.

Towat, we are on a keyed meter. We can't switch. We don't do direct debits as we've been stung by big catch up bills and also at certain times of the money we have no money.

We don't have cable/Sky, home phone or contract mobiles.

We already cut our food budget to a minimum, as we are rural and do one big shop a month.

We only eat meat 2-3x/week.

When creditors freeze your interest rates, it can negatively affect your credit. If you are a renter, this can make it hard to secure private lets, so it's a step to be taken with caution.

Everything is electric in this flat, anyhow. No gas. No way to change that as it is a rented flat.

Mmmmm - it may affect your credit rating, but that is salvageable once you have got yourselves back on track, and you've obviously looked at other alternatives.

Erm, trying to think of anything else that might help.......

If you are rural is the problem high travel costs? Have you got children and high childcare costs? Can you maybe look at working from home, which might help with both of those?

Sorry, towat, we've tried just about everything. DH doesn't have too bad transport costs, and he does cycle a lot to and from if the weather is not very bad (which it is here often).

Our car is quite old, though. And so it does need repairs. We got it from his folks. It's also dear to tax. £195 this year as it's a diesel 1.7. We buy saving stamps once a month for that. The insurance is cheap, though.

I walk the children to and from school.

It's that everything cost so much and prices on things like power and food are rising.

But we're all in this together, of course .

I'm feeling for you!

Expat, even if you're privately renting you can get grants for insulation- they're actually paid by energy suppliers. If you're eligible for a 100% grant you could cut heating bills without spending money.

Not privately renting, but thanks! :)

Things are tough for a lot of people.

I know several living with the threat of redundancy, or who have mortgage arrears right now.