... to think that most MNers live in a bubble?

[frgr]

Seriously, the amount of times I read on here about "oh we earn 70k a year but we're really struggle to provide for little Jacob's polo lessons this year" (or some other such shite).

In real life, the average income of my family and friends is probably circa the national average. I know for a fact that my BIL is on around £6/hr and works 42 hours a week, I know that my best friend's total family income is about 22k because she was talking about mortgages a month ago... I'm talking about hard working people who go out come rain or shine and do their day's work, to provide for their families.... and then I log on here and find out MNers are posting trivial shit about being unable to afford XYZ and feeling hard done by on their incomes of "only" 3x the national average.

I don't know if I've become more sensitive to this crap since starting re-posting on here last year (after a break of about 3 years), but it seems to me that certain members of MN are totally and utterly oblivious as to what the average family is having to endure during this recession.

It's fucking unbelievable, it really is.

In your opinion, why are so many MNers out of touch with reality? Does this site cater to a different class than me? Are avg MNers just generally deluded - do I even belong here any more, with our 21k combined income, worrying about where the next school trip fee is coming from despite the fact that both of us work?

Christ.

i see no general assertion. the OP has clearly read the thread where a couple earning £70K are trying to get a bursary for their child's private education and claim to be struggling.

my brothers family income is over 70k and he too works hard for it but his real world and my real world are poles apart. In his real world he pays over 7k for a couple of settees and an arm chair.
In my real world i go to dfs for the interest free credit.

No, LadyWellian, just to clarify - I'm posting about people earning many multiples of the national average wage and then complaining on here constantly about how much the are struggling. I don't begrudge people earning 70k, but surely you can understand why such an onslaught of "complaint" threads in recent weeks has made me call for some sort of outside awareness for these posters? I.e. a little bit of tact as to how your average family is faring in these times - perhaps a little bit more tact? And feeling blessed with what you have.

That's a very important distinction, I think.

Perhaps I should spend less time looking at the AIBU sub-section.

mn is a dazzling baffling infuriating amusing cross section of someone else life.no point getting het up how other folks do or dont live or what wage they do it on

Gawd... should have considered this was AIBU before I posted!

I'm not trying to be an apologist for the rich. I'm not saying I work harder than anybody else. I haven't read the thread that seems to have sparked this one. I was just surfing 'most active' to see who was still up at this time of night.

If you've got two teachers in a family (in London) there's a good chance of a household income over £70k.

thing is you can spend your money on whatever kack you so desire but if you are 'struggling' on £70K you're either shiteous with money or out of touch with reality.

it's all relative anyway, your dfs sofa is a luxury to a homeless person or someone from third world country.

What frgr said!

And what blinks said! Hence my central heating comment - I thought we were bloddy well off til I read the £70k thing - I thought we were loaded and only struggling cos of paying off debts we accrued when we were very young parents and crap with money! Turns out we are broke with a £50k combined income! Who'd have thought?

frgr I apologise. I think I'd find that hard to swallow too. I can see people on multiples of average wage 'struggling' if they have to do multiple school fees, but surely bursaries are there for those who wouldn't be able to access those schools otherwise.

Feel like a bit of a tit now. You obviously caught me at a defensive moment.

blinks that the thing with my brother he has a large income and lots of nice things but he never has any money as he will spend 7k on furniture.

So i would say he is shit with money as the money goes out as fast as it comes in.

Must tell my friends who have a combined income of £30k and thought they were doing well...

deluded bubble is getting het up at words on a screen.frankly this is all a leap of faith. and certainly dont benchmark self against anonymous online tap tappers

Well, I fit in the earning over 70K too. Or at least, my husband does. And you know what? We do kind of struggle. It might not be OMG-I can't-eat-for-the next-30-years kind of struggle, and is more the kind of, How-the-Hell-are-we-going-to pay-for-them-to a)have-a-hobby-andb)-go-to-Uni, but we still struggle! For the simple reason, I think we all have our own ideas of what we want our kids to have. So, yes, we're not stuggling in the sense our children will die of starvation, but I still think it's wrong that my husband earns as much as he does, and we still permanently feel skint.

A lot of people here are richer than me and some are poorer but that's what I like about Mn that there's a. Wide range of people

Dfs for furniture to me that's well of .Try freecycle/charity shop eyes up her bargain £100 couch.But then I don't class myself as poor not even my kids do yet we live below the offical poverty line

Though yes £70000 and moaning can't afood private school my answer to that be well your just have to take them out

scottishmummy, I'm confused - are you implying that posters lie about their income? That might be true, the post about 70k total income might be nonsense, the recent post saying that £40 after tax/morgage is your "average income" per year might be utter nosense, it's true.

But I don't think I'm being naive to think that posters are being serious when they take the effort of posting, and responding to, these threads on MN.

It can't all be crap, there have just been too many examples that I've seen in the last month or two.

Or maybe I am being naive, and the people posting are on minimum wage too /in fantasy land!

"£40 after tax/morgage" = "£40k a year after tax/morgage"

confused about what?online is all blah and cant be corroborated.of course i dont take any of it seriously

No - that's not right The Cat, &c - We earn a lot less than you and we now consider ourselves well off - we have always been able to afford a hobby (such as cubs or football - not polo or skiing). My child has never been in danger of starvation. At one point, when my partner was still an undergraduate and I earned 13000 pounds a year, my son still ate and had hobbies (cheap ones, like todller group). Please explain how you struggle on £70k??

TheCatInTheHairnet - do you not think that people on much lower incomes than you ALSO worry about 'How-the-Hell-are-we-going-to-pay-for-them-to a)have a hobby-and b) go to Uni? I have those worries for my dc too. Difference is that I have those worries on an income of £16K from DP's wages, and a bit of a top-up from Tax Credits.

If you struggle for money on £70K pa, then there's something seriously wrong with your budgetting. Sorry, but there just IS.

And as for spending £7k on sofa's versus getting one from DFS - my (very worn out) sofa was from a charity shop 10 years ago. DFS is out of our league. We actually dream of winning enough on the lottery to afford a sofa from DFS. [skint emoticon]

Asked this question on the wills programme thread on Tellyyaddicts -was astounded at the amounts of potential inheritance - plus the tacit acceptance by one particpiant at least that this was all hard earned money - of course it wasn't - mixture of inheritance and fortuitous property purchases. No-one took up the discussion.

One of my exes lives in the south east on a salary of 65k and his partner earns 35k.

He genuinely thinks they are hard up, and will not accept that the avergae income is about 22k I think. They don't live in a big house, overspend etc.

Not in the real world. I get the impression the same is true on here of some but not of others. Like life really.

I totally understand what you mean. I was on another thread a few days ago where somebody implied that I should be in a position to buy a £750k house if only I hadn't wasted my money on cocaine. I must admit that I felt a bit .

There are lots of threads on here where somebody moans about poverty and they effectively get told 'Let them eat cake'.

It's shit.

i'm truuuuly shit with money and can imagine that even on a high income i'd bugger it all up but i wouldn't be applying for bursaries for my childrens private school education or bleating on websites about 'struggling'.

it's bad moaning etiquette.

Those who earn in excess of £70k have a mortgage to match their income, thus reducing their disposable income, remember too that those earning over £37k approx pay 40% tax.

They have a richer lifestyle, shop in more expensive shops, so when they say they are struggling what they really mean is - fuck they had to shop in Next and not Harrods!

Fuck, they had to buy the Daily Mail and not the Observer!

Shit they had to reduce themselves to paying a pound for a loaf like the rest of us as opposed to the special brand of 2 quid a loaf.

there should really be a telephone support line for those reduced to buying the daily mail.

Shit, they didn't have to look down the sofa at the end of January when the buggers paid them early , to buy a bloody loaf of bread, cos OBVIOUSLY they spent the early salary, despite promising not to...