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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to expect to be able to afford to get to work

84 replies

hissymissy · 08/03/2011 22:39

The local news depressed me tonight. Fuel prices are set to go up, possibly as much as £2 a litre. How are we expected to get to work? Public transport here is a joke, there are very few jobs around where I live, and even if I could afford the cost of removals, there are no affordable rents in the town where I work.

I do car share, but that could change as one of the people I share with is leaving next year and the other is regularly off work sick.

I think I will lose it if the government puts up fuel duty yet again. The current rise in the cost of living is totally unsustainable.

OP posts:
CrispyTheCrisp · 08/03/2011 22:42

It cost me £115 for a train fare to work today and i had to stand half the way home HmmAngry

YANBU, tis crazy

StealthPolarBear · 08/03/2011 22:43

Shock crispy I assume that's not every day!

SeeJaneKick · 08/03/2011 22:47

There are wesites dedicated to finding a car share for people....I don't know the name though. You could google it or look on moneysavingexpert.com

CrispyTheCrisp · 08/03/2011 22:48

Yes, that is a day return - 1hr journey. Luckily I don't have to go to London every day and it is reimbursed, but it is still outrageous IMO

Original poster
hissymissy · 08/03/2011 22:50

There is one here called car share devon. I have been on there for the past 4 1/2 years and only ever heard from 1 person 4 years ago. Since then, nothing. That person dropped out because they wanted quiet 'me time' on the drive home! Hmm I think part of the problem is I don't work the normal 9-5 hours.

OP posts:
mrsscoob · 08/03/2011 23:35

I was actually just looking at trips to London and happen to notice that a "commuter time" fare is £72, going at a later time around 11am is just £12.50 I think it is disgusting that they are just basically ripping people of who are just trying to go to work. Its awful isn't it. yanbu

Original poster
hissymissy · 08/03/2011 23:56

The thing that angers me is that they keep centralizing everything, taking more and more local services and jobs away, making it essential to have to travel everywhere, while not providing enough housing for people to live near work, then they drone on about pollution and somehow that is our fault. Angry

OP posts:
onceamai · 09/03/2011 00:35

I think it's awful and I'm really sorry. Not sure what we can do though.

nancydrewfoundaclue · 09/03/2011 00:54

I agree it is ridiculous but on the otherhand re the railways they are currently heavily subsidised by ALL tax payers. I find it difficult to argue that there shouldn't be a move away from that and that rail travel should be paid for by those who actually use it.

ThatVikRinA22 · 09/03/2011 01:03

i used to work 23 hours a week.

i now work shifts, 54 hours a week in a dangerous job (i found that out when i got smacked last week) and after fuel and pension costs i am £300 per month better off. absolute bloody joke. i put £90 of fuel in my car last week and i drive a sodding corsa not a tank!

Pollo · 09/03/2011 01:09

VinaTutu Am fascinated to know what you do for a living??

esselle · 09/03/2011 02:06

I think vicar is a police officer.

itsalarf · 09/03/2011 07:35

It is awful. I am starting to get quite concerned and am going to try looking for a local job, but they are rare. It just seems like an extra tax on workers, who have no choice about making their journeys.

ethelina · 09/03/2011 07:43

one of the reasons I have decided not to go back to work after ML is the cost of fuel. On top of childcare it's just unworkable financially. Hmm

Lucky we can actually afford to drop the wage (just) isn't it?

Callisto · 09/03/2011 07:59

I always assumed Vicar is a erm, vicar... and imagined her taking the Sunday sermon in a very frou frou skirt and top ensemble. Wink

ENormaSnob · 09/03/2011 08:03

Yadnbu

Callisto · 09/03/2011 08:06

The thing is, fuel will keep going up in the long term, as will food prices as water shortages and changing Asian diets really kick in. We can't feed 7 billion people (well, we can but the logistics of doing so mean that we effectively can't).

Don't expect help from the govt - fuel duty is a huge income for the govt, if they drop it they will have to put taxes up somewhere else. And actually, I'm not sure how much sympathy I have for motorists. The writing has been on the wall for years now. Peak oil is becoming a reality, but we have known about the probability for decades. If the electorate had been putting real pressure on govts to change transport infrastructures for all of those decades we wouldn't be in this fix. As for rail prices, ridiculous, but unless people change the way they work (flexi-time/work from home etc) this isn't going to change either.

compo · 09/03/2011 08:06

Surely you'd know before getting a police job that it was dangerous!

colditz · 09/03/2011 08:08

Get a motorbike.

A 250 cc bike is fast enough for the motorway and nippy enough for the city and the fuel would have cost you about £10 both ways.

Magicjamas · 09/03/2011 08:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

happyinherts · 09/03/2011 08:14

...and you wonder why people on benefits can't or won't take on minimum wage jobs. Can't afford to go there.

sourdoughface · 09/03/2011 08:23

its not just motorists is it though, thats a very short sighted view

its everything that travels by transport

thats food, clothes, goods - you name it

HannahHack · 09/03/2011 08:24

It's rubbish. My train fare went up 10% in Jan to £252 a month and my pay is frozen until Jan 12 AT THE LEAST. I am on a national average salary job in the SE and I have just had to start moonlighting to cover the gap between my pay check and what I need.

There are other costs associated with work too. This month I have spent £70 on new shoes and getting old shoes reheeled as they all decided to fall apart last month. Need a new suit too as the old one is falling apart.

Got a commission yesterday though, so I am very happy!

EricNorthmansMistress · 09/03/2011 08:25

Callisto, how lovely and utopian. You have no sympathy for motorists - You know what? I work and cannot live in the city I work in, without seriously compromising my standard of living, the cost of a decent 2 bed flat in the city is more than half my total income, so I live out. I need a car to carry out my (frontline, public sector, important) job and the council will not provide cars for all workers to use, even if I could get to work on public transport, which I could but it would take about 1.5 hours each way (12 mile journey in a car)
I live in a small town and there is no work that I could travel to without a car that could earn anything like what I need to support my family. What the fuck am I supposed to do?

Fuel duty is very high and the pain should be shared - lower fuel duty and raise taxes elsewhere. They must lower duty, it's impossible to live otherwise.

ethelina · 09/03/2011 08:26

I always thought I have my year off and go back part time and eventually full time but now I will give up my job and look for something closer to home next year. Never thought I would have to ration the car.