Is my dh BU to think we cant live on £45 grand a year?

[Bellstar]

Inspired by the other thread re household incomes.

A lot of people thought 45 thousand was a very good income and I agree. It is roughly our household income.

Dh thinks that it is impossible to live on this amount and i constantly moaning about it.

Is he BU?

LOL at pigletjohn. So true

My salary is around this amount, possibly a couple of k more but doesnt make much odds in terms of net salary.

My mortgage is £1500 per month

Despite that, we live pretty well, not extravagantly but ok. We don't have a car as I don't drive so that's one expense spared but other than that I don't feel we struggle to make ends meet, I am naturally fairly frugal tight and shop around for bargains, which probably helps.

Maybe he feels that the 45K coming in isn't enough because his wife is throwing a shit fit about having a shitty house, with a shitty kitchen and bathroom, in a shitty area?

"I don't do material goods that impress"

Except for fashionable-name paint and cosmetics, you mean?

Just because your status symbols are not the same as mine, doesn't mean you have none.

If an identical paint was sold in Wilkinsons at £5 a gallon, called "Camel's Tooth" instead of "Elephant's Breath" I doubt you would buy it.

You should try a joint income of £21,000 ! Me and DH both work, we have 3 kids: a jobless 19 year old, 15 year old and 11 year old. (A smallish mortgage,but also a small house.)

The above income includes Tax Credits.

WE have very little left,if anything, at the end of the month

I don't know, but if you give me £45k now then I'll give it a go & get back to you in a year .

Seriously, we live on less than that too - considerably less - and manage OK. We are happy with Aldi, Poundland & UK caravan holidays though. If we wanted a Waitrose, John Lewis & Barbados lifestyle though we would need much more money.

But Piglet. If someone is happy to splurge on £100 Elephant's Ears and can afford to do so then why the hell should they buy £5 Camel's Arse?

The issue in the OP's case is that apparently she is not being given any input into how the household expenditure is allocated.

of course they can, Special, but it erodes any argument that it's hard to get by.

No I totally agree with that Piglet

"I can't stretch to food but the dining room is such a lovely shade of vixen's lair"

It really depends on outgoings.

We are probably on an income not much above that just now and I found it had for a bit but that's because DH has had his income cut by two thirds. I've finally managed to sort out the finances and reduce some outgoings and this year we are actually very comfortable. We can afford all the nice things other people mentioned as not possible. We don't have a large mortgage mind you but we do have a very nice house, mostly due to being sensible early on and paying off our first mortgage entirely, getting equity etc.

But if he's complaining, it's time to sit down and work out exactly whats going where and why. You may be able to save on things, remortgage etc, or you may just need to downgrade somehow.

anyway,( forget the op, she's given up on this thread)......what I want to ask is, does anyone know an equivelent colour in either dulux or crown or anything cheaper to F&B dorset cream 68? I am desperate to paint the living room and wanted a certain colour and its a F&B paint which costs 30 quid a bloody can, theerfore the living room is still unpainted? has anyone any suggestions?

(sorry op, as you were)

btw I had a wee chuckle to myself standing in homebase looking at the F&B poncey paint names, reminded me off those smug boden models.."Annabelle, enjoys walking in summer sunshine"...bollocks...why do they never say ...."Agnes, cleans office toilets at night"....

ssd

there is bound to be. if you go to a Dulux mixing place, they will have a rack of sample cards. Among them will be lots with creams on, and you can get a card with (say) a dozen on it which are so close in colour that the naked eye can detect that the top one is different from the bottom one, but can't tell the difference between (say) stripe 4 and stripe 5 because the difference is so infinitesimal.

The standard colour charts and booklets have a limited number of biggish samples, but the mixing centres have sooooooo many that they stripe (a dozen or so?) on each card in tiny graduations. There will be cards for pinkish creams, cards for yellowish creams, cards for greyish creams...

They also have a colour-measuring device that you put against the thing you want to match, and take a digital photo, and it will analyse the colour and tell you their reference number for it.

There are outlets called "Dulux decorating centres" that mix for the trade, but large DIY sheds will also have the samples and mixer. A readymixed can be cheaper if it is a popular colour off the shelf.

Depends on the lifestyle he 'aspires' to and where in the country you live i suppose. It would be 'comfortable' up here, not so much down south.

Otherwise he is BU yes.

Pigletjohn - you are not my DH are you? He has his own building/decorating firm and he HATES Farrow & Ball. He says it's overpriced and twattish.

He gets colours mixed up in the way you describe and honestly you can have the equivalent of F&B 'Pink ointment' or whatever without the ridiculous hype and price.

And we live in North London deep in Waitrose/Farrow & Ball country!

ssd I few years ago I painted a farrow and bull sample onto a piece of paper and the nice Dulux man scanned it into the computer and told me what the equivalent Dulux colour was. Worth a try?

great idea girls, thanks!

I knew there was a reason our house is painted in Wickes contract magnolia!

£30 for 15 litres and I learned to love it

frillyflower

Yes I am, dear, and I want pie and mash when I get in.

frillyflower

Bring us a mug of tea, love

Our income is less then 45K and we manage to live on it. We even help
DD2 with her rent at ubi.

DH and I combined earn less than half of that. We'd be in clover with £45K :)