to ask why life is so expensive?

[clam]

It's just one thing after another. We're on a more-than-reasonable income, yet if I feel we're struggling to stick within our means, how the hell are others on a lower budget coping?
Every month I think things will calm down, but this month alone we have haircuts needed for all, a trip to the vet (£60) 2 dental hygienist appointments (£50 each!!!!!) and a check up (£35, no NHS available), new tyres needed for the car, MOT coming up, dd has only one pair of wearable shoes other than school ones, ditto ds and his feet have grown, ds theatre trip for drama GCSE, next installment of dd's school residential trip, music lesson fees due for the new term, exam fee, plus we have to pay the accompanist.... you get the picture. Plus I forgot to pay off the sodding credit card last month so just got hit with a late payment fee, plus interest.

The credit card is not the issue (apart from my cock-up this month. Only have myself to blame for that). No debt apart from mortgage.
Cars owned outright.

yeah its shit :(

I know this pedal - I just find it a bit depressing and wonder where im going wrong. I had kinda expected to a bit stable financially by the second half of. U thirties, then the recessions hit, DH was made redundant, the nature of my work means its always year to year, the kids are getting older and more expensive though Childcare costs are going down! And I never ever admit I am stressed in RL but it does feel like we are just hanging on by the fingernails.

Then I read the threads about people not eating to feed their kids and I feel terribly terribly guilty.

A lot of people have a keep up with the Jones' attitude to cars etc. I am actually OK off but I run around in an ancient muddy Polo 'cos I dont care what people think!

Well, if you're going into savings, it does sound like it's worth having a really thorough look at your expenditure, and deciding whether you're happy with where the money's going, or whether there are things you can identify and cut down on.

It sounds like your children have lots of activities that you want to support - could you cut your grocery bill to allow for this better?

Pencil cases: Wilkinsons! Although the pencils will snap and the ink pens will scratch.
And that's another thing - more expensive to buy binliners, yet the plastic is so thin they rip. Sellotape thin and tears. Tippex doesn't tipp...

Agree with you op! Everything is much more expensive!

As I get paid monthly I put everything on credit card and pay it off - by everything I mean diesel, food shopping, basic essentials..

My credit card bill has rocketed over the last year! And I look at what I have bought.. Morrisons, Sainsbury's, .. it's all food or diesel.. nothing exciting!

As for holidays, cannot get a holiday for the price I paid a few years ago, everything is at least £1,000 more expensive

It is upsetting because we work hard for our money, yet wages are remaining the same and prices are going up

I know how you feel. Dh and I regularly talk about having to cut back, but it's so difficult with 3 children. There is always something they need.

When the new term starts next week there will be swimming, guitar and tennis lessons to pay for again. A total of £120 to find.

My shopping bill has also gone through the roof lately too. Each week I seem to be crossing out something else off the list, as I have gone over my budget.

It's shit, you hear that the average wage is around £25k, when as a family you're earning a lot more than that sometimes it seems that you should feel wealthy on it, but are still just struggling through without the trappings of a 'posh' lifestyle.

I've pruned the budget where I can - got rid of unnecessary (to me) electical/plumbing insurance but not wine. Shop around for new house/car insurance every year. Halved the renewal quotations that way.

I totally agree. In one instance there is a recession and in another, BMW increase their sales. In one instance shops are closing down but in another, a pair of wellies for kids costs £20. The discrepancy is huge.

Yeah but who is buying the BMWs and twenty quid wellies?

I don't get it...when I was a child I. The 80s things were bad and maybe it was because I was a child but it didn't feel bad because no one had any money, at least in Scotland, we really were all in it together.

I've also noticed quality deteriorating for the same price. What is the point of a binliner that tears? My bills are all food, utilities, insurance (house, car). Childcare. Swimming lessons for DD that used to be provided by the local authority now provided by the local mafia Swimming Nature who have every swimming pool in our area and charge an arm and a leg for something that used to be basically free.

And then you see on the fashion pages of newspapers and magazines handbags and shoes featured for hundreds of pounds. And these are publications aimed at ordinary people.
I just don't get it.

What I don't get is-

The cinema is always packed and that costs a fortune.
Our local Hungry Horse pub is always packed with families eating

£20 for wellies doesn't even strike me as that bad . It seems to me that everything is £5 (everyday items you use a lot), £20 (things you basically need to buy every couple of terms - new plimsolls for the DCs) or hundreds of pounds (everything else!)

at cinemas who charge £1.75 for half a litre of water. More than twice as much as petrol.

Maybe though, that Ikea is packed with shoppers who can no longer afford John Lewis, and John Lewis is packed with people who once shopped in Harrods.

Places like Mulberry/L.Vuitton/Radley and expensive car marques seem to be doing well but how many people are on those incomes? I used to shop at some crazy places but when I went to Paris to have a watch-strap made I knew it was getting out of hand. Now we have daughter and child-care and a a loan for an extension take care of £1100+ pm before food/heating etc. I look around at people driving £50k cars and think where does the money come from to fund that lifestyle. It's not as tho' we all shop on Bond St.

I've just realised part of my problem - no more Woolworths. You could have got wellies in there for less than £20 and glue and elastic bands for less than a fiver. I miss it.

And YY to refilling pencil cases. I rage like a banshee when the DCs leave the lids off felt tip pens because that's another £5 right there.

Maybe the average salary figures are wrong and people make more money than is generally thought

According to those news shots during the Christmas sales, it's the Chinese. And Russians. I gather that Bentley have a thriving trade in the Far East.
But again, not your average Russian in the street, I don't suppose.

Radley isn't in the league of Louis Vuitton etc

I opened DS1's pencil case and there was about ten inch- long pencils. loads of pencil shavings and about 5 of those Berol handwriting pens all dried up.

All the erasers had been broken into tiny pieces.

I did read that young people feel they are so far away from being able to afford anything real like a mortgage or a home of their own they are just spending on designer bags and shoes etc.