To be absolutely fucking amazed how much money people have?

[HiggsBoson]

I thought we were in a recession.

I thought people were genuinely struggling.

DP and I certainly do as we are on low incomes, but we try to be grateful for what we have.

How is it then, that so many people can afford ipads, clothes from the likes of Joules and Boden, Mercedes and Audis, Hunter wellies for their kids ffs, expensive overseas holidays and huge 10/20/30K weddings?

Honestly I'm quite baffled. Everybody seems to have an ipad - they're £500!!

What's going on?

[lljkk]

how so many people can afford so many children.

ime of families size 6+, Canny bargain shopping and wasting very little food. Walking rather than driving places, Passing clothes down the family, taking holidays somewhere like Butlins and only in term time. Limiting kids to cheaper hobbies & clubs.

Other big help would be getting on property ladder at right time, too; so much dearer to buy or rent now than 12 yrs ago.

[HappyMummyOfOne]

Doritos, on a salary of £25k its likely that they net a lot in tax credits as the more children you have the more money you get and they have no childcare costs.

Large families are in the main supported by benefits or are wealthy. Those that dont qualify for benefits or net large salaries have to live within their means.

[DoTheWrongThing]

I think there are three main things which affect how much disposable income people have: where you live, whether you have a job and when you bought your house.

About 12 years ago DH and I were newly married. I had a chronic illness/pain condition which meant I wasn't able to work much and even when I did it was only part-time. DH had gone straight from school into an unskilled job in a factory where he worked long hours for a low wage and had to work a lot of overtime to bring home a decent amount, he couldn't take risks and branch out into another job because I was ill so there wasn't a second wage to fall back on.

Fast forward to now. Our house was bought for peanuts just before the boom and has now trebled in value and as we never got involved in borrowing loads of money against the equity it is all ours - we will pay off the remaining mortgage soon. Our mortgage was ridiculously low to begin with and is now a third lower than it was due to the interest rate cuts. DH's job is secure and he has had regular wage rises above inflation (we know this is very lucky). Allied to this, DH retrained and we started a business together as a result so we have the double wage which eluded us before. We also have no children, which caused us some sadness at the time (though we are fine about it now) which means we are a lot better off financially than some of our friends. Oh, and I am a fantastic shopper and saver, I've always said to DH, 'make me some money and I will make you more'.

We are just getting used to having a lot more money but I remember very well what it was like to have less. For us, the main things that have affected us are the fact that we bought our house when we did, the fact that DH has a secure job and the fact that we started our own business. Some of this was luck, some good judgement and some hard work.

[ChocolateCakePlease]

Wish - not saying it is your fault you haven't lost your child benefit nor am I having a go at you personally. But it does make me very mad and angry at the government that a household that earns 100 k combined has got to keep their child benefit when someone with half those earnings via one earner loses part or all of it. It is not right at all.

[doritosmonster]

That's a good point, HappyMummy; I think the friend I know whose income is less than 25k has mentioned before that they get tax credits and housing benefits.

[Wishihadabs]

CCP I agree. Totally wrong footed policy IMO particularly unfair on single parents. The OP was asking how/why people seemed to have lots of disposable income. I was just answering her.Their are massive disincentives for us as a unit to earn more even though we probably could.

We would be taxed at 40% on all of it and loose our cb. Someone a while ago was talking about marginal tax rates and ours would be very high.It's almost like another benefit trap. As we both earn around the threshold we don't need the money. As I said we have a very good quality of life.


We would

[katykuns]

I am one of the people that was scrimping and saving before the shit hit the fan, that has to pluck money out of nowhere when something goes wrong. I am a carer, and like a similar poster above, get pittance for a full time job.
I don't hate people for having expensive things, but I do hate tge government for making things difficult for genuine hardworking people who just want security and to have a social life once in a while. I need my car to work, and don't have the money for a decent one that means I don't need to keep spending money on it. It is all fairly miserable in all honesty, and so hard. I don't think I'll ever own my own house without my parent's help, or be able to give my children valuable experiences like some others do. And just because care work isn't valued, and they cut benefits here and raise bills there. It doesn't even make sense.

[GlassofRose]

My friend who has a no job bought an ipad mini for her 3 year old.

To me it seems more of a case that people don't have more disposable cash, they just have different priorities.

[Wishihadabs]

Before 2008 we earnt 60k between use and paid our nanny over 30.....just saying

[Wishihadabs]

And my god did we need our cb in those days...

[ComeYoniWithMe]

william I didn't get huffy because people commented, I got huffy cos you called me a liar. I'm sorry the fact I have a low mortgage irritates you . I am on a low income so get wtc to make up the shortfall.

[morethanpotatoprints]

I also think many peoples mentality and priorities have changed.
When we first started a family nobody ever said we can't afford anymore children as people do today. They was no difference in having one or 3 financially.
Of course if you were poor you needed your cb, but there were very few nurseries, no tax credits and certainly no subsidised childcare. If you didn't have extended family or a very well paid job and had dc, it was tough you were a sahm if you wanted to or not.
I think on the whole we have it good now compared to say the 1960's/70's. As a society we just got greedy and wanted more, even if that meant extensive credit.

[crashdoll]

"Before 2008 we earnt 60k between use and paid our nanny over 30.....just saying. And my god did we need our cb in those days..."

That was a choice though. It wasn't forced upon you. There are other forms of cheaper childcare. Working parents on much lower incomes manage to find childcare without using a nanny.

[Wishihadabs]

Crash doll and your point is ? Yes we chose to have a nanny (7-7) after my 2nd mat leave. This enabled us both to get to where we are now (earning nearly 50k each for a 2-4 day week). So now we need very little child care.

[StateofConfusion]

Its easy to appear ok on a budget. All dcs are in next pretty debanahams clothes, huge bundles for around £10 on Facebook selling pages, ditto Clarks shoes or i go to the outlets and get last years range.
My bugaboo free but i had tp scrub and clean it like nothing else and file rust off etc it took months but now looks as good as new.
Holiday, the sun.
The kids ipods saved for a year.

[Wishihadabs]

In 2007 nobody suggested HRT tax payers should have cb. TBH I was a bit miffed we didn't qualify for tax credits (threshold was 56 I believe) swings and roundabouts

[Wishihadabs]

HRT tax payers shouldn't have cb obviously

[Wishihadabs]

Now and then I considered paying the nanny an investment in the future. Yes we made that choice.

[GogoGobo]

I think most people are cutting back but if they started from a high spending point and are now at a mid spending point then at surface level they can still look extravagant. Last year we had 3 holidays, flew business class etc. this year we are going to Europe and flying easyjet. We think we've made sacrifices but to the person who can't afford even a week end break we still look lucky. We are both self employed lady year we earned circa £12k net a month. This year it will be nearer £9k. We have made lots of changes to deal with that but to many people we are very wealthy.

[DontmindifIdo]

Just a little aside about childcare costs and nannies, but if you have 2 preschoolers, a lot of childminders round here don't give sibling discounts and charge around £6 an hour per child, you can either pay £12 per hour for a childminder, or have the flexibility of a nanny (eg you set the hours, they will work when your DCs are sick, you only have to cover when they are sick) and pay them £10 per hour with nanny NI taking that up to closer to £12 per hour. The only reason a childminder rather than a nanny will be more affordable when I go back to work after having DC2 (currenlty on mat leave) is that DC1 will be in school and I won't have to pay for full day for him too - but there's little in it.

In fact, that's one thing that's got cheaper since the recession as well - nanny wages have fallen in large parts of the south east because rich families are less likely to have a full time nanny when there's a SAHM, so there's less demand for nannies at the top end and the wages have been pushed down - I know that some are earning more like £8 per hour (so costing the parents only £10 per hour), and are beginning for the first time to see they would earn more as childminders (for which there's a shortage in the part of Kent I live in, hense them getting away with no sibling discounts).

I hadn't realised this either until I got chatting to some nannies at a toddler group about their struggle to find full time jobs that paid a decent wage, and then started doing a bit of research, I still think of nanny as the "posh" childcare option, not something that would be cheaper for 2 preschool DC, and certainly if you had 3 then it would be considerably cheaper.

[DinosaursLoveUnderpants]

Well, we're better off in the recession than we were before it, but only because of personal circumstance, nothing to do with the national economics.
We decide to skip gadgets and a bigger house and things to be able to afford travel and holidays. I know this is a lucky position to be in but I don't feel bad about it, though I am thankful daily that our hand-to-mouth skint days were before we had the DC.

Outwardly we probably look like we have lots of money because we have lots of holidays. I have had plenty of 'oh, you're off on holiday again are you ' type comments. I've even had people assume we must be paying for holidays on credit.

But what people don't see is that we aren't interested in fashion so don't really buy any clothes unless they are needed, we don't drink at all, we don't smoke at all, we have no expensive hobbies to fund, we have one car that is cheap to run and is only used a few times a week at most meaning a tank of petrol lasts about 2 months, all food shopping is from Aldi, we only have the thermostat at 16 degrees even when it is brass monkeys, all clothes are darned and mended if they rip or tear, all summer shorts for the DC are their old jeans that have been hemmed them to make shorts, all curtains, cushions, blankets are homemade, I meal plan and all meals have to come in under a price-per-meal budget or its off the menu. I could go on and on.

Nobody sees any of that though, but they do see us taking trips and holidays and meals out and assume that we must be made of money.

[Pixel]

who actually NEEDS an ipad?

Ds does. He's non-verbal and is learning to use it to communicate. He can hardly carry a laptop round all day, and a small device (VOCA) that was once lent to him by his school and could only be programmed to say a few words was £6000! So ipad is actually cheap .

[Wishihadabs]

I think iPads represent fantastic value. (We have 2 both bought through dh's business so about £250 post tax. They replace mobile CD player/Ds/ laptop- well ours does (the other DH has for work). Dcs use it in the back of the car on long journeys, I use it to work from home and the dcs can play games and learn on it. FWIW we have an arrangement that I use it while dc are at school, they use it Saturdays and I use it on Sundays- works for us. But that's not realy the point of the thread is it ?

[MrsMangelFanciedPaulRobinson]

My friend was saying to me the other week that she thought we had plenty of money, when really it's just that we are far more careful than she is, so can afford some things that she wants but thinks she can't afford, such as nice holidays and mini breaks. I think it depends on the different choices people make really.

We're quite careful with money; I'd rather try to save something each month where possible. I save money by doing things such as exercising at home with fitness DVDs, whilst she has an expensive gym membership and also pays for Bootcamp courses each month. She buys loads of clothes from pricier stores, whilst I mainly go to Primark, H&M, Dorothy Perkins, and get things from Ebay sometimes too. My youngest has a few Boden and Joules bits of clothing but these are either from Ebay, charity shops, or bought in sales. We also live near a Gap outlet store so I get the kids quite a few bits from there.

I also meal plan, and don't overspend on food, whilst my friend is at the supermarket every other day and spends an absolute fortune, and then ends up throwing things away each week.

Because we're careful, it means that we can save money most months, and then we can afford some of the things mentioned in this thread. We have an ipad, although it's an older model that we bought when the newer ones were released. It certainly cost less than £500! We also have iphones but they were free with our contracts. I'd never go and spend £500+ on a phone no matter how much money I had!

[thermalsinapril]

You have to have the money in the first place to be able to make "different choices" with it though MrsMangel.