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?

Yoni How is your mortgage so low? That's wonderful! Wish mine was!

We've done okay despite the recession although there were a couple of wobbly times. My recent promotion means my pt salary is now higher than my FT in 2007 and DH got a new job. We have deliberately not moved house because we want to make sure we can still pay the mortgage on one salary. We both got made redundant before the age of 30 and climbed back up.

I think many people exist in a binary state financially when they have a main salaried earner. They're fine or fucked depending on that person's employment status. There isn't an inbetween. Even with employment protection insurance and some savings most people would be in trouble within 3 months and screwed within 6.

Want2 - not if the competition is run by a third party, or if the iPad is provided as work equipment.

lessmiss You would be shocked to learn what DH earns in sales. I am an accountant who used to work in investment banking. He sells pork FGS and makes much more than I did when I was working crazy hours at the bank. I was making a lot back then too. To cap it off DH left school at 17 and is only doing an MBA now because his employer are paying for it and he needs it to be able to progress to a senior management role the company would like him to take.

Lots of people aren't struggling though. Those that are , asr having a really tough time, but plenty people are not. Two goodincomes and minimal childcare costs makes most of the families I know pretty well off. But I also know people who live in very hard circumstances

ComeYoniWithMe - how have you got a £20 morgage? And how can i get one?

err if you performed work for them I am pretty sure inland revenue would classify that as income. Here in the US the IRS would expect you to include that as income without a doubt.

moms it's a little house and I bought it along time ago. My mortgage should be paid off in a few months.

DH earns a fantastic salary and we can't afford lots of the things listed in the OP. If the DCs wear Joules/Boden type clothes we buy them second-hand from eBay. iPads and the like have to be funded from eBay sales. We rarely go overseas on holiday and if we do it's using air miles. In short, we try to live within our means and pay off our credit cards monthly. We also try to save for the future and ours DCs' future.

We have concluded by a process of deduction that of our friends and relatives, one family genuinely must earn more than we do and can afford their lifestyle. The others must be living on credit. Or the bank of mum and dad. (SIL and family, for example, lean heavily on PILs and go out and on holiday way way more than us.). And are not paying into savings or pensions.

S'not fair .

Actually, I am pleased we stand on our own two feet. Although I bet I know who will be paying for our PILs' care home.

The reason we got our first iPad is that DH's employers won't fork out for decent kit and it allows him to do his job a lot more easily and work from home when they decide they need him to work all night. His work laptop is a dusty paperweight.

It's also worth pointing out that what's a good wage when you don't have DCs and what's a good wage when you have them is very different! A lot of people out spending don't have childcare to pay for, can happily live in smaller houses/flats, live in less desirable areas if they don't have to worry about schools, if you only have to buy clothes and food for yourself, you can flash the cash much more than if the same wage has to support several people etc.

Plus some people get free childcare from grandparents, that's like being given an extra grand a month round here.

Yoni Nice! It's cheering to hear things like that.

I suppose it must look to some people like I have a lot of spare cash but most of what I have came from eBay.

I buy all my children's clothes from eBay - I've just bought ds2 a Bench jacket which looks brand new for £2.01 and I bought myself some second hand but barely worn vans for 99p

I have a flat screen tv (the type the daily mail like to point out all the time!) but I bought it from cash converters, paying a few pound a week for ages until it was paid off and I could take it home. I have leather sofas, from gumtree £80.

I have a samsung tablet - a birthday present, and an iPhone which was an upgrade after being with t-mobile for years.

(My double buggy isn't a super super snazzy one though!)

I've had to claim benefits since ex left during my pregnancy with ds4 (I am looking for work though) and have had so someone suggest that I was fiddling or something because we have a few nice things - but I don't run a car, have no pets, no holidays, don't drink or smoke and don't have nights out so I suppose the money goes further, although I have been shocked at how much money I get, so I can see why someone made that comment to me.

LOL Want2bSupermum sales I can understand. But all the others I know with the megabucks houses and cars either work for the local council or are tradesmen. How much do tradesmen earn really? They can't all earn £150,000 plus per year surely? And how do you get a mortgage for that much, when so much of your salary is based on commission? A large deposit doesn't really matter in these days of stricter lending criteria.

To make it even more baffling, its a strongly left wing area, lots of ex-council housing stock (which the new build £500,000 plus houses are built around) and people were celebrating on Margaret Thatcher's death, along the lines of her having caused such poverty to the local community!

If people can afford it then it is good they are shopping surely - boosts the economy!

Depends on where you live too, I suppose. I live in a teeny town in Midwest America. Houses are cheap, food is cheap. Only one (state) school so no school fees. DH has a decent job. I work part time at a cinema for very little...it's just my "extra" money and we go to the cinema for free so days out that way are cheap.

DH got his iPad and laptop through work and has a cheap phone. He got me a tablet for Christmas (he has a friend who is heavily into computers, etc, and can always find a good deal) and I have a smart phone. We don't have a television so no cable fees. We watch Netflix or DVds on the laptop.

We don't go for holidays really, just family days out and trips to my family's cabin. Someday! :)

Also I'm not really fussed about clothes and as I don't ever have to "dress up" I mostly just have jeans and t-shirts. DH is the same, jeans or khakis with his work polos. I sign up for coupons at all the kid's stores around here and usually buy clothes for DS a year out, one they're on sale plus coupons. So he might wear "nicer" brands but they've hung in his closet for a year, plus I've bought them on sale with an additional 20% off.

I have come to the conclusion that most of the goods piled high at the checkout are paid for with credit cards. As for Chelsea tractors I don't know how ordinary people can afford to buy and run them - that's another mystery. We have people at work with expensive tastes particularly single mums working part time and getting benefits. They have luxuries like Sky, Golf lessons for a six year old, fancy dress hire for hen weekends, i-pads, all kinds of stuff that I cant afford!

I sort of know what you mean, OP. According to those income calculator thingies the news websites publish from time to time, I am in the top 1% of earners. I am certainly comfortable, but I don't know how so many people afford swanky cars, luxury holidays, etc. Last year we had a tough year in a number of ways and treated ourselves to a week 5* in December. We struggled to find somewhere that wasn't sold out. I drive a "naice" but 8 year old car and am amazed at the number of new 30k+ cars I see on the roads. There are a lot of people out there paying a LOT of money for luxuries and they can't all be earning daft amounts (or if they are, they aren't appearing on the official statistics).

I guess as we are at the 'lower end' income wise maybe we are feeling/noticing it more. No doubt there are many who struggle on far less.

Mind you, I've just got back from popping out for a bottle of wine, so all is not lost...we can still afford some luxuries

Not everyone is affected by a recesion. Its devestating for those that are made redundant, difficult for those on low incomes squeezed by inflation but not really any different for those with high salaries and low outgoings..

I'm not struggling.

Duel income, no kids. Good job £50k ish. No wedding or other 'big' expense to pay/save for. I'll have been on 6 'exotic' holidays by December. Lots of eating out.

But then I spend practically nothing on clothes, transport costs are zero and shop cheaply for mainly veggie food the rest of the time. The number of holidays is misleading because two of them are with my parents who have paid. My iPad 1 was a gift many years ago. My iPhone 5 a free upgrade. My car paid off years ago and ticking along nicely. Renting and not massively saving.

What looks like a super extravegant lifestyle can be a bit false or be the result of different priorities!

Glad to see the thread hijacked by angry people and smug frugaleers! And Yoni a £20 month mortgage is what you pay for a £10,000 house maybe. So either you're living in britains cheapest house or you're being smug by being propped up by the govt.

OP you're not being unreasonable. Some thoughts:

• many people especially those in public sector not affected by recession. Life goes on and they get their rise up a scale point each year.
• public sector salaries are not regionally weighted so an HE administrator in the SE will make the same as one in areas of the country where it costs much less to live
• a lot of people don't save or put money away for their pension

-a lot of people get financial support from parents and child are support as well, saving them lots

• many younger people still live with parents meaning they can use their disposable income on consumer goods and bling
• a lot of people eat shit food, seriously beans on toast and pasta and stuff that costs very little to have money elsewhere. True you can eat well and cheaply but I'm talking pot noodle territory.
• a lot of people compromise on housing to have more money to spend in other areas
• some people have lived in social housing for a long time and still do even if their economic situation has improved. So 15 years when they weren't well off the council gave them housing at a reduced rate and they are still in the housing despite being in a much better situation with work and income. I saw this ALL THE TIME in Glasgow where a high percentage of the population live in HA/council housing and it made a huge difference to disposable income. This isn't a bash but an observation, one of the reasons why council house provision should be reviewed annually to take into account residents changing circumstances

This thread is swiftly turning around from 'How do people afford these things'?, which I assumed to be people lucky enough to be on good incomes, to how do "quote Varya 'single parents on benefits afford to buy more than she can' .
Why am I surprised, these threads always end up like this .

Lots of people on really good salaries :) I mean 50K would be just life changing for us...really could never even dream of that! It IS jealousy...I do admit that and I do find threads like this helpful in setting my head straight.

Some people are on Directors salaries.

Some people were wealthy before the recession and bought flats in Stratford before the London 2012 Olympics was announced

Some people are mortgage free

There are loads of reasons.