to feel time poor and cash poor

[FunnysInLaJardin]

DH and I work FT and have 2 dc, we live a normal life and yet feel pushed all the time in terms of what we can and can't afford. There is little money for extra's yet we seem to work as much as we can. Of course IANBU but wonder how many others feel this squeeze

We are the same. Both work ft and 2 kids 2.8 and 5.3 years. The cash poor thing will last at least another 2 years as we will still have £800 childcare fees per month to pay. And every holiday club we also have to pay due working ft.

No grandparents nearby so we don't get relief. I have a kitchen full of dirty crockery at the moment and I can't be arsed to go wash them up. Dh thankfully vacuumed yesterday evening before we all got home and downstairs looked tidy enough. Upstairs though is a bit of a tip. And my only consolation is that we are car booting on Sunday so thing will go soon.

How old are dcs? If they haven't started school there could be light at the end of the tunnel?

take it sounds familiar. Our dc are 7 and 3 and at the mo we pay £800 pcm for childcare. It will get £400pcm easier by September but even so. And then £400 pcm the next year. We couldn't possibly consider private education for our DC, not that we'd want to, but to think that is on 2 professional salaries you would have thought we might have the option!

YANBU. I only have one child but feel the same. My husband has just been made redundant. I'm glad I went back to work FT but I think I need a better paid job and I don't want to leave the lovely job I have. I hate money! [Flowers] to all.

And I can't work smilies [sobs]

craving there you are. redundancy is shit. I was made redundant 4 years ago and I still have the ghost of it haunting me. Sorry about your poor DH

Yes I think it's the bit that we are both supposedly in 'professional' jobs that makes it all so argh! Lots of postgrad qualifications between us. Dh made redundant twice in 4 years. First time, he got a job before he even had to leave which was great. But that job meant we had to get a second car (it was an hour away each way) and after two years of that we realized his pay has only paid for childcare and expenses (like lunch and petrol). Needed to pay for petrol every 4 days! Ridiculous.

So he's gone self employed. Obviously we can only do this because I'm employed. So can survive on my pay. But still it's a drastic cut to things. We rely on my income and his is considered bonus.

His practice is doing v well but it's a case of feast and famine. So difficult to plan I guess. So I'm paying for everything really... Mortgage, all bills, all clubs and activities (tennis, gym,swimming,etc). I know, we can cut them down but I'm trying to cut food shopping (switching to aldi) before that!!

Craving, sorry to hear about the redundancy. Do you get a good payout?

It's starting to bite now. There don't seem many more corners to cut. I haven't had a pay rise for 7 years. I only have to look at the cost of petrol to see how much things have changed

Marking my place. We have two per-schoolers and OH is coming to the end of his additional paternity leave. We can't afford two lots of childcare, nor can we afford to live on one salary.

I'm just thankful that we can pay our expenses.

In the states economists are talking about the rise of the three income family, where the equivalent of two full time salaries are not enough to live on. 30 years ago one full-time professional salary was sufficient to keep a family.

Petrol costs are astronomical and effect the price of everything else. BP and Shell Price rigging since 2002 www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/14/bp-shell-oil-price-rigging

Housing costs are far too high, so although on average a third of income is spent on housing, that is no longer a third of one income but two, with the added costs of travel, conveniences like lunches, convenience foods, work clothes, childcare etc,..

The only winners in all this are employers, banks and the wealthy parasitic class of shareholders.

all round, we might end up eating them at this rate !

Mini how very depressing!

I haven't had an increase in pay since 2003 either Holly just grateful to be in work really

Same here - very little significant pay rise for years, 4 kids to support, both working almost full time and yet always seem to be paying off debts and struggling. Have started shopping at Lidl and poundland now.

Just got back from lidl and bumped into my dh's ex boss. Who's in his late 50s probably and who sent both his kids to private school till they were 18. His wife earns similar to me.

My pil have over 500k in savings but they shop in lidl. I like to pop round occasionally. You don't have to be skint to shop their! Just a bit weird like my pil.

Argh. Meant there not their.

Dh works full time (60 miles away do huge petrol costs but no jobs closer) and pt. luckily gp have dt's twice a week and they go to crèche once a week. Without gp we would not cope money wise at all. It's still a struggle to get through month. Luxuries are a thing of the past. Clothes are bought cheaply, or second hand, nights out are a distant memory. Days out are simply walks in park or free museums. We do treat ourselves as a family to one bar meal out a month but in our local cheap sizzler pub. Before kids we had a lovely disposable income, would think nothing of weekends away, expensive meals out etc. but then dt's came along at same time as recession . No pay rise for 4 years and hike in prices. I do question how someone in my fairly highly paid profession can be so skint, but dt's are worth it. I try to think of it as a life style choice to make myself feel better

Oh I didn't mean that one had to be skint to shop at lidl but it has low prices (which is great!) as does aldi. It was just a surprise to see him there. Himself privately educated.

I read on another mn thread that the only crossover of shoppers occur between waitrose and aldi. I think that's correct! We have tins from both shops, meat, veg, fruit from both too.

Having said that we really can't afford alot now. The first part of the year was bad with the aftermath of Christmas (and we don't even spend much given that we don't have alot of people to buy for), DS birthday and mots. We barely recover then other things come along plus of course the monthly mortgage and childcare bills etc...! I'm just happy that my weekly shop bills are now looking like 40-50£ rather than the 80-100£. And I hope and pray nothing big breaks down.

Work harder and get a better job.

Go on then Noorny tell us how it's done?

Well that's neo-liberal orthodoxy gone mad. "It's all your own fault, work harder, pay for more qualifications, get two jobs, send the kids out to work, make em keep themselves" yada yada.

I love Lidl, nothing to do with how cheap it is at all, although that is great but they also have really good stuff in there.

yep we have no free childcare to hand or wrap around childcare available, DH works and commutes long hours while I work part time. Little money and little free time but I recon this is the hardest but and things will get easier eventually.

lol Norny that should do it. DH is a senior teacher and I am a solicitor turned commercial property manager. If we worked any harder we might explode.

And ref shopping we have 2 choices, the Co op or Waitrose and here in the CI the price differential is nil. so we shop at Waitrose buying all Essential range and spend £200 pw. Our shopping bill is £8-900 pcm including wine