Bills keep rising, money doesn't grow on trees!

[WhimsicalTwattery]

Totally fed up of getting bills that seem to increase!

Aibu to wonder what the hell these companies think they are playing at?
Pay rises are non existent, a few years ago I was living comfortably within my means. Money is getting tighter and tighter every month because bills keep rising. I'm not using extra gas/electric/water but it goes up! Petrol is on the up again. It amazes me how petrol prices rise within a few days of the cost of a barrel of oil increasing. But when the oil price comes down petrol prices remain at the same level, money grabbing bastards.

Just where do all these companies (with their lovely big profits) think us lowly working people are supposed to get the extra money from?

Fuming! Is it just me or does anyone else feel like this?!

yanbu. I've had a 2 x 1% pay rises in 4 years. my bills have outstripped that.

Yanbu. Fuel and food prices have outstripped pay rises. No wonder lidl and aldi are so popular.

yes, I earn a fairly good salary for what I do, but living in the south east and renting I am not well off. By the time the essential bills are paid, hen food and then trying to reduce small unsecured debts (2 credit cards with a couple of hundred on each but very high apr's) I'm left with not a lot.

Yet only a year or so ago we were affording holidays abroad and eating out etc. Neither of us has had a paycut or changed job, rent hasn't increased greatly (and is less than a mortgage would be on the same sized property in this area) I've looked into changing jobs and increasing hours but any extra money would be lost in childcare costs.

ds1 is 18 in a few weeks and finishes college, he will hopefully find job soon and start contributing to the household, but its going to be peanuts really.

Yanbu. Our bills go up and up but because dh earns slightly more than minimum wage he isn't guaranteed a pay rise each year. The last pay rise he got was an extra 50p an hour and that was two years ago.

I wanted to go back to work after having ds but childcare would cost us roughly £80 a day term time and I don't even want to think how much during the holidays. I couldn't earn enough to cover that let alone commuting costs.

I've just spent the morning on my tractor which uses about 9 gallons of fuel per hour. Fuel goes up and up yet people whinge like hell when 5 p goes on their grocery bill at Sainsburys (or wherever they shop).

Fuel is still 30p a litre cheaper than it was before the price fell. Was around £1.50 for diesel, now around £1.20., after dropping to low of about £1.05.

The majority of fuel cost is tax, not price of oil.

Yes there is still huge areas of society who are yet to see any recovery, and until wages go up in both the private and public sector we will continue to be squeezed.

Statistically, food has fallen in price over the last year or too as well, mainly due to the supermarket price wars.

Probably doesn't help maninawomansworld much though as he is probably paying for a lot of the discounts.

Housing costs are crazy.

YANBU, DH is doing so much overtime while it's being offered I'm beginning to forget what he looks like.

Statistically, food has fallen in price over the last year or too as well, mainly due to the supermarket price wars. I think it depends on what you buy, I haven't seen our food costs go down only up.

I think if you meal plan and shop at Lidl/ Aldi you can eat very cheaply, we are spending a lot less on food than we did a few years ago.

tell me about it, I earn £6.50 an hour.

I have had a 3% pay rise recently but that is the first pay rise I've had in years. Our income has gone up as we are working more hours, but our teenage kids are costing us a lot more as they get older so not really any better off. Mortgage has gone down as we recently fixed at a lower interest rate. I haven't noticed any difference in utilities.

DH hasn't had a pay rise in years-food and bill prices are through the roof. Fingers crossed child benefit doesn't go in July's budget or we'll be well and truly screwed.

I keep a very strict budget, with all costs mapped out onto a very thorough spreadsheet. The things we spend our money on (the essentials) have increased so much over the last 24 months.

As much as I loved an aldi shop when it was fun to do it and see how cheap I could get a weeks shop for us all compared to usual sainsburys or ocado delivery, now it's necessary it's not so fun!

I shop at aldi every week spending £70 ish for family of 5, 2 adults, 17,13&9. Even asda is £120 ish, ocado I can do for £130 I haven't even looked at sainsburys.

I was sorting through piles old paperwork the other day going back 5years. My water bills have doubled and I'm paying the same for gas use in the summer as I was in the winter! Last winter I didnt turn my heating on at all but used small electric heating. If gas use is so much just having a shower abd washing up a day and small but if cooking then heating place most of day dosnt bear thinking about.

YANBU, feeling more skint now than I have for years.

And not everyone has an ALDI / LIDL anywhere near them.

I haven't had a pay rise for 11 years, it doesn't look like I'll ever get one. I get paid very little now, doing a difficult job.

I budget really hard and switch providers often. I don't own a car.

I am wondering how much longer prices can go up and wages fall. I'm guessing even when large numbers of working people are starving it won't end. Not unless we do something about it.

We earn 43000 a year between us and have noticed that in the last year we have less left each month. I think it is fuel ( 2 cars ) and electricity that's crept up on us. We are in Scotland though and DP maintains money goes further up here than when he lived in England. We are hanging on to the hope that when dd starts school this year and we are no longer paying for the nursery ( 600 p/m ) that it'll seem easier. Then again that'll be the start of another Scottish winter