to think that it's okay to want 'nice' things?

[Jaimx86]

Lighthearted post about first world problems!

I was surprised by the comments on the 'news' story 'We can't live on £50,000'.

Firstly, the newspaper seems to have set the families up to look foolish as they are called 'middle class' and are said to have an 'enviable income' but the article later states that the average income is £26500, meaning as a family they are taking in £3000 less that the average family if their joint income is £50000. I wonder if they knew how the article would actually read?

Anyway, my main gripe is with the comments such as:
'I mean gym member ship , that's a luxury you don't need'
'colour hair at home and go only for haircut, simple.'
'Cry me a river. Everything shown could be cut back. Holidays, children's clubs, season tickets, hair/beauty, takeaways, gym membership, 1k a month on a childminder?!'

Why shouldn't people want nice (and pretty basic) things if they are working? That's not to say that they should buy everything they want, but I'd certainly be annoyed if I had to buy supermarket clothes without ever treating myself at other stores.

I do agree with the commenters saying £100 on Sky is a lot though. I had no idea it cost that much!! Still, if that's what they want to spend their wages on...

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3759081/Why-families-earning-50-000-broke-end-month-figures-say-couldn-t-pay-unexpected-bill-500-four-explain-money-goes.html#comments

It's fine to want nice things. What's not fine is to spend a lot of money on discretional items like Sky TV, gym membership, £100 haircuts and then claim that they are broke or 'never have anything nice'.

Lots of spends listed in the article are either optional, or they are spending a lot more than they need to and can be easily cut down.

What about families with half that income who can't even cover the basics?

The difficulty now is that even with two average salaries, getting a mortgage on an average house is difficult. I think that Location x3 said about £210k for the average house price now, so a deposit of £21k, saved by a miracle is still more than 3 times your salary. Rents are as expensive as mortgages too, so there's not a cheap option.

Also, your mortgage is often not your largest expense. It can easily be commuting or childcare.

To get your average jobs, you often need to go to university. I earn slightly above the average, but definitely not a high earner and my office only takes on graduates now. Most graduates have a student loan taking another 9% from your wages. It all just eats away at what sounds like a lot of money.

The DM reading baby boomers just don't seem to understand how lucky they were. Only one person needed to work to afford the basic bills and they retire on final salary pension schemes. Nowadays, Mr and Mrs average can make ends meet if they're both working and to achieve the comparable quality of life.

I am actually amazed at how LOW those childcare costs are...

£500 a term for breakfast and afterschool club here and well over £1k for nursery for the youngest

why oh why would anyone agree to be in these articles?

BTW I get my hair cut twice a year (if that much), we only have Freesat channels and we have no car as you don't really need one in London... and no gym memberships, pushing a pram + buggy board is exercise enough

It's rather dishonest to present the "yoga classes" for the first family as a luxury she chooses to spend silly money on. In the main body of the article she says she's training to be a yoga teacher so she can supplement their earnings that way. Training to be a teacher is not a luxury exercise class expense.

The ultilities often make no sense, frankly. But otherwise I can see why they struggle. Kids cost a lot of money - they'd all be doing well if they were childless. It's a shame they are being set up as hate figures, because in reality we should be questioning why people who work full time in skilled jobs are paid so badly, compared with wage levels 20 years or so ago.

It's a bit of a none story really. The first couple only pay £500 a month on a mortgage for a four bed house in Surrey.

Many people would love to be in their financial situation. They've also gone and had a third child which will seriously affect their childcare costs once maternity leave is finished. How much they spend on sky, gym, yoga or fresh veg is immaterial imo.

I was really surprised at the utility bills for the first family - but the childcare costs were actually surprisingly low. Round here, if I had all the kids in childcare full time, it would be over £2k a month. The only way our finances work is because DH is self employed and mostly works weekends and evenings. Even then we earn between us a fair bit more than those people and we find unexpected bills tricky. Also the assumption from my midlands-based family in particular that I must be swimming in cash because I have a high salary and can therefore subsidise them all, even though my housing costs are three times higher than theirs and I have three children. This month has been quite tight because I stupidly agreed to go on a joint holiday with them all (their idea), made the booking a year ago, paid my share of it up front and told them what their share was (less than mine) and suggested they just paid a bit now and then over the year. Then I got an email at the beginning of this month saying the balance was due and they hadn't paid any of it, so now I'm down £400 this month and payday isn't until the last working day, so it's a long month as well which hasn't helped. I haven't even had a reply to my texts and Facebook messages about paying for the holiday, but I have had a request to lend one of my other family members a wedge of cash for a deposit and first month's rent on his new flat. WIBU to just take my mates to CP instead ;)

Rule #1 of life - Live within your means.

Sure, it's OK to want, and indeed have, nice things. So long as you can afford them!

I took up Sky at home as ds was going to a very affluent school and 'everybody' had it. Mine has just gone up to £95 a month so will have to ring them and cancel Sky Movies and Sky Sports.

£50k wouldn't be much in London/South East with children and highish mortgage. I can see the problem.

The second family I thought in fairness were only just breaking even... But once they pay off their credit card and their eldest is at school, they should be more comfortably off.
However the first couple were overspending by 600 a month (I agree utilities don't seem right) One other couple spend 250 a month on Christmas/birthdays so 3000 a year...'those are very extravagant presents! There is an element of lifestyle choice with what their money is going on. The last couple spend more on food than their mortgage!!

Flower We have Freesat and Now TV, which provides nearly all the channels except Sport and Movies. You can watch catch up and box sets but not record. It costs £6.99 a month.

Standard Sky is ridiculously priced these days, but if you want to keep it, ring up to cancel and say it is too expensive and they will offer you a deal to stay - if you don't accept, they will continue to offer deals after you have cancelled - the best we got offered was £60 off for a year plus a free TV or laptop, but we still didn't accept as we don't want to go back to paying silly money for Sky.

I read the article as saying, "We could cut back if we needed to, but on salaries like this, shouldn't we be better off?"

I'm not sure there's an easy answer. Childcare is a huge expense all round, followed by housing especially for those in the SE. But there's no rule to say that being middle class or comfortable entails access to yoga classes, haircuts, Sky and two cars on the drive.

It's not a popular thing to say, but two families remark about "accidental" third babies. Yes, it happens, but if your lifestyle is a priority you need to work at minimising the risk of this.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to want nice things but that means different things to different people. I wouldn't dream of buying a designer handbag or shoes or anything designer for that matter but DH and I earn £100k jointly so I could. Our luxuries are holidays and being able to pay extra to our mortgage each month. I do find it amusing when you get these threads and people start getting a bit OTT judging others spending and making assumptions on how much families should be spending on food/travel/ childcare as everyone is different. £50k does seem very tight for a family of 5 in the SE mind you.

I think that's the jist really, people 30 years ago even 20 on those salaries even relatively would be living the bloody dream. My first house was 2.5 times my single girls graduate salary. 20 years later I can't afford to buy it, the worlds gone bloody mad and I honestly don't know how it'll end because yes the gym membership cut be cut - but how many jobs are relying on it not being, same with sky and the child minder.

And several of these families are spending a small fortune on food. That is definitely an area to cut back when you are spending £600 a month for a family of four. We spend £60-70 a week and we could still squeeze fat out of that budget.

The people in the article don't want designer items, Heather. They just do a nice food shop and have luxuries that a lot of people do (gym, hair cut etc) and are being slated for it in the comments section of the article. DM has written about their expenditure in such a way that it's caused outrage (on a very small scale!) when they only want a few niceties in their life.

I'm just pissed off they get child benefit. We live on a similar wage but as its a single income we don't get it.

They paying two sets of national insurance which will be more than child benefit though, don't think they are winning

Two tax allowances though. I don't know which works out better, but one person earning £60k would pay more tax than two people on £30k and not be entitled to CB.

The sole purpose of the daily wail fail is to stir up hate, engender fear and sell papers.
It is the embodiment of all that is wrong with UK society

I had a huge laugh at that article. Some of the spending was laughable, and I just don't know how they can say those things with a straight face. I also found it interesting that two of the families had one "surprise" pregnancy...

I earn £20,000. I live quite nicely on that, including a mortgage. I have a small pension, I manage to save and have a couple of weekends away in the UK each year and manage a week abroad every other year. My utilities plus council tax, come to £120 per month. What the hell are some of them doing???

There's a big difference too between 50k in London and 50k in Lancashire, for example.

And also, especially if you have kids, having 'free' help in the form of grandparents helps.

A friend of mine worked full time whilst her MIL looked after her DD.

That makes a massive difference too and frees up money for other stuff.

To be fair, cakes, childcare costs upwards of £1400 per month full time, so you can't compare your situation at all.

Also, this greatly depends on your idea of a luxury.

Luxury for me is time (off work) with my DS, not a designer handbag.