Cant live on 50k? (article)

[BlancheBlue]

I know these sort of things are designed to annoy and are probably twisted but families with £50k + income complaining about "no foreign holidays" and "oh my god I buy clothes in supermarkets" need to realise they are pretty lucky

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

Ah and yes, as tichy has if you have teens also with mobile phones and car insurance to pay.

Titchy I don't mean to come across as criticising, I'm actually finding it interesting. Because I expect property and food spending to be more in London and some other places, but things like broadband ought to be fairly level across the UK, surely? My landline and broadband is £30 per month - why would yours be twice as much. I've just got a brand new mobile phone, on contract, 250 mins (which I never get ever remotely near), 5000 texts and 500 MB of data for £11. Why do four mobiles need to cost £100?

My utilities plus council tax, come to £120 per month.

Well, that's nice for you. We pay more than that in council tax alone.

titchy their car tax and insurance is not included in that figure. They only have (I guess) two mobile phones. So if their spending is the same as yours then that would make their council tax over 700 a month!!

They lost me when they started banging on about "only" having a holiday in the uk and the horror of supermarket clothes.

It was clearly in the context of not splashing out on luxuries.. It wasn't goady in context.

Margaret I can get that council tax can be FAR more in different parts of the country. I didn't mean it as some sort of stealth boast. But there were some eye-watering figures just for utilities in that article and I simply don't understand how people run up bills of that size, I genuinely don't.

I think what they were getting at which the mail glossed over a bit in the body of the text (although it's in the title) is that it's the unexpected bills that's keeping them on the back food - i.e. they are getting by with food and utitlites and a roof over their heads on 50k, but it's not leaving any rainy day fund for house or car repairs or unexpected maternity leave.

Can't help wondering how council tax can get so high, i'm in the SE and mine's £140 a month for a 3 bed terraced house how do they work it out?

On 50k we'd be living like kings, DH earns half that and we're relatively comfortable. I guess if the money was there i'd find ways to spend it though.

They hit more than 2 demographics. They are brilliantly calculated to hit the people with similar incomes who can look at it and feel smug because they've made better choices/manage better etc than those featured. They can read it and say, "Well, you don't need that gym membership/you shouldn't drive a Mini Countryman/you should have stopped at 2 children/why are you spending £300 a month on going to weddings, and so on'.

This also works for people earning a bit more or less than the featured people. It's an ingenious strategy to get just about everyone frothing.

This is all spot on. Unfortunately, as always, this very thread is going to froth on command.

It's like those old Samantha Brick articles. THEIR WHOLE REASON FOR BEING IS TO WIND PEOPLE UP! Don't rise to it people!

I agree that it is very hard to see how they can possibly be spending £1180 a month on utilities. I wonder whether they're including repaying the money for the broken boiler mentioned? I also wonder whether they've mixed up utilities and mortgage, as £500 seems quite low for a four-bed in Surrey unless they bought it quite a while ago.

So if that's the case the article is mostly about them being shit at budgeting and not thinking ahead at all.

OK one of the families was spending nearly 2/3rd of their income on mortgage and childcare, but most of them seemed to have enough spare cash for £100 haircuts and Sky TV but it hadn't occurred to them to put a bit by for when the washing machine breaks or car needs repairing.

If you have a house or car, these things will happen sooner or later so it makes sense not to spend all your spare money on fripperies and save some for a rainy day.

Probably going to get flamed for saying this but how are some of the people in the article in their 40s and earning so little in professional jobs?

I do get their point though. Yes, they are considered 'higher earners' and you would expect someone in that bracket to be able to afford clothes not from the supermarket and to go abroad at least once a year. Their point is that, despite being a higher earner, their income is being eaten up by a lot of necessary things (mortgage, childcare). So after working hard to get well paid jobs, they're actually not that much better off.

Yes, sky and gym memberships are a luxury, but not excessively so.

They get people in who are willing to be attacked for saying silly things in return for money. And they put the women in special figure-hugging Daily Mail dresses for the weird poses.

The £1180 pm on bills has to be a mistake, or include mortgage or food.

Yes it must do.

And I'm assuming they are all in London and SE or other expensive areas (haven't read it) to account for housing taking a large slice on top.

I don't think Council Tax is necessarily more expensive in the south east. There are a couple of London Boroughs that famously have very low council tax - more people to share the cost between probably helps.

Ours is £80/90 pm for a Band A property, which I think is about average. Our council charges £240 pm for the most expensive property in Band H. Of course, in the south, there will be more high band properties, I don't know how that affects things.

Why do four mobiles need to cost £100?

I refer you to sadi teenagers and me who NEED (!) iPhones! And 500mb a month is nowhere near enough Our broadband is with VirginMedia, the middle package and the £60 a month includes phone calls and VAT. Who are you with to pay £30 a month?

I do get their point though. Yes, they are considered 'higher earners' and you would expect someone in that bracket to be able to afford clothes not from the supermarket and to go abroad at least once a year

Would you, though?

Knowing what childcare and housing costs now?

The luck of having that income is not to need top-ups from the state and to be able to buy a house, to be able to afford to work and to have a small emergency fund. And that is REAL luck in this economy.

I wouldn't expect to afford foreign family holidays, luxury cars or particularly nice clothes AS WELL on £50k. Which is fine.

My utility bills are on a pre-payment smart meter and are between £40-70 a month for a 3 bed semi in the North East. How on earth are their utility bills so much?

Sorry, £40-80, not 70.

gym membership is not always a luxury.. an old injury can for some people that without regular swimming/pilates etc they would end up off work for long periods in pain.

A lot of people use the gym just to keep themselves able to phyically keep going working full time. Or to keep them mentally well.

When I worked in a very full on full time job I had a fortnightly sports massage, sounds like a luxury but for me in that job it really wasn't, it was what kept me able to work!

Bloody hell Creme do you live in a hobbit house? Tell us how you do it!

Is that each or both?

50k is about 2500-3000 per month, net (depending on pension contributions and student loan deductions, and the proportion of that earned by two people or a single person.

If your housing and childcare costs are high, then it doesn't stretch that far.

The cost of child care leap out at me for some of them and often is unavoidable. The UK has some of he cost expensive child care in the world and this does need to addressed in a society where both partners often have to work. Also some of them live in areas with exorbitant housing costs.
None struck me as being particularly extravagant even if it does mean going to the gym or yoga or having a car. If you really are up against it, thought, gym and yoga could be cut out I guess.
It is a typical Mail article though, engendering jealousy and idiotic comments along the lines of that having children is a 'life-style choice so suck it up'.

most expensive.