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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

2/5 of people have less than £100 in savings

336 replies

Jorginho5 · 03/08/2018 17:07

your thoughts?

I am not surprised. Everything has gone up in price but many people are struggling to either: find a full time job or better job than the one they currently have.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-4348544/Two-fifths-UK-s-workers-100-savings.html

OP posts:
HollowTalk · 03/08/2018 17:09

Given so many people need foodbanks, it's not surprising people don't have savings. On MN there tends to be a mix of people who have no savings and people who have several years' savings.

Armchairanarchist · 03/08/2018 17:11

I have but think it's incredibly difficult for some families just to survive, let alone save. Childcare and housing costs are astronomical.

InDubiousBattle · 03/08/2018 17:14

We have more than £100 but not much more. We won't until I go back to work when youngest dc starts school. It's hard when living costs are so high.

Allchangehere346 · 03/08/2018 17:15

Yep. I am in that statistic. Low paid job and crippling childcare cost. I’ve alrwady had a cry today about my financial situation.

M0reGinPlease · 03/08/2018 17:19

We basically spent our life's savings moving to a bigger house and allowing me to be a SAHM while DC's are small, but we set a limit on our savings that we wouldn't let them fall below. It's still less than I feel comfortable having but it means we have a base level of cash if something urgent happened like the boiler packing in or the washing machine breaking down etc. We also try to it at least something away each month too but I appreciate this is difficult to do.

M0reGinPlease · 03/08/2018 17:19

Put something away that should say

SheepyFun · 03/08/2018 17:22

I would find it terrifying to be in that position, and I suspect it leads a lot of people into debt - if you don't have that sort of sum, ironically life is a lot more expensive. We can take advantage of special offers on, say, washing powder, afford to repair something immediately before it's wrecked, buy better quality things that last longer and replace essentials when we need them.

I can live frugally, but it's not anywhere near as stressful when there's a fallback. I may never know the stress that having (virtually) no savings entails, but it must be horrible.

Babyroobs · 03/08/2018 17:25

I don't think you'll find many on mumsnet with less than £100 after recent threads boasting of trust funds and 750k houses owned outright.

ifoundthebread · 03/08/2018 17:28

My personal savings have just over that 😬 my kids do each have savings accounts to give them a healthy start to adult life though. I live in the poorer part of the country with lower paying jobs. We do live comfortably but in case of an emergency I would have to ring my parents

CheshireChat · 03/08/2018 17:34

We have about £200, but it's getting used to pay for a cattery as I need to go back home to sort out my ID and passport. My mum is paying for the flights.

I'm freaking out a bit because if the fridge or washing machine go, how the fuck will we replace them.

I have to replace my bra which is getting postponed a week until we next get paid.

Glumglowworm · 03/08/2018 17:36

I have a couple of hundred in savings but it’s all locked away for up to three years.

I am on a low income and rent privately on my own so have high living costs, so saving is hard. Personality wise I also find it difficult which is why all my savings are locked away.

My “in case of emergency” is my mum Blush but I’m my defence, it’s only ever a loan which I do pay back

MissCalamity · 03/08/2018 17:39

No savings here Sad it went into the house when we bought it. I live month to month on my wage, really depresses me.
Kids have about £3k to £5k in savings, but that's for when they're 18 & unless something really dire happened like losing jobs etc, I would never dream of touching their money.

tomhazard · 03/08/2018 17:43

We are lucky that we have enough savings to cover a new car, a new boiler and any emergencies should they come up.
We also have other small savings pots and we are now in a position to start overpaying on our mortgage so we have more free money in the future.

BUT it hasn't always been like this. Not so long ago we had two DC in nursery, much lower paid jobs and a car loan and credit card debt. We were always struggling. I say this for you Allchange - hang on in there you won't have those kind of childcare costs forever Thanks

LeftRightCentre · 03/08/2018 17:47

Not at all suprising.

flopsyrabbit1 · 03/08/2018 17:48

not a great surprise im afraid

i have a healthy amount saved for my circustances but it has taken along time and im not into having the latest things like iphones,cars etc

i do buy good quality,handbags,boots etc that do seem expensive but last for years,and i mean years

also being debt free gives you a massive head start,if your servicing debt on low pay it will be very difficult to ever save

my biggest outgoing is food but after everything is paid i still have a healthy imo amount left

some people wont have savings due to low pay high rent etc

some people wont have savings due to bad managment

GreatWesternValkyrie · 03/08/2018 17:48

There was a recent survey that suggested one fifth of people in the UK earn less than the living wage (not NMW which I think is about £1 lower per hour), so it’s not hard to believe that many people and families have very little opportunity to save anything whilst they’re struggling to meet the day to day cost of basics.

What particularly bothers me though is that many people on lower incomes are having to pay more for essential services available to others for less e.g. pre pay electricity - I read an article on “the poverty premium” recently and it left me feeling that this is an unfair and unnecessary approach.

SavvySaver24 · 03/08/2018 17:51

Personally I think it is shocking. I wouldn't even buy a house until we knew we could be saving at least £800 after all bills and the mortgage. And I wouldn't have a child until I knrw i had a heck of a large back up savings pot. I think having a child or even a pet knowing you only have £100 in the bank is irresponsible.

zen1 · 03/08/2018 17:55

We don’t have much - a few hundred, but that is cancelled out by overdraft. We will never have enough money to do any ‘big jobs’ to the house (e.g new roof) should we need to, which is always a worry. We’ve just had a letter from the water company saying they want to put us on a meter which will further stretch the finances.

InDubiousBattle · 03/08/2018 17:55

A lot of people don't have £800 to spend after essential bills let alone save. If everyone followed your thinking I would not exist, neither would my sister, neither would dp, nor my dc......In fact half of the people I know. Parents can take perfectly good care of their dc without tens of thousands in savings.

twofingerstoEverything · 03/08/2018 17:55

I'm not surprised at all. We live in a low-wage/high costs country where inequality is rife. I have an ex who never supported his DC, leaving me to pay for everything on a just-below-average wage, including nursery fees, after school clubs, breakfast and holiday clubs etc., housing, utilities, insurances, council tax etc., all on a single wage. I know literally dozens like me, who live payday to payday, never take holidays, have to borrow money if boiler breaks down, etc. Most of us now have kids at uni/starting work, so have left the childcare costs behind, but are now facing retirement in 5-15 years. It's ridiculous that working people live like this in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

aspoonfulofyourownmedicine · 03/08/2018 17:56

We don't have any savings at all. We literally live month by month - wages in, wages out. My car is at deaths door and it's going to cost me £230 to put my other car on the road and scrap mine, then change insurance etc. I can't work without my car as I'd then need childminders to pick my son up from school etc. It's a bad catch 22. I would love to be able to say 'take it out of the savings and we'll replace it next month'..... but it's highly unlikely that'll happen any time soon.

twofingerstoEverything · 03/08/2018 17:57

And right on cue, along comes someone like savvysaver to call us irresponsible Grin.
How about looking at the bigger picture occasionally?

reallybadidea · 03/08/2018 18:02

I think having a child or even a pet knowing you only have £100 in the bank is irresponsible.

So what do you suggest people do if their savings diminish after having a child? Try and stuff it back in? Rehome them?

bexcee · 03/08/2018 18:04

Not a lot in savings but have just paid off all the credit cards so have them in case of an emergency. Not ideal but that's reality.

HootOnABoat · 03/08/2018 18:05

Doesn't surprise me at all. When I got my first job out of uni I was on 21k and living with my parents. I saved up 11k over 2 years whilst living with them rent free. When I moved I struggled to save money at all, rent is extortionate. In the three years since moving out I've managed to save 4k and am 2k in debt.

Money just leaks left right and centre. I'm keen to TTC soon but I do have moments when I worry how we'd cope on one income.