To wonder where all these peoples spend there money?

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I have a household income of around 50k. We eat out regularly, nice and quiet neighbourhood, DC always in nice clothes, run a nice car, save a little.

I am quite a big spender and not great at watching what I spend so I don't feel comfortable because I'm careful with cash.

Yet people, multiple people on MN, often seem to start threads suggesting anything below much more than this is poor?

I really don't understand it.

I have friends on much less that still do nice things like go out and on holiday every year. Obviously the same won't be true for everyone on similar incomes but I just wondered where these 'anything less than 100k' tribes are coming from.

My mother is a part time lunch time supervisor at a primary school. My father a postman max 23k a year. She also at one point had more than 100k in savings.

My siblings and I all did go to private schools at secondary but growing up we never went on a single holiday. All our clothes were hand me downs from older cousins. We didn't eat at restaurants. We had one pair of shoes which were to last the year. Baths only one day a week on sundays. The 6 of us also lived in a 2 bed place.

It's so easy to fritter money and not have a lot to show for it. The coffees candles, books, holiday trips etc all adds up.

On most of the threads where people with high incomes whine they get a clobbering though.

And there are a lot of threads asking for people who earn lots to tell everyone about their lives too! What they do for a living, what their expenses are etc

Orange cake that just sounds like a miserable existence because your parents were misers

Well; I earn just under £50k in the SE and I don’t have a lot spare. Single mum, 2 DCs, 2 cats, one big mortgage. Not a lot of other luxuries and a 11 year old car. DCs are expensive and so is housing and council tax. It’s all to do with the cost you are paying for housing .

Personally I don't drink coffee or buy candles or any of that kind of stuff. Our holidays cost about £5k for 7 of us.

Depends where you live and how big your mortgage is, there are lots of variables. If you’re down South (obviously London in particular) you will struggle on 50k if you also have children.

I live in Yorkshire and our mortgage is pretty low so we do fine on 60k joint income. Not rich though by any means, we have four DC so money sort of evaporates .

Our household income is double, near enough, but we certainly aren't shopping at Waitrose or going long haul to the Maldives. Biggish mortgage, three hungry kids all of whom do multiple activities (nothing v fancy but it adds up), after-school childcare costs, plus 7k commuting costs. It goes surprisingly quickly. I shop at Aldi, Primark and charity shops. We do save but not nearly as much as i might have imagined. I don't think some people realise the differential in the cost of living depending on where you are in the country and how big your family is. I certainly don't claim to be struggling, and like a pp said we have made certain choices, but in terms of disposable income for clothes or going out, I felt better off when we were a 20-something couple on two average salaries and nobody to spend it on but ourselves!

We're about the same income wise but have well over £1k left to save after everything is paid. We don't have childcare anymore and live in the NW in a small house, mortgage is £430pm.

It's about priorities isn't it. I choose to save rather than spend on branded clothes and food, we don't eat out often or have expensive hobbies. I'd never get a cleaner and private school is out of our reach.

We did go through a period of spending and then redundancy followed so we cut right back and never really started spending again as having no money was awful so we prefer the reassurance that a healthy bank balance gives.

I too like to save instead of spend. So not everyone making good money is spending all of it.

We went from 50k + to about 30k. You really can rein it in and STILL do nice things. Amazing what crap you pay for every month that you don't need and amazing how little you can spend on house hold bills if you turn things off, do a food plan and cancel useless subscriptions etc. If you're on that amount of money every month surely you can work out how to save?

I agree with a pp that family size makes a big difference but then that is a choice too isn't it? I'd love 3 or 4 children but know we could not afford more than 2. I read an article recently about how having 4 or more children is a status symbol of wealth in some circles!

Our income is about 65k but we don't eat out, we budget quite carefully for food shopping, we buy cheap clothes, go on camping holidays and drive very old cars. However, we have quite a lot of childcare costs and we save quite a chunk in the DC's savings accounts, make additional pension contributions etc. Also, I would say I spend quite a lot more than some on extra-curricular stuff for my kids, which is a luxury. I always seem to be shelling out for dancing lessons (plus exam fees, costumes etc), swimming, gymnastics, music lessons.

I am quite a big spender and not great at watching what I spend so I don't feel comfortable because I'm careful with cash.

Not quite sure what you mean here.

Our household income is around £85k and we have a ginormous mortgage. Been on 1 holiday together in 4 years.

We earn around £70,000 combined and struggle month to month. Childcare alone comes to £800 a month.

I’m in London and I don’t know anyone who has a nice house in a nice area, car, holidays, eats out regularly etc on a household income of £50k. Not unless they rely heavily on credit.

I think it must depend massively on where you are in the country, and then after that what you prioritise spending on (e.g. are you putting a lot in to savings and pension or not, do you fritter money on clothes, nights out etc).

We earn about 65k between us but we have no mortgage and childcare is only 200 per month. We tend to go on one holiday abroad and a few weekends away per year. We go through phases of eating out quite a bit but then again we don’t have Netflix or sky etc. We also don’t live in the U.K. so we don’t have council tax or water rates to pay. Our cars are 12 years old and we don’t have payments on those either.

When we were still in London we had a 1k a month mortgage (and that was living in the dodgy end of Croydon), twins in nursery at 500 quid a week and I think it was about 5-6k for both of us for season tickets into London. So what's that, 36k after tax before you've bought a single organic Waitrose avocado or posh candle

There are not many families on 70/80k in London having multiple holidays, paying school fees, shopping in Waitrose etc unless they don't have a mortgage/rent.

As a high earner, we’ve got high fixed costs which are our choice. I get very frustrated with posts on here pleading poverty on £100k because it is all bollocks really. We’ve chosen a big mortgage and are fortunate we can as well be building equity. I’ll also be totally honest and say we piss away. Food is the biggest area where we could easily cut down but in general I think as you earn more, things that were luxuries suddenly become normal spending and there is an element of being in a bubble.

Just as an example, £17 a pop baby swimming lessons become ‘normal’ because ‘everyone’ does it. But, that is clearly not normal for everyone. That would be a massive chunk of someone’s entire income on job seekers and just wouldn’t be possible for lots of families.

How much is your rent/mortgage?

Depends where you live I think. I have a low income of £23k but I go on at least 2 holidays abroad per year because my outgoings are low.

All of my bills including rent, utilities, travel, insurance, and food amounts to about £1k a month. Some people spend more than that on their mortgage or rent alone.

We earn about £150k between us but have high outgoings - big mortgage as we’re in the south east, 2 lots of childcare etc. We have one cheap car and no holiday last year, we are careful with spending on food and clothes etc. We do save but don’t have lots of spare money.

I think a great deal is where you live and if you have done well out of property or not. We haven’t and have no inheritance or help from anyone so although we have decent wages it goes every month.

We only bring in £40k but with no kids and no mortgage, we manage quite well.

Yep as the @theworstwife says I know families on 60k but have made 1m on property simply because they are a bit older, so tiny household costs if any. I know others on 120k spending 3k on a mortgage. Both exactly the same properties in the same area (close to outstanding primary). I'm somewhere in the middle but if I was born 4 yrs or so earlier with all things equal I would have 800k equity, 4 yrs later than I was then unlikely I would've been able to get on the ladder.