To be permanently skint, despite being on a good salary?

[cherriesandapplesandberries]

On paper, we have a good combined income of around £85,000, although it varies slightly and can even go up to around 90 on a good year.

But we seem to be permanently skint, and I don’t mean not much money, I mean absolutely nothing in the bank accounts, scrabbling round for loose change, stressing about how we will get to work, skint. This isn’t a begging thread by the way, I know sometimes people post on MN wanting others to offer them money and I don’t, I’m just trying to explain how it is.

We do have debts, loans and credit cards plus obviously the mortgage, childcare fees, cars which cost then obviously the needs of a growing family.

I know back when I was a young ‘un I’d have fallen about laughing at the idea my current salary isn’t enough to live on, but I just seem to be struggling all of the time!

OP seemed to say she brings home £2500/month & her DH brings home £1700/month. £4200/month net so should be £50.4k/yr net. Yet OP said £55k/year was net income from household= £85k/gross.

If OP makes £55k/yr gross, I suspect the 'gross' part includes loan repayments (£6k/yr?), pension (£12k/yr?). The very high pension payments would be "tax-efficient" for a higher earner. Her DH could be earning about £30k making more ordinary pension payment amounts (b/c he's not a higher band tax payer).

David lloyd membership needs to go op if you want to do something.

ps: MSE calculator was useful.

If I had an income of 85k I'd save 70k a year and retire at 50.

FFS that's a little obsessive

What on Earth confused

How so?

If someone has traveled the world and been driving expensive cars for years then it’s hardly surprising to suddenly discover they may not have any savings for when the shit hits the fan .

I recall a tv programme about a family visiting a food bank . The father had lost his job. However it transpired that when he had a good salary , instead of saving any of it , it was spent on expensive skiing trips and flashy cars . I have no sympathy for people like this .

If I had an income of 85k I'd save 70k a year and retire at 50.

FFS - ever heard of income tax 🤔

If I had an income of 85k I'd save 70k a year and retire at 50.

Sure you would. Because such an income doesn't come with associated costs on top of whatever costs you have now.

Oh and btw it's not 85k in hand, much less than that. In fact so much less that there wouldn't be a 70k to save because you never get it in the first place.

Panic - are you honestly suggesting that it costs more money to earn a better salary ?

We are the same! We are on £75000 but we have £1500 monthly debt then mortgage, bills, car, etc etc...literally meal plan and scrimp each month - I’m currently pregnant with number 2 and haven’t even been able to afford any new maternity clothes!

I'm mystified as to how your OH on a salary bigger than mine takes home a few hundred pounds less(I pay ,10%into
work pension ).
This month and next you should be £100-200 better off as no council tax.
How do you spend so much on petrol.I live somewhere with no public transport so have a 25 drive to work,have no shops in walking distance,have to ferry DC around and use about £160 pm on petrol.
It's hard to sympathise when most of this is living behind your means or to believe you are good with money when the sums don't add up.

I haven’t been on a foreign holiday since the kids, and my car is 2013. Not old conceded but not new.

I don’t know hag, maybe it’s do with tax or student loans or pensions. I don’t know.

'I'm mystified as to how your OH on a salary bigger than mine takes home a few hundred pounds less'
Perhaps he's telling porkies and keeping some back for his own spends.

Also even if 1 child as in nursery 5 days a week 10 hours a day say that £250 a week so £13,000 a year.... that doesn’t eat up one whole salary?? Unless you’ve got two young children so say £26,000 a year.

You may have 3 children but then surely you’d be claiming the 15 free hours for one of them, actually is it not 30 hours free childcare now?

Is the only choice on your pension paying hundreds or opting out? That doesn't sound right.

Purpletigers yes. Not always but quite often a bigger wage comes with more hours so more childcare costs. It can come with travelling further away so more travel costs. That's just two basic costs that can and often do increase .

I think OPs biggest issue is the huge childcare burden - £3200 a month is a huge amount (£1700 of her DH income and £1500 of hers according to her previous posts)

Is there any way you can rope in unpaid childcare by moving nearer reliable family members OP?

Probably better getting an au pair!

I don’t know hag, maybe it’s do with tax or student loans or pensions. I don’t know.

You should know though - This is just what people who are trying to help are saying

If you take a proper look at your finances you could probably find ways to not be as skint as you currently are

There are loads of websites that tell you what your take home pay should be, what benefits you may be entitled to, the best way to prioritise paying debts

Panic - are you honestly suggesting that it costs more money to earn a better salary

I’m not sure that’s a particularly controversial statement

For a start better paying jobs tend to demand more expensive clothes and longer hours. There’s cost associated with buying and cleaning the former and managing the latter in terms of additional wrap around childcare and inability to rely on public transport early in morning/late at night.

OP you don’t appear sure of what you have coming in or going out!

Your combined net income is £1700 plus £2500 which comes to £4200 by my calculations. Yet a few posts back you say its barely £4000..

You said a few pages back you pay £30 pw for petrol but now its £200 pm..

Your figures don’t add up.

I am sure you could get to a better place financially if you take a really good look at your income and outgoings. I realise there may be little you can do about your side of things, your spending being mostly on loans and childcare. It is good you have a couple of loans coming to an end in the next few months as you can then direct that money towards your credit cards (pay of the ones with the highest interest first). Could you do a balance transfer to get 0% interst for a bit or os your credit rating shot?

While your DH pays the household bills, is he getting the best deals. While you may see this as not your responsibility surely you must see that if you did an overhaul of these areas, you could be quite a bit better off collectively? If you can only save £50 a months its still £50 you can use to pay off your debts quicker and reduce interest payments.

While you say you don’t want advice, I just don’t understand why not. You may think you know everything but this is unlikely to be true. If you truly want to be in a better place financially for the future so your kids can go riding/to uni or whatever then you need to see what you can do about it. Every little bit of saving here or there helps.

I think OPs biggest issue is the huge childcare burden - £3200 a month is a huge amount (£1700 of her DH income and £1500 of hers according to her previous posts)

It’s not £3200 it’s just the posts are very confusing.

It’s equivalent to his salary, albeit £1500 not £1700

Apparently his salary covers all housing costs

Can contribute less to your pension until your childcare costs reduce? Then increase the pension payment plus a bit more to it make up? That's what i would do. Why struggle now when you can change things up a bit for a period of time

£50k pa is around £2900 pm with 10% pension contributions (which is probably an overestimate) depending on type of student loan.

£35k pa is around £2200 pm, again with 10% monthly pension contributions, which is at the upper end of most schemes and student loan payments.

So either the OPs family doesn't earn £85k pa, which puts a different spin on the entire thread, or their monthly income is higher than she says at over £5k.

For £3200 a month get a live in nanny ffs. Read the whole post and this lady is off her rocker!

It sounds like he frontloaded quite a lot of expenses and I can understand why that feels tight. On the plus side you are paying off the debt so that will come to an end, at some point you’ll get free childcare hours which will help, at some point the kids will go to School and childcare really is cheaper then (especially as they won’t need it in the school holidays) and at some point will pay your mortgage off. so it might be slow but it’s an upward trajectory.