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!

Do you need more than one car.

No paying about £1500 in flat rate childcare fees and then probably around £200 on top of that for other care related to the children.

So did you overstretch yourself on a nice house and mortgage?

If you are a teacher, do you have to pay for childcare in the holidays? How old are the DC?

And £3,900 take home pay does not seem enough for a joint income of £85k. We have a joint income of £45k and take home £3,100. So I wonder how this is possible?

I’m sorry but why don’t you stop the pension contributions for a while or at least pay the minimum requierd and nothing extra, if you say there’s a big chunck going out toward it? at least until you’ve paid off both loans , August time. MN is a bit obsessed with the pension I’ve noticed , but what good is in having 250k in 30 years time when you have no money to get to work now? or take your kids out for the day ??

Could you move closer to work and cycle in? If you live in an inner city you could probably find cheaper accommodation too.

You don't want advice but posted anyway...

I do yes as term time childcare isn’t an option at the moment. Obviously in the future that will get better. I don’t think we overstretched ourselves as it was affordable at the time and will be affordable again in the very near future.

Agree with PotteringAlong: If you're with British Gas or BT or Sky, you really need to ditch them. As soon as we finished with our first mortgage lender, I changed to Britannia. We bought the shed in 1995 and finished paying 2007, with the mortgage at £77K. I sent money to the mortgage lender to reduce the capital payment all the times; and every time, I asked them for new capital sum owing the the new payment amount. Those were the days. I seldom buy tea or coffee when out. Meals out at the back of clubcard deals.

If you could write down your outgoings, I am sure tons of people will brainstorm for you! Whatever you do, see if you can find a similar tracking mortgage to mine. There is nothing compared with a roof over your heads and something to pass on to your children. If child care is too much, why not go part time? I wouldn't want anybody else to look after my charge. You just don't know what they do to them. Call me suspicious or cynical!

I get you op! On paper your salary looks great. As a teenager you would look at the pay checks you get now and think you are loaded but no. It’s all gone before it even goes in. It’s pants.
Some months I wonder why I work.
I don’t have massive debts. But some months my pay seems to only just cover my bills.

No moving closer to work wouldn’t help. Moving costs a lot of money anyway.

That’s correct runkle, I’m glad you understood that the thread was conversational rather than seeking advice.

OP you say you are paying £1500 childcare from your salary and £1700 salary from your DP's. This makes no sense if your overall childcare bill is £1700.

Yeah I hear you keepme, I keep thinking back to the days when I ‘earned’ £600 a month and thought I was on untold riches.

It's not terrible advice to opt out of the teacher pension for a short term. OP has spiralling debts and is struggling to afford to live. A short term opt out (6 months might be enough) to increase cash flow will help secure a better financial position in the future.

How long until you get 30 hours childcare? Are you using tax free childcare too?

Is don’t understand how you are laying £1500 in childcare, but also your DH is paying £1700 in childcare.

Then you say, no, you are paying the £1500 and there’s another £200 on ad hoc.

Where is your husbands money going then??

Honestly, if you can’t list all this and are getting all the figures mixed up, there’s the problem. None of us can help.

@ Runkle - I thought that too 🙄
Ex and I used to earn £100,000 in Liverpool between us, always skint. We split. I now earn £40ish and have so much money I don’t know what to do with it all .... the kids grew up, that’s what changed.

No karen I was illustrating how in essence one salary disappears on childcare, in that our childcare costs are pretty much what DH takes home every month.

We lived on less than that, In London with a mortgage, 2 f/t jobs so Paid childcare, and were not scrabbling for money to get to work at the end of the month.

Ok, we will stop giving advice then. What do you want to talk about?

And I don’t live in the SE but anyway. I really wasn’t looking for advice! Not that I haven’t had it anyway!

I think I get it...have you got a case of the post Xmas come down, whoah is me I'm skint, payday is in 18 days but I'll still be skint, I can't go out, no nice food, TV is shit, blah blah etc etc - January blues??? A lot of people I know IRL are like this at the moment and is very grumpy...

There are plenty of threads mind I’m sure you don’t need me to give you some topics for conversation I’m talking about making ends meet with very young children.

Probably some of that nurse. Lots of adverts for holidays too that I can’t afford!

I still dont understand how in a joint income of £85k you are only taking home £3,900 a month.

Some mortgage companies will let you take a temporary break on capital repayment. If you've got some slack in your mortgage term to when you are due to retire it may be worth asking if you could switch to interest only for a couple of years and hammer at paying your debt off - although that won't necessarily help you have money at the end of the month right now, it might help improve things more quickly.

Not much to add cherries ,except I get! Most people are picking and choosing the information they are bothering to read. Do you still have student loan coming out of wages? I have finally finished paying mine and that will make a big difference to take home pay! I always thought on the money I earn , life would be sorted . I also think if you both work full time with young children you are probably time poor. I know we are, so sometimes struggle to have time to organise myself enough to make the best financial decisions.