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Original poster

To think it’s not that unusual for people to have no money in their bank account

244 replies

Iftheclouds · 20/10/2020 17:31

At the end of the month? I know ideally it’s good to have savings but would imagine it’s not that unusual to have any?

OP posts:
vanillandhoney · 20/10/2020 18:14

@blue25

It’s unusual for me, but no idea about other people. Surely most people have some sort of cushion?
Nope, lots of people don't.
AintPageantMaterial · 20/10/2020 18:17

Life has got easier and I now have savings, but for many years there was always more month than money. I don’t even think it’s a class thing. I know quite a few seemingly wealthy families who can still find themselves in this situation.

IceCreamAndCandyfloss · 20/10/2020 18:25

I don’t think it’s unusual. We live in an age of consumerism and many just don’t see the importance of savings or working out what they can afford within their salary range.

I know some high schools teach budgeting skills but it should be a parenting basic in reality.

nevermorelenore · 20/10/2020 18:28

I think living paycheque to paycheque is probably more common than people like to admit. I remember reading in certain areas, half of all adults have less than £100 in savings. I'm guessing a lot of it is to do with stagnant wages and the high cost of property.

I have small savings, but after rent, childcare, food from Lidl and splurging in the charity shops, there's genuinely not much left to put away. It's scary sometimes. But I think this is how a lot of the world live.

Mydogmylife · 20/10/2020 18:32

@blue25

It’s unusual for me, but no idea about other people. Surely most people have some sort of cushion?
Sadly @blue25 a large proportion of people do not have any such cushion and the lack of understanding of that fact by those better off is really quite worrying. Would folk be going to food banks if they had some sort of cushion?
Smallsteps88 · 20/10/2020 18:33

Not unusual for me. I’ve been living in my overdraft since 2008.

I hear people getting excited about payday, booking the cinema or a night out because it’s payday weekend or asking my plans for payday weekend and I don’t have any because as soon as my wages come in it’s all apportioned to bills.

RudeAF · 20/10/2020 18:34

Grew up poor and currently have £1.10 in my account until payday in 6 days. All this despite my gold plated public sector job Grin (and late mother was a nurse!). Ah well there’s food in the fridge and the lights are still on.

Kljnmw3459 · 20/10/2020 18:35

It's definitely not unusual.....

IMNOTSHOUTING · 20/10/2020 18:36

The problem is it's easy to save for a rainy day when you have extra money (so less likely to need it) in the first place. If your DC's school shoes have holes in them you're not going to send them into school with wet feet because you want to top up your savings account.
I have to admit I used to live in a bubble and not realise this happens to people. I've wised up now.

CloudyVanilla · 20/10/2020 18:41

Yup I get weekly money and monthly money and it's all gone because it's spent on stuff we need. Very little spare cash about most of the time.

caughtalightsneeze · 20/10/2020 18:41

I used to work in a bank and my job involved monitoring thousands of accounts. It's very very common to have no money at the end of the month, but for various reasons. Some people live on a knife edge and run out of money a few days before the next income hits their account. Some people have no discipline with money and have blown their entire salary in TopShop by half way through the month. And some people budget carefully and transfer money out to savings or investments at the start of the month leaving only the bare minimum in the account.

But combining all those things, that covers an awful lot of people.

LittleMissLockdown · 20/10/2020 18:42

The problem is it's easy to save for a rainy day when you have extra money

Exactly. Those people who believe that all saving requires is for people to spend less on unnecessary frivolous things and instead put the money into a savings account honestly live in such a bubble.

It's pretty saddening that some people don't seem to understand that when someone says they have no money left over it means exactly that.

CloudyVanilla · 20/10/2020 18:43

And no a large proportion live month to month. Isn't there a statistic that says most people are two missed (monthly) paydays away from homelessness? Probably an American thing

SqidgeBum · 20/10/2020 18:48

Not unusual at all. I thankfully never went into an overdraft, but there were times I had 20 quid in my account at the end of the month. I have amazing money management skills as a result of being stoney broke for years.

When I met DH, he had 20k in savings after Uni, had never been broke, and thought everyone who was in debt in any way was 'lazy' (I had a 10k bank loan at 22. My country had no student loan system). He had NO idea he was basically rich. He thought everyone was like him, and if they weren't they were silly with money. Thankfully he sees reality now.

Some people have never experienced money hardship so they think it's not as common as it is.

MuchTooTired · 20/10/2020 18:49

Sadly, I don’t think it’s unusual, I’d say it’s more the norm for most. Apart from on MN where everyone is seriously loaded Grin

IceCreamAndCandyfloss · 20/10/2020 18:50

@LittleMissLockdown

The problem is it's easy to save for a rainy day when you have extra money

Exactly. Those people who believe that all saving requires is for people to spend less on unnecessary frivolous things and instead put the money into a savings account honestly live in such a bubble.

It's pretty saddening that some people don't seem to understand that when someone says they have no money left over it means exactly that.

From growing up, no money was down to poor choices made by the adults. I can see that now as an adult and learnt from it as didn’t want my children in the same position,

I’d rather work two jobs, and have, than no savings to fall back on.

user1471565182 · 20/10/2020 18:51

many times ive had the conversation with people trying to get through to them that me having no money means no actual money-zero. Not £2000 i can pull out of my arse just for this emergency or any mumsnet magic savings

LittleMissLockdown · 20/10/2020 18:54

From growing up, no money was down to poor choices made by the adults. I can see that now as an adult and learnt from it as didn’t want my children in the same position,

I’d rather work two jobs, and have, than no savings to fall back on.

See this is still a pretty privileged thought process. It's great you can work 2 jobs, sadly not everyone has that luxery and I hope you never find yourself in a position that prevents you doing so.

To be blasé and say that being poor was down to adults making poor decisions is very narrow minded.

formerbabe · 20/10/2020 18:55

@user1471565182

many times ive had the conversation with people trying to get through to them that me having no money means no actual money-zero. Not £2000 i can pull out of my arse just for this emergency or any mumsnet magic savings
I have friends who say they're skint but actually have 20k in savings. When I say I'm skint I mean it!!!
CloudyVanilla · 20/10/2020 18:55

You can have no cash because you don't earn that much and got make poor choices though.

Like for example I've got no money this week now because I've spent it all already - on a large weekly shop, bills, everything we need.

You don't need to have extra cash to live comfortably although of course it does bloody help Wink

JamminDoughnuts · 20/10/2020 18:56

plenty of food in the fridge, lighting and heating. petrol in the car

Jux · 20/10/2020 18:56

We've been living in our overdraft almost as soon as lockdown hit. That's not changing and is unlikely to for another year or maybe more. We are utterly utterly broke, qualify for no government help at all because 'on paper' we're OK, because we own our home and dh has a drawdown pension (of about 50K which is what we're living on atm so when we get to retirement there'll be none left and if dh dies I'll have absolutely nothing unless I sell the house in which I live adn go on the street).

Nsky · 20/10/2020 18:56

I’m very lucky, that despite low paid job , I have no housing costs, divorce settled that for me.
Haven’t had an overdraft in years, and have a good amount of savings.
Must be scary if things break down, go wrong, not to be able to afford to replace or fix.
Consider myself very lucky

SandysMam · 20/10/2020 18:56

@LittleMissLockdown I totally agree with you. Being disabled might not allow you to work two jobs. Being poor isn’t just about not working hard enough Hmm

Pinkchocolate · 20/10/2020 18:57

Sadly not uncommon. It’s been our reality for the last few years.