To not be sure how we never have any bloody money?!

[ThePinkGuitar]

I know lots of friends that earn the same or bit less that get to have holidays aboard, lots of days out beautiful home.
We are nearly at the end of renovating our house but no money to finish it off. Dh earns 40k plus does lots of side jobs so probably on average another £150 pm. I earn 28k (22.5 hours pro rota).
We have 2 children never have been able to take them on fancy trips. We don’t wear expensive clothes, no cosmetic costs (dye my own hair and use Rimmel make up lol).
We have an average car, pay 1k a month mortgage. We spend a lot of groceries.
But seriously where is all the money going I genuinely do not understand?!

So fed up with these privileged posts ' I have no money' Way over national average income I really wish people like this could experience real poverty or even go down to min wage jobs for a few years so they can have something real to worry about. How to pay the bills how to buy enough food.
Shut up and go away, do some volunteering for a homeless charity or something

Shut up and go away,

Likewise

Saw your updates, OP, so although I was initially a bit frustrated no ranting from me. Actually I understand in a way. It's all about how you're taught to handle money. My parents never saved a penny but firmly believed they were entitled to lots of nice things so ran up lots of debt as a result. I learned nothing about staying within budget or about living a lifestyle that you can afford and got into debt quite quickly as an adult despite being on an above average income. There's a bit more to it than that but after years of struggling to pay it down I finally made some hard decisions, adjusted my lifestyle and have been debt free and without an overdraft for several years. It's only where I should have been from the start but I am still really proud of myself for getting it all under control. You can do this but you have to be very realistic about what you need versus what you want and how much of what you want is affordable. Ideally you will get to a point where the main thing you want is to pay down the debt. That's where I ended up and it made things miles easier.

That's an awful lot more money than we have (combined £27000)
And we have money left to go away etc, still live in an expensive coastal area. I'd say you might be living outside of your means maybe? Or that you might not budget as well as you think, overspend on grocery and toiletries etc.
Once debt is gone would youhave enough to go away? My last abroad holiday was all inclusive family of 3 to portugal for less than £1000 so theres inexpensive holidays to be had.

Write it down, everything you spend. Check bank accounts and statements. If it does not tally u have a problem. Someone fraudulent in your account or husband has debts or gambling habit. Or could just be you spend too much on food

Can't believe the posts on here. Everyone can struggle at sometime. Most people don't start of on great salaries straight away it can take time. If you have no family and both of you work it can cost a fortune in childcare at one point I was only taking 30 pound a week home after paying childcare and travel costs. If you own your own house problems can occur boiler breaking leaky roof or car fails MOT your sick or loose a job suddenly your in debt can take years for people to recover from these things. Yes we earn ok money now but had the above happen so currently paying of debts in the meantime I know people who only work min amount and appear to have loads to spend. When I was a working single mum my mates who never worked told me it wasn't fair that they did nothing but where better off than me.

I think people are being a bit mean to @ssd* pretty sure what they meant was that there are people really struggling to get by at the moment
I agree and some very fucking rude in responses to *ssd a long-term supportive poster and has a valid point to say you've no money on £60,000 a year is privilege it is shit organisation skills frivolous spending but not what having no money is like at all.
When there isn't enough food left for DM and electricity is running out 2 days till pay day that's no money.

My last abroad holiday was all inclusive family of 3 to portugal for less than £1000 so theres inexpensive holidays to be had.

Was this in school holidays?

Get some help to find out where the money goes, then create a budget to pay off the debts and avoid further interest probably on interest too!

Don't forget, l am sure you will be reminded on here.....there are lots worse off than you

Working poor, a product of ten years of Tories

Just wait till we're on the other side of Covid, how they've wasted billions, 12 on track and trace with their mates, PPE, 150M on masks that were not fit, billions on Pfizer vaccine bought through a hedge fund from a detached house in Finedon Nhants, when AZN is one tenth of the price as just as advanced in approvals and production
So many more examples too, it's the working poor that will pay that, not the billionaires who by the way increased in the last ten years

Good luck getting straight again

Op we were the same. We are earning around 80k between us and we just never seemed to have any money. Thankfully lockdown made us prioritise massively and we have paid off so much debt, we have hardly any left. We've much such a huge impact to our lives in 8 months it's unreal. Debt was a noose around our neck. It wasn't bad debt, we were never behind and could afford to pay over the minimum payments but now we've got so much more spare money.

Only on mn could a family earning over 60k be the working poor

Hold my hands up and admit poor wording on my part.
No money I actually meant no savings/spare cash leftover. I have friends who go on several holidays a year we’ve never been able to afford aboard, no enough cash to update furniture etc so it’s all non essentials and not comparable to people actually struggling. Again completely our fault and this weekend has been a good wake up call.
The poster who mentioned not being taught well - that hit hard I don’t want my children to inherit our poor financial management so it’s really crucial we get this sorted for them, so they learn these basic skills around budgeting. We both should really know better!

You'll be a financial whizz in no time.
I'm terrible with money too budgeting is such an important overlooked life skill.

OP - I will freely admit upfront we are a tad nerdy about this but maybe you could do what we do and it would help.
Toward the end of each calendar year we set our budget for the next and work out what we need on average each

Month for:

• fixed bills like mortgage/council tax/utilities/phone/tv/insurance
• memberships (NT, EH etc)
• fuel/car & bike maintenance
• non food shopping
• donations
• savings for holidays, Christmas & home improvements

We then assume we don’t have that money for the purposes of day to day budgeting and if it’s not been spent in a given month it switches to the account with short term savings in ready for when it’s needed

Each week we have a budget for

• food shopping
• family spending (activities for kids, meals/snacks out, arts and craft materials
• spending money for myself/OH for coffees, lunch, stuff we just fancy like new music/books etc
• gifts
• clothing

We aim not to overspend on these budgets week to week but if we do we ensure we have a plan to catch up within 4 weeks.

We’ve set up google sheets so every time we buy something we fill in a quick online form with what we spent & assign it to the correct budget. It’s a slight faff to set up but it’s really easy to fill in and it allows us to constantly know where we are up to with our money and what we have available.

We both have pay reviews in October so tend to find this is a good time to review our upcoming budget and get everything set up for the next year. It’s really really helpful being able to see at a glance where you are with your money. If you understand what needs to be earmarked for things that are non negotiable it’s easier to see what your true disposable income is. You could also just write it down but an app or something else online might be easier

Open a savings account and arrange a direct debit 10% of your combined income is good amount. If you dont see it, it's not there. You will be amazed how quickly it mounts up.

@ThePinkGuitar

Should add we are paying off 15k debt and I have 3k owed on credit cards. We are chipping away at but it seems never ending

This is where it's going.

Our joint income is less than yours and we have a larger mortgage and plenty of disposable income. We don't have debts and never take out loans (other than mortgage).

We can't really help you-you need to sit down together and work our where it's all going. You earn a lot of money. We are a family of 6 earning half of what you earn, and paying a lot more rent, and although things are (sometimes uncomfortably) tight we are able to do a 'fancy' trip (usually lanterns at Longleat!) once a year.
Is your food bill very high? Do you stick to a list? It's really easy to spend a fortune just throwing things in the trolley on a whim.

I think things just add up to much more than you think. My credit card bill will tell you that and I don't buy anything* only bits for the kids, gifts and kids clothes. I'm like a tramp, we even have cheap home visit hair cuts - mine is £15, no colours. I'd say we don't eat out but had a MCDonalds yesterday which was £18 for the four of us.

Our average car is £300 a month, we only have one car and I don't know how people afford Range Rovers and two cars.

It is actually hard if you live in a high mortgage cost area to afford to do anything to your house. Our mortgage is £1400 and believe me my house is small but in SE, but certainly not London we are in Hants. We live above our means, but buy basics food. We did our budget and we can't afford anything other than food. You can let the kids walk around naked though.

I always saved, even when I had very little I still saved. Sometimes as little as a pound a week. Once I saved for the deposit on a new house, it was dreadful I saved every penny I could for two years, but I did it. Wouldn't recommend though it was grim. I worked overtime as much as I could, ate cheap, didn't buy clothes or anything actually, didnt go out. I needed to move as area wasnt good so I did. Good for me eh

Before covid ( on unpaid leave )

My wage is about 50k

I have a cheaper mortgage of 500.00 due to paying a lot off.
We spend 300.00 a month on food
80.00 on internet phones and tv in total
Electric and gas 230.00 a month
Have been able to save and we are very very stable ( even in London ) I am however starting to get through our savings due to unpaid leave from work for over 5 months.
I think you need to loom at all your bills and outgoings carefully and consider where you can draw back.
I would never deem my wage as now having any money well apart from the last 5 months
We also go on holiday once a year.

£1000 is not a lot on mortgage if you in or around the London area.

5 years ago my husband had a mental breakdown and we ended up living off one wage. It was a hard slog to start shopping smartly. We used to shop at Tesco, buy random things rather than meals, waste food buy Ben and Jerry's ice cream and not think about what we're doing.
Now we shop at Aldi with a weekly budget, meal plan (not rigidly), do what activities we can but always check for discounts first. This time when my husband's job ended and we were back to living on one wage every bill was already covered including our food budget. Now he's picked up some work we are currently treating ourselves with a Saturday night takeaway.
Essentially its about educating yourself and engaging with the process.