Is anyone else always always skint?

[emptym]

We budget to an inch of our lives but for years we've always been skint. Everything I buy I always need to check if we have enough money for it. I can't just go out and buy the kids clothes when theyve outgrown them. I can't just get a new front door fitted because it's been leaking for 2 years. There's so many other things we need that are deemed more essential that it will probably stay like that for a further 2 years. We have a household income of £35k gross. We shouldn't be this skint.

Overpaying the mortgage is effectively saving. Maybe stop the overpaying and then you will have more money each month.

When we were really skint we stopped the £50 personal allowance we'd enjoyed in flusher times...

But really, your answer is in not overpaying the mortgage. You've probably made a big difference already. Have some savings instead for when you're broke. Doing that has made me feel much more secure over the last year.

I’m also unsure why you’d over pay your mortgage if things are so tight and I suspect a drip feed about debt/health issues/car loans/a horse you simply can’t re home...etc may be coming.

On £35k unless your mortgage is actually crippling (in which case you need to move area entirely) then you shouldn’t be struggling like this.
Don’t get me wrong a lot it families with £30-40k incomes do have tight budgets but not ‘can’t buy the kids essential clothes’ kinda tight.

Maybe your budget really is that dire and for totally valid reasons but I don’t think it’s the ‘norm’ to not be able to buy supermarket brand kids clothes on a £35k household income.

35k isn’t a lot so it’s understandable things are tight.

Personal spends of £50 a month is hardly the height of profligate spending. It’s only just over £10 a week.

😂😂😂 wow op.

You are right. You shouldn't be that skint. Stop overpaying the mortgage or keep overpaying but stop claiming being skint and not knowing why

Don’t overpay the mortgage. We only started overpaying once we were in a position where to do so didn’t mean our overall quality of life suffered.

And I am not skint and even I don't buy fresh berries outside of season

I always feel skint because my abusive ex never pays maintenence and I am stuck in a lowish-paying job I hate because although I hate it they are accommodating of my disability and my DC's disability (e.g. leaving work early at short notice) and I don't think other employers would be. So can't look for a higher paying one. I have no home to speak of and am living with relatives; I can't claim housing benefit or universal credit to pay for living here as we are related so my rent / costs for wear and tear come out of my wage. Everything is second hand or borrowed. I haven't bought clothes for myself in about 3 years. Never eat out or get takeaway. I have no hope of ever getting a mortgage as I cannot put any money towards savings. As I am securely housed with relatives my children and I are low down on the priority list for council housing. It sucks. I always feel skint 😭

Is this one of these threads where the OP just wants to moan and wants lots of other posters to say they're in the same position and blame the Government for their predicament but is not interested in making any practical changes that could actually help the situation?

*cross post

Urgh you’re not ‘skint’ OP please check your privilege and consider how many on MN actually are!
You have a £50 pm personal spending pot
You have a monthly take away
You eat a lot of fresh berries
And you over pay your mortgage which you seem to not identify as a luxury (100% is)

You are not skint. You can afford to buy your kids clothes so stop being dramatic. You are choosing to spend your money on a handful of luxuries whilst complaining that you can’t afford the other luxuries you would also like. Maybe use your combined £100pm ‘personal spending pot’ to clothe your children that would be my first priority

You're choosing to be skint because you're overpaying the mortgage, then feel sad because you're skint.
You either overpay it and are skint.
Don't overpay it.
Or both work full time to get extra money coming in.

I'm a little confused. You say above that you are skint because you overpay the mortgage - so why don't you stop overpaying it?

Why are you overpaying the mortgage?

You say you shouldn't be this skint but come on, surely you know why. You have a mortgage which you are overpaying, as well as children, on a joint income of £35k... that's not very much really.

Stop overpaying your mortgage and try to find ways to increase your earning capacity. Presumably you are both full time minimum wage or thereabouts? Can you do some training, take on extra at work to earn a bit more, do some work from home in the evenings? There are ways around this.

I mean personally I feel skint because we're saving for a house deposit, but I am choosing to do that with my disposable income atm, and wouldn't actually describe or complain about it to anyone as it's my own personal choice. A bit like you choosing to overpay your mortgage .

You are choosing to overpay the mortgage, therefore you are not actually skint. You have made a choice to overpay rather than have holidays etc

If you want more money then don’t overpay it’s as simple as that, do what the majority do and have a normal length mortgage

Sorry, you lost me at ‘overpaying the mortgage’. You are CHOOSING to be skint. Not everyone has that luxury.

Stop overpaying the mortgage. Whose idea was it to do that?

Replace the door. The damage caused by it leaking for 2 years may cost more than a door to fix.

Think about training for another job that pays better.

This has to be a wind up, surely?

No one would come on here claiming they can't afford new clothes for their kids when they have £100 personal spends a month AND they're overpaying their mortgage.

If I put 7k out of 8k into savings & have to live on 1k a month I can't really claim
to be skint!

Why not use your ‘personal spending’ money to clothe your kids

Threads like this make me actually despair!

DH and I are lucky enough to have substantial savings (after I grew up in actual poverty) but I don’t buy lots of berries or have an allocated self spending pot.
I got myself a new multipack of £7 knickers the other day and spent ages in the aisle like ‘do I really need these though?’
The kids are the only thing we spend money freely on. Good job really as DH just lost his job as of august. So we’ll be reliant on our healthy savings pot. Glad I didn’t pay it all off the mortgage else we’d be skint too!

She has £50 personal spends

£1.60 a day for a thirty day month.

Hardly swanning around in the savoy is it?

The OP is overpaying her mortgage as they keep getting made redundant !

She wants security of housing ...

Tbh 35k is just 2x minimum wage so I wouldn’t expect to feel flush on that as a family income.

@Freudzone I can't claim housing benefit or universal credit to pay for living here as we are related so my rent / costs for wear and tear come out of my wage being related doesn’t stop you claiming the rent element of UC.