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.

My mate did this, always complained they were skint, made themselves miserable penny pinching, no holidays, no take aways and turns out they were over paying their mortgage to get it gone. But because they lived a miserable life resentment on both sides kicked in and they ended up divorced. But hey, at least that mortgage was almost paid off

If you carry on at this rate how long until your mortgage is paid off? Dh's parents did this back in the 90s, by the time they were done with their shitty holidays in the UK (I love UK holidays but they really scrimped) their two children were almost adults and didn't want to go on holiday with their parents. Cue the parents swanning off to beautiful locations and the kids feeling pissed off that they never got to do that.

Stop over paying your mortgage and live for now, not tomorrow. My friend died of sepsis a few years ago. Really put things into perspective for us.

You can often get more interest elsewhere
Where? I was looking to open saving ac today - cash ISA are offering .4% - 1.1% PA interest , and the higher rates often have penalty if you take ££ out.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa/

[quote Megan2018]@CherryCherries
No you didn’t. As I said we have ongoing financial commitments that exceed our income. It is what it is until those change.
As an example my poor old horse has cost me £1300 this month in vets bills. I can’t afford her anymore (had her when I was young, single and childless). But I’m not going to have her shot. Big financial burden though at the moment.

We also had an unexpected baby in our 40’s just after we’d blown our savings on moving house. Mat leave has crippled us financially and it’s going to take years to recover from because of childcare costs. No regrets, love DD more than life. But could we technically afford her in 2020? No.[/quote]
I understand about the horse, you have to take care of it. But even if your mortgage and bills came to say, 3k a month, so 36k a year, plus the horse at over 12 k a year plus any other bills.. that still leaves thousands..

Maybe I just can't get my head around that much money 😁

Why do have an allowance for your clothes but not your children's? I buy more for my teenage DS as he is still growing. Buy second hand where possible. You are not skint if you can buy fresh berries, I regularly buy frozen which are cheaper, but only strawberries in season fresh.

@BarbaraofSeville But if your income is insecure, you'd be best saving it rather than overpaying the mortgage, so you can use it as you see fit rather than commit it to the mortgage. If you overpay, you can't usually get it back or miss payments later instead.

If I overpay £100 today, I'm still expected to make my normal mortgage payments going forward, even if I don't have money available in the future to do so.

Very commonly you can, any overpayments I make mean I can miss payments. I could stop paying for five years with my current overpayments. ( nationwide)

You aren't 'skint' at all! I know people genuinely struggling and they don't eat expensive berries, overpay on their mortgage or have £100 pin money. Ridiculous

Depends on how much you are overpaying the mortgage by. It could be hundreds a month. If so who wouldn't be skint on a not great income.

A 1 kg bag of frozen berries in Aldi costs about the same as a piddly little plastic tray of fresh berries, just saying

Takeaways and £100 spending money between you plus overpaying the mortgage?

You're not rolling in it, but you aren't skint. Skint is something else. Be glad you apparently haven't had to find out what that's like tbh.

you can calculate if it is worth it here:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-overpayment-calculator/

by overpaying every month not only will I repay my mortgage 4 years early (and so save 4 years of mortgage payments) I will save approx £7700 in interest payments.

if I saved the overpayments for 13 years (life of early paid off mortgage) I would have £26,000 in the bank plus minimal interest and 4 years more mortgage payments @ £11k per year.

The years off mortgage payments (£44k) plus the interest saved due to shorter term (£7.7k) are valued at approx £52,000. So I am £27,000 better off over 13 years by overpaying.

That is hugely significant to me.

By this reckoning I’m skint.

We’ve had £8.5k in this month and £8.5k has gone out. Nothing left in the pot.

Poor old us.

About 2-3 years ago myself and DP were fed up of getting to the end of the month and for the last week worrying about whether or not we had enough in the bank.

We sat down and went through our account thoroughly to see what our outgoings were. We managed to get rid of some of them (sky etc). Changed our mortgage so that reduced a little.
every single week we would check the bank and see how we were doing
Now, we are doing ok. we have managed to save some money, reduced a lot more outgoings, didn't renew phone contracts that type of thing.
Now we go through our money when we get paid, work out every single bill/outgoing that has paid, and whatever is left is ours.
we had say £300pw and we budgeted ourselves £250pw.
Every penny we spend in that week gets noted so we know where we are and we don't go over.
When it we started doing that it was amazing how much we spent on rubbish and non essential things.
It was horrible at first accounting for every single penny you spend, but it soon became the norm and by not overspending it has put us in a really good financial position.

We are now at the stage where we have £500 pw and allow ourselves £300pw so we have a buffer if we ever need it. We haven't touched our overdraft in over a year, we have saved money in a separate account.
it wasn't easy and there were a lot of tears and tantrums (mainly from me lol), but it helped us and put us in a good place financially.
Something like this might be worth a go. I message DP every week with £300 and then if i spend, say, £12 in a shop, he'll get a message saying £288 so we both know where we are.

oops figures slighty wrongn as I will save £12k in interest (not £7.7k)- so I will be £32k better off I I can continue overpaying at the same rate.

@CherryCherries our takehome pay isn’t as much as you’d think. I get £2900 after tax and pensions, DH gets £1500.
But we will be better off when DD in school and horse no longer with us to the tune of at least £1500 a month.
Until then we have access to cheap credit (0% cards etc) and we pay for all the essentials so better off than some.

We shouldn't be this skint.

This sounds like you don't know why you are skint every month, but it's clear you do know (i.e. overpaying mortgage).

We are not skint each month and still don't overpay the mortgage.

I'm frugal as well, e.g. don't have Starbucks etc and don't pay £2 for a croissant etc. It all adds up.

@CherryCherries the 38k is their total household income. Not each.

How much do you spend on your TV and your phones?

Sorry @CherryCherries I’ve just realised you’re discussing another posters income.

@Aliceandthemarchhare

She has £50 personal spends

£1.60 a day for a thirty day month.

Hardly swanning around in the savoy is it?

I was just thinking this ! A haircut, new underwear, a pair of shoes , any of these essential purchases could wipe it out in one swoop.

We have a lower income than you and have never been skint, I suggest you truely look at what it is you cant afford and change it (hint: its usually the house or car... fix is to move to a cheaper area and buy a cheap older car but watch out for tax and insurance rates).

JackieWeaversZoomAc

Not sure I agree with your maths - you won't save 4 years of mortgage payments as you already paid the capital element through your overpayments. It can only ever be interest you save.

But in fact, due to the time value of money you are repaying capital now when it is more expensive than the future as at the end of your mortgage term inflation would have eaten away at the value of your debt in real terms.

The stock market has returned on average 7% pa for the past 40 years - investing that excess cash, if you have the risk appetite, would undoubtedly make you richer in the long term.

Why are you overpaying the mortgage at the expense of paying for clothes for your DC?

As everyone else has said

Why overpay then struggle

ESP if need clothes for kids and new door

So you’re choosing to overpay the mortgage and pay £50 of stuff for yourself a month but you can’t afford essential clothing for your children? I had sympathy when you said your income but you need to get your priorities straight. Stop overpaying the mortgage, pay for the essentials (including essential repairs) and put the rest into accessible savings for emergencies.

Is 'stop overpaying the mortgage' the new 'cancel the cheque'? 😂