To wonder how ppl do it...afford it all?

[wishywashyy]

How do ppl (I mean the average joe!) afford everything? I know, I know situations are different BUT in general
Mortgage
Car payments (usually 2!)
Childcare
Savings
And general living

It doesn't add up
Mortgage/council tax on average would be what? 700-800?
Car payments x2 600?
Childcare (let's just say one lot) approx 1000
That's 1400 alone at least!
Saving? I suppose that's depending
General living? Another 800-1k
So That's 2k
Then there's other bills which would be 500ish
That's 2.5k in total

That's a take home of about 40k! Gone! And no savings!

I'm baffled and freaked out at the thoughts!!!

@User135792468

Those who say they have a mortgage of £300-400, where do you live and how much was your house? I just don’t understand how it could possibly be so low. The people’s whose mortgages I know about are all between £1200-2000. We’re in the southeast and house prices are high.

I live in the North West - just five minutes from the beach and our house was 60k - we bought five years ago. It's a two-bedroom terrace with a garden, garage and rear drive.

Most people just do afford it, they budget and live within their means. Get a mortgage they can afford, don't buy expensive cars if they can't afford them etc.

My mortgage is half your figures, no car payments, childcare will only be 2 days a week when I go back to work because my shifts will work around it. My general living and miscellaneous costs are much higher than your estimated figure though, although I see some people saying thats high, my husband and I spend close to 3k here!

I pay £22 for my iphone & £15 for a sky package. I don't know why people think these things are extortionate

Because many people are paying three times that amount for an iphone and a hundred pounds a month more than that for a Sky package.

Unless you can see what is going in and out of someone's bank account, you have no idea what they spend and people with lifestyles that on the surface look very similar, can cost massively different amounts of money. Also, if you shop around, use discount codes etc, you can get exactly the same products and services for significantly less.

A smartphone and service can cost anything from about £10 a month to at least £60. I got a fantastic Black Friday deal 18 months ago on a Moto G7 that cost me £75 after cashback and is still working perfectly today. I don't foresee changing it any time soon. I sold my old crappy Huawei on ebay for about £60, so it cost me almost nothing to change my phone. I pay a fiver a month for the phone service.

People with full Sky packages can be spending £100+ pm, or you can get a couple of streaming services for £10 ish a month each. There's huge room for negotiation with most of these. If you want Sky but don't want to pay full price, you can reduce the cost significantly if you phone and threaten to cancel.

We've got Now TV movies and Prime currently, having just swapped Netflix to Prime, for a change. I don't see any point paying for more than that, as we don't spend that much time watching it. The movies is currently on a half price deal and when this comes to an end, I'll ask for another deal and cancel if they don't offer one.

With many cars, unless you actually look at the number plate, many new cars don't really look any different to a 10 year old one at a fraction of the cost, so you'd not always notice if someone had a new car or one that's cost them much less.

There's endless examples like that, but just in the above three, someone who does all these has a smartphone, a car and a TV service, but there's a huge difference in what it costs.

"Those who say they have a mortgage of £300-400, where do you live and how much was your house? I just don’t understand how it could possibly be so low. The people’s whose mortgages I know about are all between £1200-2000. We’re in the southeast and house prices are high."

When I was renting in Cardiff, rent on my small flat was a bit higher than those cheap mortgages. I knew someone same age as me who paid half my rent, so 200 and something for a massive house in the Cardiff area. Of course, it was a cheaper place, but the main thing was that they bought it 20+ years ago.

"A smartphone and service can cost anything from about £10 a month to at least £60. I got a fantastic Black Friday deal 18 months ago on a Moto G7 that cost me £75 after cashback and is still working perfectly today. I don't foresee changing it any time soon."

I paid £10 for my first smartphone. It obviously didn't last years and years, but it was OK for a while.

@name7852

We take public transport even with the kids.

Where I am, doing this would cost exponentially more than using the car.

It would cost more than the petrol, yes, but all the other costs of having a car? The cost of learning to drive, buying a car, insuring it, servicing it, etc?

Not everyone has car loans, let alone two! DH and i both work and drive second hand cars. If we have to borrow a little, it's paid off long before we buy another car.

@Gwenhwyfar the pp I was responding to said they had one car but still opted for public transport when they could to save money, so they're presumably having those public transport costs on top of servicing etc.

But honestly yes I do think public transport would cost us more, possibly not more than both our cars, but absolutely more than at least one. To send the kids on the bus would cost £100 a month, the train for my work would be £30 a day vs about £7 fuel, plus I'd probably need parking or a bus to get there. DH would likely be more but never looked as it's a completely unviable route. DH and I went to London today, paid £40 in tube and fuel costs (didn't have to pay parking to be fair) vs the £60 train we'd have had to pay for.

I know MN love public transport, but it's bloody atrocious in many areas of the country.

It would cost more than the petrol, yes, but all the other costs of having a car? The cost of learning to drive, buying a car, insuring it, servicing it, etc?

Yes, where I live, it would do, as we have no bus service and very irregular trains. Otherwise you would be forced to rely on a taxi.

I would say on average I pay £150 per month to run my car, including fuel, insurance and money towards servicing and MOT's. I can't do my job without a car so I'd need to get public transport - there are no buses so I'd need to pay for a taxi, which would easily cost £20 per day, if not more.

Not everyone lives in areas with cheap, affordable transport. For me, the most convenient (and cheapest) way of getting around is private car. I live rurally so walking alongside NSL roads with no pavements isn't an option, and as a dog walker, I don't think cycling with a pack of dogs along said roads would be very practical

There are so many variations to people’s income and expenditure it’s very hard to compare.
For example. We’ve always had 2nd hand cars for less than 2k that we drove until they fell apart. DH then got a job with a leased car so it would have looked like he had a brand new car that he changed every 3 years but it was work paying for it. They then changed to car allowance so the allowance DH now gets pays for both of us to have car loans (we bought DH last lease car as mine was falling apart ) so the cars loans are not coming out of Salary as are paid from an extra payment if you see what I mean?
4/5 of us have iPhones. DH is paid for by work and the rest of us have models that are a couple of years behind the latest ones so are very cheap - £10-15 a month each including calls/data etc
We have minimal childcare. When they were little I worked evenings as I actually brought home more money that way than I would working full time and paying for childcare. Now we just have DS2 age 10 in afterschool club twice a week. We have also over the years used tax free vouchers for childcare which saved 40% on childcare.
We don’t have fancy expensive all inclusive holidays - Florida etc. Most holidays have been camping in the U.K. and we have done 2 eurocamp holidays where I managed to get massive discounts.
I also don’t buy expensive clothes or £100 face creams likes some people I know.
We regularly get hello fresh but only when we have been sent 40% discount codes

£600 on 2 cars would be the first thing to change if you're struggling, we have never spent more than £150 per month on each car and never had any problems with them really apart from the usual new tyres etc.

You take your choices, re kids, house, cars you don’t have to conform to the norm

Partner and I own our cars outright, save small amounts each month along with partner. Don’t spend ridiculous money on food and limit take aways to one per month. Walk when we don’t need to drive (milk from shops etc), plan days out in advance. Can’t help you with the childcare element, I didn’t work when DS (10) was younger so was always around. However, I completely empathise with all those paying extortionate child care fees, it’s not fair on you or your hard earned money.

They're only in full-time childcare for a few years and then there's school. People say that school isn't childcare but it does really cut a whole load of money off your monthly bill. After that you just cut where you can, you get loans, you go without, sometimes you get into debt then you have your wins too!! when I hear people saying they'll never be able to afford a child I think no one nobody can really afford the child but we just make our way on, leave out the things that you never knew you didn't really need anyway and you just push on really!

Back in the days when I used to work (finished in 2011) I was a single parent with a mortgage, car, out-of- school time childcare and general living costs. I somehow managed to do it, we didn't have savings, holidays or treats but I was only on a salary of £21,500, then in my final year I dropped to only 2/3 of my hours with the same drop in pay (£14,333). It wasn't easy but I did it.

I earn £41k pa
Rent 950
Council tax 150
Utilities 200
Insurances 100
Pension 300
Fuel 250
Phone 55
Food 150
Take home is 2500. It doesn't leave a lot

Our rent and childcare alone are more than £2k a month there’s no saving there’s just working and living as best we can - it’s a struggle

Normal income in this area. Joint is 52k. Both kids at school
2 cars on finance one is 219 and other is 190.
Mortgage 450
Saving 500 pm

My fiancé and I live month to month with no money left to save and no kids. I have two jobs = full time wage and DF has a full time job. We rent (£1k) as too old to get a mortgage now after both divorces. He came out of his marriage with nothing and mine paid credit card debt among other stuff. Not much left of that nest egg now. We have two cars on finance and can't afford foreign hols. My dogs cost about £250 a month in insurance (15 and 13 with petplan!!).
I feel between us my fiancé and I should be doing well but somethings off as we never have any money. A lot probably goes on food shopping as we don't cook so buying ready meals (we don't eat out and rarely have a take away).
I agree OP. The ones with money imo have good jobs, never divorced and have lived in the same house for years. That's defo not me!!!

I don't have an expensive car. My last purchase was £4k for a 5 year old car. Bought outright with savings. Holidays are one a year. UK one year, abroad the next. I don't have any extravagant hobbies and don't socialise out much, usually take in turn to go to friends houses. I live within my means and any extra money goes in mortgage overpayment or keeping my emergency fund topped up. I feel comfortable as I have all the basics I need but more thought is needed with the wants in life

We live within our means - if we can't afford it, we don't have it. Mortgage etc is paid every month and we're warm and fed, enjoy days out, go on camping trips rather than abroad and own my car. We don't have much but it's enough. If we don't have money to do something, it's tough. We're in dire need of new windows, but affordability means we can only do upstairs this year and downstairs next year.

Cars - no one needs to spend £600 a month on two cars ffs! Honestly. Buy small reliable runabouts and don't spend on a status symbol

Childcare- I always worked compressed hours and DH worked a day at the weekend so we could both work full time whilst having the children in nursery only 3 days a week.

I bought a car for £650 outright so no car payments except insurance. That’s your biggest saving unless you or your OH work part time or have parents who can help with childcare to cut those costs too.

(nb we earn into six figures and would never dream of spending £600/month on cars! There are far better ways to spend the money in my opinion)

Credit. Debt. Most people are swimming in debt. Borrowing from their future selves. Don't envy them. Pity them. The joneses are broke. All your see is the stuff the bank let's them borrow.