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!!!

I don't understand how having one person at home would save £60 a week on food bills, unless the family are unnecessarily overspending on food,

OP spends 1500 per month on "general living and bills". Plenty of scope.

Our mortgage is over £1k and we save around £900 a month BUT we don’t have DC yet (planned for in a few years and saving now), we only have one car which we own outright and rarely use, and our bills are much lower than you estimate - £47 a month for energy, £21 water, £23 internet, £140 council tax. Our general living expenses are much lower than £1k a month too but we have a good life, travel, eat well etc so I think some of your estimates are skewed.

Mortgage a lot less than that in our area.

Took turns to be sahp/ work part time to avoid child care fees

Saved for car, bought 2nd hand so never needed to borrow for car.

Unless you're loaded it's really hard to get by for a lot of people.

I'm a SAHM/carer. My dh earns around 30 grand a year before overtime. After some overtime, also adding DLA in for DS (he is disabled). Also get maintenance for my son from his dad. We total about 40k a year.

We are in a situation where we aren't struggling per say. We spend £100 a week on food, pay our mortgage (only £400 per month though), run 2 cars and pay bills etc etc and we are in a much better situation that a lot of people. But there isn't any spare for anything else. Our house needs more work done but we just don't have the spare money, we haven't had a holiday in several years, never get many days out etc. Due to partners unsociable hours and living rurally - running 2 cars is essential so that's a big cost for us! One was bought outright but we have a loan on the newer one.

We don't get help with anything! We feel we are in the awkward middle where we aren't well off obviously but we aren't really struggling either and don't get help with anything. as above we get DLA for DS. But we get no means tested benefits.

We are very lucky that our mortgage is a little under £400 a month on our house we bought £135,000 but now worth £200,000 and increasing. We bought an ex military house when they were sold off. If we were renting in our area we'd be paying at least double that in rent! People are private renting in our street - same house and style for £800! Crazy! We would have even less spare money if we were renting.

Unless really well off, most people don’t afford it all. Some will live on credit rather than not have what they want, some will live within their means and others will be receiving benefits.

Completely dependent on erpsinal circumstances - where you live, if you have children, if you have family that can help with child car, if you are with a partner, if you are both able to work, if you both drive etc etc

Retired grandparents so zero childcare now - they didn’t do nursery age but the moment mine went to pre-school they did wrap around care.
Very old cars so no car finance.
General living - we have cheap taste and rarely holiday beyond visiting relatives. We’ve done one trip abroad since my youngest (now 4) was born.
We do have a massive mortgage though, and we prioritise savings.

Everyone cuts their cloth accordingly don’t they?

We have £4.5k net between us every month so that’s fine for us. That’s not to sound boastful but you did ask how people afford it @wishywashyy

It really depends doesn’t it? I think some people have a lot of debt but otherwise it’s just doing the best in your circumstances.

2x600 on cars really stood out for me from your list - £600 p/m is something like a mid-range Volvo 4x4 on a PCP lease (I’m currently car hunting…) so well into luxury territory and not the sort of thing I’d expect on a £40k salary.

We’re high earners living in London. Mortgage costs are much higher than you’ve budgeted for, childcare costs around £300/m, car was £3,000 bought used outright (selling now as expecting twins and need zillions of seats), groceries around £400/m but then we spend lots of restaurants/Uber Eats…

The car payments are clearly a massive money sink!

@SilverGoblin

The middle class idyll is not had by all.

Simple as that.

A very VERY large number of people have none of it.

I am one who has none of it.

Renting a cheap little flat.

No holidays, ever. Not even a day out to a museum etc.

No transport, reliant on expensive buses.
Min £2.50 per bus fare although savings are available with an £11.00 weekly bus pass so long as one stays extremely local, as within about a four mile radius. Cannot even afford to run a push bike because of the never ending cost of puncture repairs.

If we had a baby, wouldn't be able to afford childcare at all. Well, we can't afford a baby full stop, it would end up with a nothing filled shit life apart from love. We can't even afford to keep a cat as a receptor of our spare love FFS.

The notion of spending £800-£1,000 per month on general living, is quite frankly, fucking laughable.

Having £500 to spend on utilities is the same.
It's called being cold and not talking to anyone using a phone. Limited to bbc news (only headlines and synopsis mostly), Mumsnet and similar web sites using an blocking everything but the content browser and one or two YouTube videos here and there on low res. No downloading nothing, no streaming nothing, nothing data intensive at all.

No eating out, ever.

No take away food, ever.

No booze, ever.

Pretending you're not ill with anything new, when you could really use a doctor.

No TV.

We're not on the dole (touch wood and whistle) by the way. DH works full time but I am too sick to work these days. Might possibly be better off if we were.

There are plenty of shitty elements but it's no use thinking what other people have. You just have to get on with what you've got.

I am still very grateful for what we have.

I am fortunately very good with my hands and have a good learning ability so can do a lot to make/do things cheaply. Cooking, baking, sewing, knitting and DIY amongst others.

Why can’t you go to the doctor?

Cars are bloody expensive to own, and run. I think if you can, run one car per household. Childcare is a killer; I'm a part-time worker and have one of my sons in childcare two days a week. I crunched the numbers recently and I worked out I take home £9.00 per day after paying for childcare form my salary. When kids go to school finances ease up a bit but there's no denying the pre-school years are bloody tough financially.

We bought our house before we had children, but our mortgage comes in at £939 per month. Again, as the years pass and we eat away at that loan things do get slowly easier.

Food seems to be so damn expensive now as well. To be more specific, its not the actual food but everything else around it that wracks up the bill - catfood (we have three cats) Babymilk, Babyfood, nappies, cleaning products, the list goes on!

Just realized I've been no help whatsoever - but yeah, I feel your pain!

I’m a single parent and work full time. My mum helps with my children so I have no childcare costs. I watch every penny and sell things I no longer need on eBay. I have no finance or credit cards, live within my means and save each month.

Oh and it’s not forty k take home, that’s forty k before tax. Take home is after tax,

🙄🙄 There’s always one. And it’s often you.

OP, the 1k general living seems a bit off. What are you spending 250 a week on? We don’t live frugally by any means but we don’t spend 250 a week on general living.

And 600 for a car payment is pretty high. We pay half that for a decent car. People manage by not buying top end for everything.

Well we have a bigger mortgage than you said in the OP, but we drive absolute sheds on wheels, so no car costs apart from keeping them on the road when they try to die. We also have a massive holiday fund, because that's where our priorities lie.

Basically, everyone is different. And a lot of people are living on debt.

Our Council tax bill is £186.00 pm! Nowhere near £700/£800 here(SC Detached house)

My Council tax is £240, mortgage is £1700...

Out of my friendship group, all professionals living in a London suburb, paying childcare and a massive mortgage, I don't know anyone who has two car payments going out every month. One car payment maybe, but more likely none. You can buy 2nd hand cars for a few thousand in cash, you'd only need to save up a year of car payments to afford one. I just don't know anyone who has a "flash" car, and most of my friendship group are relatively high earners. So I'd say the car payments would be the first to go for anyone on a modest income.

We only have one car and I used to take the bus to work before working from home. I used to buy bus tickets in bulk which I only used up on the days I worked. It worked out at around £16 a week which was much cheaper than running a car.

Also we are waiting until our toddler is getting free nursery hours before having another child.

Two car payments, never had this.

There’s always one. And it’s often you

Did someone shit on your cornflakes this morning? 😂

@Bluntness100

The average salary in the Uk is 32k op. Eighty percent of mothers work. So easily affordable if you earn the average.

I don't know where they get these figures, 6 million people used food banks last year. But of course, 1 CEO on an inflated wage and a workforce on the poverty line will give an 'average' that isn't actually representative of the company let alone the UK as a whole.

The female employment rate was 71.8%, down from a record high of 72.4% a year previously. The male employment rate was 80.6%. 9.61 million women were working full-time, while 5.88 million were working part-time. Women made up the majority of part-time employment (38%), compared to 13% of men.2 Mar 2021

I think salaries are overinflated by average wages. The average household income is £29k which fits more with what I see in my life.
I do not know how anyone can spend £1000 in general living expenses after bills. We spend about £400 a month on food. We do not spend £600 a month on everything else.

@patypan Why can’t you go to the doctor?

Because you can't afford the prescription or the time off work.

@MintyMabel

Oh and it’s not forty k take home, that’s forty k before tax. Take home is after tax,

🙄🙄 There’s always one. And it’s often you.

OP, the 1k general living seems a bit off. What are you spending 250 a week on? We don’t live frugally by any means but we don’t spend 250 a week on general living.

And 600 for a car payment is pretty high. We pay half that for a decent car. People manage by not buying top end for everything.

In case you were wondering

www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/
Earn £40,000 in 2021/2022 and you'll take home £30,864. This means £2,572 in your pocket a month.

Over the year you'll pay £5,484 income tax and £3,652 in National Insurance.