To be struggling to survive on 65k household income

[Soddinghell]

By the time we have paid mortgage, phone bills, bills car insurance, kids activities etc we barely have anything left. I don’t know what’s going on. DH earns 50k and I earn 15k part time. Please somebody help me I am thinking of going full time to stay afloat, I don’t know where we are going wrong, we are not in London or an expensive area, just outside manchester and people keep telling us we should be fine. We are not though!

[ZeroFucksGivenToday]

God Op. You're brave. Unless you are on the bones of your arse and earning nothing and surviving on fresh air you can't actually say on MN anymore that life is tough for all people across the board.

I get it by the way, and agree completely.

[RJnomore1]

Not necessarily poor money management. Unexpected roses I’m cost of living beyond what could be anticipated.

It does require rethinking now but it doesn’t mean you’ve been bad at it in the past.

in fact the economy depends on people spending as much as they can to keep it going, this is why we are really screwed as people reduce spending.

[GrazingSheep]

Ignore the mad troll.
Have you exact figures for your outgoings?

[Culldesack]

Oh go away

[vodkaredbullgirl]

uncle get it right

[PinkyU]

I’m not sure that’s fair @Horcruxe i think it’s fine to complain that you’re feeling the pinch but it difficult for others to feel sympathetic if the reason is poor money management or just pure frivolity.

[SomethingVexesThee]

@Soddinghell

Fuck sake wish I never bothered

Come on! You posted in AIBU. And gave very limited information with which people can adequately judge advise you

[Wearefoooked22]

@nutellachurro that is a high income up north!…we earn the same op,we don’t have much left at the end of the month either!..we did until everything went up!

[Sunflower987]

How many kids do you have OP?

[Culldesack]

65K may sound a lot but it's obviously all relative to your expenditure. Can you try interest only mortgage payments for a while?

[NameChangeLifeChange]

OP I understand and we have similar incomings and are struggling. Our mortgage is huge, £300 more a month since remortgaging as interest rates have shot up. It’s a hard time and doesn’t seem fair- we only dreamed of these salaries before!

[JustFrustrated]

Ignoring all the weird posts.

Get a budget. Even an excel sheet.

Map out every committed expense: e..g anything you're in contract with.
Then prioritise it.

Then meal plan, when I don't meal plan I'll easily spend 30/40 quid more a week. When I meal plan I can get that right down.

Then track EVERYTHING You spend for a month, see where every penny goes and what you can stop.

For me, sounds cliche, takeaway coffee, so I got a decent coffee machine and a good travel mug. Paid for itself in a month.
As a pp. Said, it's lifestyle inflation. What I could afford 9 months ago, now needs to be cut down/out.

[justusandmoo]

I know exactly what you mean OP. We are bringing in a bit more and still just about cover everything each month. I do find that I spend a lot less when my partner is working away though and that tells me that we spend too much on eating out and coffee shops etc. Do you go out a lot?

[mugcup]

I absolutely get it! We earn a fair bit between us and have worked hard ( like other people too ) but we get taxed to the hilt and are having to rethink DC activities. We have a big mortgage but our house isn't massive and it needs a lot of work done which we cannot afford. It's gonna be tough for so many 'comfortable' people this winter and beyond