why are we struggling

[wwoiu]

Just looked at our budgets - yet again....and despite bringing in 6.5k per month, we just seem to be struggling. Our rent is 2000 and childcare is 500 - plus the usual transport 500. But we should have loads left for savings and holidays and stuff and yet we don't. We cant change any of those but need to find ways of cutting down in other areas. Any tips?

Ugh hate these threads

Rent somewhere cheaper???

Have you done an incomings/ outgoings sheet?

Do an absolute ruthless audit of where you are spending money. Then cut back.

If you're in jobs earning that much and you seriously can't figure out how to budget your money better then how are you actually able to get dressed in the morning?

Do you work from home? Honestly that rent is so high could you move?

Can you post a list of all your outgoings so we can see what you've currently got going on and where to possibly make changes?

Yes, it must be soooo difficult to manage on 6.5k a month. Cue tiny violin.

Use the MSE budget spreadsheet

Are you paying for subscriptions that you don't use?

any tips?

Just stop spending money?
You have £3500 left for food, utilities and spending yet you can’t afford to save or a holiday?

🤔

You're not going to get any sympathy on here op!

Track your outgoings for a month or go through your statements if you pay for things generally by card and work out where your high spending is, then cut back.
You need to know where it's going before you can do anything about it.

if you really don’t know what you’re pissing another 3k away on then you need to look at your bank statements at the end of the month and find out. But a simple way to prevent it would be having a standing order that puts, say, 1k direct into a savings account as soon as you get paid (not an easy access account you can take it out of again whenever you want). Open another account like a Monzo each for personal spending and allocate yourself 500 each for whatever you want - treats, clothes, daily coffees, nights out etc. That still leaves another 1k so you could either save that or leave it in the current account as a holiday fund.

Can really relate tbh!

On the statement on our Lloyds Bank website we can see incomings and outgoings for each month..this is useful to see what the average disposable income is or what the deficit is.

We keep our own log of all incomings and outgoings, too, so can see if we are spending more than what we’re earning 😳

The op is a wind up merchant is my guess.

Oh come on. How are people so gullible?

This may as well have a big flashing sign on it saying, "WIND UP THREAD. ALERT!ALERT!"

Clearly lots of eating out, shopping, expensive kids hobbies, weekends away or other stuff that others can only dream of?? You can't account for more than I earn. You need to write it all down

Exactly

Get higher paid jobs?

You'll get you arse handed to you for this.

But we are struggling too, no where near your budget, but we should still not be struggling. In our case it's buying in safety nets that are crippling us. We have an insurance policy for everything...illness, redundancy, health, dental, you name it and we have it. Healthcare is awful where we live and we are getting to the stage of not being able to afford private insurance. Tiny violins I know, but there will be lots like us piling back onto the NHS.

I've stopped doing an online food order, we were wasting so much as I'd plan for the week and then not have time or energy to organise, so we'd end up buying ready meals on the way home when we were running late. Now I set an amount and shop daily.

I came here to say this. I find it hard to believe that someone bringing home a salary that big can’t figure out basic maths.

It doesn’t make sense.

I tried on my diamond shoes this morning and they were too tight 😒
Sympathies OP

Look at what you're spending the other £3.5k on.

Cut back on this - I guarantee there will be loads of wriggle room unless you have about a dozen DC.

Why are you only renting when you make that much money though?