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?

Have a look at YNAB, I think there is a monthly fee. It helps you to make every penny you earn work for you.

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!"

This.

Tips: grow up and start adulting?

ODFOD

😂

I hate these threads (yes I know I don't have to look).
It annoys me that people very generously give advice when the OP seemingly is either oblivious to the world around them or a bit dim.
Then you get the "oh, but it doesn't matter if you bring home 6K a month, you can still be struggling because x,y,z" posts.

How can people earn so much money yet be unable to write a simple list of outgoings.

Your rent is high. Find somewhere cheaper? Can you afford a mortgage?

Why is your transport cost so high? Can you get a bus?

And as for anything else, no idea. Do a spreadsheet and see.

Do you have 22 kids?

WT actual F?!

income £3750. Mortgage £700, Childcare £1200 (so similar total to you)

Left breaking even each month. Throw an extra £2k our way.

Yep. Just waiting on the thread to go poof. Like so many others recently...

I feel your pain! My wallets too small for my 50’s- it’s really tough

Nobody can help with this as we don't know what you're managing to spend £3.5k on every month. That's a very high rent but you still have more leftover than I have in total income.

You just need to spend a month or two logging everything you spend and see where you're spending unnecessarily. Spreadsheets help.

I find threads like this to be obscene

Of course it's plenty of money, but I do see how this can happen. We're similar because we underestimate how much all the small things add up if we're not careful.

eg

• tv/music/kindle subscriptions - there are loads. And some you are and some you aren't using.

• Kids activities and, equally importantly, the ad hoc costs around them that we need to keep a better eye on (eg - swimming and then the cost of a drink and a cake after which seems to have slipped into the routine. Or DS' sports activity that is quite far away and has had a measurable impact on our petrol costs which we just didn't think about when we first signed him up.)

• Insurance - life, house, car, electronics etc. It's endless

I’d say it’s your outgoings are too high but another option is to keep outgoings the same and increase your (already high) income. 😂

Don’t bite. It’s just some bored loser sat in his / her mum’s basement trying to wind up some MN randomers to cheer up their otherwise lonely little world.

And sadly it’s worked 🤦🏻‍♀️

🤣 Nice try!

@NotLactoseFree

Bullshit does all that equate to 3.5 k.

Take in some ironing

hmmm we bring in 5000 a month - pay 1300 mortgage, 2000 childcare and we manage just fine! We got rid of the car, both cycle to work so cut commuting costs - still chip away at the saving each month with whatever we can and we manage a few holidays

No idea how you aren't coping tbh

Gosh is it still half term?! I'll bet good money (6.5K?) that op won't be back....

No. That's just the extras that are easy to undersestimate. I assume she still has all the usual costs like gas, electric, water, council tax, food, clothes, cleaning supplies (or a cleaner if she has one - entirely possible on that income) - which she didn't specifically mention here. I didn't list those either as those are usually far more immediately understood and well known.

I was just listing the things that we sometimes underestimate and don't realise how much we're spending on - often lots of smaller amounts that very quickly add up.

If you're only counting transport, rent and childcare as fixed costs, I think that's your problem.

Surely you also pay council tax and have the same increase in energy prices as the rest of us? Food is usually a fairly significant cost so what is your budget for that? Phone/s? TV and magazine subscriptions? Broadband? extracurricular activities for the children? Gym?

All of these things can be quite high, especially if your'e not keeping an eye on them. Even more so with rising costs.

With that income, you should be fine even with the very high rent you are paying (SIL has the same issue - can't get a mortgage so pays significantly more in rent than most people pay in mortgage) so possibly you're not tracking your other regular expenditures or noticing when they've gone up?

How often do you go out? I had dinner with a friend I've known for almost 20 years. We first met as ambitious, single child free professionals and we used to eat in fancy restaurants and drink fancy wine on nights out. Last week we went to a local pizza place, ordered a bottle of the house red, had 2 starters, 2 pizzas and split a dessert - we had a wry chuckle that the bill came to the same as one of our all time dining experiences from 15 years ago! It's a good thing I don't go out that often anymore.

my husband and I only recently started tracking every single expense on a spreadsheet - literally everything and it is eye opening (even put things like a bunch of bananas / can of coke i bought on my lunch break etc)! we were putting about 200£ short in joint account each month and then struggling to figure out why we kept having to top it up. Things that used to catch us out are the once a year payments like contents insurance for the house, ground rent/service charges for our flat - it would creep up on us and then we'd have to dip into savings to pay it - so now we put the money in joint acc monthly so it builds up and in July when its due we have the money ready to pay.

Knowing where every single penny goes is key i think!

We did little things to cut back - like we only have 1 streaming service at a time - binge watch what we want to see and then switch to another one next month etc etc