How do people do it?!

[sameshizdiffday]

Over the last 12 months me and DH have had a combined wage increase of approximately £400 per month - lovely!

Our bills however, over the last 12 months, have increased by more than double that! - not lovely

Now at a point where we're both stuck in our overdrafts with no money to do anything, no hope of a holiday this year (or in the next decade if things continue like this) and I just feel really down.
We're both getting paid 'market rate' for what we do so I don't think a job change would help.

2 kids - 13 and 10 who keep asking if we're going on holiday in summer

I know we're not the only ones in this position so, does anyone have any tips/ advice on what to do?!

We live in 4 bed semi in the North, are in a lot, heating on 19 all day, 14 over night, dishwasher on 2 a day, washing machine and tumbler on daily and our bill is a lot less than yours.

When are you out of mobile contract? Look at Lebara when you’re out of contract.

It’s increasing tight for everyone but people make different choices. We drive a very old car and rarely eat out, old phones and we can go and holiday.

OP, you haven’t given you income in your list.

I have a £7.50 mobile phone contract. Don’t get a new handset when this contract expires.
Look at the car financing. I suspect you are tied in that but look to see how much the penalty would be to finish early. See if that’s financially viable.

If not then you’ll just have to ride it out till your contracts finish. They are the two areas you can make massive savings on.

Wow that is a huge gas and electric bill! My friends told me that they hit £500 for December (but averaging £300-£350 pcm over the year) and they have a 4 storey house.

My bill had probably gone up 50% but I have made a lot of cuts. I still do put the heating on for an hour when we’re really cold though. Unless you have like 8 bedrooms and live in the Outer Hebrides surely this could be cut a bit?

It sucks that you can get such a big pay rise and it's just swallowed up by the cost of living. Everything is so expensive now. If you really want to work towards a holiday I would look at reducing mobile phone costs and possibly car finance. I know this is hard if you are tied in but it's an area you can make huge savings. I have a sim only contract and it works out cheaper to buy a reconditioned phone or just hang onto to your handset when the contract runs out, it would give you a bit of room for some savings towards a holiday. If there's anyway you can survive with one decent car and one cheap banger do that which will save some money too. You can do cheap holidays if you look for term time flights, especially from regional airports and AirB&B's.

Other suggestions which I am sure you are probably doing already, turn down the thermostat, use a drying rack rather than tumble, yes the 10hr long economy wash on your washing machine /dishwasher. Energy bills will get cheaper as it gets lighter and warmer so make sure if you pay by dd to reduce that as your bill drops. Drive slower to save fuel, avoid journeys where possible. I find I am more reluctant to just nip out in the car now and think about fuel costs when making plans with friends. Do things like look for free parking options rather than expensive car parks, take packed lunches and flasks on days out etc. Sell some stuff, get the kids on board and have a holiday fund savings pot /account. All a bit miserable and hard work but would be worth it if you can get a trip abroad for your kids.

Gas and electric bill is insane. We have a five bed Edwardian semi and our combined bill was £137 for January. I’d be looking there first to make immediate cut backs.

I'd be looking at your gas/electricity, sky and cars OP, that's well over a grand a month.

Gas/Electricity - have you gotten quotes from elsewhere using your actual usage figures (you can get these from your bills)? Even if your tied in, if you can save a fair whack then it's worth the disconnection charge which you'd probably make back in a month.

Cars - £590 is a lot when your feeling the pinch but given I pay almost 400 for one, I get it. Do you need two cars of the size you have? What's the finance position? If it's say PCP then if they're worth more than the remaining finance, you could look to trade down at least one of them. It's rare in my experience that two family cars are needed.

Sky - I don't see this as a necessity though it may be your broadband as well? Even so I'm on something like ,2gb speeds and currently paying £24 a month. TV isn't required with a fire stick or netflix subscription. It won't be a huge saving but £20-£30 a month isn't bad.

Council tax you can do it over 12 months and not 10.

Yep, absolutely as car finance from a dealership is often a huge financial drain. A bank loan is how I do it - mine is £138 pm over 6 years though I'll probably pay it off much sooner.

I couldn't imagine spending £580 a month on cars. That's an absurd amount given your earnings. Is it really a priority? My car cost 2,500 and I paid it off within a year, meaning it's mine now. You could seriously buy three new cars a year for what you're paying, so it's bizarre that you even started the thread.

You need to make choices in life and you've chosen cars over holidays.

We don't have cars on finance or sky TV and our phones cost about £30 per month combined. How big is your house? Our gas and electricity is a little under £300 for a 3 bed end terrace

I feel you OP

I was hoping for a larger raise, but my wages will only be up by around £150 per month and received £1000 bonus (after tax £590) which is not enough to cover the inflation rate. My savings have deceased by 90% as I have had to also pay for private CBT due to declining mental health (this was urgent as I was self harming, becoming suicidal and had alcohol abuse)

I have came to the conclusion that if a promotion is not imminent and I mean in the next couple of months, I will need to seek a new job, with a higher rate of pay. I have already started looking and I am awaiting to hear back from two Last stage interviews. I've also been on sick leave the last 6 weeks which has reduced my childcare by around 40% (we are still contracted to min hours to keep LO place)

LO is also asking for a holiday but I cannot afford it this year. I will try and book a couple of nights away locally in some self catering accommodation though and look out for some good deals. Even then, I feel I will struggle.

I am living in a run down house - so much work needs done. I am private renting off my mum so its a lot cheaper but no work has been put into it and I wanted my own home, so hadn't put any work into it myself. I had a good few thousand saved for a deposit a couple of years back which has now dwindled to under £1000, and I feel depressed that I will be stuck for longer in a house that is not a home. It sounds sad, but I am literally sitting like a duck waiting for my inevitable inheritance from my last remaining grandparent and my parents if I stand any chance of getting anywhere if this continues.

Its just depressing.

Cut your SKY and huge mobile phone bill and you will definitely be able to afford a (cheap) summer holiday. I've never paid more than £12 per phone in our house. £120 is a massive amount.

OK OP, I commented "same" in a thread above, but some of your outgoings are huge.
We live in a 4-bed detached house and will be paying approx £180 a month for gas and electric when we come off of our fix. There's only 2 of us, but I do work from home. Our thermostat is set to 15 degrees, which is fine. We barely use the oven and have never used the 'dryer' setting on the washing machine. However, being only two of us, I only do 2 washes a week.
Your car finance costs are massive. We have an old car each that we own outright.
We TRULY can't cut down any more than we have already. Whereas there's lots of fat to trim from your monthly expenditure.

When you say you can't afford a holiday so you mean you can't afford to go abroad? Or that you can't afford to go away at all?

Our holiday this year will be a couple of nights at a premier inn somewhere. The room will be approx £100 and then I'll need some money for food.

I've just found out that our council tax is going up by 15%! How is that even allowed

I thought the max was 6% or something. That's what I'm budgeting for

@FrenchandSaunders are you in Croydon? I believe that's the only council in England and Wales that was given special dispensation to do this.
Do you mind sharing what your new monthly bill will be, and what it was, just for interest?

My Council are still deciding 🙄

That car finance is crippling! Do you need 2 cars?

We cancelled SKY about 20 years ago as it was too expensive then! We've got Netflix. 3 mobile phones cost us £40pm - one on contract until March when it will switch to Sim only saving another £10pm - the other 2 already Sim only but were only cheap contract phones when new. One car is 9 years old, the other is 3 years old which we got a good deal on under scrappage for our old car. We paid cash from savings for the difference so no finance.
If we can't afford a holiday then we don't have one. We were both brought up holidaying in this country and our DS has had many UK camping trips.

You, and many others, will need to stop wanting the 'luxuries' in life and invent a new different (and cheaper) lifestyle until such time as things improve.

It's so rubbish OP. We were looking forward to having a bit extra for luxuries once youngest DC started funded nursery, but it's all gone on gas and electricity. With all the other increases too, it's quite depressing. I still feel fortunate that we at least had that extra income released, so we didn't feel we'd lost as much. I've been looking at camping this summer, as a cheap holiday for us. At least we'd still get away and are fortunate to have all the camping kit already, from life pre kids.

Are you in contract on your mobiles? If you're out of contract you can call them and drop to under £20 a month and still get everything the same, they just don't tell you this.

Get rid of the little rewards to save for the bigger ones e.g. family holidays

I actually do the opposite of this. I would rather skip the expensive holiday but be able to say yes to fun stuff throughout the year. We will just visit family and friends here and there (they will come to us too as we live in London).;

It sucks doesn it? I would be honest with the kids though.Say you will be having some nice days out(Also maybe buy a tent for a few days here and there? ,better than 2 weeks straight! )Sun and Mail are doing £ 20.00 deals as well) ATM the COL is sky high ,and many people will be in the same boat.Maybe see if you could manage with one car ,or sell one and get an older cheaper car,mobiles seem dear as well .Sky too .Also do you live anywhere you could have a foreign student in the summer months? or a lodger even for a short while.Your energy bill is mad! Can you cut it back or if it includes some shortfall maybe speak to them about any help there is?