How are people surviving

[Truthseeker456]

I don't get it. One income and I am on a what was a good wage 53,000. My mortgage is likely to double next year I have nursery fees and 3000 take home and always in my overdraft. How are people surviving, we don't hear anything in the media. Rents are also though the roof

How do you spend £166 a month on 2 adults and eat well? Where do you shop and what do you eat?

I spend £75 a week for 2 adults at Tesco. I buy 6 breakfasts (porridge/muesli with milk), 6 lunches (sandwich/omelette with salad) and 6 dinners (meat/fish with veg and rice or potatoes). We snack on 2 pieces of fruit each a day, no other treats or snacks.

We eat out 1 day a week on top of this £75.

@Jellifulfruit

Just as simple as going on the waiting list. Some places have worse/longer waiting lists than others. We were just fortunate that we picked a place that not many others picked that particular week, and we were No 1 that week (on the list for this bungalow.) We had been on the list 5 years when we got it, so we did wait a long time. (It was a long time at the time!) We had lots of 'waiting time' points after a 5 year wait. Still, you could have knocked me down with a feather when we were offered it!

I would imagine we would have more of a chance to fly to the moon on a microlight, than we would have to get a social housing property now. There are three times the amount of people on it now than when we went on it over a decade ago.

We genuinely feel blessed every day to be here, especially when you see how many people are struggling so badly in unaffordable private let, OR are unable to get anything and are living in a hostel, or Travelodge room, as they have nowhere to live because the landlord has thrown them out, so he/she can sell up.

My heart is with these people. I wish I could find somewhere secure for every one of them. ❤More social housing needs building. MUCH more. Not bloody private sale homes.

For example and with very crude figures
a £400000 mortgage over 25 years at 2% would be approx £1600 per month, if the interest increases to 6% the new monthly repayment is over £2500 per month.
So not double but still a lot of money to find each month

You’re missing the point. There’s this assumption in this country that if you have a high salary you won’t feel the pinch and it’s part of a divide and conquer approach used by the tory party. Generally speaking if you have a high salary your outgoings are going to reflect that so a mortgage is much higher and it’s not like you can just give a house back if you suddenly impacted by cost of living. Sure you can move from Waitrose to Asda (cliche but it’s an example) but major outgoings aren’t easy to get out of and are often the result of a decision made in drastically different financial environments.

Based on your gross income it’s relatively easy to estimate your take home and £400 a month rent is low relative to that income vs a lot of others I would think.

Water rates are to go up now too. We do every single cost saving idea going. Have always been careful as a condition of marrying I made it absolutely clear that I never wanted to be skint looking down the back of the sofa for pennies for school dinners. I’ve now told my DH we need to stop the tv licence because we’ve cut right down on tv use too. He’s resisting even though in the past he would use it less than I did. We rarely buy books anymore using the library more. We buy cheapest products in the shops if they really are just as good from a nutritional perspective. Now with water rates going up I’m going to push everyone to flannel wash when possible maybe shower once a week because we weren’t smelly in the olden days with just the shared weekly tin bath. As a family, we are happy yes, very. We laugh because sometimes we’re like The Waltons. However I do wonder how much further we can regress.

@ColdMeg wise advice from your DF, I think

For my first mortgage, the interest rate was 16%

I get that the developers should involve the community more and I do wish that they built more in the cities than in the countryside (but british people like houses and the houses built in the cities would be too expensive for most FTB; a 2 bed house on my road with no garden is selling for £825k; my 2 bed flat with communal garden on the other hand is worth £400k). So they have to build somewhere.

People do need homes and it is the lack of homes and infrastructure that is stunting our economic growth.

You are on a public forum where people are allowed to voice their own worries and thoughts. They can post what they like angry lady.

It’s not just food, we go through a whole large pack of toilet rolls a week. To make spag bog I need two packs of mince and two packs of spaghetti. Just jacket potatoes and beans is at least 4 tins of beans and half a block of cheese when it’s 6 adult portions. Lunches for work. Lunches for school. Cleaning supplies, I do two loads of washing most days

I’m sorry, but unless you had a Subprime Mortgage . Your first mortgage was not 16%. It just wasn’t. By the time the rates hit 16%, they were not handing out. Mortgage is to anybody.

I don't think anyone with a higher income is claiming they are the worst off, just that it has a significant impact on them also.

I know I am very lucky to be able to afford it- but my mortgage is about to go up £750/month, my gas/electric is almost £300/month more that it was at the end of 2021, and with food/insurance increasing etc that's a lot extra to pay. And we were "sensible" (read lucky!) to be able to take out a mortgage half what the bank offered and payable on one salary.

Sure I could release equity and move, but it would cost about £40k in stamp duty and moving costs to save about £750 a month - that's a long time to even break even

I rent out a room to a lodger. Even with that, my overall income is around £10k less than the OP (in London, so doesn't go far either).

I'm very fortunate that my parents recently helped me out with a big essential expense.

My savings are depleted to almost nothing. I don't have high childcare costs as DC are secondary/older primary.

I get by by doing what I've always done, but not saving anything. I also borrowed from DC's savings for the big essential purchase, so I'm repaying them rather than a loan. Without that I might be able to save a little.

No coffees out, no meals out, using reward points for as much as possible, take my own lunch to work, packed lunches for DCs. Very cheap mobile phone deals. Buy almost all clothes second hand. And other things, too. I always look to see if I can get something cheaper secondhand before buying new. Walk as much as possible rather than take car or public transport. No gym membership. Free activities (go for a walk, park etc) at weekends. I do pay for Amazon Prime, Netflix and an XBox pass. Occasionally think about dropping Amazon or Netflix, but think they are worth the cost overall and I couldn't entertain the DC for less anyway. Meal planning, buying reduced items where possible, cooking from scratch.

I think about money all the time.

As someone with almost that salary myself, I have to agree.

Yes, things are more expensive down south, but for people on bigger salaries, especially if they've been on them for a while, it's utterly stupid not to be saving significant chunks of their income and curtailing their lifestyle.

We have very good savings because we used to earn a pittance, and didn't spend all the extra as we started earning more.

If you are on a fixed rate of 1.75% and it is coming to an end and the cheapest deal you can get is 5.79% for a 5 year fixed

a £225k mortgage with £50k deposit or equity

at 1.75 % the repayments are £720.63
at 5.79% the payments are £1105

at 7% is £1236 and many people are finding that the deals they are being offered are nearer 7% than 5%

This is on 25 year mortgage

The OP maybe better looking at an interest only mortgage for the rest of the nursery fee time and then when d at school return to a replayment mortgage or lengthen the term to 30 or 35 year to reduce the monthly outgoings - but this will add considerably to the interest paid.

Agree.
I don't even make 15K a year 😂

It's not a race to the bottom, everyone has noticed the COL, in different ways. We have a 6 figure household income and have noticed. You don't have to be starving and cold to complain about money! We also can't fix the issue ourselves so I don't see why people on higher incomes aren't allowed to discuss money anymore. There have always been top earners and bottom earners, COL doesn't change that

Exactly @thecatsthecats As I said, me and DH are on £35K between us roughly, and WE cope fine! So it makes me roll my eyes when I see anyone on £100K plus between them, moaning about their finances. Like, get real!

Sort yourselves out, rethink your finances, get a cheaper property, stop squandering on stuff you don't need, but do not insult actually poor and struggling people, by claiming you struggle financially on £100K plus income. Just stop it!

No coffees out, no meals out, using reward points for as much as possible, take my own lunch to work, packed lunches for DCs. Very cheap mobile phone deals. Buy almost all clothes second hand.

and thus the economy suffers, if you have 5 million people cutting back on these items, but the rich 1 million staying the same spending, then the economy will take a dip

Our mortgage is set to go from £1046 a month to £1600 per month. Our food has gone up from £80 a week to £130. Energy was £80 a month now £150. So that is over £600 a month extra we have to find.

Same. I don't know! My husband and I both work full time but bring home about the same amount as you do on one wage. We know our means aren't huge but we've always lived within them. We don't go on regular foreign holidays, we have always had rubbish old cheap cars, we already buy the cheapest food, toiletries etc, we live in an area with low house prices - all that.

However, our energy bill increased obscenely, and our mortgage has quadrupled. There's no wiggle room now, no savings. We've just had to magic up an extra £600 a month and it's impossible.

I don't know why or how so many other people seem to be untouched by the issues. Like, over the winter I've never had so many people try to engage me in conversation about skiing. SKIING! In this financial climate?! I've been honest and said "I've not been skiing, we don't go seeing and we can't afford to go skiing" to which they say "it's only the same price as a package holiday somewhere hot" to which I have to say "we don't do that either" - like, what?!

And we have friends having extensions and new kitchens and we've got a hole in the ceiling and a leak in the bathroom that we can't afford to get fixed so we just stumble through life.

I'd disagree with you on the media point though - I don't know what media you consume but the cost of living crisis is absolutely being talked about. It's in all the finance reporting on interest rates, mortgages etc.

Some examples:
https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1673281927359651842?s=20
Cost of living crisis: 'We’re not really living any more' - BBC News
‘Money is a constant worry and it’s infecting everything’: one family’s experience of the soaring UK cost of living | UK cost of living crisis | The Guardian

Sometimes some people haven't got a clue when there well off and really need to look at how they are actually spending there wages and what on. We survive on 1 wage hubby does 25hrs a week £1122 a month plus my pip which pays for my car,2 lots of child benefit, 4 children 3 of which still in nappies etc,2 cars, 3 bed house,3 animals on pet plans, no debts,pay all our bills every month on time and rent,tax etc, monthly shop 180 and 2 holidays a year. Yes we don't get expensive stuff,yes we don't get to go abroad or expensive holidays etc but happy atm and even happier just found gas and electric going back down.

😘

Got to say it ... high house prices for the last 20 years have crippled our economy.

It essentially all goes back to the cheap credit boom of the noughties. Stamp duty receipts trebled between 200 and 2010, which just tells you the extent of the rises.

So much income and wealth has been fed into the gaping maws of the British housing market monster that it is criminal. It's eaten millions of people's ability to be financially free. Add to that the fact that British housing acted like a cheap savings account for the global superrich, and we were screwed from 2005 onwards.

I am sick to death of being part of the poorest people in this country and seeing people on MN cry about trying to survive on 50K + salaries.

Yes. It is pretty much an essential Mumsnet skill to be able to rub along amicably with people going on their nth trip of the year or spending thousands on nice things, while I worry about the debit balance at the energy supplier and pray an eBay listing sells so I can buy groceries next week. I am getting very good at it. The alternative is virtual self-isolation, on top of an already constricted to almost nothing actual life. I don't see an awakening of awareness, or redistribution of opportunity and wealth coming any time soon.

What media do you use? steam-powered phonograph?