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

Flats generally cost less than a house to rent for a start. When we rented a flat we were only paying £70 a month. We have a smart meter. We turn everything off where we can. Thats just how much this house costs to run.

£35 per month for a phone and contract is not a lot. We both use our phones for work also, as well as tethering to things like DDs ipad on long journeys.

wherethecityis
Yes I have similar commitments

People on higher incomes aim very high from the beginning leaving no buffer when times get hard.

@Winterday1991 is that for one child? Youch! I do know of one nursery that is now £100 a day for the baby room but most near me are still around £80-85. It really is getting to the point where nursery is just going to be unaffordable for many.

Do you live in a particularly expensive area? We have much lower income than you, £120+k mortgage (no other loans to pay though), and although we've obviously noticed prices going up, we're very fortunate to not be struggling. Like all of these conversations, I can't see how £125k income means you can hardly go out, unless you were going on really expensive nights out!

It's really tough at the minute OP. Thankfully we fixed our mortgage for 10 years on the back of Brexit going through so that's helped a lot.
We have 3 veg based dinners a week.
Don't eat out or have takeaway.
No more coffee takeaways
We've also gone tee-total, so no alcohol costs.
I've started working an extra 2 evenings a week.
We've cancelled a lot of our Direct debits / Spotify / Netflix etc.

I think its a case of shaving costs where you can, checking for benefits and taking on more work if possible.

I understand this.

And I never lived up to my income, because my lifestyle on £36k was perfectly nice, so most of the progress above that went into savings.

It's not the whole picture, no way. But there is a huge lack of financial common sense and financial literacy. No high earner should be spending to the top of their income because they can. Absolute madness.

This is not necessarily true. If you have a mortgage you get no help with housing costs.

We have an income of around £30k a year after tax. We get child benefit of £1152 a year. Of that we have to give £52 back to HMRC a month as we did too much overtime between me and DP last year (we predicted wages of 25k but earned 30k). We have a mortgage so no help with housing costs. We work at different times so don't claim any childcare. No free school meals, no free prescriptions. We applied for help with a new boiler but as we live in a small property received no help. I would love to know what subsidies we can claim (that's a genuine request btw!).

Shopping at Lidl and Aldi and not buying anything else apart from essentials

The challenge for you is that you're not low 'enough' for many of these benefits. Entitledto and similar calculators can help, money saving expert forums have food tips, also sometimes people are better off working more hours due to the extra money / better jobs available plus tax free childcare.

The reality is it's not easy.

Be careful with this - I've noticed some products are actually more expensive at Lidl than they are at Tesco. It varies by product.

M and S has some stuff that is actually cheaper than Lidl....

We are lucky...dh was recently promoted and had a big salary increase. Our mortgage is fixed and relatively low. However, food is an absolute killer as a pp said. I actually have more money than ever before but much less disposable income as food costs are wiping it out.

if you had to pay back CB you must be over the 50K threshold which proves my point

Exactly. These “middle income jobs” (I work on one) just cannot recruit because it starts to become untenable to work with these wages, have childcare, run a car, buy all the work clothes etc then end up knackered and emotionally drained. For many women it’s not making sense financially to work any more

No mortgage or rent makes a massive difference.

especially if you've been putting the mortgage payments away in savings and now the interest rate is at 5%

Imagine saving for the last 5 years for example your mortgage payment of £500, you'd have £30000 saved earning you £125 interest per month

https://www.busybeeschildcare.co.uk/nursery/east-putney

Yep, see the fee sheet on the attached.

5 kids. He earns about £53,000 and I normally earn £29,000 but I’m on mat leave. One car. Husband has a motorcycle he takes to work but it’s paid for outright. Food prices are insane just now. We definitely go less days out than we used to. Everything seems a lot more expensive!

My apologies for not being clearer. The money we owe to HMRC is due to a Child Tax Credit benefit overpayment we received not a Child Benefit one. On 25k we were assessed as being eligible for CTC. As our earnings were in fact 30k that meant that we were not in the end eligible for CTC hence we now have to pay it back.

I'm surviving fine. I don't have childcare costs as DC is a teenager. I rent a HA flat, the rent has gone up but it's still way below the cost of the average private rent. I am probably about to be made redundant but I have savings to tide me over a few months and I can claim UC.

A lot of people are on fixed term mortgages so it doesn't expire all at the same time.

We are very lucky as ours lasts a few years. We had a lot of disposable income and saved in the past. Now we don't save, we're using that to fix our house. Not complaining just saying that's the change. I'm also buying all clothes second hand from vinted, cutting back on days out and we've booked a UK holiday instead of abroad and we're putting off purchases like our 10 year old car we were going to upgrade but instead we're not. Instead of calling in decorators I'll paint our shabby walls.... eventually.

Its really awful how things are. I'm trying to buy more for food banks to help. Everyone deserves food and it breaks my heart people are going without.

What MNs never seem to understand is WHATEVER your income, up until last year people were living to their means. So they could afford their mortgage / rent, utility bills, fuel and food. THEN quadruple wammy ! All have gone up massively. No one could have foreseen that at all. So if you earned £30k or £50 k most people would spend up to their income.

Not everyone does this. And far fewer people used to. Its social media that drives people to expect certain lifestyle elements and spend every penny they have trying to obtain it.

DH & I have always lived carefully & saved excess & built a lot of slack into the budget. I know for some people that simply isn't possible, but there are plenty of people who have chosen to drive fancy brands of car etc who could be living off less & saving more.

It is a myth that all low earners get lots of free stuff. You have to be on a VERY low income to get free school meals, dental care, etc - earning less than £7k a year. I get Universal Credit but I do not get free school meals for DS and never have, nor do I get any grants or anything of the sort, and I have to pay for dental care and prescriptions like everyone else.

Nah we didn't live to our means. We're well off and cautious as we were raised poor. But if our mortgage went up £600 whilst bills and food go up, that's huge. No amount of being careful helps in that unfortunate situation.

I know a few people who haven't been living right up to their means. A lot of people simply couldn't upsize due to covid then interest rates.

I'm on a low income but that's all relative as everyone's situation is different. Only one child left at home, mortgage didn't go up much as there is not much left on it, no childcare costs. I have more money left over than many people on a much better salary.