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

Yes, I agree. I know that nursery fees are obscenely expensive, my DD is paying them at the moment. Her fees went up by £500 a month with no notice in January. Her summer childcare for two children is actually significantly cheaper than nursery for one child, but she has to work or she will be trying to exist on UC.
£70 a month can make a difference for a struggling family, though obviously it isn't enough to transform their lives.

One of the things I'm suggesting is that some of the cereals you can buy are expensive and not a particularly good breakfast. And why buy biscuits? I certainly wouldn't make them either, empty calories.

Depends which cereal. Own brand bran flakes are £1.40 a kilo, Nesquick chocolate cereal (why does chocolate cereal even exist?) is £7.30 per kilo. Some of it is shockingly expensive. I don’t buy Special K because it’s very pricy and a small box doesn’t last long

Whether you think biscuits and cereal are healthy or not is irrelevant. Not buying a 50p packet of digestive biscuits is not going to make a dent in your budget if you're mortgage doubles and your childcare bill is £2k a month.

I agree, fuel is expensive and we use an airfryer all the time now, I rarely put the oven on other than for an occasional big meal for the whole family. I wish I'd had one years ago when all my DC were at home, though obviously it's not cheaper than an oven if you have to cook everything in batches which takes just as long.
We used to cook enough for two meals at once if we had the oven on, many dishes reheat well in the microwave.

Yes, Special K expensive and also pretty sweet, sugar is the third listed ingredient, almost all cereals are packed with sugar other than weetabix and shredded wheat - does anyone eat shredded wheat? I have my GC for breakfast for three days a week and they prefer porridge, fortunately.

When you put it like that, no. But nobody has said it will. I’ve given you an example of how some people could save £70+ a month by cutting meat back. Not to a level that will deplete their iron reserves, just to the amount they actually need rather than want. Will £70 make up for rising interest rates? No. Will it help by buying that pair of shoes your child needs, or a few birthday presents, or paying your water and phone bill? Yes.

Of course you could just not do anything that won’t in itself cover all of your debts and increase in cost of living, but how would that help?

Every pound counts and, as you say, £70 could buy new shoes and quite a lot of storecupboard food essentials. The attitude that £70 a week is trivial doesn't help anyone.

Well I am currently in the queue for Foo Fighters tickets, and I believe the standing ones are about 80 quid each. There are 2000 people in the queue ahead of me for one venue…..

We are 4 adults 1 child. I now shop at Aldi. I spend around £100 a week (was £70 a few months ago) then probably another £30 on top ups so probably £650 a month. We do veggie mon-thurs. Use all basic brands. Bulk meals out with lentils.

Ahhh you are all on your high horse because it’s affecting someone who saves £1000 per month !!! It’s been affecting the disabled and poor for YEARS … our costs are the same as yours, I GET £800 per month and my electric and food and stuff costs the same !!! But I BET you voted Tory so you deserve every worry you have in my humble opinion

I feel your struggles I get £608.36 a month single mum with toddler with additional needs... I would be in heaven if i can save £1000 a month

Who saves 1000 a month?

No kids. 60kish job. 3 bed house. Car. Hot tub in the garden. Don't live outside of my means. Don't own a credit card - if I don't have it, I don't spend it. Not at all materialistic.

I'm surviving pretty well to be honest.👌

That's a vital point.

@kerryelaine100 just wanted to point out that even though we have a higher than average income please don't assume we vote conservative. Both DH and I are members of the Labour Party and would willingly pay more tax if it meant the nHS, education, utilities etc were properly run and affordable.

I see these sort of posts a lot. I don't understand. Do you pay rent out of that or council tax?

I think it’s worth noting that one person on £53k will take home less than two people with a joint salary of £53k.

Im on 48k in Scotland, partner is on 13k. I take home £2,500, he takes home £1000, giving us 3.5k combined per month on a combined salary of £61k.

If only one of us worked (me) and I earned £63k, I’d take home around £3000. If we both earned the same amount totalling £6300, I’d take home £1887 and he’d take home just over £2000, so we would be several hundred pounds a month better off than we are now.

Its a shit system; it should be done on household income as opposed to individual.

Wow, is this a lesson in how to make life joyless. People can’t afford to eat out, have trips out etc and your advice is not to treat themselves to the odd packet of biscuits?

@Lavendersquare I cannot understand how you believe that you have it a bit tough. £120000 combined income and you are finding it difficult? That's just so insensitive and frankly ridiculous. Combined income here of 50000 with a mortgage and we manage. We don't have takeaways or eat out a lot and I actually save every month too. Some people have completely lost their sense of reality.

Why would you eat a crummy packet of awful cheap biscuits, that is not what joyful life is about? It's not a treat, just teaching your DC to eat crap.

@angela99999 what do you suggest people spend their spare 30p on for a treat?

I think as others have said SM & projecting the image of a perfect life does has a lot to do with all this.

I'm mum to a teen & I know some other parents who've got into debt so their child can wear Nike Jordan Trainers or a North Face Jacket/The latest iPhone etc.....Just so that their child will look 'cool' Its ridiculous & then this puts pressure on other families as their children want the same & it ends up being a vicious cycle

I've worked for a mortgage broker for years & so I see people bank statements on a daily basis & I am genuinely shocked at how much people spend.

Some people are paying £350+ a month just on car finance! They buy everything brand new, have multiple TV subscriptions & beauty treatments/expensive mobile phone contracts/takeaways etc..& then they are surprised when they cant get the mortgage they want?

We have a 13 yrs old car which is worth about £3k- zero finance, we buy lots of things 2nd hand, no TV subs BBC/Sell things we no longer need or that have been outgrown/Take pack lunches to work/school or if we go out for the day/All 3 of us (including teenage daughter) have 2nd hand phones & we each pay £6 a month for sim only.

How much is your mortgage? Do you have small children in nursery and pay for their hours?

I wonder this as well. I’m always very intrigued to know whether that is the absolute amount they have to spend on rent, bills and food or whether it’s what is left after (for example, not saying it’s the case here necessarily) universal credit has paid for rent or housing, and other bills that may have been subsidised.

If it is the full amount - as in, every single bill plus rent or mortgage payments are included in that figure - then it’s literally unliveable and I am wracking my brains how on Earth people put a roof over their heads.