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

guineacup for context I booked a rate of 3.93% in May for my mortgage rate expiring end of September.

housing association rent has gone up,

Absolutely fucking this! And all the people on good salaries yet come onto Mumsnet and need support with basic budgeting? How can people be smart enough to earn good salaries yet not smart enough to manage the simple addition and subtraction needed for basic budgeting?!

Come on now, £50k isn't modest.

I agree. I think social media is a culprit of this. People get ‘Fomo’ when they see what others are doing, buying, eating etc. which is why I choose to stay off social media.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Had the banks correctly predicted what rates would have been, you wouldn't have been able to lock in at the rate you did.

You're expecting people to have greater financial foresight than the banks!

OP is not worrying about making ends meet though. She says herself they are just going out less and saving less. They are not even not saving at all, just less. You

people over stretched themselves mortgage wise, bought at a low interest rate

They are full of all those on £125k combined incomes moaning about mortgage rate rises!

50k after tax is 37k after tax. When your commute to work cost 3k a year mortgage 20k a year childcare 12k …tell me if that’s enough to live?

I've given up most of my subscription services which has saved me about £40 a month.

I've changed my mobile phone tariff now I'm out of contract to a SIM only instead of upgrading to a new phone. That's saving me £15 a month.

Changed food shopping choices and given up many none essentials in there. Saves at least £20 a week probably more.

Amazon subscribe and save on some household items saves me 15%

My husband and son only use the car when absolutely necessary. No fun little drives out. Fuel is so expensive.

And what we can't afford we go without. What else can you do?

The thing is if people like OP stop spending, it will trickle down to lower earners. My hairdresser is already finding things hard. I colour my hair at home now and I feel bad for her, but can't justify that cost any more.

Essentially, yes. Our meals are very simple/cheap which is keeping the food shop to between £70-£80 a week for four of us.

We buy barely any meat. I can't remember the last time I bought chicken as it's so expensive. If we do have meat I buy mince and bulk it out 50/50 with either lentils or oats. Cheaper and probably healthier too.

Jacket potatoes, soup and "things on toast" feature a lot. E.g. beans/egg/tomatoes/mushrooms on toast or any combination of those are usually dinner twice a week.

Breakfasts are Weetabix as it's cheap and reasonably filling.

Fruit is the cheaper options so apples/pears/plums/bananas rather than grapes/berries/melon etc

It's not great, but it's absolutely fine. What's more worrying is that DH and I are on a good household income and tightening our belts so that we can continue to afford saving for the children's future. I'll eat beans on toast for dinners if it means that I can help DDs financially further down the line.

So for people with less money coming in or less available to cut out then I can only imagine it's a real worry.

Have to agree with those annoyed when you hear people on above average earnings moan about this. I'm on barely above minimum wage. It's hard when you have children but I've always been good with money cause ive never had much. Manage without a car(yes shock horror! and we live fairly rural too). I use almost all my spare money on my 2 children. As I don't want them to feel poor and miss out on treats.

My mum on benefits in a council home is better off than me on a modest salary. I'm not even talking lifestyle. Purely amount of money left every month after tax.

Surely it's less about income and more about the gap between income and expenditure. If people have to find an additional £2k, £5k, £10k per annum and don't have it, it sucks.

If it can be found by economising: a bit less heating, a cheaper holiday, less eating out, no new clothes, deferred decorating, etc., it's fine, possibly marginally whingeworthy.

The real issue arises for households who are already cut to the bone and surviving rather than living and there are no economies to be made. There are a lot of them.

The childcare doesn't last forever. We are coming to the end of the worst bit and it makes a huge difference.

Breakfasts are Weetabix as it's cheap and reasonably filling.
I live abroad and Weetabix has gone up so much it counts as a luxury item! We're lucky that our kids are older so we're not paying nursery fees or after school clubs. Mortgage is fixed rate which didn't seem like a good idea at the time but does now! Food is our main expense but I shop around a lot more than I used to. Takes time though.

I live off less. We don't have luxuries and I worry about money constantly but we live.

I am a single parent to 2 teens. salary of £34k and their dad pays above minimum maintenance but I am also struggling now. I went from part-time to full time when I became a single parent, which meant I lost the small amount of UC I got so I'm not even that much better off and have to do everything myself in less time. My mortgage, like most people's has just gone up and I have extended it to the maximum (age 65...how depressing) but with that and the bills increasing it's tough.

After discussion with the kids, my partner is moving in with us soon. I swore I'd never live with a man again and although after 4 years together I do want to live together, it's the financial benefits to having 2 salaries that gave me the final push. Not romantic but it's where I'm at.

I should have said own branded Weetabix, not the official stuff! It's mad how much some things have increased. Heinz ketchup was £4 in my local Tesco last week..... I bought some for £1 from the Polish section instead. It's a real worry how much food has gone up.

Is that all you get ? Per fortnight on ESA - which group are you in?

But also no kids here, how much extra are necessary bills and food with children?
How long is a piece of string? I have 3 teenagers who each eat far more than me and dh!

The increase in food costs is something I’m really struggling with. Every single item is going up every week and there’s nothing we can do about it. Something as cheap as a tin of sardines went up in Tesco from £1.00 (which I thought was still quite high for sardines) to £1.35 the following week. A pack of co op brand biscuits that were 85p went up to £1.00 and are now £1.85. These are just two examples but it’s every item and that really mounts up. We don’t know if all these rises are genuine knock-on effects of the CoL or if it’s opportunistic profiteering and we are expected to just have to accept it. My electric bill in this hot weather is higher than it was a couple of cold winters ago! But never mind because the fat cats of corporations are getting fatter and that’s all that matters in the world we live in today.

I think you are getting a hard time from many on here, 53k doesn't go that far, if you are paying into a pension and still paying back student loans which is very possible that's only 2,800 a month or 33,600 a year. You would get 0 help with anything as you earn too much then pay a mortgage and nursery fees plus everything going up in price I'd say you were pretty poor. People on much less will be propped up and have reductions on things like council tax and subsidised rent etc etc. I think it's shit when someone on what was once considered a decent wage is struggling.

Only one thing I wondered was is the father of your child not contributing? You make it sound like you are paying for it all. Is he pulling his weight with nursery fees?