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

£120k combined, no kids, mortgage on a 2 bed flat in London (will probably increase from £1020 to £1700 when interest rates hit 7% next year and we remortgage). I am currently overpaying £1k per month to mitigate this

The missing part of that is their housing and childcare costs. I live in an area with a lot of SH homes and where prices for those buying were in the 5 figures as recently as the mid 2010s. There are people who've never earned much, but who are still able to afford their luxuries because their housing costs aren't and never have been more than £500 a month. Obviously that doesn't exist everywhere, but it exists in some places.

Yet there are people on minimum wage style jobs who are still going on holidays and having their nails done regularly. I don't get it. Agreed that food prices amongst everything else are ridiculous

You know nothing of people's incomes or what money might be stashed away. Lottery wins, inheritance, support from a family member...all mean that for some, things are not as bad as they are for others. I'm a single parent and have been for years on average earnings (teacher) but I maximise my income through tutoring, exam marking and summer school, have no mortgage (due to inheritance) and a significant sum in the bank (due to inheritance). I can afford to go on holiday and maintain my lifestyle, albeit I'm careful with the heating, making an already 10 year old car last another year, and selling everything that I can that I don't need....

the stats are that 26% of the population can't afford the mortgage costs if it increases any further. Which it would.

Thats huge.

Barely. I earn £40k in London, and today I called in sick because I don’t have enough in my account to cover the train fare to my office. I’m not proud about it but what could I do? I’ve cut back everywhere I can and haven’t eaten properly in a few days. Single parent making sure my daughter still get what she needs but I’m going without.

Smallish house and no mortgage or childcare costs, although we do have rent for our son's university room.

Only had one child, and earn reasonably well.

I guess the key things above are: earn well, no mortgage, only one child.

Things were quite tough when ds was small, big mortgage (similar interest rates to now) and childcare costs on top. But we got through it.

The cost of food is terrifying, for dd (17) and myself I'm spending around £100 a week on food which is double what I spent 3 years ago.

I'm left with around £700 a month after bills/mortgage come out, £400 goes on food, another £100 ish on fuel, £50 on dds bus pass, £40 pet food (also doubled) and the rest just disappears on things like hair cuts, family bdays, toiletries etc.

Every month is a struggle now.

Why on earth can't you work at home? That is just ludicrous if your employer is that inflexible.

I mean, it's ludicrous that you can't afford the train fare to go to work, but your employer isn't exactly helping matters!

Yet there are people on minimum wage style jobs who are still going on holidays and having their nails done regularly. I don't get it. Agreed that food prices amongst everything else are ridiculous

probably have "rich" husbands/partners/parents

They can just ask for a payrise.

Every 10 years they seem to pull the rug out from under you. I think once you start to see the pattern you can prepare a bit better for it.

guineacup it's not about hindsight, it's exactly the opposite - planning ahead and being organised. No one with a fixed rate mortgage should be sitting waiting for a letter to pop through from the bank telling them what rate they can move to. They should think ahead, speak to a broker etc and get some advice. I also see people who have savings complaining about rates but there are so many great rates out there if you shop around. It's the lack of inertia from people that boosts banks profits as they can count on a certain % of society accepting poor deals.

Yes I would have liked people to consider the financial impact of lockdowns more.

Op if your mortgage is going up then yes you’ll find it harder than others. Many will still be protected by a fixed rate or older and no mortgage.

It’s a really tough way to do it as it hits a smaller amount so harshly.

my DH is on 75k. he is trying to switch jobs but the new employer said their cap is 75k (though they do pay 10% non contributory pension which would boost his income by £300). The hiring manager actually tried to get approval to increase it to £82k but HR turned it down. He is turning down that job offer and trying to find a new one, but its not like its that easy!

I am on 45k but am well aware that if I don't get a new job paying more, i will be suffering in two years and getting a real terms pay cut. But I do live in London where there are many jobs above my pay grade and its not considered a good wage particularly. Not everyone is that fortunate.

I think a lot of this depends on where you live, and what your circumstances and liabilities are.

Our household income is roughly £36k gross pa, so we live off about £23k a year. Our mortgage has just gone up by £70 a month, the energy bills up by £100 a month, food bills have increased a little bit, and the kids' club our DD will go to in August has gone up by £2 a day.

For us, all this is totally manageable. Why? Because we live in a semi in the North with a mortgage under £100K, we only run one car that we bought outright, we have no debt, and we only pay for holiday kids' clubs in terms of child care.

We also don't drink alcohol and our social life is civic (so community groups for renovating woodland, parks, flower beds etc).

We set up our life this way with very low liabilities due to my DF's advice to always ensure you could afford your lifestyle if interest rates were 8%, and also to know you could just about manage if they were 12%.

My DF is still scarred by his experiences in the late 80s where interest rates hit double figures, and is still sad (even now at 80 years old) that he missed so much of my young life because he had to work away to earn enough to not default on the mortgage for our house.

So when DH and I set up, I paid heed to that advice, and also took a lesson from Elizabeth Warren's famous video about the collapse of the middle class, and ensured that our entire living costs could be met out of DH's salary alone. Of course, this meant that we live in what a lot of our peers think is a very modest house, and drive a small boring car, but the psychological freedom from the fact we don't suffer financial stress more than makes up for it.

In my area, the people that are really struggling with the cost of living increases are those that are over-extended on mortgages and car leases. We've had a number of applications for help for our charity support scheme from families on the large executive estates. It's a bit galling sometimes to turn up and see the four-bed detached with the Audis in the drive, but the level of debt they've taken on to "live the dream" is crippling them.

We will see a lot of divorces before this is done.

I remember the woman coming on here complaining that her husband only earned 100k per year

I don't think spending £20 a week on food per person fits most peoples definition of eating well.

It's about £3 a day.

Sure you can survive on that.

They can just ask for a payrise.

A) you realise the impact that would have on inflation right? B) you also realise over 5 million people in the UK are in the public sector?

It's not that much if you want to buy a nice house in a nice area in London.

Struggling a bit, especially with food costs. Personally, I can cope without much money. I'm not materialistic, don't like traveling, etc. What's really getting me down is the constant house building. I'm in rural Essex, and we've had three huge estates built near us in the last ten years. To build one of them they even hacked into local woodland. Kids from that estate have now colonised the woods, selling cannabis in there, playing loud music, etc. And now another massive new estate is being planned. It just never ends. No matter how many horrible, overpriced rabbit hutches they build, it's never enough. I swear the south of England is going to end up as one giant housing estate. To make it worse, Labour are going to pressure councils to give up the green belt for social housing. If I was young, and had no family ties, I would be off to Canada or Australia – anywhere I could have space and silence and green fields.

Love the poster who examined that they are coping by over paying £1k a month in their mortgage! Not sure this thread is about the situation.

dh and I have some financial flex at the moment but much much less than before. Yesterday’s online food shop was actually the first time I had a “wtf how much for a roast chicken?!” moment. Dh may be made redundant in the next 6 months. There’s no jobs out there in his line of work so we’re seeing how things play out but I’ve no idea what we’ll do if he is made redundant. We’ll have about 6 months salary in redundancy pay out but that’ll soon be gone. I’m trying to save like mad just in case. On the plus side, savings are getting £40 interest a month which is nice.

If you work for the public sector then you have signed up for being underpaid. This isn't really a secret.

I still asked for my payrise despite the government asking for restraint. What can I say? I'm a scumbag.

We will see a lot of divorces before this is done

Yes you either pull together or one person looks outside the marriage for support.

but if you want to make a situation 100 times worse than it already is that’s the route to take.

I agree with the posts saying that almost everyone has taken a bit of a hit and a drop in living standards. Sadly, I don't think we've remotely seen the worst of it yet. There are still loads of people who have time left on their mortgage fixes - eg I have 2 years to go at 2.75%. I'll doubt very much I'll ever see that % again and am braced for 7%.

If interest rates stay higher then more people will be drawn into the higher mortgage repayments. This will then impact how much they can spend on luxuries, which will hit all those small luxury-based businesses. Everything from hairdressers, window cleaners, dog walkers, wax melt makers, and more. Tourism takes a hit as holidays are less likely/smaller/less spendy.

And so the pain rolls on.

I think we'll see fewer- people can't afford to divorce