To think there must be dodgy financial activity going on with this couple?

[TurkeyTeethLookAwful]

A couple that we know (but are not friends with as such) both seem to have a very extravagant lifestyle that is totally at odds with the jobs that they do.

The husband works as an assistant manager at a shop; not a superstore or anything like that, just a small branch of a chain store in the local town. The wife works two days a week as a hairdresser. They have four children aged between 16 and 2.

In the past five years they have:

Totally renovated their semi detached house to a very high standard. They have an instagram account about their home (not many followers, less than 200 so are not earning from that) and have tagged many high end products and tradesmen, such as a bespoke bed and 2k chandelier type light for the bedroom.

Taken multiple luxury foreign holidays per year; not budget holidays but five star holidays. And regular weekends away at Disney Paris, too.

They, and the kids always have very high end designer clothes; the woman wears dresses that cost £400+ when she goes on nights out, and on the holiday they are currently on she has posted on social media that she and her two daughters are all wearing matching swimsuits that cost £100+ each.

The woman has hair extensions, brow lamination, lash extensions, botox, fillers, nail extensions, and probably loads more stuff on a regular basis. All done at high end salons.

They have very regular expensive family days out and weekends away, such as travelling on the train first class to London to see a musical and then staying overnight in an expensive hotel.

In the past, I've known of a few other couples who live that kind of lifestyle and it's turned out that they are earning money drug dealing. This couple both absolutely do not have rich families; both of their families live in council housing. I feel like they probably have not had a lottery win as I feel that if they did, they'd buy a massive house, seeing as they like extravagance. I can't imagine a mortgage could be obtained or a house bought on drug money...

And yes, I know it's none of my business, but I'm curious.

AIBU to think they must surely be doing something illegal to have this lifestyle?

Oh great. You're nice, thanks for lopping a great deal off my age.

I was trying to humorously suggest the OP was maybe a bit too interested in the lives of a family she barely knows. But, you know, each to his own.

‘clever use of vouchers’ lol 😂 🤣🤣 - you ARE kidding, right???

I don’t claim to be any kind of success… I’m just saying I’m one of those people the OP is talking about… and those are the reasons why 🤷🏼‍♀️😂

So you claim benefits but can afford designer wear, all the regular beauty treatments and several foreign holidays? Why do you even need benefits then?
Personally I don't think doing all of that coupon clipping, selling etc can give a lifestyle like the OP's neighbour. There are lots of people especially with COL doing exactly that and still struggling.

Of course this thread isn't about you, whatever you have is yours, fair play. But I do think it's a bit disingenuous of people to claim they can afford so much just by their own hard work. Then you find out that they actually have external help. You did mention this, but right at the end like it's not really a major source of financial contribution.

I had an ex who was an assistant manager at a chain and his take home pay after taxes was over $1000 per week. or 783 in pounds. If the spending has started in the past 5 years, it could be that 5 years ago they paid off their mortgage. Maybe they are rolling credit card rewards. and maybe they are lying. The woman literally works as a hairdresser, why would she go to high end places to get her stuff done? you can order $400 dresses that are used for much cheaper or fake. Drug sales have a lot more signs than just spending money you don't know where came from.
I think debt is much more likely. You can rack up a surprising amount of debt before the minimum payments become more than you can manage.

Why do you care?

I buy designer clothes ‘preloved’ and sell them on when we are finished with them. It’s basically breaking even as long as they don’t get damaged! I’m pretty sure that doesn’t need to be declared to hmrc. I saved up the lottery days out vouchers and we’ve had 5 really good days out this holidays completely free. I have friends who run a salon so get mine and my daughters treatments in exchange for me helping with school runs and school holidays as I work part time (no they don’t pay me before you accuse me of that). It’s called helping each other out. A friends husband changed a radiator for me last week, wouldn’t take payment so I made their sons birthday cake. My dad is fairly well off and helps us out a lot- just bought eldest her first car etc.

I know SO MANY people who complain about being skint but waste so much money. They aren’t savvy. One girl i know forever moaning about how they are skint and can’t afford holiday clubs for the kids, yet only eats Heinz beans, won’t drink Aldi fake baileys, husband doesnt want to work, she drives a gas guzzler, pays over the odds for utilities because can’t be bothered to shop around. Each to their own!

Benefits. Single mum. 4 kids. Rent paid. Council tax paid. Dodgy tenancy. Universal credit top ups on her tiny (huge) wages through renting a chair. Don't be blindsided by how much a chair makes a day. No declaration to HMRC or very little. Hhhmmmm. I knew a woman with 6 kids who did this. She used the benefit money for holidays.

I know a family like this - went from a small rented flat (but with the flashy car, clothes, holidays, cosmetic surgery) to a multi million pound house - with even flashier car, clothes, holidays. 100% dodgy bastards who must be forever be in fear of the law catching up with them.

TO BE HONEST WHAT HAS IT GOT TO DO WITH YOU WHERE THE MONEY COME FROM? Oh and by the way yes I live in a council house and love it not quite sure what that’s got to do with anything can’t have inheritance if the parents live in council house 😂😂😂 I really have heard it all so JUDGEMENTAL

It does need to be declared if it's more than a grand in a single tax year. Doesn't matter whether you bought it to sell or not

Also @LpPp as an aside quite a few people have mentioned utility 'shopping around', not sure how people do that. Water is fixed and gas/electricity have just started to come on the market.
I'd call myself quite savvy. I even managed to find a proper wedding dress for Vinted on £30. But I do think couponing etc only does so much. I am quite tech savvy so have automated a good deal.

One lot that I know of that come to mind are a family who lived in our area for about 3 years ish. He was a digger driver working locally and she worked PT somewhere else (not sure doing what) but she always had her hair and nails done, new car, anything the children wanted including horses etc. She told me and others they bought the rural property where they ended up towards the end of their time here.

In the months leading up to their very quick departure, she made a comment on a social media group (I don't think she realised I was a member) talking about the rental property where they were living. Shortly after that, it came up for sale and I messaged her and asked if they were moving, after only just virtually moving in. I got on well enough with her to give her things our DC's had grown out of.

In conjunction a friend's friend went and viewed the property with the Agent. The report back was the resident's behaviour was dreadful and the agent could not take F'. Friend inside to view the house. Apparently the owner lived o/s and wanted the property gone as he was owed rent and couldn't afford to maintain the mortgage. The owner also emailed our business to undertake some work there, so things were unravelling pretty quickly for digger driver and family.

Other people/small businesses in our area started to comment about accounts not being paid. Neighbours watched the brand new digger being loaded and attempted to stop its removal thinking it was being stolen, only to be told it was being repossessed due non payment... his new car disappeared and then so did they. However they made the mistake of taking something with them that was on loan and social media went wild tracking them down (worked).

Arrangements were made for the item to be returned and last we heard he was driving a truck for a business and she was house cleaning. They have moved a couple of times since then, but.... are now both driving brand new 4wds and social media showing photos of overseas holidays !

A couple of local businesses who were owned a small fortune paid a visit and got their money. Lots of others just wrote the debts off.

From what we have heard, he was previously married and his wife died, some sort of life insurance payment was involved, and her side everything is put into Trust/s so that she can't actually get her hands on the asset, only the income earned from the assets...

the digger business wasn't the first they were involved in, and I doubt will be their last. I don't understand how people can just float from one situation to another without past debts not catching up with them... or where are their morals? Just seems like a lot of lies are involved.

Not that it is your business but perhaps they have family money or an inheritance or have had a lottery win but kept it private or loads of debts or still get an income for family investments. I don't work but get an income from a business for which my grandfather was on the original Board of Governors. Plenty of people have legitimate other incomes.

There's a guy I know whose in his mid-40s now. I haven't seen him in a while. He worked in printer maintenance and repair. He used to drive a fairly new Nissan around for work.

We always bumped into him in town, or on a night out. He dressed well, but nothing to make you think out of the norm.

We eventually found out he lived in a pretty big house out of town. He did in fact have 2/3 luxury cars. One of my friends who were a lot closer to him had visited his place and said, it's definitely a million-pound house, and the inside is beautiful.

After some research, we found he was an events promoter, which he did as a side hustle in the early 2000s. He organised large festivals and parties for students. He made millions during that time. It was all cash in hand, and the events were not completely legal, but he's worth about £12 million now. It's not something they can pull off anymore, but it was easy back in those days.

He still has his printer job as far as I am aware, but lives a luxury lifestyle.

Is that total sales or just the profit? and if there is no profit, aren't we basically just talking about declaring sales on one hand and then the loss on the other? And does it need to be declared if there is no trail? I am in the USA and things like selling your stuff at a garage sale is not taxed. and if you sell it and use paypal, you may have to declare it, but then you also declare your losses. I would just find it weird that someone would have to pay for selling their own items for exactly what they paid for it. Seems like double dipping to me, but I don't know you alls tax system.

WhiIe it seems out of keeping with their jobs, there are so many reasons they might be abIe to do this, starting with inheritied money, good investments, trust fund (see inherited money). It need not be iIIegaI. And since you say you are not friends, you'd not be aware of any of these things. Such a Iot of interest in someon's financiaI doing when they are not even friends.

I agree. If you don’t really know them, there could be any number of explanations. A friend of mine has a trust fund for life because a parent died in an industrial accident when she was a baby. She has a professional career, so people never question her money.

Hairdressing can be a lucrative and untaxed income for some. It sounds like a pretty hideous lifestyle particularly the silly door frame thing.

I had friends who were similar. Their finances came from 2 key sources 1) a one off windfall many years ago that enabled them to reduce their (relatively small in any event) mortgage on a modest house in a perfectly nice but not super desirable area and 2) being in very little debt, mortgage or other wise. This meant that they had a nice but inexpensive house that they were able to furnish, extend etc as they wished but which they always did by not getting in to debt. All you need is a good start (however it comes) and then being sensible and you can have a pretty enviable lifestyle. Our house was always nicer and in a nicer area etc but came with much more debt etc and impacted our lifestyle accordingly as did childcare costs etc which they did not have to worry about.

What’s wrong with being nosy? We’re having a discussion, we don’t know these people. It’s not as if what we talk about is going to impact them.

Yeah, how do they afford it? Very good question.

Scratch card or lottery win.

Don't be so holier-than-thou. Most people are interested in other people's lives - that's why newspapers, books and social media exist.

Could be drugs, could be some kind of fraud - there was a guy locally I valuely knew who was an accountant and it turned out he was embezzling, he went to prison. Also had a wife and two kids who knew nothing about this - and a secret girlfriend he was supporting in a flat in a nearby town. A friend of mine who works in finance for a small successful local business has experienced the police coming in TWICE for two separate accountants embezzling from the business (hence why she has now been promoted to doing it herself despite not actually being an accountant).

It's none of your business, you just sound jealous tbh and it's pretty gross to start a whole thread based on the spending habits of people you barely know. Keep your jealous beak out