Why does life seem so unaffordable?

[NotEnjoyingThis]

Does anyone else feel like it’s a never ending battle?
I’m a single mum to 2, I’ve been on my own for about a year now and I just can’t seem to catch a break.
I claim UC and I’m self employed, working full time.
It just seems to be one thing after another, So far this month my fridge broke and needed replacing, my kitchen tap broke and a plumber charged me £220 to replace it, he also told me my heating had broke and would cost around £500 to replace, my cars just been in the garage and the repair is going to cost around £600, I’ve got £200 in school trips to pay plus another £50 for gymnastics competitions.
feeling really disheartened today and just want to give up 😩

The extra workforce created an oversupply so of course prices were cheaper. It’s simple supply and demand.

I’m sorry you’re having a tough time op, hopefully things will improve for you but just take things a day atm for now. Nothing else you can do!

Not necessarily.

£220 to replace a kitchen tap - let's break that down. Cost of tap - really good one from screfix is £99. Leaving £120 for 1 hours work - tell me that's not a scam!

I feel this way but I’m in a unique position (on MN) of having no dependents so I’m lucky in that regard. I recently got a £12k pay rise and the majority of that is soaked up in student loans, tax, NI, increased bills. My quality of life isn’t any different really.

@pompomdaisy I've just had some quotes for a job at my house. £2500 from a British tradesman, £850 from a Polish guy in the same trade.

Not sure that’s true. You only get help if you earn under a certain amount £700 ish a month plus claiming UC where we are.

I think you should email the school to see if there is any chance of help with paying for the school trips. Explain you are currently having to not pay some bills and that £200 is a big stretch for you at the moment. I think they'll help and if they don't it will be because they can't. They will want to.

Agree that tradespeople deserve a good wage but £220 to change a tap is a total piss-take. It's a 10 min job - max. Even if that includes a tap, max £30, and he almost certainly had one laying around! Please ignore what he said about your heating and get a second opinion; do you know anyone who's remotely 'handy', works in any related trade, who you could at least discuss it with? Speak to the landlord?

It's certainly shit atm. Hope it gets better

I feel like it doesn’t matter how much you work, it’s impossible to break even. There are only so many hours in the day .

@pompomdaisy I know what you mean had work done last Yr they did the bare minimum left a mess plumber laughed about paying no tax had a new car builder only did weekdays 8 till 3pm and owned a porche 🙄

I agree OP -youre not alone with feeling the pinch. I've just got paid, did the weekly food shop (ours has doubled I don't understand how!), the car had its service, bought one of the dc a winter coat (vinted...I could of done with all the kids having "new" coats) & by the time bills have been paid I have £100 left until the 28th...which means I'll be back in my OD.

I've been trying to ring fence money for Christmas & santas grotto- but everything is just hugely overpriced this year or completely sold out - its very fustrating as the Christmas tickets for most of the affordable local events come on sale at the beginning of August.....usually as the six weeks start. 🙄i just wish my Income would increase its absolutely exhausting.

@pompomdaisy Oh dear, my daughter drives a Audi and as a nurse she is certainly not loaded! She works extra bank shifts to pay for what she wants. How can you judge someone on what car they drive? It could be on the never never for all you know.

@Lou670 we all judge. That's life. There's a difference in a tradesman charging £120 for 10 mins work and a nurse slogging her guts out. I'm a nurse. You do start to get judgy when they take the piss and especially when they do it to struggling people.

@pompomdaisy It's not 10 minutes work they are charging for though. Most are self employed so responsible for paying their own taxes, national insurance and pension. Also they factor is their travel time and how long it takes to get there. You are paying for their expertise in this area. They do charge high, I am not denying that. Just thought the comment on what car people drive is not really a good barometer for how rich they are.

There's something wrong in the world when a doctor is getting the equivalent of £14 an hour and a plumber is getting £120 an hour! Plus we all pay our own taxes, NI!

@pompomdaisy Yes it is wrong but there is nothing I or you can do to change that fact, therefore I don't sweat it! I only worry about things within my control, not out of my control.

@pompomdaisy totally agree (I am a doctor) but the thing that’s wrong here is how low doctors pay is not how high plumbers pay is. The NHS is a monopoly employer and has been artificially depressing doctors wages for years whereas plumbers are able to charge the market value for their services. And it gets away with it because everyone always thinks doctors are rolling in it. Which we are not at all.

In fact I came here to empathise with OP, I am also a single parent and life is just becoming completely unaffordable. I think most people are struggling with this cost of living crisis but I do think single parent families are being hit particularly hard and there is no specific support out there for us.

@Britneyfan But that is nothing new is it? NHS wages have always been poor and can't be compared at all to what people charge in a totally different field.

No we are not naive enough to think that all doctors are highly paid. We know they are very poorly paid, we also know there is very little we can do about it. The NHS is not breaking, that ship sailed a long time ago, it is broken.

Have you calculated whether your self employment is really bringing in as much as nmw?

A huge proportion of self employed people would actually be better off employed on nmw but also receiving:

• min 4 weeks paid holiday: value £1,662
• at least 3% pension contributions: value £650 a year
• sick pay, often other benefits etc

Lots of self employed people will say "oh i brought in £20k worth of invoices last year but aren't accounting for loads of the costs they incur like fuel, transport, equipment or tools, an odd customer who doesn't pay etc.

Single mum here too. Prices are stupid. Just bought 3 hot chocs for £12 quid. What a rip off.

@Lou670 NHS wages have always been poor but they have never been this poor. The average doctor’s earnings have declined 30 percent in real time since the crash in 2008. But I agree you can’t compare, that was exactly my point. However there are still a lot of people who are naive enough to believe that doctors wages are good because this used to be true.

And I agree the NHS is way beyond broken. The problem is that it’s being artificially propped up by the little goodwill left in the system, the fact that it’s a monopoly employer and the new “NHS religion”. So it’s not being allowed to “break” properly. As a patient and as a doctor I don’t want to see the health service become totally privatised. I’d rather see it fixed. But that’s not going to happen and so as an exhausted demoralised and broke human being and someone who stands to have much better pay and conditions when that happens (I mean it can hardly be worse!), it can’t come soon enough for me.

And yes there is nothing that the average person can do about it except for not voting the Tories in again (although I’m very disappointed in how Labour are talking about the NHS and they aren’t exactly holding out any beacon of hope), not being abusive to their exhausted doctors trying their level best to help them in a totally thankless job, and generally recognising that doctors are poorly paid and we are not “greedy” when we demand better pay and conditions by striking etc. So actually there is quite a bit the average person can do. Just not joining in with doctor bashing would be a start (not saying this applies to you personally, just saying in general this would massively help the morale of myself and nearly every doctor I know, it’s dragging us under). I can only tolerate mumsnet in small doses these days because of the sheer volume of it.

Stop with the sob stories re. tradesman. We all know there are excellent have working tradespeople and then there are the ones who enjoy ripping off the weak and vulnerable.

*hard