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Original poster

To think my monthly bills are FAR too high?

227 replies

Mysteriousgirl2 · 14/12/2023 20:14

Childcare £651
Food £450
Gym & swimming lessons £360
Car finance £325
Cleaner £240
Pet insurance £38
Mobile £17
car insurance £60
house insurance £92
Private pension £200

We are mortgage free. I take home about 2,200pcm and cover all the above costs.

I need to massively cut down, don’t I? 🙁

OP posts:
Original poster
Mysteriousgirl2 · 15/12/2023 21:49

SgtJuneAckland · 15/12/2023 21:29

What's the £600 mortgage your DH pays?

The £600 mortgage:

It’s actually my DH’s first house that he bought. He then worked hard to pay off his mortgage by overpaying on it. When we came to buy the house we live in now, we both wanted to pay from savings.

It was a run down project that you could not get a mortgage on. We didn’t quite have enough to buy outright, so my DH took a part mortgage out (remortgaged) on his first house to release some cash for our house purchase. By doing this, years on, we’ve now managed to gradually do up and own the house we’ve always wanted but would never be able to afford if it was already done up.

We’ve had a bit of a row about it tonight actually. He said if the mortgage was on our house we live in now, it would be split 50/50. It would be I guess. But he feels it’s unfair that he pays that mortgage and it facilitates us living here without a mortgage on this place. I can see his point, but the rent on his place just about covers the mortgage and gives him about £100 extra a month.

OP posts:
OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 15/12/2023 21:58

Where on earth is there a house rented out for £700 a month ? How many bedrooms is it ?

You are in the Uk aren't you OP

Beezknees · 15/12/2023 22:15

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 15/12/2023 21:58

Where on earth is there a house rented out for £700 a month ? How many bedrooms is it ?

You are in the Uk aren't you OP

You can easily rent a 2 bedroom house where I live in Derbyshire for £600-£700. In places like Hartlepool you can rent a 2 bed for around £400.

Boomboom22 · 15/12/2023 22:17

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 15/12/2023 21:58

Where on earth is there a house rented out for £700 a month ? How many bedrooms is it ?

You are in the Uk aren't you OP

I think you mean she's not in the south east.

BarbaraofSeville · 15/12/2023 22:21

Are people really so out of touch that they're unaware that housing in the UK varies in price and the stupid prices in SE England are atypical of the country as a whole?

threatmatrix · 15/12/2023 22:25

Easy if she originally bought her handset.

threatmatrix · 15/12/2023 22:28

If they both work a cleaner is a necessity and stops arguments.

Original poster
Mysteriousgirl2 · 15/12/2023 22:29

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 15/12/2023 21:58

Where on earth is there a house rented out for £700 a month ? How many bedrooms is it ?

You are in the Uk aren't you OP

Yes, I’m in the UK. It’s normal for what prices are round here. It’s a small two bed on a housing estate in a small sized development. I think it’s ex council housing.

OP posts:
SgtJuneAckland · 15/12/2023 22:30

At the end of all your joint outgoings do you and your DH have the same disposable income? If you do that's fair.

I do agree you can't afford David Lloyd, I'd love aDL membership but our mortgage has just gone up by £600 a month so I go to the local leisure centre which costs me £37 a month and DS' swimming costs £28 a month and he swims free the rest of the time, DH does gym no classes for £22 so £77 a month for all of us. DL where we are quoted us £319 for two adults and a 5 year old. It's also a twenty minute rather than 5 minute drive.

OhpoorMe · 15/12/2023 22:36

Are your bills actually too high? It's sounds as though you each have c£500 left over a month?

Kwasi · 15/12/2023 22:46

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 15/12/2023 21:58

Where on earth is there a house rented out for £700 a month ? How many bedrooms is it ?

You are in the Uk aren't you OP

I own a 3-bed house in small town in the NE. Rent is £450/month. It has been the same for 7 years. The going rate is probably £550 now but I am happy with my tenant and see no need to increase it.

Kwasi · 15/12/2023 22:49

The gym is the only expense I can't get my head around. Everything else sounds fine, although £15 an hour for a cleaner does seem a bit steep.

justasking111 · 15/12/2023 22:49

Kwasi · 15/12/2023 22:46

I own a 3-bed house in small town in the NE. Rent is £450/month. It has been the same for 7 years. The going rate is probably £550 now but I am happy with my tenant and see no need to increase it.

Show quote history

I was like that absorbing increases in insurance, annual boiler checks. Then I had to fork out six months rent on a new boiler. So I do now put the rent up annually.

Kwasi · 15/12/2023 23:26

justasking111 · 15/12/2023 22:49

I was like that absorbing increases in insurance, annual boiler checks. Then I had to fork out six months rent on a new boiler. So I do now put the rent up annually.

Show quote history

My fixed rate expires next year, so no doubt I will need to put the rent up to cover it.

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 16/12/2023 00:29

BarbaraofSeville · Yesterday 22:21

Are people really so out of touch that they're unaware that housing in the UK varies in price and the stupid prices in SE England are atypical of the country as a whole?

As my user name says, I am in the South West, in apparently one of the most deprived areas ?
£400-£500 approx for a 2 or 3 bed Social Housing,
if bought and then privately rented by the owner then something like that would be £800+
A 2 bed semi in a non former social housing road is around £950 upwards
A 2 bed new build on a new build estate is £1300

as I just looked on RightMove.

and a 2 bed tenement flat within approx 1 mile of where I grew up starts at £825

I am aware of the higher house prices in London which of course has spread out.

RMNofTikTok · 16/12/2023 01:14

Childcare £651
can't do anything about this

Food £450
this could be higher

Gym & swimming lessons £360
is the gym and swimming pool gold plated?

Car finance £325
Thats a ridiculous amount on your salary

Cleaner £240
if you're a single mum I get why you need this

Pet insurance £38
Mobile £17
car insurance £60
house insurance £92
Private pension £200
all of these are reasonable

You know you are entitled to universal credit on this take home if you have children? Are you claiming it?

RMNofTikTok · 16/12/2023 01:16

Mysteriousgirl2 · 14/12/2023 20:50

My DH pays for:

Council tax £200
Electricity £175 (roughly)
Fuel £170 (oil tank)
water £25

So why are you paying for 3/4 of the bills? Does he only earn £500 a month or something?

naughtynine · 16/12/2023 01:44

Surely the rental property has other costs eg insurance?
I think £200 is low for a pension as you said your workplace one you were in & out of.
The cleaner & DL costs seem excessive to me but your choice.

Toomuchtrouble4me · 16/12/2023 04:27

Your food and phone are really cheap! Our 6 family phones alone are 360a month. Food is £450 a week. We dont have childcare costs but tutoring is £600 a month. I think you’re doing ok!

BarbaraofSeville · 16/12/2023 05:22

Well you clearly have a lot more money than the OP @Toomuchtrouble4me. Well done you.

However, your phones cost about five times more than they have to, your food is about double and tutoring is even more of an optional luxury than the OPs DL membership.

All very nice and fine if you can afford it, but the OP is struggling to manage her budget, so that sort of contribution is about as useful as suggesting that a Range Rover is cheap to run because it's a lot less than a Ferrari.

Guibhyl · 16/12/2023 06:01

Right ok we finally have an answer about the mortgage. He is not “paying the mortgage” and that should not be counted as an expense. He pays the mortgage and gets ££100 more back in rent! so you can literally forget he pays that in terms of his “contribution”. It’s not a contribution, because it is then more than cancelled out.

So we are back to square one. He contributes £570 a month which is not equivalent to a job of 25 hours per week. So where is the rest of his money going? That is your answer to this whole debacle.

Guibhyl · 16/12/2023 06:04

One of three things is happening:
He is spending the rest of his money on other stuff, presumably for himself
He is squirrelling it away in savings, again presumably for himself as you don’t see any of this
Or there is no extra money, and he genuinely makes around £600 a month for 25 hours per week work in which case this is less than half the NMW and this is not a viable job/business and he is essentially spending 25 hours a week on a hobby.

naughtynine · 16/12/2023 07:21

Food is £450 a week

modt people don’t spend £1800 a month on food even with 4 dc!

naughtynine · 16/12/2023 07:23

tutoring is £600 a month you can’t be tutoring all dc for that though

NegativeNelly · 16/12/2023 07:27

Finance car is crazy, could you get used?

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