How skint are you ?

[Jbrown76]

Inspired by this thread on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/s/iR5TPqfSR7

@Hamsternautss I'm very sorry for your loss. I can imagine not feeling you want to spend that money. Hope you can find a good financial advisor.

You are way, way more than 'OK'. Christ.

I don't think its fair to say she is lucky, her Dad passed away. It is great that he left it to her but it seems clear she has very mixed feelings about it.

You can't possibly know that. That inheritance could all be eaten up in care fees. You can't guarantee inheritance at all.

When you have been as poor as we have been you never really feel ok, the anxiety never leaves you but I try hard to move past that.

So sorry for your loss @Hamsternautss ❤️

How bloody insensitive @Thatbloodyhedge 😳

Are t these threads weird. People always have either £300,000 or 27p.

I can never decide how skint I am.

On the one hand, I had to pay an unexpected £400 invoice this week, so now I don't have enough for groceries in my current account. But on the other hand - I had enough to manage an unexpected £400 invoice without going under.

I got my husband to transfer £500 over and I'll use that for groceries and to pay sports subs for the kids. It's all one pot really.

No savings. Nothing to retire on and no plan.

We pay a lot on rent and the kids. So I don't feel we're properly skint. But there's nothing left for treats - it's school shoes OR a takeaway. Not both.

Would love a holiday - even just 5 days in an air B&B somewhere nice. Have been looking into it and I just have genuinely no idea how we would ever afford it. How do people go on holidays abroad??! Mindblowing.

About £70 until payday, with about £500 in various savings pots and 5k in credit card debt. It's not ideal, I'm chipping away at the debt. I would consider myself comfortable from month to month, but not happy about my savings situation. I'd rather have about 20x that amount at least! That will take quite some time.

When you have been as poor as we have been you never really feel ok, the anxiety never leaves you but I try hard to move past that.

I could imagine that.

But objectively if you have £125k in savings, you have to know you are really comfortable, in the context of this thread?

I've had to do that, I totally get where you are coming from

Tbf he died with no will in place. He wasn't great with money and never thought of the future. I had to sell his house which caused me so much pain and I claimed his private pension which didn't even name me as a beneficiary, I just got it by default. My dad would certainly have listed me in a will if he had one but he struggled his entire life with MH issues and that was never something he looked into. I feel very unintitled to it despite knowing he would want me to use it as I see fit. I'm definitely not skint, but I'm not living like I've got this money either.

My mum (separated from my dad when I was little) inherited 100k from her mum 8 years ago and hasn't touched a penny of it either, it's just in her savings.

Well its a big change from when I was in my 20's and £17,000 in debt. Perhaps its useful for people to see that even if it is really bad now it can get better. I never said I was skint, I said I was OK which I am I am not rich my any means.

One person I know was selling a second hand Nike trainers and Vinted flagged them as ‘counterfeit’ (they weren’t, they were from the Nike site and she had an email confirming purchase). Deleted the listing and told her that she had violated their t+cs by selling fake goods. Her account was banned and she lost the money in her balance.

And the other got into a dispute when she sent something Royal Mail, the buyer claimed they never received it despite proof of postage so they raised a refund request. Friend raised an appeal in response and sent proof of postage again but Vinted still went in the buyer’s favour and accused Friend of fraud, also banned her account and meant she couldn’t get her balance 😵‍💫

Both contacted Vinted to get their balance back but didn’t get anywhere, it was barely a few quid each so they dropped it.

Maybe it’s rare but the fact two different people I know who acted in good faith had the same outcome means I always withdraw my balance immediately just in case.

Get paid last day of the month. Roughly 1500 in my own bank still. Just did a food shop to last till payday so that will go down to about 1380 left, the majority of the funds will roll over to next month. Also have credit cards for emergencies.
Pretty fortunate considering current climate. Grew up in poverty though, fear of not having a stocked kitchen is always there.

I would pay your debt off before saving for a house.

I thought skint meant having little or no money available...so no savings, investments, no rental income, literally no safety net, no leeway,

What’s the point? Plenty of people reading this have money but it would be crass to mention amounts, not least as it is deemed “not real” if you aren’t broke.

Money is hard because we're generally never educated about it. There is a show on YouTube called Financial Audit by a guy named Caleb something. It's American but still really helpful for showing you how people go so wrong with their finances. Basically most of us live above our means (and the more we earn, the more we manage to spend). So getting a raise without changing your financial thinking is still no good.

So many people here are saying I'm going to struggle because I need to buy presents for x,y,z for instance. Or because I need to take the kids on holiday. But these are wants, not needs. If you're struggling you shouldn't be buying presents you can't afford or going on holiday. It's more important to reduce your debt, have an emergency fund and gain peace of mind. The people you love will understand that.

I really recommend the show.

Boomer is just a name for a generation. FYI. It's not a term, just like millennial isn't a term. What do you think it means?

On MN some posters could have a gold plated toilet and still feel skint because it’s not platinum 😁

@slomosha

Absolutely. I do take heart from hearing it's possible for difficult financial situations to turn around.

But you are absolutely more than OK, and having £125k in savings certainly puts you in a very well-off category. It just does.

Have you ever read "you know you are skint when" threads when people pinch toilet roll from work etc ?Your definition of skint is far from it.

So many people here are saying I'm going to struggle because I need to buy presents for x,y,z for instance. Or because I need to take the kids on holiday. But these are wants, not needs

Some of them are.

But you can't buy your DC nothing for their birthdays, or ignore Christmas, never send them to a birthday party or let them play their sport.

They may be 'wants' but some of them are also integral to childhood happiness, and while a blanket 'no' might make absolute financial sense, it's possibly too hard in real terms.

I don't have any savings, but living month to month is okay. My son gets high rate DLA and therefore we get a disability element on UC too. Without that we would be fucked tbh. Food for me, 3 dcs, 2 senior cats and a dog is costing 700 quid a month. Bills just keep going up and up.