How skint are you ?

[Jbrown76]

Inspired by this thread on Reddit:

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

Exactly. I budget a certain amount (£300) per month for all spends beyond food, mortgage, energy, council tax and insurance. We earn more than that but the rest is going into savings as we need some essential house repairs doing and are saving up.

If we somehow whacked all the repairs on credit card then had to pay them off I guess I might have more grounds to plead skintness as I'd then be in huge debt.

I don't consider myself skint, maybe because I've lived in poverty though. I am a single parent with no savings and estranged from my family. No credit available to me and paying off debts. We are living month to month. However, we have food, the bills and rent are paid, we are warm, the children are clothed.
I'm pretty grateful all in all.

I would say « skint » means you can’t get to the end of the month with enough money for the essentials.

so you run out of money about 20th and then have to beg borrow steal until payday.

Not skint at all, in fact pretty comfortable, however i was for the first 48 years of my life.

Not skint. Far from it these days. I have been skint in the past, so remain v v v careful with money.

I feel skint. I know we have savings but dh job is at risk and we have the next few months wondering if he’ll get made redundant. Redundancy pay is bad and capped so doesn’t reflect his current earnings. Things can change in a second and those savings will be gone very fast if the worst happens. Feeling very vulnerable and this month we’re struggling to stay within the month’s salary.

are we on the breadline? No! Could we be by next December? Absolutely!

Some people don't seem to understand the meaning of the word skint or the purpose of this thread.

It isn't the place for some people to boast about the thousands of pounds they have in savings...

@ellie09 My grandad has left ALL his inheritance to my mum (thats his choice). She has a 350k house paid off and lots of savings herself. She said she will grace each of is grandkids with £1k when that day comes and the remaining 120k will go to her

Well don't you just sound like a peach, ffs! 🙄

I think one of the issues as well is if you aren't on the same page financially as your partner- you start off that way as you don't have much anyway - (well we didn't) but many years down the line realise if there is cash to spare your very hard working partner/DH will instantly want to be booking a holiday or having a weekend away because they 'need a break' (even though they had one 12 weeks before etc ) or you will be trying to be careful (ish) with the shop and they will be thinking nothing of popping in £4 bottles of juice or similar- same goes with housing and cars - they aren't prepared to compromise with something a bit more average and would rather have the bigger payments and little in savings because they have a big case of keeping up with the joneses - I was to be honest gobsmacked when my H became somewhat like this when he started earning pretty well and short of divorcing I can't see his attitude changing much . We aren't skint like people on here- but have little in the way of savings and £110k income -

£100 in my current account and £750 in my savings.
Got a fridge full of food and petrol in the car, I get paid this week so not skint.
I have been poor, really poor so right now I feel ok. I'm not struggling in January and that's a huge difference to where I once was. I've been paying my debts too and they'll all be cleared this year

-£120 and I was paid yesterday. I'm paid every Friday for the previous week's days I've worked (I'm a supply teacher). I've lost 3 weeks' pay over Christmas as I can't work when schools are closed (and I've got my own children at home anyway). Still coming back from that, and I already need to save money for February half term, the Easter holiday and the long Summer holiday. I need to save about £2000 between now and July, around £350 a month from now on. My partner earns a decent wage but nothing extravagant. He pays the big bills, and I pay all our food shopping and anything related to the kids (school stuff, lunches, new clothes, trips, clubs, birthdays, Christmas presents etc...) plus my own bills and petrol /car maintenance etc... We don't have much debt but will do soon as we need a new car (mine is 14 years old and falling apart), we want at least one holiday this year and we're looking at converting our garage to make room in our small house. We're looking at taking a loan over 10 years, which scares me.

I am not skint.

I do remember being skint in my 20s & 30s, permanently in my overdraft, moving debt from credit card to credit card. It was shit so even though I am not skint now, I still remember how it felt.

I have recently been watching Dave Ramsey on FB and he has very practical steps of how to get your finances on track. He's American but a lot of what he says is transferable and also tackles how to live within your means and your mindset to money. I wish I had had this advice in my 20s. (He's also a bit religious but I tend to ignore that stuff)

I empathise.

DH has been made redundant 9 times since 2000 with only one very modest redundancy payout. His industry has been through many lay-offs and is about to have more. He's of an age now where it's very unlikely he'd be able to get another job readily, particularly in a tight job-market.

It feels like you no sooner start to get straight then everything is taken away from you again.

I hope things work out for you and that DH's redundancy doesn't happen or any period of unemployment is shortlived.

Fantastic achievement. You should be so proud

Roughly £14K in joint account, £4K in personal account, just over £10K in business account.

I don’t think I’ve been properly skint in years. However, I remember being a student and making porridge with water because I couldn’t afford milk!

11p in cash
£8 in bank
0 in savings
Payday feels so far away 😪

I’ve been saving for a new kitchen since I moved in seven years ago. It desperately needs doing and I don’t have enough slack in my monthly budget to take on any credit. So I have about £6k put aside towards that.

I’m £250 overdrawn in my current account which is my limit and I get paid on Thursday. I really don’t want to dip into the savings, but it’s looking like I’ll have to.

So I’m skint, but not in absolute poverty, because I have savings, albeit for a specific and essential purchase.

Not skint day to day, I have £5k in savings but I have no assets (live in rented social housing). Got £70 in the current account until payday on Wednesday. I get UC and if I have more than £6k in savings they'll start reducing it so I keep savings at £5k and make sure I spend all my wages every month. I had to dip into it when I got made redundant last year but I managed to get a new job within 6 weeks and then put it back when I got my redundancy payout.

@ellie09 With age and finances it really is a case of "what comes around goes around."You accumulate money as you get older. Boomers were skint when they were younger. When I was in my twenties I honestly could not forsee a time when I would have a home of my own or a car or be in a well paid job. But it all happened in the end. There was no golden age when young people had it easy.

Oh, I’ve just survived redundancy by the skin of my teeth in an awful consultation too.

What is the purpose then? The OP asked a question, some people are struggling, others are not. I think it's good to see differing responses. The Reddit thread they linked also has a variety of different answers with some doing well and others not.

I've got about £50 in the bank with about 5 days to pay day. I haven't used my credit card this month and I don't have any necessary expenses before I get paid as I have prepaid for travel to work, done a big food shop, paid all the bills and put money into savings. I feel a bit skint but I have also done a fair amount of shopping in the sales and have a few family birthdays coming up and have bought gifts so it isn't too bad. I just need to pay for one lunch really before I get paid.

£3 in the joint spending. £0 in my account. We’ve already had to transfer over £700 that was earmarked for big expenses/savings (partners overtime pay he got at end of dec). We’ve got a wedding to save for and a mat leave in June. Everything is so expensive we just spend spend spend. I transfer £200 thinking that’ll do us but then fuel in the car and a food shop and it’s gone. Partner earns £50k plus over time and I earn £30k part time I don’t understand how we are so skint!! 😭

I have not included savings in that but I try not to touch them.

Realistically I’ve got a couple of hundred to last me until the 1st when I get paid, and Netflix and one of the kids phones still to come out of that. I have £400 ish in my savings account but I won’t touch it.

I’ve been really frugal this month and there’s still not much left.. single mum here (two teens) self employed so do get some payments in cash which helps. I just HATE worrying about money and hate my old self from when I was married and had a lovely lifestyle wasting money on shite and not really appreciating that I didn’t have to worry about money.