How skint are you ?

[Jbrown76]

Inspired by this thread on Reddit:

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

-£23 in my bank account
Got around £100 in cash that was mine and my husband’s Christmas money from my mum.
I get paid on Thursday, youngest son’s birthday on Saturday.
In the grand scheme of things we are never without food or heating but I need to learn to budget better to try and save a bit. We rent. Not sure we will ever be able to buy 😔

If it makes anyone feel better (although we obviously feel for people), an article on money.co.uk. This year quotes as follows - you're not alone,l. Make this year the year you clear debt and pay yourself first (save) before spending....

Quick overview of UK savings statistics 2024
The mean average amount of money held in a UK savings account is £17,365.

Up to a third (34%) of adults had either no savings (or less than £1,000) in a savings account.
Around six in 10 (61%) UK adults save money either every or most months.
Almost two-thirds (65%) of people believe they wouldn’t be able to last three months without borrowing money.
Savings accounts are the most popular savings method among UK adults, with over half (57%) using these to save money.
Men have more savings on average than women across every age group.

I have £26 in the bank that my mum leant me today. I get paid on Thursday though and have enough petrol to get me to work if I want to go in this week, and enough cat food to last until Thursday.

My credit cards are maxed out though, I'm paying off old debts from when I was going through a shit time/separating but they're all almost paid off then I can tackle the credit cards. Once my phone/watch payments come to an end in a couple of months that will also help a little.

This is life at the moment, due to my past habit of spending when I'm depressed I pay the price later.

What is the reasoning behind having lots of cash in savings and so much debt? Is it because it's in zero interest accounts and you can earn interest in the savings and pay it off as soon as the zero interest deal ends? I am wondering if I should be paying minimum on my zero interest credit card and doing that.

Hit the nail on the head.

Earnings good on paper. But made some shitty financial decisions and therefore have unsecured debt/interest etc. Mortgage gone up by £500 and paying £700 childcare. So I’m in pretty bad place at the end of each month. Looking forward to April when childcare cost will be mostly gone and I can whack that on clearing debt each month.

I don't know anyone with much debt (unless people just don't want to say) but me and DH combined have around 5k on 2 credit cards and I thought we were the only ones!

5k in savings account. Nothing left in current account. Payday Wednesday. Got a few bills to pay so I'll just transfer over. I'll put back in savings once I've been paid.

Not skint because we can afford to cover all our costs but every penny is accounted for each month, a big chunk goes on childcare!

We budget pretty meticulously and move money into pots each month to spread the cost of things like insurance, Christmas, holidays. We do have a few thousand of car debt because our car needed replacing about the time used car prices went silly but hopefully we won't need to go into debt again once that's paid off.

£5 to my name and that includes overdraft 😂 (not sure why I'm laughing). Payday is Thu eve and I have enough food to last until then, & all bills paid for the month, so that's something.

NC for this. There are some good supportive Cost of Living threads over on that board, a mix of No Spend threads, and usual helpful stuff.

We've got 'savings' that aren't really because they're offsetting the mortgage and the final payment for it in 6 years time. If either of us lost our job and needed to apply for benefits, we'd need to spend our savings and thereby lose all of our final payment for the mortgage. It feels precarious because DH has been made redundant 9 times since 2000 with one one redundancy payout (and that was statutory). (There's not much equity in the house and it could do with a lot of work that we can't afford.)

And, I don't know what our true finances are. I know what I spend, DH lies and conceals. He buries his head in the sand. I accidentally found out he had £12K on CC I didn't know about just as lockdown 1 started. I begged him to tell me if there was anything I didn't know about but it was still some time before he had to stop pretending that my widget for our joint account hadn't arrived. He'd taken out a loan for £15K I didn't know about.

He's not spent on anything tangible. He's mindblowingly careless with a facility for lying. We've not had a holiday since 2000. He told me he was paying for psychologist appointments (ironically, a specialist in chronic lying) through his work's health insurance. No he wasn't. He didn't ever put in the claim, so we ended up paying £14K for that (that was how the house of cards of our finances became unravelled - I was getting bills from the insurers to tell me that they'd paid for some physio I had but I realised that he wasn't getting those letters).

In 4 years, I've been able to pay off those CCs and the loan. We've started to save to offset the mortgage. My parents were financially feckless and it was my mother's standing 'joke' that we only kept a roof over heads because I was old before my time and could "live off the skin of a rice pudding:.

But, I can't get him to discuss a budget. I'm hypervigilant and constantly feel like I live on a knife-edge.

-£1250 in my current account and almost nothing in savings as at the peak of childcare payments out (£20k per year) and some medical expenses for my youngest. My dog had to have an unexpected emergency op (all better now hopefully) so yeah, eeking things out to payday. Actually out the number of days until payday into my calendar this year. Not done that since my twenties! Financial means cement focus this year. Been inspired by some Dave Ramsey!

Not at all skint but have been for long periods while I was working hard to develop my career.

I now invest my spare cash ready to fund private school for my DC.

I’m proud of what I’ve achieved as I haven’t received a single penny from anyone else. No inheritance, no help from parents, not even assistance with childcare. No child benefit, no 30 free nursery hours, nothing. Literally every penny I have comes from earned income.

I pay astronomical amounts of tax so more than help others who earn far less.

I hated being skint and did everything I could to make it a temporary situation but appreciate that’s not possible for everyone.

I will admit to being not skint at all. We are comfortably off, and were able to pay off our mortgage early several years ago.

I’m not going to say we are lucky to be in this position, because that wouldn’t be the truth. It’s not ‘luck’. Nor is it privilege or inheritance. Quite the opposite, in fact. We have both worked hard for many years, earned every penny ourselves & chosen to live well within our means. No credit card consumerism for us. If we couldn’t afford something, we didn’t buy it then we saved up until we could.

We have also been careful, prudent & sensible with our savings & investments. Probably too risk-averse, if I’m honest.

I despair when I see so many people living in rented or 95% mortgaged new-build houses full of brand new rented furniture & appliances with wardrobes full of designer labels, all acquired using maxed-out credit cards, with two shiny new rented cars on the driveway. Their entire financial priorities are fundamentally wrong, and one day it will all collapse around them

I really hope something works out soon 💐 that's very tough.

That's great to hear you were able to turn it around, it gives me hope!

-985 in my bank account
20 pence left in savings account
25 pence in change

DH is having a ‘dry patch’ at work so we are ‘surviving’ on my wage at the moment (since the beginning of November so not too long). Fingers crossed his next job happens but if not he’s prepared to do almost anything.

No bills going out between now and payday and we can have slightly bizarre meals from the cupboard/freezer (lots of lentils and chickpeas).

Next month I’m going to really work hard on the budget so I don’t dip so far into my overdraft.

It never used to be like this and I definitely spend too much for our current situation but things like my PT are already paid for (booked a block of sessions.

I feel this.

@ellie09 I'm not sure if you're joking or not lol
But surely if your mum has a £350k house paid off. And has £100k plus savings coming her way then surely you're one of the people who's set to have a fairly whopping inheritance sooner or later. Some of us are skint and the third generation of skint so will never see that..: which is exactly what you're complains about 😂

I've got £260.19 in the bank but I got paid on the 15th and that's got to last till 15th Feb food/petrol any clothes or extras for 2 adults and 3 kids 😳

Precisely. The cash is earning at least 5.2% over a couple of accounts whilst the debt is 0% for around 9 months. It should earn me a few hundred £s once the cards are fully paid.

FFS. 😑

Simultaneously skint and not.

About 200 in the bank. Bills paid, cupboards, fridge and freezer full (big monthly shop came today). 4 weeks til pay day, with £500 DLA and whatever child benefit is to come before then.

However, we don't have any savings and I've got a potentially hefty car repair bill coming so a bit worried about that. Credit card has taken a hammering lately too with vet bills and a bill for the other car.

I'm glad the skintness of the rest of us made you feel better about your £1500 disposable income

@Moier thank you I've withdrawn it and will put it away

Not skint then are you