Found out we are nearly broke -

[Pollss]

I thought we were doing well but DH told me we are almost broke.

We are mid 40s & 2 kids in primary school.

Joint gross income is £68k.

We have £190k outstanding on the mortgage on a house worth £525k

We have about £15k in savings and DH has £10 company shares. The children have about £5k each in their ISAs.

i thought we were in a much better financial position. DH has always been a saver whilst I have been a spender. He handed me 6 months' credit card statements and there were just 100s of pointless transactions: coffee, pret, McDonald's, cinema trips costing £50 a piece.

DH doesn't talk to me about our finances because it usually ends in bickering. I was hoping to move to a larger house as our current one is too small but £525k gets you nothing in London.

what can i do to improve our finance situation

This is tragic, do you have a paypal we can contribute to? I can't bear to think of you going without your takeaway coffee

You are financially illiterate. Or else just crap with money.

You cut up your credit card

You poor thing

Stop wasting money on stupid purchases. It sounds like you really can't afford them if you want to move to a larger house. Is the larger house a want or a need?

Your joint salary isn't that much for a family in London. Before I get piled on yes it is a lot more than many families have, however with London property, childcare and general cost of living a joint gross income of 68k won't go far. Salaries vs cost of living is completely out of sync in London, and much of the rest of the UK.

I wouldn't be looking to move into a more expensive house until you have your finances in better order.

While you’re not broke, I can see you‘d like a bigger safety net and a bigger house.

1. What can one or both of you do to increase your earnings? Does that work with childcare?

2. Are your savings in the highest interest account possible?

3. Set either a savings budget, which is transferred on payday into a savings account or budgets for eating out/ entertainment/ the children.

4. Check for unused/ underused subscriptions. We keep a watchlist and subscribe to a streaming service for a month max 3 times a year when we have enough on the list.

5. See what you no longer need and can sell. Only use that money for discretionary spending/ new clothes/ area of your choice. Selling stuff also changes your relationship to buying new stuff.

I honestly do not get these threads. People earning good wages keep saying they are broke. And why have you been buying pointless things on a credit card? That is so crazy to me. Maybe I’m in the minority but I only ever borrow money for things I need. Otherwise I go without.

How the hell is £15k nearly broke? If it was £15 (without the zeros) in savings then I'd agree but I suspect you are just saying this to wind people up

Too embarrassed to return it seems.

Sorry, I cannot edit the title. We're not we're I thought we'd be, I thought we'd have more saved up and could look forward to moving to a bigger house.
Sorry that the post comes across as crass and insensitive.

Read the title and thought I’d take a look at the thread, see what help could be offered. OP you are not almost broke. Broke is skipping meals because you only have enough money to feed the kids so you go without, it is posting on social media and asking locals where you can go to get food and panicking because the only food bank you know of needs a referral which you can’t get that day and you can’t wait till the next day as you’re desperate.

As pp’s have said, stop buying shit you don’t need and you will soon see your £20000 savings grow, especially with your joint £68k income

Tbh I think you’re doing very well given your combined income and that you live in London. You are definitely not broke! Have you got small mortgage payments? Do you need to consider that they might be going up when you next remortgage? We have similar savings/equity to you and earn more and we simply don’t have money to fritter away. The £15k will be gone in no time unless you address this.

I find posts like this so insulting to people that ARE really struggling financially. Some people could only dream of having 300k equity in their home plus savings. Did you really need to post on here for people to tell you you could save money by not buying takeaway coffee and going to the cinema?

I knew this was going to be ridiculous.

Nearly broke 🤣

@Pollss you need to explain yourself a bit better! how much debt do you have? are you clearing your credit card bill every month or paying the minimum only? what are you wasting your money on apart from pret, mcdonalds, cinemas and coffees???😂😂😂

Yeah OK, the OP has 'got it' now.
Can we stop with the pile-on of people repeating the same schtick over and over again?

@allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld The op answered just now.

Well go through your statements, mark all the useless, wasteful spends and eliminate them from future spending.

You’re the spender here so not sure why you’re surprised you’re not where you thought you’d be.

and there were just 100s of pointless transactions: coffee, pret, McDonald's, cinema trips costing £50 a piece

Just stop those and overpay the mortgage/save that amount of money, surely?

Me too!! Wonder if they fancy swapping with my version of nearly broke? 😂😂

At least you know now. Stop spending on unnecessary purchases. No more coffees/dating out/cinema trips. I used to be like you, but I've learned to budget and only buy what we need. I was shocked to see how much I spent on coffees each month! It was a real wake up call adding it all up. But when I stopped buying unnecessary things, I soon had savings. I like having savings it allows you to over pay your mortgage/buy a newer car etc.

Be thankful that you have a house and that you have spare money. Having a bigger home and extra money is not essential.
If you want more spend less.

Make your own coffee and stop eating crap takeaways, your credit card and health will thank you

Op thank you for making me laugh soo hard today!!! Can I suggest you come down off cloud cuckoo land and start living in the real world for once,mm

It's really offensive and insulting to say you are broke.

You have NO idea how tough things are for some people who are having to go to food banks etc!