To struggle on this salary?

[Unfff]

Or more to the point… think it’s just not worth the hard work anymore?

Had enough. I earn 3,100 a month. My mortgage is 900 and car finance 300. Student loans 300. Nursery is 800 and I get 400 child maintenance. By the time I’ve paid bills… this months heating was 150! Water another 50. Phone bill and Netflix… I’m left with barely anything. My job is really full on and I work late or weekends often… I do t strictly have to but it’s the sort of job where you just do… otherwise things fall apart.

I don’t do expensive things. Can’t actually remember last time I went on holiday! AIBU to find it utterly miserable that taking home this much money means you still can’t just buy a coat or even new jumper etc without having to think twice?!

This has got to be a wind up!

OP lots of us have been there. My household income was slightly more than yours (2 adults but we were relatively young and earlier on in our careers. I remember one month genuinely wondering how we would pay the mortgage (in the end my husband sold a watch he didn’t use). We both kept working (I did part time for a bit and then my husband did), but we have both been FT since youngest was 2.5 years.Other friends use to think we were mad as one salary was going on childcare and it would have been financially better for one of us to stay at home and get a job doing evening/weekend shifts in a bar or shop; however, hang in there it gets better. Your salary will increase. You will get promotions. Nursery fees are not forever. We now are very comfortable. We also are both at a senior level so we have quite a bit of flexibility with work so we can pick up children as needed and both wfh a lot.

Eh? What is the purpose of this comment?

also, £500 on bedding? How many beds do you have?!

Depends if you like bedding made of dead ducks I guess

Ha! the most unstealthy stealth boast ever.

I’m surprised people think you’re being unreasonable. Seems there are two types of people on mumsnet. Those content to live frugally (in poverty?), and those well off. Perhaps the middle class are being squeezed from both sides?

anyway, I’d hate to be in your position OP. You’re only one event away from needing a large expenditure - car breaks down, fridge, leaking roof, needing knew mattress, plumbing isssue etc

She has very clearly provided her after tax pay. £36k after tax is very high.

Just have to get through the tough nursery years 🥲

I can’t believe all the banging on about the student loan without a second of consideration that it could be for something other than a student loan company undergraduate degree debt 😭

and yes the car is expensive but of course you can’t just get out of these things. It may not be a lease, because if so, it’s an extremely cheap one. It might be a personal loan, for a car, which could easily be £300 repayment a month for a cheap car (that’s approx a £12k loan)

things aren’t always as simple or easy to fix as posters like to think

I wish it was a wind up.

As I said we are lucky enough not to scrimp, those saying that the OP should not have a car on finance or buy a new jumper because they have 1k a month left over.

My car is an Xc90 and for fuel was £112 and then ad blu came to the £150.

Here is the bedding we purchased, plus fitted sheets. Yes we could have spent less but that is what we liked.

Are you utilising tax free childcare for the nursery fees?

What? Then you don't buy the bedding you like if it causes you financial difficulties!

I expect she is if she's entitled she's not thick

Here we go, I am sorry that our bedding all started to wear at the same time.

My point is that,what some perceive as a lot of money does not go far now days.

@TheSpoonyNavyReader My car is an Xc90 and for fuel was £112 and then ad blu came to the £150.

You drive a massive car that you don't need, and then you moan about financial difficulties on mumsnet?

🤣
Where have I said that it caused financial difficulties, I have said that we can afford it.

My point is things cost more in a cost of living crisis and people saying that the OP has 1k after essential bills is a lot depending on where they live, it’s not much.

The bedding I purchased was not made from unicorn mane just mid range bedding.

Options, get a cheaper car, are you nit entitled to any childcare free hours or help? Drop to part time, spend more time with your child, pay less on childcare and let uc top of the rest otherwise you are working to break even and not being with your child as much but then I know it could affect your career going part time for the future and I also know my uc comment won't go down well here

Where have I moaned, we have a large car as we have 4 kids…let me know how I can get 6 people in a fiesta…

It’s not a wind up, I am showing that £1000 does not go far and certainly not on luxurious items.

People need to stop thinking £1000 is a lot of money now, with the cost of living and inflation it does not go far.

Well good, petrol etc is going to take up a large amount of that

If £3100 is after tax, NI and pension contributions but before student loans, you should relook at UC and child benefit, Assuming you are over 25 but your first child was born after April 2017 the calculation for UC would look like:

Standard allowance £393.45
First child £287.92
Childcare element £680 (85% of £800)
Total = £1,361.37

Earnings minus work allowance
£3100 - £673 = £2,427

Earnings deduction
£2,427 x 0.55 = £1,334.85

Total allowed - earnings deductions = total UC for month
£1,361.37 - £1,334.85 = £26.52

£119 for ONE bedding set?! I know it's not the point of the thread, and we're not struggling by any means, but I can't believe they charge that for a fairly average bedding set and it actually sells!

Oh sorry, my mistake. So you only have one car, which is why it needs to have 6 or more seats. I did not realise you don't have a second car, as clearly it would be very easy to move 6 people in two fiestas.

So if you only have one car, and that one vehicle needs to have 6 or more seats, then what's wrong with the Jogger? Costs a fraction of an XC90, which means you wouldn't have to moan about your finances on mumsnet.

Food, petrol, insurance, clothes, hair, days out for OP child, and you know something for OP to do for herself.

I have been jumped on for what we spent in a day, it was not a boast but just to show, how much things cost now.

Or a Zafira, can get a decent one for less than £3000 in most parts of the UK, 7 seater.