To believe that some people stay broke because they don’t want to make sacrifices?

[ForSharpBrickKoala]

It’s hard to save money but isn’t it true that a lot of people could improve their financial situation if they made different choices? AIBU to think it’s not always about the system?

I’m not gonna make myself miserable for a whole year for £2k. That’s ridiculous.

To be clear, I don’t live in poverty though. I can pay all my bills, I just have very little disposable income.

It blows my mind to think that my grandfather, who also worked on a production line, could afford to buy a detached 4 bedroom house on a single salary!

which is fine, and literally what I actually said "Absolutely fair enough if people choose to prioritise buying things and having a good time."

Again, I couldn't care less if people would prefer to spend their money. If a 'save for tomorrow-er' and a 'live for today-er' both suddenly dropped down dead many would agree the spender had the best idea. I was just agreeing with OP that many (not all) people could make some savings if they wanted to, but decide not to.

It's only when they pretend it's not their decision and somehow an unfair circumstance completely out of their hands that it annoys me. e.g. I have a colleague who always moans that it's unfair me and other colleagues (all paid the same) have bought houses and she's stuck renting, and how lucky we are.

But it's not luck - I didn't get a deposit from my parents or anything. I spent 3 years before buying said house eating lunch with her- I bought in a 40p tin of soup from Lidl whereas she bought coffee and lunch from pret everyday. I was living in a scabby 4 person houseshare in a not great area while she was renting a nice flat by herself, and so on.

If she'd just said 'I couldn't deal with sharing a bathroom with strangers or living in that area, I'd feel so unhappy that it wouldn't be worth the money I could potentially save,' then fair enough.

It's people refusing to own their choices that annoys me.

Yeah that’s fair. We rent - a combination of the mortgage term we’d get (partners age) and size of deposit we’d need have led us to decide we’d rather spend the money on family holidays etc.

I’m not the type to complain when I’m skint, it’s my own doing.

I was more explaining the rationale behind the “spendy” folks, why they may decide not to save for rainier days.

I dont know why hair gets brought up Hair has the annoying tendency to grow and the Job Centre and employers have a REALLY annoying tendency to expect people to look presentable while job hunting
Would YOU employ someone with hair circa March 2021??!!!!

But there's a huge variation in what people spend. I have a £30 cut and finish every other month and use a £5 box dye when I can be arsed. I look perfectly presentable. Some people spend nearly 10 times that amount.

Repeat for £10 pm sim only contracts vs £50 pm for an expensive phone, full Sky vs Now TV etc etc and it's easy to see how some people are spending hundreds of pounds extra each month on not very much. Cutting what they spend in half will free up money that could build up into thousands of pounds of savings over a year.

I don’t know. It’s too variable to say. Some have to visit elderly relatives hundreds of miles away to keep them coping. Some have to travel to see their dc. They don’t have a choice not to, yet can’t afford it. It isn’t really about £5 Netflix contracts and the odd coffee. Work opportunities? They are definitely not offered to everyone, regardless of how much they want it.

I would but I’ve not been to the hairdresser since then snd just trim the ends off myself. Oddly enough I have no issues getting a job.

Tbh in the U.K. the things that are considered a luxury and not a necessity are quite at adds with the rest of the western world. The excuses to leave people without money at the end of the months are just too unfair. People just can’t get ahead in this country. It is not a matter of saving more it is pure misery here.

As long as its not a job in a hairdressers After all they would all go bust if everybody could do what you do

FGS you know what I mean when i say HAIR! I get my hair cut about every 6 weeks and it costs £25.

I'm talking about people who often have extensions (no idea of cost) and a bloody balayage with cost of around £150+, which is updated every say 10 weeks or so!!

It's no-one's responsibility to keep hairdressers or anyone else in business by risking their own financial stability.

Spend less than you earn. Every pound saved can help build some financial resilience and in most cases it's not hard to do (adds obligatory disclaimer about how we know that some people's income doesn't even cover the basics but we're not talking about them here, but the majority of the population who have some money left after paying for essentials and what they do with that money).

exactly! it's very easy to cut your own hair, or if you can't manage that then hair plaited back or in a bun will look perfectly presentable and cost nothing.

Nobody is being denied a job (unless they work in modelling) because they haven't spent £180 having new hair extensions this month.

it's being pedantic to pick up on 'hair cut' as a necessity when it's been made perfectly obvious that it's anything beyond necessities, going into luxuries, where savings could be made. e.g. nobody is saying 'all these stupid people, if they just stopped eating and survived on air they'd save so much money,' but more like 'Actually if you stopped your weekly takeaway, or cut it to once a month or once a fortnight, you'd save £50 p/w which could add up to hundreds per year.'

If you're one of the people who have their takeaway and think 'ugh, that wasn't really that nice, the portion sizes keep getting smaller, it took ages to be delivered and was cold when it got here, I could make it myself much tastier,' then maybe it's worth considering. If you think 'No, my takeaway is my treat to myself after working hard all week, I really look forward to it,it's always delicious, we enjoy it as a family and not having to think about what to cook and clean up makes it 100% worth it,' then fair enough.

Two of my SILs tend to complain that they don't have any money.

One of them likes to sigh dramatically every time anyone talks about their vacation and then she always says that her family could hardly ever afford a vacation. Her kitchen is almost science fiction. She has an entire wardrobe filled with make up. She's got eight or ten laundry baskets and extras of a lot of other everyday items as well. Usually several extras because of reasons. They have a huge cheap house in the country and it is filled to the brim.

The other one "deserves" designer clothes, to get expensive hair cuts once a month and to travel to exotic places. She used to live in an area with a lot of rich people and she deserves to live like them even though she doesn't have the income for it.

keeping someone else in a job isn't a valid reason for wasting your own money! (not that getting a haircut is always a waste of money but it is if you want to save and don't need a balayage)

people started using netflix and stopped renting videos - unfortunately shops like blockbusters went out of business.
people became better with computers and did more of their own admin/it got automated - the role of a typist became redundant
very few people now read daily newspapers - paper delivery boy jobs no longer really exist

that's just supply and demand.

Mine is a cut and root colour touch up every five weeks £65

Dont drink
Dont smoke
Dont go on nights out
Dont get nails done.
Dont get Hollywoods/ Brazilians (although i do get my chin waxed)
Dont have kids.

When you make sacrifices you are taking risk.

Risk has to be managed, otherwise you could lose everything. For some people ‘everything’ means ‘everything’ because they have so little: their entire current livelihoods perhaps, or the ability to eat for the next day, week or even month.

It is easy for middle class people who are never faced with that level of risk and know nothing of the full circumstances people live in to judge flippantly. I would prefer a more specific detailed case to judge myself, and even then, perhaps help to overcome real or even perceived barriers would be more appropriate than censure from those who have never experienced life without money, resources and support.

So YOU are NOT the type of person I'm talking about!!!
I'm talking about mums who choose to spend copious amounts on their appearance and the claim they can't afford to feed their kids!!

You getting your hair done is not detrimental to any child, that's your choice , go for it!

Absolutely 👍🏻
I do know of families who have a very decent income .
After mortgage payments and all other bills paid plus savings and pension pots they had enough to send their 2 children to a private school.
However , that didn’t leave them with much of a disposable income so they did actually share a very basic car , didn’t buy any expensive clothes , didn’t splurge on things like hair / nails / makeup and holidays were visiting relatives in nice parts of the UK .
That is absolutely fine ,
Another family whose income wasn’t as much , there was no way they could afford fees .
However their disposable income after all expenses allowed them to have nice clothes , hair , nails and very nice holidays

what are you on about? Nobody is blaming poor people for not investing in the stock market?

How is not buying a takeaway once a week, or not taking out a contract to buy the newest iphone, or not having a monthly manicure, and saving that money instead, a "risk that has to be managed?"

And Lloyds Club Saver is currently 6.25%, limited to £400 deposit a month but on £4800 that's OK.

Moneybox 4.5% 32 notice account

Plenty of other examples on the thread

perhaps someone who doesn't realise there are bank accounts paying more than 1% (literally the first thing financial experts like Martin MSE recommend and the easiest money saving tip ever - earn FREE money by switching to a higher interest account) isn't the best person to comment on how hard/not worth the effort saving is?

Nah, other way, autistic ds needed/needs me - so I sacrificed my career/earning capability to ensure his needs were met and so he can probably live without my help; hopefully before I'm 'gone'.

Yep, financially broke, but not broken.