To be so sick of being broke?

[PrincessC0nsuelaBananaHammock]

This is pretty much just a moan really. I'm already doing everything I can to try and improve our situation financially. Although nothing's working atm. 😑

Both DH and I work full-time, on minimum wage. Me 45 hours per week, him between 40-50 depending on the week. And we still can't make ends meet. I'm talking having about £50 left in the bank 2 days after payday because all the bills have come out.

Not entitled to any benefits as earn too much for UC (on MW? 😐). Kids are grown up (22 and 18) but still living at home. DD1 is in college and on UC and waiting to see if she's entitled to PIP for her autism. DD2 is starting uni next month and works part-time herself.

I'm just so fucking sick of the cost of everything. To the point I'm questioning whether I can afford to buy a £6 pack of Benadryl for my fucking hayfever! 😡

Applying for multiple better-paying jobs every week and getting bloody nowhere! Urgh.

This is pretty much just a moan is what I said. I didn't want advice. I wanted other people in similar situations to post with their experiences. Also I haven't said anyone is being nasty or spiteful or smug. They are your words.

OP I am not surprised you want a rant. This sounds very difficult.

Do you have a good view on when your debts - utilities, water, council tax etc will be cleared and you’ll have more breathing space in your budget? That might help you see light at the end of the tunnel and that it’s only temporary. If I were you I would cut the luxuries and look for a better broadband deal, challenge the household to cut the grocery spend - like that show eat well for less TV show - doing brand swaps etc. And then once a debt is paid - eg when the £450 bill becomes £200, you’ll be able to add something back in - be that gym or injections or more branded groceries etc and do the same when the next debt goes etc.

But then feel free to ignore as I know you don’t want advice.

Everything is really expensive at the moment, but unfortunately in that much debt, you do need to cut out the luxuries. You are not entitled to be able to afford MJ or the gym or subscriptions. If you want to keep those, you can't really complain about having no spare money.
You're in a lot of debt and I'd personally tackle paying that off first. I'd also not work unpaid hours at work...

I would say stick with the weight loss injections-when you’re slim and confident you’re more likely to get a better job.
Prime is £9 a month - peanuts compared to buying food.
Get some of the jack monroe cheap recipe books second hand and have a more boring but much cheaper diet

@ClassicalQueen excellent advice.

i have very low income and no subscriptions, 10.05 pcm internet, 15 mobile contracts (me and two sons sims only, second hand devices from cash gen) no holidays, don’t buy anything on credit. I over pay gas and elec so currently £500 in credit. We go without ALOT but i simply am not in a position
to work longer hours and choose not to claim benefits .

IRL I know a few people who both work time and complain about being in debt, but their spending habits got them there - not the boat people, not the neighbours cat , but their own spending. one had a car on finance snd chose to get married on a plane and wedding in the carribean .So yeah, you will get in debt on a low income.

if you can’t afford it don’t buy it.

I work from home full time and on BT we have fast fibre broadband , phone and TV including Netflix for under £50 a month - it’s never failed me in 4 years in terms of working and I deal with a lot of big data files.

Your food budget is really high even with pet expenses , especially when you’re paying for Mounjaro on top of that - do you rely a lot on convenience meals ?

the tax break for working at home has been cut back this year - when I checked it was £60 and for me not worth the paperwork

I feel for you both working long hours on minimum wage but I think there are some changes you can make with a little effort and hopefully the debt backlog will mean payments reduce soon

Moan away op. Paying back debt is a hard slog with a very slow reward...bit like dieting and many of us find that a challenge to stick to!

The eldest is disabled. She gets £316 per month. I'm not going to take any money off her for food or for the £10 per month her mobile phone costs!

The youngest spends £10 on an uber getting home from work every night because she works til the early hours. She's only on £10 an hour. I'm not going to take money off her either!

I just want to add, I don’t intend to offend OP with my post- it’s just my view point and my scenario x

I have worked from home for one employer doing high intensity work
Never had a VPN
Had secure login systems
No issues

I do not understand why you are paying
£65 for internet
£65 for subscriptions & VPN

You can apply for some rebate if you WFH
It used to be approx £6 per week

Your food bill is high
Change supermarket
Try Olio or Too Good To Go food waste apps
Yellow sticker food & freeze

Ideally get the adult children to pay some into the houshold pot
Letting them stay for free at home is not teaching them about budgeting

Thank you, I wasn't offended. 😊

I have only read the Ops posts so this may have been said before - but on youtube there are a number of frugal vloggers who have great ideas about how to cut costs. My favourite if frugal queen in France- she's British and granted living in France seems to be hugely cheaper for quite alot of things, but she has some great tips which I have incorporated into my life.

It's the debt (maybe 500ish per month?) that's killing your finances.

When will it actually be paid off?

I'd expect them to pay for their own phones, toiletries, and something towards their food.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

"Netflix, Amazon and a VPN so I can watch a bit of US TV are treats thanks.

Streamers here in the US are going to be going more hard core with VPN bans.

Just sayin'.

Welcome to 21st century rip off Britain!

Its really tough when a lot of extra responsibility comes with very little immediate reward .
At one point 1 had a " step up" on the NHS pay scales when moving from the top of one band was equivalent to the bottom of my new " higher " one, until you had been in post for 3 years , at which point you got an incremental rise . Sometimes you need to take the "stepping stone" promotion to be able to move up from there and benefit from the very small increase in the meantime .

Meant at one point I had ...

https://www.gov.uk/married-couples-allowance

This thread is so frustrating, because straight away I can see how you could save quite a lot each month and offer advice on where to cut costs and get out of debt. But sadly you don't want advice, you just want sympathy and a moan.

Sometimes people really don't help themselves. I cannot sympathise with someone who isn't prepared to make simple changes to better their financial position.

Does this help ?

https://www.gov.uk/options-for-dealing-with-your-debts

Family of 4 here with dog and a cat, not huge earners at all. Eldest also starts uni in Sept and its blooming expensive what we will have to contribute... dog needs monthly meds due to allergies and a 'special' diet but our groceries/pet bills/ pet food are at least £250 lower than yours. Maybe do a weekly food list and see if you can cut this down as I think with planning you should be able to save there.

I feel sorry for you OP. I had friends in similar circumstances- can you reduce hours at PAYe work which would enable you to get some UC and use the extra time for a cash in hand job? (That’s what my friends did and they now have less stress and more cash). Good luck x

I feel sorry for you OP. I had friends in similar circumstances- can you reduce hours at PAYe work which would enable you to get some UC and use the extra time for a cash in hand job? (That’s what my friends did and they now have less stress and more cash). Good luck x