Where is all the money going??

[Fragmentedbrain]

I've never been great at budgeting but my tastes are pretty normal, my husband and I both work full time, no kids, no mortgage.

I just accidentally went into my overdraft for the first time in 25 years (when I was a student).

Wtf is happening! I'm not sure I can handle this next phase in General Decay of Everyone's Quality of Life.

I would get a side gig but (a) tax really erodes much of the benefit and (b) AI seems to be taking the bottom out of much of the freelancing world.

I live in Scotland, already pay loads more than I would in England in income tax and terrified they're going to put it up again just before Christmas.

Anyway, hustle ideas welcome😃

What are your expenses compared to your income? Do you pay rent?

Or just look at income and outgoings? Not being good at it really isn’t an excuse.

I’ve realised we need to cut back hard on grocery shopping and start meal planning. Buying what we fancy several times a week now seems to cost easily £800-1000 a month.

I'd start by looking at what you're actually spending money on. How much do you spend on bills, necessities and luxuries. Can you downgrade subscriptions eg if you have Netflix do you have the top level when you actually only need mid? Do you buy stuff because it looks nice but you don't actually need it?

I'd rather live in Scotland where our taxes go to covering things like prescription charges, bedroom tax etc than in England with a bunch of gammons scrawling flags everywhere. I'm not saying we are perfect up here but I wouldn't move down south unless I absolutely had no choice.

Guys this is a thread about how fucking much things cost now. I earn a lot of cash (relatively speaking I'm not Amal Clooney) and I basically spend money on food, modest holidays and books. Trying to max out the ISA allowance but not always succeeding. This used to be a self sustaining ecosystem that didn't ever require me to look at the bank balance. Now it absolutely does.

Two people working full time with no mortgage and no child should be able to build savings while not having to worry too much about incidental spending. Rather than think about side hustles, have a look at your bank account and see where it's all been going! An hour spent looking at a spreadsheet now could save you many more hours in the future.

You need to write down everything you spend over a month. I mean everything. Small buys add up. Look back over the last year, note what you spent on birthdays, holidays, Christmas, eating out etc. Then regular bills, mortgage etc. Then look at your income. All will become clear. It doesn't matter how much is coming in it's what's going out that matters. Some things are well under your control and it's these you need to get to grips with.

The maximum prescription charge in England for a year is £150. I pay QUITE a lot more in tax than that.

I don't want to subsidise other people to have a bigger house than I do either tbh.

Oh I see, you're putting it all in savings. Mystery solved. Well, yes groceries are more expensive now. Have holidays become much more expensive too?

I know it has been going on small pleasures and tax!

I am thinking about applying for ADP (the Scottish PIP) for my ADHD. It seems to be a fairly open pipeline ATM.

However the thread isn't about how to save money or start up a side-hustle. It is just one of the many many threads wanting to stir up dissatisfaction (choosing my words carefully) with the country. How is Nigel this morning? He's been a busy boy over the Bank Holiday.

So you have a large salary, no children and no mortgage and you're asking where your money goes?

What exactly are you expecting the responses to be?

Cost of living pressures have been with us for years now, maybe count yourself lucky you haven't noticed before now and do some basic analysis of your spending

You really need to look at salary growth. I think the days of staying the the same job for years and expecting your pay to keep up are long gone.

I know the feeling op

three years ago I opened my own business in a sector I’ve been working in for nearly 30 years. I know the sector inside out and upside down.

years one and two were really good and our lifestyle took a big upturn which has made a massive difference to us all in terms of having money giving more options choices etc.

year three (currently)has been a damn hard slog and not so much at the end of it.

It’s been bloody hard to be honest and when doing an update of household and business income and outgoings recently was shocked to see our household bills have gone up by over £500 a month

business costs have also shot up so when you sit and add it all up it’s shocking really

in sainsburys the other day I picked up some deli beef saw it was £4 for four slices and put it back again,

normally we put what we want and need in the trolley and then are shocked at the price so the last few shops I’ve examined the pricing etc and yes starting to meal plan properly

ive also cut out buying any extra treats in the shop that we really don’t need

I totally get that feeling of where’s it all going though.

in one particular month we’ve had school uniform and shoes etc coming to nearly £500 and a new tyre which was £180.

a bin subscription at £60 that’s extra,something in the house needed replacing £200 and that’s nearly £1000 gone in extras

Well apply and see how easy it is to get. Have you missed the extra wars/countries we are supporting, over the last three years? The cost of recovery from Brexit and Covid? It's all starting to need to be paid for. It isn't just those on less money around you, who you are supporting. Costs have gone up, people who are working, are using food banks and just about clothing them and their children, so watching what you spend, putting less in savings and pensions, really isn't a hardship.

Welcome to the real world. Prices have gone up.
You now do need to have a better grip on your finances whereas you didn't before. No need for a second job, just better budgeting I've had to budget all my life and don't feel particularly worse off now. I just no longer buy certain things I could in the past because they're too expensive on a day to day basis.

So you earn a large salary, save money, no mortgage, but just want MORE money without even bothering to examine what you waste your money on?

Nah, you're not intelligent enough to earn well and this is just a Rage Bait thread 😂

https://fivesurveys.com/register?ref=9b764ee8-b9a4-4e19-8bea-ab8074e49a52
I do loads of survey sites and use cashback apps like Shopmium.This fivesurveys is ok,I make around £10-15 weekly which adds up

ADP is quite difficult to get. You need a lot of supporting evidence

I think a lot of people are in your position, and certainly not just in Scotland or even just in the UK. Brexit's definitely a negative factor, but not the only one. I'd look at how exactly the "small pleasures" are adding up, because while basic necessities have gone up drastically it's really the area in between basic and luxurious that has skyrocketed. Things like "treat" foods, snacks, coffees, eating out, travel, admissions to events, sports, hobbies, clothing, makeup, fragrance - all have gone up exponentially over the official COL increase. There are ways to mitigate or even eliminate some of these.

Also, I'm not sure a side hustle's the way to go but it'll almost certainly depend on what's available locally or what you can do as an entrepreneur; 100% online opportunities are pretty bad at the moment because companies have figured out how to smoothly use people in extremely low COL countries and so hourly or "piecework" pay is not sustainable for someone in the UK. The more impactful way to increase incomings would be for you and your husband to figure out how to substantially increase the salary from your main job - switch companies, move up to the next level?

If you’re maxing out Isas, that means you’re saving at least 20k a year? Yet you’re moaning about the cost of living? Someone fetch me my tiny violin. Like others suggested, analyse your spending if you want to save even more than you’re doing.

I totally hear you, not got much advice. Similar position, haven't changed much in lifestyle but now the bank balance has become stresful. It is outrageous how prices keep creeping up with the inflation figure an absolute joke. Food prices have doubled and trippled and each week I notice yet another 20-25% increase. Visited recently France/Germany Austria, shocking how much. cheaper food is and I am talking about the really good quality food.
Higher tax burden, transport hugely expensive and unreliable, and I could go on.
There seems to be an intensified effort to push people into poverty here, equalising it across the board.

Ahh so this is where the thread is going…it’s another thinly disguised benefit bashing thread: I work really hard, pay loads of tax and it’s really easy for people to get benefits…

So what you are implying here is that if someone has the ability to make some savings they have no right to complain about the insane increases in cost of living? This is the sad pattern I observe on this forum. People do not take a stand against poverty or how much this is affecting low earners. They want to bring everyone down to that level. And the ones who are orchestrating all this are rubbing their hands in satisfaction whilst doubling and trippling their wealth.