I know Im being unreasonable!! but WTF?!...

[PunnyOliveTurtle]

In the queue for the post office and a woman in front of me (take note we very squished up together) opened up her banking app. and my heart sank, she had 4 accounts...800ish, 2kish, 1kish and 10kish. I have one account with 178quid til pay day at the end of the month, and i need to buy food and pay a bill. I know i was unreasonable for looking, I looked away as soon as I could, but my heart died a little. I'll never have that kind of money. Such a different world we live in...

FFS OP. She might run a business and this is all going to go out in payments. She might have lost family and inherited some money (I know I’d rather have an alive parent) she might have just got divorced and this is the settlement and needs to buy a house.

Either way it’s literally none of your business.

It might be a loan she’s taken out. I’ve taken out a loan for a car I’m buying next week and currently have £17k sitting in bank account, there is no way I’d able to save that money myself. It will all be gone next week!

Mine doesn’t…. Just looks like a positive balance

Really? Wow. Did you ever think of drawing up an anti poverty strategy? I do believe that in one sentence, you've completely solved the problem. I can't wait for the next installment where you explain where all the well paid jobs are going to come from so there's enough for us all, why we suddenly won't need any low paid jobs doing anymore, and where all the gaps in the market awaiting new businesses are.

I eat, just only about 1,500 calories. Of course I utilise food banks also. There just isn't enough money in the pot. I can't touch my savings, I put them somewhere I can't, and do the government help2save which will actually make me 1,200 over 4 years.

I need more income. Another £100 a month would do and I'm working on it. I work from home.

Tone Deaf, that’s up with with the time Rishi Sunak told the homeless man to get a corporate job.Yes because start a company get well paid job is that easy

the thing is you don't know why she has that amount - maybe she was not long paid, maybe she is saving for a holiday other purchase, maybe she lost a parent and they left her some. I have a bank account with some money in and it came from having lost both parents in around an 18mth period, including all the care that went with it.

Think about what you could do differently to make a start towards that - it never happens with no effort. Times are very tough at the moment - if you are managing to get to the end of the month with £5 left you are doing well. Just sweep anything left at the end of the month to savings even if it is a £1. I have usually saved by putting any pay increases to one side (on the basis that I survived on the lesser amount prior so shld still going forward). Think about how you drive and where you drive - put any savings away, think about what you are buying on food shop an maybe do without something this month, put that saving away.

TAke the positive which is you want savings and then work towards making that happen.

It wouldn’t.

Did she lose a family member and inherit a sum of money?
Did she go through a nasty divorce and that's the sum total of what's left from a house with 50% equity after solicitors fees?
Did she have a well paid but very risky job in order to save like mad for a place of her own?
Did she work in sales/management and gain a lovely big bonus (through working all hours and succeeding)
Did she start her own very successful business?
Has she just sold her house, moved into her parents, and now she needs to use all of that 'this week' as deposit for the next place with her husband to be?

All the above are circumstances in which, had you seen my balances, they'd have appeared the same (with adjusted amounts for historic events)

Could be any number of reasons. One of our accounts has £3k in as the credit card is about to go out from that account. My son's savings has £800 in and there's also a spending one with a small amount it. There's my savings account with over £10k in which is set aside for some long overdue work on the house. Then there's our joint current account.

Different people have different pay days.

In the kindest possible way, are you setting your bar too low? I keep saying this here, but do the Rebel Finance School course - the videos are all online, start at the first one and watch at 1.5 speed.
You have plenty of time to build up a balance like that, and more, whatever your circumstances.

You have no idea of the circumstances though, could be inheritance or redundancy pay.

A few years ago, we were very heavily in debt, many missed bills etc. Car was due to be repossessed. Only thing we were up to date with was our rent.

Then I was made redundant, at the time it felt like the worse thing that could happen but actually as I have been there nearly 20 years I got a pay out in the £20k region. We paid off the car loan in full and once I had secured another job we paid off the other debts and were able to start again with a proper budget in place. Since then my salary has increased by £15-£20k we no longer have childcare to pay and we now have around £15k saved and hope to buy a house next year.

Just four years ago none of this seemed like it could ever happen, I didn't sleep at nights wondering who would be knocking on the door the next day.

Edited to add I have changed my role, just done well with the company and asked for role review / salary increases over the last couple of years. Never believed that this salary was possible.

What age are you op, do you have kids?
I was a poor sp and living pretty much hand to mouth.
Now they are adults, fending for themselves and i have disposable income AND savings.
So, it is achievable, eventually.
X

She may have her children's savings accounts linked to her account. Maybe the £10K is a loan.

I'm sorry you are in a difficult situation

What should she do next?

You don't really know if she has just sold her car etc.

or she just earns more money and saves more
I have 4 accounts on my banking app - current account, regular saver account (fixed higher rate account which is my mortgage overpayment fund), another saver account (oot allocated for something else), and an ISA.
Total funds considerably more than mentioned above!

The OP said it was whilst in the queue.

It’s just as easy not to snoop. I’ve never been in a queue that puts me so close to someone I am forced to snoop on them. Personal space is a thing and you invaded hers.

Instead of being resentful, put your energies into finding a way to improve your situation. If there isn’t anything you feel you can change, then you just have to suck it up and get on with it. Carrying anger because others have more than you won’t do you any good.

A queue doesn’t mean you have to stand within snooping distance.

It was raining, the door had to be shut, it was busy and its a tiny post office...anyway

I don't blame you OP, it would be hard to resist.
That woman is better off than you, but many people might be looking over your shoulder at your bank balance and thinking Wow - still in credit the second week in the month!
It's all relative.

No it doesn’t

My dp’s does…

But you absolutely can have more if you spend less.

There are very few people who can’t cut back on their spending at all. That doesn’t mean that they should, but almost everyone spends at least something they could avoid.

That occasional takeaway.

Netflix subscription

Lottery ticket.

They’re not massive amounts of money but they add up. If you buy a lottery ticket once a week you’ve already saved £10.

And now someone is going to come on and say that I’m suggesting those in poverty/on benefits don’t deserve a treat. I’m not. But if money is that tight, then sometimes it’s necessary to look at where that money would be best spent. And a takeaway is almost certainly not it if you really want to save.