To wonder how people are coping?

[CobbleWobble]

We are very lucky, I know this.

We are "Mumsnet rich" both have professional jobs with good salaries (£170k household income) and yet this last 12 months:

• removed children from private school
• changed how we do the weekly shop to reduce costs
• cut subscriptions (like Disney+ etc)
• reduced what I bought in the back to school shop
• decided against a holiday in October half term
• concerned about our usual Christmas food order

What is going on? I just don't understand why or how prices are rising as they are or how people on less than us are coping!

I'm extremely grateful we have the things to cut that we have but we've also had to remortgage this year which has doubled our mortgage payments and then our utilities have increased and the food shop has just got insane.

We have other things we can cut - a holiday in the UK, Netflix, the monthly takeaway but its just miserable to think we may need to do that just not to be living.

Happy to post spending particulars if people are finding it hard to see where I'm coming from.

So AIBU to think that as a country we cannot go on with prices rising like this? How are others coping?

Net zero will make energy bills cheaper not more expensive.

wind and solar power are far cheaper than gas & nuclear

Couldn’t agree more

We're a family of 4, including two teenagers, with a mortgage, pets, and quite often other mouths to feed. We struggle on £40k (gross), but could definitely cut corners by sticking to a strict grocery budget and eating boring food. We've never been able to take the children abroad, but they always had one or two weeks at the seaside (camping) each year. We also paid in instalments for one to go on two brief European trips with school, and another to go to Spain and then a festival with friends. Both had music lessons and got into national groups. They couldn't also do every single activity that took their fancy (horse riding/ ice skating!!), but between them they did ballet, country dancing, recreational gymnastics, netball and art club. We also insisted on swimming lessons until they were very competent, but those were £5/week lessons in a group of up to 12.

I kinda get it . We live in Dublin . No mortgage . I have just done our finances for October . 9 k coming in , 8500 going out .
Uni fees , food , extortionate utility bills , insurances, music lessons, sports fees, holiday deposit . 5 young adults / teens here though . Very expensive .
Decent lifestyle but definitely not wealthy and always run out of money before the end of the month ......

Your utilities seem extremely high. We have a large 4 bed (utility room, extra playroom downstairs etc) and have the heating on 19-19.5c all winter and water on a meter and ours is only £55 water and direct debit of 190 for gas and electric (evens out as meter readings are less in summer more in winter)
Have you shipped around for prices (we are with octopus energy), changed tariff each time it runs out, got a water meter - if you don't they charge extortionate amounts for the "estimate", checked for leaks if your water usage is excessively high.

Our household income is less than half of yours and we are not “rich” but comfortable enough. We live in the South and have a decent sized mortgage. I can’t understand how you could possibly be as “hard up” as you describe! 😳

Yep

Oh look, it's this thread again.

It's the thread in which the wealthy claim that they have no money, because they have no money left at the end of the month after buying a bunch of expensive things that they couldn't have bought if they weren't wealthy.

@CobbleWobble

Your expenses total £5970. You said your house has £6998 each month. £1000 disposable income after the essentials are paid for is generally considered very generous.

You are missing your pension salary sacrifice from that list. Yes, that comes out before you receive your pay, but it's still important information. For example, if you're putting 30% of pre-tax income (for example) into your pension, that would explain why you have less disposable income than expected.

Car expenses Inc petrol 300
Commuting 80 (we both work mainly from home but need to go in to the office twice a month each)

Why are the commuting bills and car bills separate? Are you not travelling to work in your car?

Is this one car or two? Is it including insurance, car tax, and maintenance? How much for each car?

Phone 30 (previously 60)

Is this both phones? If yes, fair enough. £30 for one phone would be abnormally high.

Professional memberships 250

£3000 a year for a regulatory body? Even if this is both you and your husband, £1500 for a regulatory body is still extremely high. I have never heard of any regulatory body charging so much.

interesting. Do you think having a liveable planet is an extravagant expense?

Tbh im surprised you were paying private fees on 170k combined. I know a lot of people on similar (naice south east commuter belt) and no one pays private

I collect rainwater to flush my loo. Cheaper and saves the planet.

I don't know how £100 would even cover that. My pet insurance is €15 per pet, and vet plan €20 per pet, so £100 wouldn't even cover those for 3 pets nevermind even basic food and bedding. But on £170k I'd hope the pets are also getting treats and toys!

Fascinated that on that income (with clearly zero buffer) you thought private schools were an option. What are your savings?

I had to stop my dog's insurance as it was getting to £110pm. What pets does OP have? Hamsters?

She said 2 dogs and a cat! And that she has insurance, if she didn't the budget would make a bit more sense but still be tight

We used to earn more than that and had a very good quality of life. The pandemic hit and wiped us out financially and we are still recovering! We have no where near that amount now and it’s been hard. Energy prices, our mortgage and food just wipes us out. I cannot understand how you struggling unless you have massive debts and a high mortgage.

It’s shit OP. I’m in such a bad financial position now. Until last year I wouldn’t have thought twice about holidays, spending what I liked when I liked. Fast forward now I’m a single mum, now having to consider applying for benefits and quickly accruing debt. People condemn others for saying it but this country is utterly utterly shit. The economy, the weather, the culture. It’s depressing. And on top of it we’re all struggling - for what?

if dc dad weren’t involved you wouldn’t see me for dust getting out of this shithole. At least if you’re struggling in other country’s you’re getting SOMETHING out of it. Weather at a minimum.

and before anyone harps on about being grateful for the nhs, services etc. I don’t care. They’re shit.

Also considering removing dc from private school but it feels such an injustice 💔

Our annual income is under half of yours and we manage fine (family of 4). Yes things have got more expensive but we’ve had to cut back, but we are happily comfortable.

Oh and my council tax is £300 which is beyond ridiculous

Our income is nowhere near yours yet we have 3 foreign holidays a year and one of two kids in private school…
I don’t understand where your moneys going?

I can kind of see that ‘six figures’ isn’t the same as it used to be. 100K per year sounds like a huge amount of money to me but:
Minimum wage in 2010= 11,000 per year
Minimum wage now= 24,000 per year

So ‘100k a year’ isn’t really what it used to be in relation to lower paid jobs but still paying much higher tax.

So I can kind of see how some people on bigger salaries are struggling, particularly if there are huge mortgages, financed cars and school fees in the mix.

I work full time and earn a tiny bit above minimum wage. Almost all the so called cutbacks you’ve had to make I’ve never had in the first place.
But I’m happy and content with my lot because I’m aware of how fortunate I am to have a job, a home, friends.
A joint income of £170,000 is riches most of us will never know. Quit thinking you are in anyway struggling or suffering hardship.

Wow - I’m really surprised. My sister and her partner are on UC and really struggling. They are topped up to much less.

I'm saving nothing and just hoping theres a distant rich relative that is leaving me everything one day, because long term I'm screwed.