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?

Do you know how comments and intent work? 😂

You have a money-pit house OP.

A damp and draughty Victorian house with a very inefficient hot water system which costs a lot to run. Built on a slope with significant structural issues which have cost you a fortune to remedy. Very high utility bills and high CT bills.

All of this, plus high childcare costs (after school club is £15 and 8-6 holiday childcare £39 where I Iive just outside M25), together with DH's high pension contributions, have conspired to put you where you are.

It is very possible to live very well on your household income, but this depends on choosing your location and property wisely.

I see what you’re saying, but I still think you’re missing the point. What she spends her money on is irrelevant. It wasn’t really meant as a comparison. More shock at how hard it must be on a lower wage. And it is. People are struggling. She isn’t wrong. Whether her mortgage is higher than yours isn’t the point. People are struggling when they shouldn’t be.
Anyway, I think OP has come in for a hard time. She wasn’t asking for advice on why her outgoings are high or saying she’s hard up.

Ditto!

Is this estimated spend or based on tracking over the last 12 months?
I can't figure out if you've included things like previous home improvements under mortgage payment but not accounted for future home improvements/maintenance, which if 1% of your house value per year, could amount to a lot.

If this ~1% of house value annually needs to be knocked off your £900/month day-to-day spending, it could explain why you're feeling the pinch.

I presume you're reclaiming tax for the professional memberships.

I guess one issue with all the price rises and people cutting back is how much that cutting back affects others.

The cleaners, the dog walkers, the kids’ piano teachers who get let go. The cancelled dance lessons and sports activities. That will affect people’s livelihoods. People will pack in providing such services and then there’s nothing locally for people who could still afford them.

hairdressers shut up, shops close down, restaurants close down.

I’d give up if I were you OP!!! It’s an emotive topic for obvious reasons and people don’t seem to understand where you’re coming from. You’re criticised for pleading poverty (which you’re not), or blamed for having a too high mortgage. I get where you’re coming from. I’m not on a low income but rents are high and my food bill is double what it was a few years ago. I don’t struggle per se, but I should be better off than this. I can’t afford to visit the dentist, for example, and there are no NHS dentists near me. This kind of shit. It shouldn’t be happening, but it is. And it’s shit. And there are many many people far worse off than me.

I earn reasonable money but as it's only me earning currently, life's a big struggle.
I'm.planning to take my pension early to get through the next few years.

Our childcare, 1 child, bill is a third of my wages and that's with the 'free hours' and tax relief.

I do not know how we will eat on the last few days before payday, but the tins of beans and banana sandwiches will get us through.

I like chocolate, but its soooo expensive, I can't justify it so we get chocolate biscuits instead. We eat more cheese than meat and try not to overshop bc that's when we waste.

Buy enough teabags, washing up liquid and loo roll at the beginning of each month to last at least a month. Everything else is ad hoc. Frozen veg is my friend.
So yes, the midscale folk can be struggling.
I envy your money but not your mortgage.

Still here😂

Surely if your children were in private school you would know vat was 20% not 25%

I can relate OP, totally. I’m from a working class background and find myself on 6 figures. Our household income is about £140k. If you’d asked me 10 years ago what my life would look like on 6 figures when at the time I earned a quarter of that I’d have said ‘omg - loaded, cleaners, savings, investments’ etc. The reality in 2025 is very different from this (and naturally, a huge Fuck Off to the vacuous POS Liz Truss for doubling our mortgage). You’re not saying you’re skint. You’re just saying “fuck me, I thought there would be some left over at this earning level” - I get it x

I’ve read it all now! 🥴

OP, thinking about the pension contributions, if for example you’re earning roughly 30k (after 5% pension contribution) that brings home 2k a month. If he’s earning roughly 130k, (as your take home 160k), to bring home 5k to the pot (to make 7k) his take home after pension must be about 85k? That’s about 40k in contributions!

Obviously it’s worthwhile to put in as much as you can afford as you’re playing catchup on his pension, but you’ve taken your children out of private school and possibly this could have been avoided if he’d reduced the contributions back down for a couple of years? It doesn’t sound like he’s been very transparent about putting over 30% of his salary in them? If so, and his salary is below 100k, maybe you qualify for tax free childcare for the after school clubs / summer clubs.

(and I totally get that it makes sense to load up the pension, we do via salary sacrifice so not sure how it works if paid via another way, we don’t have to declare on a tax return or claim anything back. Avoids the 100-125k high tax band due to reduced allowance)

Disney Plus is €8 a month so I hope it's not £60 in the UK!

Prices are crazy now.

Maybe she should just be quiet eh. Some of us live on buttons and she's crying that she can't manage on 170k a year

It must be so hard on 140k. Like how do you cope? Poor you. My heart bleeds

Our joint income £110 000 NE Scotland.

Average pay £31 000'ish.

People are clinging on.

I meant TV packages in general ie Sky,Netflix,Disney etc not just Disney Plus! I know lots of people paying around £80 per month for TV,£40+ per month for mobile phone,£30/40 per week for takeaway..then complaining that they’ve got no money

I hope you are right.

My remark was for the future, that I can see a time coming when the time of stewpots will return.

She must have diamonds on the SOLES of her shoes...

Yes they do and lots of us, it depends on your job but my last two jobs I easily can do it, I work PT so we do one after school club and then one us us does one of the days and the other does the other day (I then have two days off per week so that is covered). Late lunch break covers the pick up, my DC then chill out either playing, crafting or tv while we continue to work for another hour or so.

I think the one thing which is likely to impoverish people in the near future is credit card interest.

It will decimate most budgets. The worry alone is enough to depress.

I have been paying the balance off each month for a very long time so haven't paid interest. My DD covers the whole balance.

If posters can do that as fast as they can, it may be hard to begin with, but it will save so much money in interest.

It’d take me many lifetimes over to earn that amount. I do a good job, very rewarding, but the pay is shit. Single parent to two young adults. One at uni, one at home. I bring home 16k a year. I’m just about keeping my head above water.

We have a much smaller joint income, although fortunate to have no mortgage to pay.
utilities and food are crippling us though - fish and chips is now a massive treat, as in, rather than it being a weekly treat, it’s now quarterly.
no childcare costs either, or finance payments for cars etc.
we do, however, prioritise weekends away/short holidays over ‘big’ holidays.