To say there’s always a high earner thread? Tell me about your income vs expenditure if you are of the opinion that you are broke/not well off?

[Moneymadness]

Just that really. Every other money thread ends up taken over by those with large incomes and low expenses, or just large incomes tbh. If you want to. Post your numbers if you are bloody broke and just getting to the end of the month(or not)…a safe space that cannot be taken over by the higher earners maybe?

In hindsight probably shouldn’t have used the word opinion in the title…I should have been more direct in that.

I'm on minimum wage, single parent with no child maintenance. I earn about £23000. I have £600 in savings.

I’ve been there too ❤️

OP mumsnetters joke about how much they earn so I wouldn't bother even asking. I mean - I coud put £30k or I could put £100k. How would you know any different.

In any case it's income that counts, not salary. Some of you might have to google what the difference is 😄

No, but I don't consider £25k + £31k to be a very high household income and we easily could have been broke had we not had a buffer zone.

The last time I was really broke was just after Uni when I literally had just enough to pay the rent and was really struggling to pay for food shopping. I was so cold all the time and couldn't afford heating or warm clothes either. It was a miserable life.

I understand finding it grating to have people earning decent salaries claiming to be broke because they've had to reduce the working hours of their gardener.

Of course you can answer but OP didn’t state any of that in her opener.
Broke means different things to different people so it would be helpful for that to be stated at the outset. She can then get the answers/posters she wants, rather than sniping back at others.

Yes, but you had savings to dip into. Being broke means you don’t have that buffer zone. You are literally skint. Not a penny left and a week until you get paid again.

She’s not sniping. People didn’t understand her post, though funnily enough - I did.

😂
Oh dear.

This was supposed to be a safe place for broke people.

Agree

“Supposed to be” being the operative words.

Instead we have posters letting us know they have savings and that £100k doesn’t go as far as it used to.

Yes, on this occasion we did. There isn't a universal definition of broke. I was saying that on those salaries, without having savings, life would have been difficult, so I would consider someone on those salaries or less long term to be badly off. It doesn't compare to what life was like when I was living completely in poverty and couldn't afford to eat properly.

Personally I think OP was clear.

She wanted to create a safe place for people who are struggling.

It doesn't mean no people with high incomes.

But people no matter what they earn find at the end for the month they are struggling to make ends meet.

But the first few posts are all about how they are doing fine and comfortable.

Think this thread was supposed to be about the latter tbh.

Agree!

Many people can find themselves struggling at the end of the month. But there's a world of difference between

• a household income of £70k who have overextended with their mortgage because their children 'need' a bedroom each, think Netflix and coffee pods are essentials, and can't afford to eat 'nice' food at the end of the month.
• a single parent on minimum wage with childcare costs too, sharing a room with her kids in a tiny rented flat, and needs to use the food bank at the end of each month.

One is broke. One has just made poor decisions and is financially incompetent.

I earn £40K part-time (30 hours a week) but put loads in to my pension so take home £2K a month. Husband on £65K. No mortgage, debt or children so not broke. We have been far worse off in the past but are now relatively stable.

Did you wander into the wrong thread by mistake?

I’m on £39k a year but I have a lot of debt, so I’d class myself as broke. I have about £7k in unsecured debt that I am trying to clear this year. It’s really tough.

I'm skint.

I earn about £32k a year. I live alone with my two dogs.

My rent is £1200 a month plus all the bills and food. The dogs eat better than me and I don't have any social life. My dad bought my car for me when mine died.

Currently dreading all the bills going up. My rent went up £50 a month, leccy £10. Luckily made a saving with contents insurance. I dread to think what the council tax is about to rise to.

I often buy a pack of eggs and eat boiled egg and toast for dinner. Tonight I'm having an omelette with a couple of left over rashers of bacon. Good job I'm on a diet!

I'm not broke in the general scheme of things. I earn around £26k for a full time job in a sector I've got 20 years experience in.

I have always earned significantly less than all my friends and siblings. My husband's on a bit more than me. I wouldn't have commented on your thread but I've seen all the posts from people who are on more than me! We live in a cheap area in a house that was a third of most of my peer's homes, that's how we make it work.

I felt broke and broken when the gas & electric bills and mortgage shot up when Liz Truss was PM. We were doing OK because we lived within our means but the increases ate up everything. I was selling stuff on facebook and vinted to pay for school dinners. Cancelled all subscriptions. Said no to every meal out, holiday, hen do etc. Anything non essential couldn't happen.

I took on some extra freelance work on top of my full time job (not ideal), which helped. Changed suppliers which helped a little bit. Got a very small raise at work (as you can see from my salary, not much). Got credit card debt moved over to a 0% and prioritised paying that off.

I was broke on mat leave and SMP. I couldn't understand how other new mums could afford to go for coffee when I was like "can we go to the church hall group were they give you a free cuppa and toast?" or "come to my house" until I twigged that they were on significantly more than my £117 per week. We went to a fruit & veg co-op at a local community centre to help our food budget stretch, I breastfed because it was free, I didn't go to any birthing classes because you had to pay for them. I gave people homemade chutney for Christmas because I had no money for proper presents. We had second hand everything. We had a week away for holiday in a caravan that a family member let us use for free. It was pre vinted but I'd get bundles of second hand baby clothes from eBay.

We're fine in comparison with so many other people I know in my area. I'm involved in a local charity which supports people with food, laundry, therapy, ND group, MH, and more so I really do see so many people in much more challenging circumstances than us. We both work full time, we're fit and healthy, we're coping now. There are many people earning less and living in more precarious housing situations, experiencing DV, ill health, MH, choosing between heating and eating. I won't give examples because they're not my stories to tell.

We're not rich but we have a rich life in terms of friends, family, jobs that we love, full bellies and a safe roof over our heads.

This buffer zone is key! My mate always used to say she was broke and couldn't come to things. I knew how much she earned and it was more than me. Her partner did something stupid which cost a lot of money and I was like "woah, hang on, how did he find the cash? did he steal it?!" and she went "no, he used our savings". Oh hun. When I've said I'm broke in the past I genuinely mean that the barrel is EMPTY. I mean I'm scraping the bottom of my overdraft. Turns out she'd never dipped into an overdraft and their tens of thousands in SAVINGS wasn't for regular spending so yes she was broke. Maddening!

You can’t create a “safe space” on here because everyone’s free to answer as they wish. You can’t censor posts. Just a pointless thread really.

Agree. Also the desperate call to your bank asking for your overdraft to be extended because you are completely skint and have used it all, knowing that when your wages go in you’re back to square one.

Its so stressful.

Not being able to SAVE is something skint people never have to worry about as there’s SFA to save.

It’s not pointless. If people feel compelled to answer to just say they aren’t skint, then that’s a self control problem imo. Why????