To ask how you’re affording everything right now?

[Niftywigglesheep]

We’re two full time workers, 2 kids. We have a level of income per month on which we’ve based our budget on. However I’m unsure how everyone’s managing the increasing cost of life right now.

For example- our mortgage has gone up, our food shop, our petrol etc the cost of just basic living. We think we’re about £1000 less in disposable income each month which is huge due to the increased living costs .

Our salaries have not gone up in line with the increased costs so our normal budget for living like swimming lessons,
clothes etc is being really squeezed.

I find it really depressing- we both work full time, busy with being parents and we really don’t have much to show for it anymore and a bit sad that we work so hard with little to show and stress.

I feel like we absolutely should be able to buy ice creams on days out, go on holidays, not think about buying school uniform or paying for football etc but we really do and it’s horrible.

How’s everyone else dealing with it?

There are still lots of people in the uk who can absorb the rising prices without it impacting their lifestyle at all. I wouldn’t say my partner and I are particularly well off but we are in that category

One thing is to have saving for certain things - I know there a trip coming up for DD2 so have some savings marked for that.

DH has a hoilday fund that gets added to every month.

When I was saving for house deposit - first thing out of my paypacket was saving money - then rest was living costs.

Worst time for us was after buying first house -burglary left us out of pocket - and used up what was left of our savings improving secuirty. For years afterwards everytime we got some saving behind us something happened to take them. We had pots of cash in piles and in envelopes for that weeks costs when money was tightest.

I hated the way family then tried to treat us as stupid needing basic budgeting advice when we'd managed to get a house and pay for our own wedding when most of our peers had help with both and we were coveing the basics of life with no help.

When things were tight I'd do thing like find a free event in in park - and avoid the icream van and walk them into town and get some iceland lollies. We'd also start shopping for christams food and presents in September - and put some of credit cars so pay off in Febuary. Same with brithday and uniform get it over several months. We had people critisings along we should stay home and do nothing that cost anything - most of what we did was cheap or rare but I'm so glad now the kids are nearly grown we ignored all that bullshit advice and often wish we'd done even more things with them.

Not when you have a contractual lease to tie up – you'll be stuck in in for a while or have to have a hefty penalty.

You also need to shell out for the EV charger installation, which is circa £1000-1,500 – they don't do grants for this anymore.

An EV is great for the rising petrol costs, but not without its upfront costs and logistics.

This is true. I had 2 full time working parents in the 70s/ 80s

We never went out to eat. Once a month maybe less, we got fish and chips takeaway. Had no tv or landline phone. Days out involved visiting granny. No car. Went to guides which was cheap and the free youth club. Never went abroad on holiday. I remember 2 holidays on my childhood, one caravan park and a cottage on the IOW.

Like @AprilMizzel, I too am a big fan of savings pots! Helps concentrate the mind. As with a poster upthread, I really don't want to cut back on the days out and trips now, since if anything they seem likely to become more expensive as time passes, so prioritise having funds for that. Pots helps with frittering. That and planning.

Im very proud of my 19 year old daughter buying her first home not everyone wants or should go to uni. If she changes her mind in the future she will be able to she has her whole life ahead of her

Thank you - yes it’s about rising costs and I imagine theres a lot of us in this middle position balancing everything.

I think an electric car could be a good option but we’d have to get that on finance as we can’t afford outright. DH car at the moment is afforded outright so we’d get some from selling it.

thank toy for ideas about the club card I will look into that.

No idea why some posters are accusing you of 'cars on finance' then! Mumsnet is terrible for posters not reading posts and then hearing what they want to hear. Also lots of accusations of your 'extravagant lifestyle' when you haven't described that. Weird really ...

Because she said her cars on finance thats why I said it

So your neighbours have 10 kids? Because that's what would get them an extra £610 a month. If not they are exaggerating!

I just love when random neighbours just let usually reform voters have full access to their bank accounts and medical records its just so neighbourly

I think your parents had more money than you think. 3 US holidays a year?! I had one US holiday in my whole childhood, and both my parents had full time decent jobs. The only other holidays were Blackpool and Skegness, nothing abroad! And when I was raising kids (in early 20s now) we had very few holidays abroad, it was mostly camping. We shared a car, didn’t have a car each. I’m now very comfortable but you can’t expect to have it easy when you’ve got kids, they’re very expensive! That’s normal life!

I said multiple carS on finances – her husband's is owned outright, hers is on finance. They don't have multiple cars on finance.

Who said they did?

I think people's outgoings vary wildly! Our kids are adults, so there's no nursery fees. I wfh, so only spend about £15 a month on petrol. Our mortgage is low, thanks to us being able to throw a few lump sums at it after inheritance and redundancy payouts. Our cars are old, so there's no finance on them. Our income is circa £95k per annum, and the outgoings (before food) are £940pm, soon to drop to £700pm as the mortgage is ending.

One thing I do notice, is that whilst many people talk about the COL crisis, whenever we do go out for a meal, the restaurants are packed! So a lot of people are coping just fine, or I guess could be maxing out credit cards.

Most of my customers are still holidaying abroad too. In fact, we just did a long haul flight, and it was full.

Someone else upthread who I replied to – go and fish for it if you wish.

I agree with this. There’s a lot of moaning about cost of living and expectation of having it all very early, it’s just not reasonable if you want kids, pets, multiple holidays, cars and an insta house. Normal people raising families don’t get this all easily, it’s never been the case.

I do think that house prices make it more difficult with a family in the south though. The biggest problem is the very rich having second homes and buy to lets, which have little benefit to society in general. I’m sure people wlll say immigrants too but lots of immigrants are doing the low paid jobs that British workers don’t want to do, so they benefit in that way. More social housing will help - Labour have brought out new policies to help the social housing sector but it will take years to come to fruition.

But yes, many restaurants are very popular, lots of beauty places hard to get an appointment for, doggy day care and grooming are thriving. There’s lots of people not feeling this “crisis”

Cheap days out - try the National Trust monthly family membership - loads to explore and enjoy with a picnic

Doggy day care and dog grooming - two more things that did not exist a few years ago. Where are all these dogs that suddenly need regular grooming? That used to be the preserve of a few specific breeds such as poodles, now any mutt goes to be groomed twice a month at £45 a go.

Where I live the restaurants and cafes are actually closing down. Bleakness.

Gosh what area is that stripy? I’m in Lancashire and we have loads. For us it’s clothes shops that have shut down mainly - probably due to shein etc

Also unfortunately wrap around care plus holiday clubs can come to a similar cost to nursery with the 30 free hours subsidy

Surely she mean they will be able to claim for 2 more kids if have 4 under uc so another £303 per child

Yes although “thankfully” nursery fees have gone up so much in the 4 years we’ve been using it that a whole year of wrap around for my school age child is actually less than a single month of nursery for my 2 year old. Make it make sense!!

On a separate note, due to people today having much higher outgoings on essentials, we are collectively not putting enough into our pensions. It’s going to be an absolute blood bath by the time my generation (millennials) retire

OP, I have no idea why some posters are giving you such a hard time.

Two people working full time should be able to own their own home, pay their household bills and have enough money left over for the occasional meal out or family day trip. They shouldn't have to feel anxious about buying school uniform or signing their DC up for afterschool football. OP doesn't come across to me as someone who feels entitled to an extravagant lifestyle. She's saying that she feels she and her DH, as two people who have always worked full time and budgeted carefully, shouldn't have to agonise over buying their child "an ice cream on a day out" FFs. She's not asking for the moon on a stick.

How depressing when a couple have been to university and work a full time stressful job and you’re being told to cut sky tv and takeaways. I’m earning more than I ever had but really struggling and working my butt of in a really hard job. People shouldn’t have to be scraping by in professional jobs