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?

Houses will almost always increase in value so don’t compare what you paid to what it cost 30 /40 years ago.
Your house does sound very modest and small. Is it in an expensive area? It’s a shame that people have to pay so much for mediocre properties because of the location. Personally I’d rather have a better house.

We are ok. Mortgage-free, loads of savings and good salaries. Still pissed off that everything is more expensive though.

It’s a shame you tied yourself to car finance as that will cost you a fortune over the life of the car. If I were you I’d buy a 5/6 year old car outright and keep in until it starts to give trouble . Car finance is a money pit. What car do you drive ?

What about if your cloth won’t stretch?
Just because I’m ok doesn’t mean I lack empathy and understanding for other people’s situations. If I’m counting every pound on a high salary then I can see how people on average salaries are struggling. Can’t you see that?
Sometimes it’s not possible to budget and live within your mean when everything is so astronomically expensive

Luck, mostly.

We've never had any debt. DH is a high earner and he gets a generous yearly bonus that he always puts straight into savings. I'm not a high earner (definitely not by MN standards!) but I got a promotion last year and my pay went up by 25%. We also have no wraparound or holiday child-care costs as I work flexible hours, term-time only.

Fuel prices haven't impacted us in a big way as we both work a very short distance from home, and we both WFH one day a week.

I read it to mean they borrowed as much as the bank would let them.

Yes this.

Agree! Highest point in our careers supposedly but pay increase last year was 1.4%! Absolute pisstake.

I agree OP. We sat down before our second child (who is 6) and calculated all the costs- childcare for two, increased mortgage if we move, increase food costs etc. we allowed what we thought were reasonable increases for wraparound care for inflation but foolishly thought the mortgage was go down when we remortgaged… well.
i still have those calculations and they’re so depressing. Estimating an increase to £90 per week for food shop (more like £125+), mortgage of £950 (currently £1500 due to interest rates) childcare gone up, all their activities gone up. The only thing that’s stalled is our salaries. We are 6 years down the line and every incremental salary increase or bonus or pay rise just gets swallowed up. It’s really galling. Parents meanwhile can’t spend their enormous pensions and are on holiday all the time. Can’t blame them and pleased for them but it’s sad that our future looks bloody bleak!

i think it’s normal to feel stretched when you’re raising a family. Mine are early 20s now but I had no spare cash for treats and days out until they started earning and paying board! Pay rises have been less than inflation for the last 15 years so it’s not a new thing. Cut your cloth etc.

i do the family budget and haven’t seen it increase too much despite the 2022 inflation peak but I think that’s cos I used to have 3 bottles of wine a week and now I’ve hit peri I can’t do it any more! That saves me a lot!

I think young people expect to have everything too early nowadays - things get easier as your kids get older

Same situation here. My income is not huge but I have all the school holidays off so we don't pay childcare. However, I had to fight for a small rise recently as I just could see how we'd sink further. Right now, I'm dipping into my (small) savings and that feels very uncomfortable as I worked so hard to build those.

£40 sorry . But £40 a week as it’s a 100 miles commute each day but that’s huge to us to just find 🤦‍♀️

Exactly same position! When I talk about it I’m not saying we’re poor , we have good incomes but we’ve based our life around this and set a budget accordingly. And that’s the point almost- likeyou- you plan your life and budget around your income and when everything just keeps increasing, like council tax mortgages etc pet insurance , all that’s going down is our disposable income and it becomes depressing to work so hard and not be able to live a certain standard of life (not talking private jets but more a weekend glamping with the kids!)

So his commute (which is very long – is there no way round that? wfh?) is a bit less than twice mine, which costs me less than £50 a week now. And that's with the price rises.

But his has gone up from £160 pw to £200 pw (a 25% rise which is what petrol has gone up by since Jan)? I'm still left wondering what on earth he drives – I suggest he scales down to something a bit more economical. You could do that in my car for a half that money.

I took on a second job which pays more than my main job
Cut costs where I can eg water meter, shopping around for cheaper mobile bill, broadband etc
Pay as much as I can on interest free credit
Live on the yellow stickers

Go to Aldi every single day around 4pm and buy any of their 75% off stuff for either freezing or dinner. Car boots have started for ever growing child's clothes.

I’m confused 🫤 with your message. So it’s increased each week by £40 so £160 in the last month. A cost we hadn’t budgeted for. And no he can’t work from home.

I am wondering if he takes my small car and I drive his and see if that saves cost.

some of these ideas while kind are just not practical if you both work full time. And how depressing that in a good salary in a good job we are scrabbling daily for discounted food in the cheapest supermarket. This is what the UK economy has come to.

Genuinely what i have to do. I work and have a decent salary but the cost of living is astronomical.

Yeah I couldn’t do this practically but it is worrying that 2 fill time earners on more than the average salary are budgeting to the extent we are to live a normal life . I imagine there’s lots of people in the same position. It would be sad to say oh we can’t afford council swimming lessons or school trips- it’s like we’re priced out of living in England yet we both have jobs. Living has become to expensive in comparison to salaries .

For the petrol costs to increase by 40 each week it must have been at 120 already before the price increases. So you were already paying 480/month in petrol before recent increases? Seems like a huge expense for a 100 mile/day commute. Really what is he driving and maybe switch to a more economical car? 500 miles should be doable with one tank on most reasonable cars... This is an ideal scenario for an EV and overnight cheap charging btw...

You are spending 620 a month on burning petrol maybe start there...

I’m just trying to say that that's a lot more money to spend on petrol even with a 100-mile commute. I have a commute that is a bit more than half that and I spend about £45 a week on petrol now. That figure has gone up by about £7-8 a week max in the last couple of months, as petrol has risen by about 20-25%. I agree it's a rise but I am wondering how your DH is paying five-six times the extra that I am for a commute a bit less than twice mine, that's all. He must drive a huge car. If you don't drive much then yes, swapping sounds like an idea.

You can't. Everyone is struggling. Everything costs a fortune. A few extra treats in the shopping basket turns it from a thirty pound shop to a fifty pound one. You more or less need £149000 per year to not be struggling https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/80efde2036eadb0f

I think it depends on what you consider earning well and how much slack you had in your budget. We earn a lot but also have £3000 of slack in our budget and that’s factoring holidays/repairs etc. we also put £4000/month into pensions so if that had to go it could. Our bills/food/mortgage/standard discretionary spending are around half of our take home. We do have a high income but we’ve also consistently made choices to keep fixed expenses lower (one older car we own outright, not bought a bigger house etc) so the fact that I spent £250 on a weekly shop for 3 people today, up from £150 a year ago, just isn’t something I need to think about.