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?

That’s life! Get a grip! When times are good make sure you build a safety net. There are billions in the world worse off than most in this country.

The biggest one for me is the mortgage- my 5 year fixed rste just ended and it has made such a difference. Fortunately I have been promoted so exta £, but as a pp said that means lots of ectra stress for no real lifestyle change. Ive also had some big home owner charges (fridge freezer broke, carpet needed replacing) which ive really felt this month :-(
Though generally I am very frugal and live well within my means (single parent), though I sm a pretty good earner

Id wager your outgoings could be cut.

My DH and I work full time, and I have a side hustle that covers nursery fees and a few little extras for me.

But otherwise OP, we're not really affording anything easily! We want to change our car this year to an electric one. Not sure what else we can do - can't wait for our low fixed rate mortgage to end next year! 😆

Well she's already said her cars on finance, her husband is spending a ridiculous amount on petrol, her mortgage is expensive and they have childcare costs. And thats not even taking into account all the other spending they are doing so I don't know what she expects.

It’s not about not affording. This isn’t a poverty thread at all. It’s about 2 good earners finding everything shooting up and how people are managaging that. We’re not claiming poverty at all. We can absolutely afford basics but we we also used to be able to not think twice about a family weekend in London or school skiing trips for kids. This is no way a post about poverty. I made that clear we are 2 good earners , it’s about how people in this situation. Which is a lot- are making it work.

Why are you talking about me like that?!

oh in that case
@Niftywigglesheep
what a shame, never mind

You're asking people how they can afford to live. They don't have cars on finance, they don't stretch themselves on a mortgage, they don't spend £400 a month on petrol and not everyone has childcare costs. This is why you are struggling and you seem confused about it

@Niftywigglesheep have you listed your income vs outgoings? Maybe some of us can help if you break it down? Sorry if you already have and I missed it.

Exactly. We don’t have mortgage, own one car, no childcare cost, fixed my utility costs last year, don’t spend loads on petrol - so our expenses are only minimally affected.

We didn’t stretch ourselves on the mortgage but it’s gone up since we’ve lived here due to mortgage rates that everyone who is impacted talks about.

No issue my my car on finance -it’s cheaper than the upkeep of my old owned car.

Not our fault we have a big petrol bill - hisband works in a hospital and that’s where his speciality moved to when our local one closed. So not everything is bad decisions at all. That’s why I was asking how people are doing it- we can’t all be as perfect as you clearly are (or passive agressive!)

I think largely it’s that we’re high earners now but still live like we did for the 15 years we were in study and training. Our expenses didn’t grow to match our income and so now things are increasing it’s less jarring.

Theres a lot of hyperbole on this thread though. I don’t know anyone who takes their kids on expensive days out every weekend…….i find it hard to believe so many posters are surrounded by people doing this. I don’t really understand why so many people are friends with people for whom they have absolute contempt either.

I also don’t find it a particular flex that a 19 year old is buying a house with their boyfriend, I hope at that age my children are prioritising further study and training. That’s a real investment.

She's not asking how people are 'affording to live'. She's asking how people are coping with rising costs. EVERYONE, no matter what their life circumstances, is dealing with rising costs.

You appear to have a particular chip on your shoulder about spending and someone asking about spending – so I'd sort out your emotions on that before attempting to drag someone down so pitifully.

Hi OP – we took a good look at our spending and identified places where spending was just habit and didn't really bring anything to our lives:

Takeaways – they are actually quite bad around here, and mainly just for laziness and convenience, but we didn't enjoy the food, so stopped those (saved around £150 a month).

Sky TV – had it for probably 15 years, so definitely just a habitual spend, but we don't watch anything specific and it's insanely expensive (saved £50 a month).

EV vehicle – is this a possibly? We went from spending £300 in fuel a month to £30. My husband leases it through salary sacrifice at work, and while it's about £600 off gross salary, that covers insurance, road tax, servicing etc, and not having to worry about petrol is brilliant.

Tesco Clubcard points on family days out – we got LegoLand tickets fully paid for with these last year.

The mortgage is fixed - we don't drive so haven't seen immediate impact on fuel prices though have been dealing with ever spiralling pubic transport costs for a while.

It just hit last night with milk prices of door delivery going up again. We can of course stop that and go back to tesco visist but we found we spent more first time. I'm sure next big shop we'll notice rise in food prices again.

It's just we had hard years - saving for house deposit - buying house finacial crash with young kids losing jobs getting back on feet then covid then cost of living crisis. We had years of chasing higher income and constant cost cutting.

Our parents at same age as us had got through 70s and 80s in badly hit parts of the country -- but by same age as us mortgage were paid off as the got first house in the early 20s while we were early 30 as our careers move us across uk and we needed a decade to save the deposits. They aslo enjoyed a bit of an economic fair wind in 90s - my parents money worries eased for a bit. Same time our kids look like they'll be finacially dependent longer than we were due to job market and higher housing costs.

How do you manage. You cut back and look at out goings and find cheaper alternative or shrug and deal with the costs and work out of they are worth if for you.

I will say I'm fed up with it - money for us has always been a consideration in everyday living with times getting ridiculously tight to easing a bit usually after some persoanal changes and a change in wider economy. I don't want to go back to worrying about having heating on again in winter.

Don't believe OP ever asked why she is struggling (in fact, she didn't), she asked how people are managing with rising costs. What's wrong with that?

Decent salaries

Just one child

We’e happy to go without stuff a lot of people seem to feel entitled to e.g. second car, Netflix, brand new clothes, takeaway dinners, getting hair & nails done professionally, owning dogs or other pets. We don’t have these things.

thwy're coping by not having extravagant outgoings in the first place and/or by cutting all the "nice to have" stuff like Sky tv or meals out or whatever

We also cycle and walk a lot including school run and to work so fuel costs very low

but, some people are doing it by not having large outgoings int he first place... sop can absorb extra £150 pm, becaise they already had £700 a motnh left over, because it wasn;t being spent on takeways every week, or whatever

Yeah ... that's what I just detailed in my advice to her.

Do you have an issue with people asking for tip/ideas/help?

People struggled years ago but they weren't educated, didn't have well paying jobs. Now so much of the workforce is highly educated and still struggling. Makes you wonder what kind of a cod the whole system is.
If both parents have "good" jobs they should be able to afford a good lifestyle, but that has been taken away while corporate greed has exponentially exploded and been protected by every government.

By stopping or significantly reducing the small “luxuries”. I take a packed lunch to work most days, rather than spending a tenner at the deli down the road. I use the free coffee machine in the office rather than buying one from the coffee shop. Night out - I take the train back home, if possible, rather than just getting a taxi. Plan meals, to avoid unnecessary food shopping at convenience stores. I find this trimming round the edges tends to free up a surprising amount for the bigger stuff.

The maths (25% rise in prices = £40 pm) actually says the DH spends £800 pm on petrol which is an astonishing amount tbh. Most of us spend less, live nearer or don’t drive some kind of pantechnicon to work.

Yep and OP is not engaging on the fuel cost side really - sounds like her DH is working for the NHS who definitely offer electric vehicle salary sacrifice. Easy fix for the £600 petrol bill.