To wonder how the hell people are paying for this?!

[Ifrreoo]

I have an average car and cost to service it is 525. My home insurance has gone up to 450 and my car insurance is 540 (yes I’ve called round endlessly). I have 18 years no claims.

I am a higher earner. I am going to massively struggle to pay for this. I don’t understand how someone on the average income could afford this? Am I going wrong somewhere? Why am i struggling to make ends meet? How do others do it?

The insurance sounds normal

The service, my first question is are you shopping around and how frequently do you do it?. MOT is one thing. But service is another.

These are all predictable expected bills - you have to put money aside for them. Running a car is expensive.

it seems strange that these costs prompted you to post

Are you struggling for a different reason

Are you spending a lot of money on other things?

There was a post the other day with somebody who only just realised that the price of things have gone up I couldn't believe it. I'm not trying to do the race to the bottom thing. I seem to be okay at the moment. But it just surprises me that it took somebody till May 2026 to realise it

i'll look at my bills carefully every month but that poster was saying that when you just tap your card, you don't notice money going out. I check
my bank account all the time.

Car insurance:

very affected by where you live and who is driving it.

the comparison sites will usually let you set an excess and obviously the higher the excess the lower the insurance costs.

i’ve been driving a long time and never claimed so set a very high excess which really cut down how much I was paying. Obviously if there is an accident I need to pay out a lot first but I’m gambling there won’t be.

you can do similar with house insurance.

Not much help to you for this year OP, but all those costs are higher than I would expect.

I have a 3 year old VW Tiguan - last service was £280 ish, annual insurance is £220 ish (2 drivers, £500 excess).

5 bed house plus contents £242 (includes legal, cover away from home, cycles etc)

Tesco but comparison sites all came up similar. Your price seems really high to me.

Yes, we have stayed in the same house, rather than buy bigger, knowing that retirement will be coming.

My early 20’s son has bought a house in a cheaper area, not a very nice place, but means his mortgage is only £300 per month and he is near work. Allows him to afford his car.
He is single, no children and is saving so that when the time comes he will be able to move.

Wow that's an awful lot. Where do you live ? Buckingham Palace ? 🙂

Christ!

A higher earner should be able to afford this things. Where is your £ going?

Have you made a few claims? I pay £300 for a 2019 petrol Golf. Budget about £700 a year for the month when tax/MOT/Service are due. Usually get some change from that. Home and contents is about £250.
I’ve never claimed on insurance in my life. Maybe it’s paying off!

I bought my car brand new in 2014 for £11,000 so that's less than £1000 a year on purchase price. That helps. I can pay for that kind of service without much pain at all. When I had a £2700 car bill it went on the credit card and I tightened my belt to pay it off over four months. Our household income is around 30k. We don't struggle to pay the bills normally ( are right now as it's taking 3 months to remortgage).

Because I guess what you feel is a life essential is something I don't need or want? Eg I presume my food shop and going out costs are much lower.

Have never had any of my cars serviced - Been driving 16 years

Do you budget monthly for your annual expenses?

I don’t see the point of people giving out their car and house insurance premiums. It all depends on what and where.

Depends where in the country you live. You could very very easily be a high earner and struggling in London for example.

Yes, which is why we chose not to live there and made the move from the south east. It’s a choice. You chose to live in London, there will be sacrifices.

I pay less than £250 each for both service and car insurance.

I pay my insurance monthly. I have a Monzo account with pots including one called “car” which I put enough in each month to cover service, MOT and hopefully anything that goes wrong each year!

I don't understand how you can be a high earner and be struggling to afford 3 pretty ordinary once a year bills.

Do you not budget for these bills through the year?

Have you sat down and analysed what are you actually spending your high earner salary on?

If you are using a main dealer for the service on a seven year old Skoda then you are asking for trouble there. Insurances just are what they are though. When you say 'higher earner' do you mean 'just eeking into higher rate tax', as tbh those figures don't seem crazily high.

I was ringing about getting my car serviced and it was £560 i think. But I asked about installments and they said I could pay £20 per month for 2 years, and that included MOT x 2 as well! Great vaue and £20 is easy enough for me to swallow.

A full service where I live is about £260. My insurance is £320. I’m surprised yours is so expensive

That service cost is crazy! You need a new garage!

Full service from Halfords is a lot cheaper.
i always use Topcashback when finding any insurance.Car insurance with Direct Line £349 with £47 cashback. House insurance 15 per month with £13 cashback. Broadband £25 per month with £80 cashback and £100 credit on the virgin bill

Agreed. I pay a lot less for my car insurance but I live in the arse end of nowhere in North Yorkshire, so that information is utterly useless to the OP.

You really do need to service it. Perhaps not every year on the dot, but reasonably regularly. There are other issues mechanics can pick up on before they get very costly. I decided not to bother getting my Ford Cmax serviced for a couple of years. The wet timing belt snapped while I was driving my son to a friend’s house, causing catastrophic engine damage. We were lucky not to be on a motorway. Car had to be scrapped. I know that’s an unusual situation with the wet belt - most cars don’t have them - but I will always have my car serviced from now on. I did with all my previous cars. You can shop around for a decent price.

I didn’t service mine for 3 years, it seized up, had to get a new car. Only did 90,000 miles. A hard lesson I won’t do that again