To be angered by uber middle class people who complain they are short of money...

[Reallytired]

I know someone who has just bought themselves a 600K house. Both parents work and the family have three children and enjoy nice hobbies like sailing, and learning to play the cello and rock climbing. The parents are forever moaning how short of money they are.

However my son has a little friend who is in a family with three children. This family lives in a two bed flat which is cold and mouldy. They rent their flat as they cannot afford to buy even though one parent works full time and the other part time. Yet they never moan about lack of money, but have a positive outlook on life.

I just think that some uber middle class families need to be a bit more thankful for what they have.

I haven't read many of the posts, because I don't understand the term UBER MIDDLE CLASS?

Can someone please explain?

Bella, no that's my point, buyers set the price of everything not sellers.
As we are seeing at the moment, buyers of any commodity can ask what the hell they like for it but if people aren't willing to pay 10 times their salary then they don't sell. Seriously I do think over the past 10 years all common sense has gone out the window. Starbucks can only charge 3 quid for a coffee because some people will pay that, if we all sat and really thought about 300ml of milk with a bit of sugar and coffee costs about 25p to make so why the hell would we pay £3 then Starbuck's couldn't charge it.
Things will be changing because the money has run out but I think a lot people will be looking at what they've spent their money over the past few years and be kicking themselves.

Sorry I meant sellers can ask whatever they want, not buyers doh

hear hear katiedd prices are high because people will pay it. It's like cafe's charging 2 quid for an orange juice .. likewise people went daft with houses they started to buy because they thought the prices would continue to rise and then managed to fuel the further increases - it was all quite mad..

you don't need to build afordable housing you just need to not buy overpriced properties..surely then the price will come down ..

I haven't had a bloody holiday in years .. but I can't describe myself as poverty stricken

Oh I really do like this vein of topic again.

Why let what anyone has or does not have affect you to the point that you are cross about it.

Let them whinge. They are maybe relatively poor or maybe they feel guilty and feel like they should "Pretend" that they are struggling too, so what.

And before you ask, no I am not rich nor middle class nor poor. I am very very average/dull !

sorry that should read "don't" like this topic.

We seem to spend a lot of time wasting our energies on envying other people.

she doesnt envy the woman, she is annoyed the woman doesnt put things into perspective. Its actually quite vulgar to bleat on about how poor you are to someone less 'well off' than you when you carry on as normal, living your life in luxury

I think once people are dreary enough to make social chitchat (in real life I mean, and at acquaintances ... obviously talking to real friends about real problems is a completely different thing) about what they can & can't afford then they are automatically going to be blinkered and self-obsessed and insensitive and accordingly Bad Company.

So I'm not sure this is really about relative value of property, it's about basic social graces (or lack of). I hope you don't need to like these people for any reason!

OK so sometimes the only way to talk about this is to put your personal situation over

I am currently on maternity leave earning nothing at all, thats my choice/my problem. I will go back to work part time in January and earn roughly the same as what childcare and travel expenses will cost me, so basically I will work for nothing. I used to consider myself very comfortable earning 30K, to be honest it was more money that I "needed".

DH used to earn a lot (for around here) 50K ish plus bonuses. He now earns about 28K and has zero job security and will probably lose his job in the New Year.

However compared to my friend who has earns 12K full time and is in negative equity and has had to take 2 lodgers in to help her pay the heating bills, we are "well off". Our house is also worth about 3 times the cost of hers but we owe less money on our mortgage, mainly because at the age of 19 (when she was our partying and having fun) I bought a house, had lodgers, and paid the bills (which was tough but my choice)

Is it vulgar of me to "complain" mildy to her about how we may struggle to pay our mortgage and maintain the life style we used to have? She doesn't mind, she is my friend. It would be vulgar for me to "moan" to strangers (like I am doing now [blush} but sometimes I moan to just make conversation!)

IMO we just did it all back to front. She had a lot more disposable income than me 10 years ago. Now neither of us so but I lead a different life style from her, nothing extravagent but a member of a nice gym, the occassional meal out etc.

pamelat, I did the same as you and had a mortgage at 19. I didnt make the choice to do it but I had to leave home at 18 and my rent on a one bed flat was more than a mortgage on a two bed house, oh those were the days! I still wouldnt moan to people much poorer than me about 'oh Im so poor but now Im off for my flute lesson' do ykwim?

flute lesson v's scraping around for coppers to buy some milk is not really a contest

not that I have flute lessons

Filz, I do know what you mean. I guess that I am too open with my friends. Have never been good at holding back with them.

I wouldnt moan to someone I didnt know. I think that to a friend you could, she would happily tell me to bugger off if she wanted to.

And to be honest I would cancel my nice gym membership but I paid up front for 12 months (to get a discount).

Unlike the woman referred to in the OP, I am not m/class or rich (but have saved for a long time so should be able to keep our mortgage payments up for a while). I just think that you dont really know what anyone is going through unless you are them.

A lot of visibly rich people may be on a lot of credit, or they may have lost someone dear to them and inherited money. Personally I would rather just be me (with slimmer legs!).

I know what you mean aswell pamelat

I haven't been abroad since my honeymoon and before that, it was holidays with my parents. Since then we have spent holidays in mablethrope where my dh's family (some of them) live and FIL has a caravan, last year we went to cornwall on a big family hol (me, dh, dd, mum, dad, 2 sisters and their partners) which ended up costing about £150 a couple for the cottage, and this year we went to Wales with mum and dad (caravan).
My parents have hols abroad, as do my sisters. But to be perfectly honest, I cant be arsed. I am terrified of flying, so love trips in the UK!