For my husband to earn £65,000 per annum and we still can't afford to live in this bloody country!!

[winegoddess]

Mortgage has gone up, electric has gone up, 5 mouths to feed, 3 children to clothe etc etc and month after month is a bloody struggle. Am fed up with straping money together when my husband earns a good wage and we should be able to get by! I now need to search for a way of 'me' bringing in some money but with a young baby at home and 2 others at school i am at a loss as to how! Please give me some job ideas or ways to make money!!

OP

Could you get a job to bring more money in? How abot childminding? Sell unwanted stuff on ebay.

Buy clothes from ebay, make cheap meals, cout down of activites, family days outetc

But yes, I appreciate that life would be a helluva lot tougher living on say for eg a nurses wage.

the starting salary for a consultant in hospital is £65,000. It goes up with tenure.

Otter, I understand that....

i doubt anyone with an income of £65k could sustain many years of multiple school fees.

you are talking in the region of £8k per year per child, dosen't take long for that to mount up.

we are on a slightly higher salary but "struggling" to atm so i empathise with OP.

i say "struggling" in inverted commas because food/basic needs/housing isn't a problem but there is no spare money for some house repairs we want to do, new boots/jeans i have my eye on etc...

we have a £275k mortgage so interest only is about £1400 inc household insurance etc...
£220/month council tax bill
£50/month water bill
£50/month to Church/School fund direct debits
£480/month nursery fees (2 days a week for DD2)
gas, elec about £100/month
optician direct debit, dentist direct debit, life insurance, phone, broadband, mobiles etc... it all goes on and on and on.
DD1 at state school and we live in a 4 bed semi on a busy road before you think we live in a mansion.

SW London

have to live here as dh is IT.

no holidays atm.

can't decide whether to delete or post this, feel like i am going to get flamed!

winegoddess dont go but as others have suggested have you checekd out moneysupermarket .com , motley fool etc for tips. or for weekly shops I would recommend mysupermarket at is compares prices across a range of big stores.

if prices crash three bed semi around here might cost you £550k if you're lucky (currently around £650,000). I don't seriously think everyone in this afrea is going to move to llanelli on the back of a possibly temporary mortgage increase, move kids schools away from friends, family etc and pay all the move costs except as a permanent well considered option.

With child care for one child full time maybe £700 per month on top - it really isn't difficult to not be wealthy on £65,000

"i doubt anyone with an income of £65k could sustain many years of multiple school fees...
you are talking in the region of £8k per year per child, dosen't take long for that to mount up."

I wish it was £8k a year. In central London you are looking at about £4k a term. That is £12k a year per child.

Is it 65k before tax? If so, they'll lose over £20,000 to tax and NI.

kewcumber tell me where you get childcare for £700 for one child?

DD2's nursery costs £1300/month if she had a full time place.. (Twickenham)

i wouldn't flame you amidaiwish tis all relative, i think what sticks in my throat is the assumption that people earning over a certain threshold hold have no symapthy or empathy for people earning a lot less or vice versa - if you are on benefits or a millionaire, money worries are awful, generally because you can not see a way through and every day brings a new expense.

This thread is making me confused.

How come you lot only pay 1k a month out on mortgages? We are looking to buy soon and even in this falling market a 1/2 bed place is going to cost us 1,100-1,500k a month (depending on lender, interest only vs repayment, capped vs tracker) etc; I admit the areas we are miking are in the nice areas (vs Very nice and very scary - middle band areas I guess). I am in Bristol. I just assumed most people here have 2-4 bedroom 300k + houses. Am I very very wrong in this assumption?

Also we are a young couple, with no children and our take home salary is just under half of OPs and although we don't struggle we don't live the life of riley either.

So to answer the OP no I do not think you are being unreasonable. £65k should bring you a certain level of being comfortable.

I am not very worried that life is always a struggle no matter how many hours you out in and how much money you earn. Dam it!

theres a saying isn't there
you sew your purse to fit your pocket

bath in th'olden days i remember my dh claiming a few weeks unemployment when he was 17.

we managed on £25 per fortnight - but we had no responsabilities then.

now i doubt very much if anyone here is blind enough not to see that with a doctors position there is probably all the rest attributed to middle class presumably suburban living.

we assume they probably have a very nice house, worht a lot of money - although it wouldnt be financially prudent to sell it at the moment.

i bet there are a couple of nice cars.

and again we come to the holiday.

Now, what the op needs to realise is that for some people, who do not own their houses, putting plastic on their windows to keep the heat in and wondering how the hell they are going to have a nice xmas.....tis v. hard to summon up sympathy.

sorry only 3 days a week (ma does one free and I work 4)- so should really average £1100 (I stand corrected!)

£3,693.38 is not an enormous amount for a family of 5, two at (expensive?) schools, assuming they also have a largish mortgage on variable rate which has gone up.

Give her a break.

I am not wanting to jump in and flame the OP, although I can understand why others have. One of the great things about Mumsnet is that you can mix with a really wide range of people, in a really wide range of situations - if I just lived in my South East middle class ghetto, I would feel quite hard done by as most of my friends earn much more than we do, but largely because of Mumsnet, I really do realise how lucky we are, and strive to remember that and remind my DC of it.

I think one of the main problems in society at the moment is that we have come over the past 15 years or so to view luxuries as essentials - overseas holidays; 2 cars; expensive Christmas presents; expensive meals out; home improvements ad infinitem etc etc and that what is happening now is quite a painful re-adjustment for a lot of people.

amidawish - CM is cheaper than nursery - drive to Kew and I have a lovely one to recommend!

Amidaiwish - I;m shocked how much you pay in gas/elec. Why don;t you switch suppliers?
I get funny if we get a bill of £100 per quarter for our gas/elec, though we do live in a 2 bed flat.

Hi there, winegoddess. Babysitting can be a really good way to make a little bit extra, if there are times when your husband will be home to look after the children. I think budgeting is a v good idea too but am personally am pretty darn crap with money so can't offer any constructive tried and tested advice (except to consider Lidl, Aldi and Primark as essential shopping destinations if you don't use them already). How do you work the finances? Is all the money joint and accessible to both of you?

I'm sorry you've had such a rough ride on this thread and hope you're not feeling too shit about it.

feelinglucky - I have looked at swithcing suppliers doesn;t make a huge differnce. HAve recently lagged loft though will take many years to recoup money. Flats are significantly more fuel efficent (assuming they are modern and well insualted etc) than houses on the whole.

Our gas is £2k a year. Heating only on 4 hours a day max but we do have a big house.

"How come you lot only pay 1k a month out on mortgages?" been on the housing ladder over 20 years so large amount of equity (not just throguh increases but spent 20 years paying mortgage off)

but cote, a large house adn private school fees are deemed luxuries by most.
If we are to feel sympathy for OP then title should have read 'for my husband to earn £65,000 per annum and yet we cannot live a comfortable middle class exixtence in this country'.

I think some people are confusing luxuries with necessities.

FeelingLucky we have changed suppliers, before that we were paying well over £150 / month.