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!!

What you earn can be irrelevant. Someone earning £20k a year but with free child care (parents?) and help with/cheaper housing and cheap council tax can have a lot more DISPOSABLE INCOME than someone earning £60k in London renting a modest flat and paying a childminder.

In cities it is not a HUGE amount of money.

"No-one would go on about how much the private schools cost, what expensive holidays they go to"

I can only find three posts from OP - none of them mention private schools and one mentions teh holdiay which she admitted they were "foolishly" borrowing to go on.

Am I missing a few posts somewhere?

Violins.

If someone suggested that an OP struggling to pay the bills should have gotten more qualifications at school and chosen a better career they'd be flamed (or Xenia). But because this OP has 45k coming in she can't be struggling, and should be flamed for insulting those who are?

Fair enough to point out that others survive on a lot less, but we're not all identical are we. If the OP had access to high quality HA properties with long term tenancies maybe she wouldn't need a mortgage. If her DH earnt less he'd be taxed less and they'd be eligible for more support.

Moneysavingexpert is a good site. The simplest thing to do is , for a month, keep a note of every penny that goes out. It'll highlight any obvious overspending. Changing utilities supplier, moving your buildings insurance (and life insurance) from your mortgage company, combining tv + broadband service and checking out your mobile/phone bills might help as well.

Rhubarb, you were extraordinarily lucky to get a long-term contract. For most of us, the only option is the dreaded AST and renewals every 6 mths or year if lucky. BTL mortgages don't usually allow for longer lets.

navyeyelash

What on earth is:

"£10 - bridge fair"

I'm fascinated

SycamoreTree pinpoints it:
"WE ARE STRUGGLING TO MAINTAIN THE SAME LIFESTYLE THAT WE HAD BEFORE THE CREDIT CRUNCH AND BEFORE DH LOST HIS JOB!. "

Exactly. Being unable to maintain a lifestyle you are accustomed to / have bought into in this country is NOT the same as 'being unable to afford to live in this country'.

If you've adjusted to a higher income, then adjust back down to a lower income! Nobody OWES you a lifestyle beyond the basics!

Not saying that is easy, comfortable, and pleasant, and I really sympathise with people who are seeing their gains disappear before their eyes.

yes navyeyelash, stop running that fair, that will save a bit of money (agree with your points)

spot on Blu

navyeyelasH thank you for that (how do I make that not sound sarcastic? I really am glad to see it)
You're probably tied in to a contract but you should be able to get phone + broadband for less than £40/month. Otherwise it all lokks very familiar. What's a bridge fair?

Kew, it's this little beauty www.severnbridge.co.uk/toll_prices.shtml. I live on one side of it and my family live on the other side so go over to visit once or twice a month.

Um, has she boasted, Rhubs? Hi, btw.Maybe it all just came out a bit wrong? I can completely see why you and others think "wtf?" but I don't think wineglasses is a troll from searching her name. (Sorry to be a snoop, wineglasses.) It also seems to me from that search that she might have had a few tough times in her life, despite her husband's high salary, and that she might be particularly susceptible to feeling utterly shit at such a flaming as this, though I hope I am wrong and that she's thinking "fuck 'em all, onwards and upwards".

Oooh, I think I've got it. Bridge fare = cost of going over a bridge. If you're in Bristol there's a whole big estuary that might need crossing via expensive bridges.

oh I see - was either thinking of some kind of antiques Fair with a specialist bridge slant or some kind of Bridge (card game) evening...

combustiblelemon I agree with you entirely.

The internet is a non negotiable thing, my DP works in IT and often has to bring work home with him working remotely so he needs high speed access which comes at a premium. Line rental with BT is about £12.50 a month I think and we don't make calls on line we just have to have it to get the broadband IYSWIM?

lol at this thread, i would love for dh to earn that much, we live in the country, we rent a house (would like to buy one day), at the moment dh gets les than 1/4 of what your dh gets.

Sorry i havn't read the full thread as it is rather long but i think the op seems a bit ott when there are people on MN who are struggling to feed their children

Scummy - you are a diamond geezer.

Even if you were awarded the highest amount of tax credits available your income would be no way as high as the OP's.

65 grand is a shed load of money by any standards. What is this people I could talk to thing? Wot yer mean no plebs oo jus wou nt unerstand ow ard life is for yer?

I mean we are USED to being poor so its easier for us innit

I'm guessing "bridge fair" is bridge fare.

Kew - I want your childminder. But the traffic in your direction from Chiswick of a morning is hell

Am feeling, and sharing the pain an equavalent morgage hike.

Sorry, I thought someone else who moaned about private school fees was her. But she did post last month about booking a holiday to Egypt for Christmas at a cost of £2500.

I'm sure that many people live like this, but you have to understand that many other people don't.

She openly tells us her dh earns £65k a year and she has booked a £2500 holiday to Egypt for Christmas, yet she moans about having 4 mouths to feed, 3 children to clothe and struggling every month. Well WAKE UP LOVE because for many of us, that's just life only without the high earning dh or the Christmas holiday!

You want tips? Here's mine - Ebay for clothes. Aldi for food (when you're struggling you can't afford to be picky about where you get your food from). No nights out (saves on drink, taxis and babysitters), eat in instead and have a bottle of wine at home in the weekends. Sell unwanted stuff on Ebay, enter competitions in the hope that you'll win your kids' Christmas presents. Cancel Christmas Dos because they are always expensive (No MN do for me this year), sell a car and walk instead.

If you think that you can't possibly live like that, then you obviously aren't struggling enough. So quiet whining until you've got something to actually whine about!

The feeling is most definitely mutual, blu.

Just realised I mean FARE not fair

Ok Scummy fair point. But the OP must realise that we don't always search through posters history and that some threads can come across as extremely rude and insulting. I was insulted by yours. But if you have bigger problems then I apologise. Whatever your problems are, I hope they are resolved soon and you can start enjoying life, because all this highlights is that no matter how much money you have, it doesn't always mean you enjoy life more.

Quoting posts seems to be the way this thread is going so here I go

"lol at this thread, i would love for dh to earn that much, we live in the country, we rent a house (would like to buy one day), at the moment dh gets les than 1/4 of what your dh gets.

No one "gets" money- we all have to earn it and the amount we earn is relative to the kind of work we do...

Full sympathy to OP for the amount of shite thats been dealt out to her, though perhaps she was a bit foolish to come on here and throw around comments about salaries since it appears the whole world is bitter about others having more- without knowing the circustances....