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!!

Kewcumber - that is a very good point.

We are lucky enough to have paid off our mortgage, so our disposable income might be higher than a family whose income is higher.

I am astonished by people telling OP that she is living beyond her means.

If the housing market was better prehaps she could downsize but as it is that is unlikely.

I would consider downsizing (id osuh came to shove) but unless I had no choice would not move to an area that I considered to less to the one I live in now.

i think what i was trying to say was that the school caretaker doesn't pop into school from his home in cheap place to live the other side of the country neither does the woman selling tickets at kings cross

so if you cant afford to bloody live here then how are they coping?

if push came to shove

Get into being frugal. Apart from the money saving old style thread on moneysavingexpert.com, there are loads of blogs about being frugal. Make being frugal your new hobby.

I think you also have to remember that over the past few years people have developed a rather skewed view of a 'normal' lifestyle. Sometimes, for a laugh, I look at property prices where I grew up in south west London. The first house that my parents bought on one salary (middle management) is now worth about £1m - even now. (which makes me a bit about the interest rate cuts, apparently to get the market moving).

I could, therefore, feel that we are a little hard done by in our two up two down (DS: "Mummy, why do Grandpa and Grandma have a hall?") I think my dad's equivalent salary in the 70's would have been far less than £65K. On the other hand, it was very unusual to take your children on a holiday that involved air travel, second cars were practically unknown, and the most exciting portable music system you could buy was a transistor radio. Normal children's clothes were pretty expensive (equivalent to Boden?). Realistically, we are pretty well off.

If you can pay the mortgage and afford to go to the sea-side for your holiday you are actually doing pretty well - its just a frame of mind - (and maybe watch some repeats of the Good Life? )

does anybody remember those radios that you attached to something metal with a crocodile clip

I can sympathise with the OP I think if you live in the SE and have a mortgage to pay you get stuck in a rat-race that is very difficult to get out of particularly with the housing crisis. My dh earns ok money but I have to work FT to make ends meet and it all seems ridiculous as I then end up paying for childcare to have that extra bit of income and what extra comes in doesn't seem worth as much as having that time with the dds would be worth but we need the cash...etc etc
Get off your high horses all of you who jumped on the OP - it's not just what you earn, it's whether you are paying a mortgage rather than getting council housing etc, if you are paying for childcare, how much childcare and other expenses are in the area you live etc etc it's not just a question of earning 10 means I'm better off than someone who earns 7.

Buy India Knight's new book, out today I think. I read extracts in the Sunday Times, I can't wait to buy it. Apparently she had 3 books on the bestsellers' list and was served with bankruptcy papers.

One of those books was about her shopping addiction though.

I think OP's husband probably not at top of medical tree yet on £65K.
My DH GP,has been DR for nearly 20 yrs and is a surgeon by training.
He does earn alot more than £65 k,NOW,after years of study and hard work.
And we don't feel rich,I have to say.Loads goes in tax,national insurance,medical protection insurance.
We have 4DCS,all state educated. Went abroad this summer for first time in years.Dont have huge mortgage,and am certainly not in the sad situation of many people on this board,but I am still buying stuff on ebay,watch the supermarket spend,limit after school activities(some of that due to my laziness
So I can sympathise with Winegoddess,but reserve most of my sympathy for the girls on the threads who cannot afford to turn heating on etc.
Trouble is,there is always someone better off,and worse off,than you.

Winegoddess Where the fecking hell does your money go? On wine! And as others have said you should be well comfortable on that and must live well beyond your means.

Being flamed? Thats a new one to me! What do you expect when you earn very good money and still moan

I think that the point was that on that sort money it shouldn't be a struggle just to get by, but it ought to buy extras.
In some ways I think it is good to be thrifty and house prices were getting silly-they should be affordable for young people.
Everyone can't carry on being better off than their parents-I think we are at the point that a lot are worse off.

Is there any need for this? ALOT of the negative replies seem like a case of sour grapes.

This is what I'm refering to if others are puzzled

OP you can afford to live on £65,000 in this country, but clearly not in the area you live in. Perhaps you are living beyond your means? But I can appreciate where your coming from, £65,000 is not considered a huge wage in some parts of the SE.

And what?

Please take into account that WG has posted as well about panic attacks and anxiety as well as self harming - I understand about the current economic climate but please think before you post. In fact I think this thread should be pulled.

How can she be claiming to be skint on one hand but going on £2500 holiday on the other?

Do you have any idea how that reads to everyone else living in the real world? Which, by the sounds of things, she will join soon if her husband loses his £65,000 salary.

Perhaps she should have saved the £2,500?

Well it may be a struggle to get by if her mortgage eats up 80% of her income. I know a couple who are seriously struggling at the moment because of a sudden and very unexpected loss of substantial income. The wife worked for an investment bank and was suddenly and unexpectedly made redundant. She has immediately taken another job but is now earning about 40k less than she was. Their outgoings before left them comfortable,now things are very tight. You cannot expect people to take on a mortgage of,say just 1x salary in case the very unexpected happens. Life isn't like that.

Posters can not be held responsible for other Mnetters mental health.I am sorry for WG - although i have no idea what you are talking about.

Well said Surrey, I agree. Not everything is in black and white.

'I am astonished by people telling OP that she is living beyond her means.'

It's a perfectly logical conclusion considering her post.

Her means no longer meet the lifestyle she wishes to have.

So that means a) either change your lifestyle to suit your means by cutting back or b) increase your means by getting a job, flogging something, moving, etc.

There is no way this person is for real.

You detest her type, why is that? 'cos you cant afford it and you're jealous?

Familybliss did you ever hear 'if you cant say anything nice, then dont say anything at all.

Some of you are nasty pieces of work. I dont think winegodess will be reappearing and I dont blame her.