to be fed up about never having any money even though DH earns (just) over £100k?

[MakemineaGandT]

I know it sounds like a lot, but with a big mortgage and all the other usual bills we have very little disposable cash.

We don't have a cleaner or any other kind of help

Neither of us has had any new clothes for at least 18 months

We spend £100 a week on groceries, so hardly extravagant

We haven't been on holiday for 3 years

We do all DIY etc ourselves

We've been out twice this YEAR

I just don't know how we can cut back. It feels as though we are working so hard and yet we are always struggling.

It makes me really annoyed when I see comments (for example on that taxing over £150k thread) about the "super rich") - I guess on paper we look "rich" but it certainly doesn't feel like it!

I don't really know what I spend on food a month as I don't do a 'weekly shop' = how do you do that? Don't you ever think, god I really can't face mince tonight, I want salmon? Or fancy a bit of hummus or something? Or run out of juice etc? I suppose I am very impulsive.

OP....your life is exactly like mine. No hols, no clothes buying (apart from growing children), no cleaner, no nights out, DIY done by ourselves and we live off a food budget of around £40-£50 per week, NOT £100 and yes we are also a family of four.

The big difference is my DH earns far FAR less than your DH and yes we have all the bills you probably have plus a mortgage etc.

The other difference is we have NO disposable cash, unlike yourself which is 'very little' disposable cash.

Just think yourself lucky...you have a home, a DH in a job (a lot of redundancies/companies closing around here atm) and you can afford £100 a week for your groceries.

Who gives a stuff about holidays/cleaners/clothes when you can afford to actually live? There are 1000s of people out there who are seriously struggling losing their homes, jobs etc. Take a look at what you've got - you have far more than a lot of people. Be grateful.

I can extend a little sympathy here as i think it doesnt matter how much you earn the money does ut go if you dont keep an eye on it. I strongly recommend you visit martin lewis website money saving expert and do a full money make over.

We are not near you but have a higher than average level of income and mortgage (national averages ref) but we do have a decent amount of disposable left which I know we are not using very well ie credit cards and no savings. Think back to before you had this level of income what did you do/pay?

We have cut back by cancelling gym, sky, contact lenses, and downsized my car to a small cheap model. I bargain shop for food always getting oops stickers in asda and buy everyday clothes from asda too.

My DH are from strong working class backgrounds who didnt have much when younger and do not take for granted what we have (before anyone shoots me down) as we have slogged hard - its only recently we achieved our current level of income. I am still paying off student loans too.

Hhow do you do weekly shops? Get yourself in a job where you as a woman earn £100k (never live on male earnings - it is morally pernicious) and then you won't have time for expensive regular trips to supermarkets. I virtually never enter a shop. You just plan your week's meals in advance and then order on line.

Headfairy I would count overpaying of mortgage as a (very sensible) form of saving. It is likely that if you hit trouble in the future you could use that money to take a payment holiday. I have just recently set up a standing order to our mortgage company to take into account the savings we have made through having a tracker mortgage.

HeadFairy, why on earth did it cost £500 to sort your windscreen out? I had to have mine replaced in August and my car insurance covered it except for a £50 excess(which was a killer for me). Surely, earning a decent sum of money and having £700 a month left over for 'incidentals', you could afford comprehensive car insurance? I'm assuming you don't have it as you would not have had to pay £500 for a screen if you did.

yes bozza thats the one sensible thing we have done is use the recent cut we have benefited from to over pay. My husbands firm retires its employees who work at my DH level and above at 55yr old so we know that he wont be earning this much to the very end of his woring career and need to plan for this.

Dpends on your car. If it's worth £1000 like ours then you'd be a fool to be paying for comp insurance.

to be honest, i would be well pissed off, if we were on 100k and i wasn't getting atleast 3 trips to the maldives, per year.

maybe she too has old debts. who knows.
you should be living the life of reilly on that kind of salary.
if you are not, then something is either wrong, or there is old debts, or something.

i live the life reilly on our salary, so I don't see why she shouldn't.
mind you I drive an 04 yaris. I went on a fab sun £9.50 holiday, and also went on luxury 5 star inclusive ibiza holiday. both holidays as much fun as eachother. depends what tickles your fancy.

I'v eonly read op.

I sympathise . I think we earn more than that but are in desparate straits.

Mortgage is killing us. I've had my salary cut by 200% ( so n0o longer earning such big amoutns) and bills per month exceed what we earn.

Oh dear lisalisa you need your hard hat on for your new thread!
Read the rest of the posts - there is some good advice tucked in between the sniping.

But you should know EXACTLY what your income is. And the rest of it comes down to identifying line by line your outgoings. Only then can you work out what can be cut down.
Boring and tedious, but rocket science it ain't.

Would you really replace a windscreen @£500 in a £1000 car? I would be down to the breakers yard.

We spend more than that a week on food for 5 of us (and cat) and we earn just under half what you do. And we're not skint. We go out quite often and have had a holiday) (UK self-catering every year) But we do have a smallish mortgage. And live a very low-maintenance life. Old car, not a big or particularly lovely house.

Do you have a big mortgage, loans, two cars?

Why Elliott? Isn't everyone looking to scale down?

And yes, your right - i need to identify line by line our outgoings. A lot of it is the school - every bloody day they want money for outings, presents for teachers, fun days etc. One week i shelled out over £50 and I complained . Finally.

anniemac - we're kind of looking at the house as our financial pension when we're older as no savings or pension so that is the only asset we have - plan to sell when 65ish and live on proceeds. Otherwise future is v scary.

I didn't lose it anniemac, no, but was told either take redundancy or accept pay cut. Went down by 200% . But at leats I still have a job for which i'm very thankful

If you've had yuor salary cut by 200 per cent doesn't that mean that you're paying the equivalent of your previous salary for the privelege of going to work...You're definitely in the wrong job...

giantkatestacks,
thanks.

Sorry - probalby calculations wrong - i won't pos t excat figures but it is equiv of

£40 k before and now £10k. and no commisioin.

Exactly what I was wondering - you cannot have anything cut by over 100%. 100% = all of it. I get so wound up about that kind of basic mistake - ie: Cheryl Cole/other moronic judge 'you were a thousand per cent better' aaarghhhh woman. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST SAID!!

rant over

fio, tee hee.

I think lisalisa means she was earning 200% more than she is now.

Anniemac - yes we are going deeper and deeper into debt each month and living off overdraft and exceeding that limit regularly too