To think that £40K is not a 'paltry sum' to live on?

[Megatron]

This is basically a rant! My sister is driving me round the twist with her moaning and groaning about not being able to buy what she wants. Her DH earns around £40K, she does not work, they have 2 young DC's (both at primary school), no debts apart from mortgage (not huge) and she has just spent an hour on the phone to me telling me that her DH is a loser because he doesn't have enough ambition to 'go out and get a better job with a more acceptable wage'. She is now in the huff with me as I told her that perhaps SHE should get a job and contribute if she's that desperate for more cash and to stop acting like a spoilt brat. I know this is not a huge amount but jeez, it's not exactly peanuts either. I'm guessing I should ring her an apologise for calling her a brat but !

In the Southe east where I live a three bed semi costs around £250000. quite hard to achieve on 40K a year. All very well saying work when kids at school, but school hours jobs are not always that easy to find.

Why is going to the gym vacuous?

Your SIL sounds a twat.

But we couldn't survive on £40k - we need to bring in £60k just to keep our heads above water. that's just to pay for everything and food with no 'extras.'

Going to the gym is vacuous when its a way of life, interspersed with manicures and lunch. Which sadly is the case with a minority of women.

No one suggested the woman ought to get a school hours only job. If she got off her arse and worked she could pay for some after school care. Obviously she prefers to sit on her arse and criticise her husband. Nice lady.

yes DH decided not to pay any bills for a few months and so we have an enormous deficit! I am now in charge!

Posie your energy bills are huge! As are your mobile and broadband. And it isn't your income that is the problem, it's the expenditure on a car!

Yes, it is hard to find school hours / school term jobs. So you use some childcare. Or if she thinks she can earn more than his 'loser' salary, then let him be a sahd. You can't have it all ways. If she wants to be a SAHM she should stiop being a high mainenance harridan. Fab phrase.

just read the last few threads and had to jump in and say posie have you checked you're getting the best deal on gas/leccy lately? That bill looks v high.

also car looks high but depends on if that incudes hp or something and petrol etc etc

as for the op read the first few posts agreed with violethill sorry haven't read all the ones in the middle

We bought a car when the money was good, but could have saved the whole amount in a few months instead of paying for it for three years!

In fact as soon as money crap hit the fan we saved over £1200 just by moving suppliers and loans around.

posie we have just been through everything, I am a bit of a demon on the bills front and always on moneysupermarket etc

Our mobiles are now £15 a month for DH and £10 for me and that's plenty of mins and texts - there are cheaper deals than that too

gas and leccy £80pm they just put DD down to £60 obviously it depends on house type, size and insulation but we're in a 3 bed semi fairly standard and london and I didn't get the cheapest leccy going I went 100% green. unless you live in a draughty mansion there are savings to be had there

cut back on virgin etc . we are on sky and spend a lot they do our phone and broadband too but we'd chop the package if needs be, we have all multiroom and HD and stuff do you have anything like that? ditch it

have you been on moneysupermarket checked all your insurance? have you been through and checked you are not paying any random insurance eg things I don't get are payment protection fro mortgage, insurance for mob phone etc

what is this car business?

sorry to hijack but blimey woman there is work to be done

moneysavingexpert.com
moneysupermarket.com

confused.com is good for car ins despite annoying ads

posie your DH must earn quite a lot more than 40k for you to afford all those bills! That is the same for our gas/electricity so I can well understand paying that much

Megatron - it's definitely not paltry, esp with a sm mortgage (depends on what you mean by 'small') and no childcare costs. It does also depend on where in the country you live, but I would definitely not use the word 'paltry', even in the SouthEast.

Youch, posie. I'd be looking to switch suppliers. Are you locked into contracts? Perhaps look into the break clauses on those.

We spent £200/month on electric in winter, and nothing in this flat is gas and it's crap storage heaters AND a keyed meter.

And it's in the Scottish Highlands.

Rant away! I have had a crap day, so this might seem a bit bitchy BUT
On 40k, I bet the household has...
Sky Sports and movies in HD in sky plus
At least 2 computers
At least 2 mobiles and I bet they are Iphones
2 newish cars
A fantastically well stocked fridge and freezer
TV in every room (with an extra sky box!!!)

in other words, its hardly poverty!
Poor fella is working his ass off, trying to provide for his family. She shouldn't have married/had kids with someone who isn't as ambitious as she wanted.
My man isn't particularly ambitious either, we bring in about the same in SE London and we don't have all of the above list as we can't afford it! But we have plenty of family happy times! Wouldn't change my lot for more money. The more you get paid, the more blood your employer wants!

We live in a 3 bedroom newbuild semi. Our mortgage is under £300 a month, but that is because we first bought 9 years ago when prices were low. The house is probably worth about £200,000 at the moment so obvioulsy if we were starting out now our mortgage wiould be much higher.

Our electricity bill (our only fuel) is about £60 a month.

We have a 4yr old car which we bought with savings (part exchanged the last one).

We don't buy anything on credit, so our only debt is our mortgage. We put money away every month for holidays, Christmas etc as well as in the kids' savings and our own.

You certainly don't need £40k to live on here!

Last financial year was the worst since we met...12 years ago.

Wow, it must have been seriously good before then! I can't imagine being able to save up for an entire car in a few months, well not the sort which would cost £450 on HP!

We wouldn't be able to afford 2 cars on £40k, and certainly not 'newish'!

We didn't save for the new car in a few months, we start saving for the next one as soon as we buy one. So over the 2 or so years that we keep a car we accumulate enough (plus interest) to buy the next one, rather than paying for a loan plus interest over the 2 years after buying one!

put your figures into moneywupermarket lequeen

deals change all the time

moneysavingexpert also has a traffic light system to say when is a good time to switch

I meant that to be to Posie helyg, she said they could have afforded their new car outright in a few months rather than paying with HP.

although moneysupermarket might give you better results than moneywupermarket...