how do they expect you to live when everything goes up!!

[mommmmyof2]

I am sooo sick of everything rising apart from mine or my husbands wages!! We struggle at the best of times to get through every week and i just had a promotion and what for....so they can take benefits off us and to be taxed more on it!
I sometimes feel the harder you work the harder it is, i not sure how they expect you to survive these days, and when your children are asking for things and all you ever say is no then you feel like a bad mom

well that because we have got an old computer that worth nothing and it pays our bills as this is my husbands job... so you might want to check first why people have computers!

My mother had 3 children by the time she was 21 and ran away from abuse at home at 15...we have been poor in the past..she got an education

gladders not in trainee jobs that come through the Jobcentre...

''Dunno about anyone else but this situation sucks arse and I'm not going to just accept it!...i certainly wont pretend it doesn't affect me or matter because in the past people lived in worse conditions...''

What a strange comment - are you single handedly going to change the budget. Nobody is suggesting that there are not people affected - in fact almost everybody will be affected. But we have to cut back to be realistic given the economics! The country cant just ignore it and carry on racking up debt.

What do you suggest should happen? If wages go up hugely then the price of goods would go up and jobs would go abroad.

Exactly - I said that the other night about my own sister. She's on a low income and is pretty skint. But she has a bottle of wine most nights, a nice mobile phone, etc etc.

I'm not sure who the 'they' is in the OP. It's up to me to take action about how much I earn and how, and then how to spend it and budget accordingly. There is no 'they'.

Hey why don't you take some handy advice from John Redwood? www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1289250/BUDGET-2010-John-Redwood-tells-middle-classes-turn-heating- theyre-feeling-pinch.html

ps I sympathise.

frogety I'm not saying that either but what I dont like is this weird pretense that we are to act like we are lucky... I said nothing about the budget..but I do think after this one we will go into another recession...just an opinion..because people apart paying 20% VAT dont even have a pay rise.. so couldn't afford it if they wanted to...

I'm very thankful for what we have now. We live a modest lifestyle, but we are comfortable. We have one car, no holidays, never eat out, don't drink. Ocassional treats and days out, but more often than not juggle things about each month to make ends meet.

My childhood was very different, but not unusual at the time. We had much less, but we didn't know any different. It's only now that I can see how much my parents must have struggled. My mum had three cleaning jobs. A treat was a finger of fudge shared three ways. I wore my brother's hand me downs. Shared a bedroom with him until I was 13. But we were safe and happy, and had enough.

Mumcentre - I do have sympathy with what you are saying to some extent as we too are really having to pull in our belts but fortunately we began it about a month ago in preperation so it doesnt feel too much of a shock. I had to tell one of my dds that her swimming lessons are stopping today.

However, I still feel lucky as I know if we really concentrate on spending where we need to (i.e bills and food) then dh and I will manage without going into debt. And we do not have a big income - I am now looking for a second job to do in the evenings I dont already work - think I have found a cleaning job today for a local GP as I dont really want the girls to have to give up swimming. However, I am lucky that my 3 dds do not ask for much and at Christmas we have always spent below £50 each for everything and £15 for birthdays. We have always been cheapskates as I have to find money for the charities we support and help my family out from time to time. Dont get me wrong I am not tight (if I go out I would get people drinks etc but because I cant afford it I dont go out!!) and am not great at it all at all and have times of crying as things are so hard but well survive and for that I feel lucky.

We should all feel lucky...we are in an affluent country ...thats not my point..we are already very stretched as a family me DH will have to go back onto nights..and our DDs have just about learned to swim ..we will be stopping breakfast club amongst other things...we do what we have to do..what i wont do is pretend we are not going backwards...

that was my point to start with, i appreciate how hard it must have been when my parents were younger, and just like they worked hard then, i work hard now and so does my partner. And we are honest people, it is just annoying thats all that you do all you can but nothing changes. My wage or my husbands has not gone up, some people will be better off, and yes some will be worse.
I am just finding it a struggle, now, as we are now, not at any other point now

By southeastastra Thu 24-Jun-10 16:59:54
when i left school i 1986 a good admin job paid roughly £12,000 and they still pay that, more or less now.

I can't agree with that SEA - in 1986 The top of the pay scale for an Admin officer in the Civil Service was £6,300

But we are not going backwards if you look at the picture of the nation as a whole. If you imagine the nation as a family in debt funding the swimming lessons etc, then the debt has to be paid so they appear to be going backwards but it was all fake anyway.

Although I do take the point that in the above scenario you and I are paying for our families debt that we may or may not have contributed to!!!!

"Dunno about anyone else but this situation sucks arse and I'm not going to just accept it!"

you're right it does suck - but we have no choice but to accept it - no matter which party got in things were going to hurt

"am loving the fact that people who are struggling to eat manage to get acces to a computer and the internet....."

well

1. Parents of children aged between 6 and 12 (irrc the ages correctly) can get a free computer and 12 months broadband paid for them

1. Libraries and other places have free internet access

1. I personally save more each year being able to use the computer than my broadband costs.

If I didn't have internet access I would spend more money each month and be worse off.

I'd say that in general the things I listed are cultural norms, I can't speak for individuals.

Most kids that I know do not consider a trip to the cinema to be an especially big deal, and these are kids from average and low income backgrounds.

I'm sure there has been an absolutely litany of posts about how spoilt and indulgent we all are.

And how when they were kids, their mother used to bathe them by spitting on them and dried them with their breath.

It's growing tedious in the extreme.

i didn't say civil service lonicera

though my first paid job was £31 a week

cinema trips are popular with our dds, but it's the 95p per seat shows for them and often I drop dh off with them and go back later to save on the extortionate car park charges!

CarGirl thats what i do...and i bring my own popcorn and water ..then take them to a lovely lunch afterwards (because lunch is the cheapest meal of the day- always on special offer)

We will actually get a small increase in CTC, the increase and tax free allowance is more than the cost of NI going up so overall we will be getting an extra £400 per year the BBC budget calculator reckons - I'm hoping that will offset the VAT rise. Of course it would be much better if that £400 increase were on dh salary as then it would count towards pension

If the maintenance for dd1 stops we will really really struggle but at least I can continue looking for work in the meantime!

Sorry - didnt read all.

No OP, you are definately not being unreasonable and I do sympathise.

Im in Ireland and since our emergency budget and annual budget last year, we, as a family, are down €920 per month. We are not high earners. Thats all fine, I know everyone is suffering but I dont understand how are government expect people to actually survive - cost of living not coming down - groceries exactly the same price, oil and diesel have gone up last month, mortgage obviously the same etc....

We are so much luckier than some though and Im genuinely thankful for that - I dont think we'll loose our house and both jobs appear fairly secure so in comparison to some we are extremely fortunate. That said, dd is walking around in clothes much too small for her, its embarrasing really. We dont spend, go anywhere - just a weekly struggle to try make ends meet. Many bills are now going unpaid for a long time - we were never like that . Dont really know how we are going to function in Nov (Im back to work after maternity leave) if Im honest (paying childcare)

It is quite crap at the moment but there isn't a lot we can do except try our best.

FWIW I think are parents had it far, far harder. I remember having to look for lemonade bottles so we could we the 10p deposit, scrabbling around the sofa looking for loose change. All I bloody heard was the word "no".

Food, clothes and household goods are far cheaper than a generation ago. The big problem is we have got used to having far too much.