Am I the only one who often wonders where the heck some people get all their money from?

[Nonalphamum]

I probably am very nosey, but I know a few people that have a seemingly average/low income but seem to spend spend spend all the time and I guess I just wonder how they do it.

DD's friend's mum is a single mum with 2 children, she works part time, yet seems to have endless cash for holidays, clothes, haircuts, nights out etc. She and her kids have had 2 foreign holidays during these summer holidays alone.

Another woman I know has 5 children, her husband works in the catering industry so not on a good wage, and again they seem to just spend all the time; clothes, holidays, things for their house. And she has said that they spend £200 most weeks on food shopping.

It just baffles me where people get their money from.

Because they are in debt. Just because they have things it doesn't mean they own them

Agree, probably debt. Credit is just too easy to obtain. DH and I have never had credit cards/ loans although the bank keeps offering them 'because we keep our accounts in order'. I tell them every time that the reason we are able to keep our accounts in order is because we don't have a CC or loan.

She might be lying over the shopping spend but embarrassed to admit that they live on economy food to pay for other luxuries!
They might be good at budgeting - maybe they ebay all their old clothes to supplement purchasing of new ones. Good grandparents? Inheritance.
Credit card debt could be huge.

You might have more but you don't know it. I drive an old car and am happy with it. Would rather that and know I have a few pound put away for a rainy day.

Somebody once said to me...'never red eye (be jealous) what others have, you don't know what they did to get it'.

Thats so true.

Am I jealous of someone driving round in a 12/13 reg car? No, because I paid cash for my punto and the insurance is only £260 a year.

Would I like a foreign holiday? Yes, but I need to save up for it first and other things get in the way (dental bill, sons wedding, etc)

Someone I know used to book a big fancy carribbean cruise every year on their credit card and did all the trips, all new clothes etc. Then spent all year 'robbing peter to pay paul' to pay the credit card off then booked the next one!

Thats not how I want to live.

Credit cards/loans would be my guess.

I know a few people who seem to spend on all sorts of things that we couldn't/wouldn't afford even though Dh is earning a decent salary. Things like a week away at Centre Parks or holidays abroad. Yet they often seem to be the ones that will suddenly be saying how skint they are.

Often they seem to be the ones who are constantly juggling between various demands on their money. I've seen people making big purchases and the following week they're saying "How can I cut back my food budget?" or "I'm having to walk to school with the dc because I can't afford to put petrol in my car"

YY to the credit cards. This was me 5 years ago. I was reckless now I'm paying it all back but in hindsight I was stupid.

It's not always due to credit and reckless borrowing. When I was a single mum and on a low p/t wage I was able to budget for foreign holidays and luxuries through savvy budgeting, ebaying, help from parents and a decent amount of maintenance. Never had any kind of overdraft or credit card at all. I'd save up our Tesco points for holidays and theme parks and get tips on glitches from websites so I could get some things really cheap, which meant I could splash out on other stuff! Also I got deals on things like haircuts from friends and I know all the good outlet places for clothes. I did some sums once and worked out that if I'd been paying full price for everything, I'd have needed to earn 5x my salary even though on paper I was not at all well off.

Significant financial help from other family members?

Dh always feels envious of the in laws life style but I regularly point out they have only ever paid interest only on the mortgage, have huge credit card bills, cars are leased not owned etc etc. we could easily live a similar lifestyle if we want a massive debt hanging over us.

Some people view being able to meet monthly payments=doing fine financially.

aquaintances of mine(mother works,father fraudulently claiming disability benefits,two children)have brand new cars,holidays,house makeovers once a year and she has admitted to me that she just applies for credit cards or catalogues and just maxes them out!
I may not have loads of flashy gear but everything I have has been saved for,earned and worked hard for and I know that its not going to creep up and bite me on the arse one day.

A lot of folk get financial help from relatives. Also benefit fraud sad to say.

DH and I often wonder this because he earns a very good salary and yet we often feel like we can't afford luxuries like overseas holidays and new cars. Our home improvements are on hold until we have savings to cover what we want to do. Our cars are 5yo and not flash at all, but we bought them outright, and don't plan to replace them anytime soon. We keep them serviced and maintained. Our only debt is our mortgage, and our repayments are manageable, we put down 40% equity when we bought this house. We do save. Our DCs are not in private school.

And yet friends who are clearly on lower salaries (in some cases they've told us their salaries) are doing home improvements, taking foreign holidays and buying new cars left, right and centre.

It has to be being done on credit or loans from family. Or we are dong something seriously wrong!!

I wonder all the time!

Funnily enough we had this conversation at the weekend. Between us we bring home approx £2.5k pm...I believe we live well within our means, fortunate enough to have a weeks holiday in the sun most years, 2 wee old cars...and happy to save for everything. But see folk around us and its a permanent stream of holidays, weekends away, cars, home improvements (and not just a coat of paint!)...it's endless! Does make me wonder (and very occasionally jealous!).

I guess you tend to notice the stuff people ARE doing, not the stuff they AREN'T. We have a moderate income, and probably look like we spend a lot on our house, but we don't have new clothes that often, and the ones we do aren't expensive, and we rarely go on foreign holidays, and we don't go out for dinner, and we have one, small, 10-year-old car between us. It's hard to judge impartially on somebody else's spending, never having the full picture. Maybe they bought their house at the right time and have a tiny mortgage. Maybe they're secretly a high-class hooker.

My rule of thumb... Don't count other people's money. Though it can be hard sometimes

I think a lot of people get supplemented by well off parents. I also know a single mum who barely works but seems to be always off on foreign holidays at least a couple a year. Turns out her parents pay for them from some money they inherited. A lot of people I know also bought their houses when prices were very low and have virtually paid off their mortgages, wheras we only started ours a few years ago when prices had risen considerably. It makes a big difference. I'm personally amazed by how many people's facebook sites showing a constant stream of boozy nights out, day trips with the kids and meals out! I am constantly wondering how people afford this lifestyle. I have one facebook friend in a very modestly paying job who posts every lunchtime from a different local cafe whilst I sit at work with my home made sandwich, and I'm green with envy!

Frequently

I have come to the conclusion it is a combination of things, easy credit and too much of it, fiddling (tax, benefits, second jobs whatever), funded by family, maxing credit cards then IVAs or similar, IO mortgages, just got lucky.

I know of people who claim to be doing them all (although not at the same time)

We had a house extension when fairly skint. My mother paid for it.

I was able to manage when my new work fucked up and took 2 months to pay me - by taking out a bank loan.

I had a flatmate when I was a lot younger who seemed really rich compared to the rest of us- he had a washing machine and lots of furniture whereas all of us were lucky if we had a mattress on the floor. Turned out his parents were dead and he'd inherited their stuff.

I don't think wondering just how people do it, means that you are jealous, just seriously baffled!

Yes, and then I feel bad for been so nosey.

I know a couple with three kids, she doesn't work, he's a mechanic at a garage (not his own garage and not a manager). They've just bought a 300k house.

OH earns around £55K a year and I am SAHM. We have 2 children and a sizeable mortgage, although have decent equity in our house (the joys of London living!) and I probably will not return to work until the children are older. Other than our mortgage and a couple of grand owed to my mum and dad for an extension, we have no debt.

People frequently comment on what a lavish lifestyle we lead and imply that we are getting in debt to maintain it. We love expensive holidays, clothes shopping, designer handbags and normally eat out twice a week. What they don't see however, is the scrimping that goes on behind the scenes. OH and my clothes are financed through selling our old ones on ebay, I take part in online surveys and we save all year round for holidays and christmas and although I shop in Waitrose, I only spend £70 a week maximum and top this up in Iceland/Aldi.

We are always on the look out for deals, money off vouchers and any savings that can be made anywhere. We don't hoard anything at all and do a car boot sale every year. I would never pay for parking unless I absolutely have to, even if this means walking quite a way and avoid buying chewing gums, drinks etc. when I am out as I know the massive savings I can make by buying multipacks from Poundland.

Quite a few friends are constantly pleading poverty, despite having tiny/no mortgages and having decent wages. They live in old clothes, don't go on holidays and never eat out. They then waste their money (in my opinion) on things that can easily and painlessly be avoided. Would love to give them a money makeover!!!

I'd love a money makeover lol I think we do ok...and have reduced outgoings by nearly £200pm over the past 8 or so months...but I know we could do better! We deliberately keep our monthly outgoings below the lowest of both our monthly salaries...I'm terrified of one of us losing our job but at least we could manage on one wage if it came to it.

You know you can start to do your own money makeover......
I helped my Mother recently and saved her quite a bit (she had one lot of insurance 3 times!!!!!)

only fair to point out that quite a bit = a few hundred a year, a lot if you have minimal pension income