Household income- how are you coping?

[Tblock1800]

I know Money and salaries is always a bit of a touchy subject for some, but with the current ridiculous economy crisis as it is, I’m just interested as to how people are coping?

Me and my wife have a little boy ( 1.5 year old) so are a family of 3. We own our own property so pay a mortgage and have 2 cars. Both work full time and have a combined salary of roughly 76k for the household. Live in the outskirts of London.

As with everyone, whilst we are certainly not struggling by all means, you can definitely feel the difference in what stuff is costing at the moment. Luckily i have savings which always gives me a buffer, but i feel so sorry for people struggling in this awful climate at the moment.

How are people coping? What’s your situation at home etc ?

just a curiosity thread really to see how people are coping. Totally understand if you don’t want to disclose information etc

Struggling, incredibly fed up.

We have scrimped and saved, re trained, juggled studying and children over the past few years and pre covid we had hoped by now we would be seeing a change in our lives - being able to afford days out, holidays and living comfortably. It feels like we've taken two steps forward and four back. I have no idea how those not in work are coping it must be so so hard.

We live In the NE, just bought our first "home" (it's a do-er upper) after renting since turning 20. Dh is on 30k, I was on 6k (part time min wage) and have 3 dc. My contracted hours were cut last year from 28 to 10, I made up the difference by picking up extra shifts opposite my husbands days off its worked well until last week when the company's announced it'll be cutting hours again and stopping overtime. I'm exhausted with worrying and trying to find an idea on what I can do to earn money, I wake up most mornings wondering why I'm here. Its all consuming.

I feel v lucky to still be able to afford mortgage, bills etc. I feel this is all an awful step back. I remember my grannies scrimping and saving and all those behaviours from the war, even when they were comfortable, terrified to spend money just in case. I think this will also be our generation soon

You should be getting child benefit, universal credit as neither of them class student finance as income for the purpose of eligibility.

We are in this type of bracket. Joint income around £55k so you'd think we are comfortable. Rarely go out. State schools. No flash holidays.. UK breaks. Hideous

Not sure how this will help anyone as feels boastful, but we are doing quite well and saving a decent amount every month, even thinking of moving to a bigger house!
I am so very grateful to not have to truly worry about money, any money anxiety I have tends to be more the overflow of negative news from media and friends, and not based on my reality.
But saying that, every time I go out for dinner the restaurants etc are busy and it's impossible to get any trade in to do small jobs or a hairdresser appointment etc so it doesn't actually feel like there is any crisis in my little bubble of the UK.

We're on pension now and our flat is paid for, our pension is £25000 pa. Electricity last month was over £200, because food is so expensive we have our gas turned off except for washing and showering. Things are tight and our world is shrinking.

We're doing fine but we are lucky enough to have a good income (156k combined), family of four with 2 primary aged children.

We fixed our mortgage last summer, up by ~£70 to £1250ish. Food up by £100/month, energy doubled to £220/month.

The major difference for us is that we would have liked to move house, but to move from our semi detached to a detached in the same location would put our mortgage up to at least £3000/month under current interest rates, which is too much for us. Given this, we have enough money to spend on holidays instead, though the prices of holidays are so staggeringly expensive at the moment that they'd better be good!

How is everyone's mortgage so cheap ?! Iv been looking at mortgages and there all about 1500 PCM for a family house. So for us at the moment my husband earns 35,000 and I'm starting a tattooing business witch tbh is only paying for itself at the moment. Eldest son is about to start school , and other 2 children are below school age and at home with me. (Where I work I can only do evenings so I'm at home all day with kids) I'm starting to get Abit worried that we're not earning enough. It's stressful , we have savings , but we were hoping to eventually spend it on a down payment for a house and save for the kids , but that in turn means that we can't get any support , even though we spend all our income , we have to just eat up all our previously saved money unfortunately , it's so gutting when we have to do so and not be able to add back to it 💔

Congratulations, I'm so pleased for you. What a lovely post xx

We were struggling last year before we moved house as we’d accrued a lot of debt and had (stupidly) an interest only mortgage. Sold the house as a lot of equity so able to pay off debts and put a decent deposit down on new house. We have now got a repayment mortgage - quite high payments as it’s a shorter term but we are managing.
income seems to have decreased and bills increasing. DH and I plus 2 older teens. Food bill gone up and energy bill is going up £50 extra from next month.
I work for the NHS and I’m the too
of my pay scale so unlikely to get much in the way of increases and DH works for a business that is likely to be sold so potentially may be redundant at 55 which isn’t ideal.
On the plus side I can do extra shifts to earn more if I want to so I guess we are more fortunate than some

Bit rubbish tbh, our bills outgoings are equal to income.

We are just over the threshold for support.

Here is the annoying bit, our council said we earn £50 too much a month to qualify ...so the £30 council tax is £190 due to earning that extra 50..those extra hours working definitely not worth it 😂😂😭

I have a baby atm, so in time once i am back working full time it will be easier, just not sure how much due to childcare costs.

We currently private rent, i have felt a dramatic shift. We always done the same food shop each week, over the past year its gone up by 30 a week. Rent is higher, energy bills higher, but income hasn't increased to match. (Had a £1 per hour rise)