Anyone else struggling to afford essential repairs despite a decent income?

[MargotGobby]

We have good jobs and before kids, we enjoyed a lovely lifestyle. Had lovely holidays, always eating out, actually felt quite rich! We are quite sensible - we bought a house with a much lower income to earnings ratio than we could have done and drive a very old second hand car. Kids at state school etc

Now obviously we the cost of living and kids we’ve downgraded our lifestyle a lot - we really try to avoid eating out at all unless we are somewhere where we can’t make food such as visiting distant in-laws etc. Would never just randomly eat out in our home town. We are lucky enough to go to Eurocamp each summer.

Now we chose to have kids and don’t expect to feel massively flush – lucky to be able to afford all their school clothes etc. I don’t mind not eating out and having a second hand car. But what is getting me down a bit is we can’t really afford to fix broken stuff in the house.

I’m not talking about whole renovations or new kitchen but leaking windows, stuff that is so broken it’s now potentially unsafe (obviously we then do a halfway house to make stuff like that safe!).

We didn’t buy a doer-upper, it’s just we’ve had the house for 15 years so stuff is now constantly breaking and we’re struggling to afford replacing/fixing stuff that is broken/leaking/unsafe.

Does anyone else feel like this? It’s just a rant really. I feel like I can’t actually put our household income as we will be utterly roasted as obviously we are privileged not to be in poverty, but it’s just an adjustment that we felt like were doing well, got lots of subsequent promotions – but still can’t afford to properly fix things hmph!

I hear you and it's a worry, because everything is really pricey. I don't think you're alone, people everywhere are making do.

there lot of people struggling due to the size of their mortgages, pre 2020 nobody thought interest rates would return to the long term normal that they are at now, it really is hurting.

the only thing I can advise is to at least annually go through everything you are spending and see what can give eg looking for better utility deals, make sure you haven’t go subscription creep (just another £10 adds up) and nothing else that you can give up without it hurting (eg we never go out for coffee and really don’t miss it).

Yes - I also feel like this is less work and money for say bathroom fitters, as we’re just making do and patching up if at all possible!

How much equity do you have in your home? Would it be worth raising some cash and just sorting the house out so it’s not degrading around your ears.

That is a thought. We have decent equity. It’s just we have ten years left on the mortgage, which will be when we hit 60. It makes me nervous as I’ve seen so many threads about it being hard to get work then and I’m concerned about messing with that.

Thing is this is your main asset and you don’t want it to degrade around you as it becomes more expensive the worse it gets, and if you ever need to sell in a rush you’d be grateful you kept it in good order.

There is no such thing as a doer upper anymore is there ? If you are lucky enough to have some skills , the cost of materials or tools are high and if you have to involve any trades or companies it's a huge outlay . And I hate spending big money on boring things like roofs or pipes . But essential. At least with decorating or outside stuff you can actually see and appreciate the results.

Well, judging by MN's usual standards, I probably live on the poverty line (single income) 😂

However, yes. I'm worried about my upcoming MOT and any expensive repairs that the garage insists on (my car is a cheap little runaround that is 16 years old now; I was horrified that the recent petrol bill was almost £50. I used to fill it up for £20!). I have some expensive work that needs doing on the house (the biggest chunk of it should have been the responsibility of my landlords), and I regularly find myself living out of my freezer so that at least I have food... sometimes in odd combinations, but it keeps me alive!

I’m scared to say as I’ve seen how these posts go before 😅 But suffice to say it’s a level where I imagined we might be able to not worry about paying for repairs but as PP said even the materials have gone up so much and everything else seems to be so much!

Anyway I think I just got down as something else broke but onwards and upwards 😬

I definitely can’t afford to maintain my home and I know lots of people in the same position.

I bet it would shock a lot of us. And @MargotGobby knows this, hence the reluctance to say it.

Ok, let's see if @MargotGobby admits it then.

Sorry I didn’t mean to be all mysterious! It’s just I’ve seen the amount or less get a bashing several times when those people complain about the cost of living.

I think I’d post it and get the same question - why can’t you eat out and only go to Eurocamp on that? 😅

Anyway sorry I probably shouldn’t have posted if I didn’t want to reveal my income, think I just wanted a rant!

Don’t say OP. It’s how these threads turn nasty.

OP knows her monthly budget and is just having a rant. FWIW, I agree. We are on an income where we should have more left at the end of the month. It seems to be impossible to build up the savings buffer.

You don't need to say. But I would definitely be doing essential work on the house and funding via interest free credit card yiu so 0% balance transfers on and paying down hard or home improvement loans from bank?
Your home is where your most money is tied up in and it needs to be habitable and kept up to date - look at all the probate properties that older people don't keep up to date and then their families can't sell or even live in them if they inherit them as it's a mess!
Make huge long lists of short, medium and long term jobs and try and do a few every weekend. If you find a good tradesperson try and keep them but don't be afraid of SIY where you can. I've accepted my bodge jobs are just how it is! As long as the house can sell if I needed it to!

I am actually disgusted at how much money every type of trade ask for these days. Even at those eye-watering prices all you get is unskilled labour, basic finish and something else messed up in the process that then needs fixing. But hey, one should feel grateful that the builder didn't do a runner with your lifetime savings!

I'm in the North East of the country and the situation is so awful here (with the prices and the poor quality of work) that I'm rebuilding my house myself. The more I do myself, the more I realise what a big con the building industry is! Building really is not that hard to justify the ridiculous prices! I am slow but I am good, and I am the only builder I can afford.

I do get tired doing everything myself and so to speed things up I asked for a quote to demolish and take away the existing kitchen extension. It is like a lean-to. Empty.Two walls only. Under 3x3m meters in size. It is not a 'skilled' job to do.
Quote? 4k!! Four thousand pounds! Excluding cutting off gas supply or capping water pipes, which I'd have to pay someone else for!

Fuck that! Will do everything myself again... I feel sorry for those who can't!

You’re under no obligation to share your income - starting a thread and choosing what you divulge within that thread is your prerogative, stick with your decision!

Yes, we’ve made a lot of downgrades to our lifestyle similar to yourself. We thankfully don’t have the kind of maintenance repairs you describe, but if we did, we’d struggle to do so. What used to be a good income is now only just offering a pretty basic lifestyle for many people, and adjusting to this new normal is challenging.

Of course shes under no obligation to say anything, its the Internet, we could all be anyone...

It just gets fucking annoying a bit frustrating on mn when a poster says they cant afford something basic like home repairs...things we all need to do...and explains she has a pretty frugal lifestyle and gets lots of tips and sympathy...then she let's slip her household income is 100k and a lot of us think oh fuck off love

This. Or they post a story that just doesn't add up, ie huge income but apparently cannot afford X, Y or Z despite 'living very frugally'.

Maybe if you're in 'the childcare years' its understandable but they won't last forever but otherwise if you bought a house that was well below the amount you could borrow, aren't making car payments and have had promotions then you should have the disposable income to keep your house up to date over time, despite the increase in CoL.

In these situations its almost always a case of the claimed 'very frugal lifestyle' being nothing of the sort to the average person. Which is a choice you make but at least own it or make changes to free up money for the other things you'd like to pay for.