I'm hoping there's already a thread on the SAHM writing about CB cuts in Saturday's Grauniad (money section), but in case there isn't...

[kveta]

please someone come and talk about it here! this one

DH and I were both spluttering all the way through this, and found our hearts didn't bleed too much.

Did anyone else read it and weep?

whatever, this piece is pretty unbelievable - must be satire.

probably the lady is on Mumsnet too!

i have worked out the very most stuffed you could be - if you earned 43876.01 pa

after tax & NI - 32281.69
per month - 2690.14

mortgage £1000
Council tax - £200
cars - £600
Bills - £200

TO LIVE OFF - £690 OR £172.50 per week.

Except of course, if the reason the commute is so long is that it isn't his reglar place of work - he should claim mileage tax relief.

and if its squeezing you that much, you give up the second car.

And £170 is a reasonable amount to live off still anyway.

I'm not sure it is satire, EdgarAllInPink. Rosie Millard made a great run of her financial difficulties, and people were very interested (and sympathetic) because here was a "new kind" of financial difficulties, complete with high income and over-upper-middle-class lifestyle.

call me a biyatch, but i find sympathy difficult to muster about this kind of moaning.

Edgar - I wish I had bills of £200 a month.

gas and elec - £95
water - £40
home insurance/house insurance - £40
tv/phone/internet - £45
dog insurance - £15
contact lenses - £20
mortgage insurance - £40
car insurance x2 - £80
mobile phones x2 - £40

I get that to be £395. Then mortgage, and council tax. So monthly total now £1600. If you're allowing £600 a month for cars to pay for petrol, tax, mot, repairs, service, etc then that takes the total to £2100.

So that leaves £111 a week for food, ballet lessons, clothes, haircuts, shoes. And I guess he'll pay 6% of his salry into a pension so it'll probably be less that £100 a week. Its not a lot when you have 2 kids.

some of those bills really aren't necessary..
contacts - wear glasses (i do, less glamorous, but hey..)
dog insurance (if it is £15 PM, that is alot towrds your next vet bill...my dog is uninsurable anyway so it is neither here nor there. (vaccinosis, 9.5 years old..))
for gas & leccy to cost £95pm year round seems extortionate though i suppose if you are off-grid that may actually be cheap.

aside from which £100 a wk is still very possible.
yes, even with 2 kids (and especially small ones).

basically i think the whole issue is people have started seeing options as necessities...

PPI is an option. The mortgage is a necessity.

Gas & leccy is a necessity - but the temp set, number of baths, washing loads etc is an option.

Car insurance - necessity if you own a car - but that high a rate? those points on the license/ previous crashes/ higher rate as more valuable vehicle aren't a necessity.

i suppose my point is that there's still alot of slack to be cut in a budget like that before you're really hurt by having no child benefit.

Electric for us is £150 a month and counting... (we're off grid in the coldest part of the country)

£95 for our gas/elec is just for a 3 bed semi. I thought it was quite resonable and thats going with uswitch every year to work out the best deal.

I agree that contact lenses are a luxury, I've only just started paying for them but it means that I can go swimming. My eyesight is very bad and I can't see without them or glasses and I can't swim in glasses. I wouldn't dare not insure my dog as knowing my luck she's be hit by a car and have a 4k bill the following week.

And neither me or DH have any points or previous convictions, we both drive 6 year old cars. Me a Yaris and him a Mondeo, not high spec.

We're in a three bed terrace with a couple of storage heaters and I so wish we had gas central heating. I am v envious of £95 a month - sounds very reasonable to me .

We do tend to shiver in the winter rather than put the heating on.

Obviously it does go on, but thermostat is turned down is what I meant.

If her dh was going to be moving around so much then why didn't they just rent?

Silly, silly, silly.

We shiver in the winter with ours on maximum. And pay handsomely for the privilege.

"If her dh was going to be moving around so much then why didn't they just rent?"

They have children, of school age by the looks of it. Isn't it better for the children to have one fixed abode rather than being dragged around the country and having to change schools every year?

"Except of course, if the reason the commute is so long is that it isn't his reglar place of work - he should claim mileage tax relief.
"

He can't because the commute is that long to his regular place of work. The way docs train at the moment is they train in an "area" that "area" could be as big as kent,surrey,sussex and they might change hospitals every 6 months or year hence a lot of trainee docs doing long commutes.

I am not trying to excuse her whining but things are never as black and white as they seem (to go to interest only so the daughter can afford ballet lessons is just STUPID however)

But Libra, they're being dragged about anyway according to the woman going on about how many house moves they have made.

Renting doesn't mean instability. I've been in the one place for nine years now.