Oh how my heart bleeds!

[MarioandLuigi]

the Nouveau poor

Hmm

Ho hum another Daily Fail troll article.

Oh dear, let me get out my small violin, I really feel their pain, what with the fact, I have no car and have never had one, don't pay a mortgage but rent a 1 bed flat instead with DF and DS with an income of less then half what they have.

Oh can't shop at waitrose what a shame, I've never shopped there they are over priced, can't buy clothing in Jigsaw? it's all over priced anyway.

Get a fucking grip, if you can't manage on 60k a year you are not nouveau poor you are nouveau stupid.

I just can't leave this one alone for some reason. Just thinking about the fact that one of the couples sends their kids to private school as a priority. A luxury surely? [Their choice of course but a LUXURY].

Ryoko - I so agree!

Few things make my blood boil faster than spoilt well off fecks grizzling about how hard done by they are and how they can't afford to dress top to toe in the lastest twatty designer crap.

Also - their kids school fees are £1000 a month.

Get a bloody grip!

They look as if they have more than enough to eat and a nice house. And a car costing between 18-22k as their "downgraded" model. The schools in their area can't be all bad either, it isn't as if they're living on a police-no-go estate

It's another case of people not understanding what an essential is, they are blind, you see it so often, people who say they are poor because the expect to have Sky TV (it's only £15 a month) they expect to give the kids a high pocket money (it's only £5 each a week), it all adds up, open your eyes and budget.

I'm on benefits. My income (including HB) is less than 10k. I don't have the luxury of being able to cut-back, I'm at the knife's edge as it is.

However, I do understand that it can be difficult when there is less money about and things cost more. Life gets harder, but I would remind the people in this mail hatchet job newspaper article, that it is all relative and for some people just eating and being warm and dry is also much more difficult.

As you say Dione - 'all relative'.

I wonder if those couples regretting their brush with the Daily Mail now?

god, why do some people have to get so nasty? It was the DM who called them "poor"..they are having to make cutbacks and are being honest about it, what's the problem? 60k is also not a great amount as a household income (the DM cites 26k as being the average individual income but in all/most cases they were dual-income couples, I think)

Jealousy in my case! Don't mean to be nasty though. [Work hard for far less and job worries.. but hey ho.. thats life]. 60k would seem a lot to me as a joint salary but maybe I'm just a 'loser'. .

See the sums Giddy did above. The cost of living is so high you don't get all that much money left over even at 70K a year. Also Soverylucky's point that when you're on a lower income you may get tax credits which help with the cost of living, but people may forget to mention when they say how well they manage on a lower income.

We've cut down on wine & treats. (But somehow it doesn't yet show on my waistline.) Also on organic stuff, eggs are free range only rather than organic etc. Easy to mock and we didn't have a lavish lifestyle before, just comfortable and care-free.

We don't send the kids to private school but that means a long daily commute for me instead: £500 in car (had to buy one - a Focus - that would last the journey) & petrol.

Sorry they aren't poor!!
Poor is not being able to buy clothes and shoes for the kids, not having enough to pay the bills and having to choose between milk OR bread! They have a huge c-max car, massive house and no doubt a house full of goodies. These are all things they could sell pay off debts and live life more simple.
This woo is me crap gets on my wick, stop moaning be grateful with what you got and change your own situation because until you have been to the poor areas in London and seen what they live like you don't know poor!
The people in the article have somewhere to live, clothes and food in their bellys, everything they are moaning about are luxury items and u know what?? Most of us cut those out years ago!!

I know that compared to loads of people we are just fine. [As for benefits we get minimum tax credit and 2x child benefit which we are glad to get].
Cleaners and school fees ARE luxury items in my opinion [and I see one couple have cut out their cleaner... ].

I just can't believe passes for "news". Everyone has been feeling the pinch for ages now! This could have been run over a year ago.

Yes, BecauseIWI, they just had to tighten their belts a bit, but seeing other posts comment that the ~2K left over after 'essentials' is more than others are living on makes me wonder why they feel hard done by...

I will go off and read the article but doubt I will be any more sympathetic, as the (cheap) bread I buy went up 150% in recent times, I can no longer afford my luxury (Jaffa cakes) and often wonder about how some of my bills will be paid.

I will certainly lose no sleep over someone who chooses to pay for private schooling and appears to have plenty left after essential bills are paid.

However, in the main, I am happy and hopefully my finances will one day get better. Have not stopped feeding the cat, even if she gets food some weeks and I don't.

we have a joint income of around £70 k and it isn't really that much

LMFAO

Crass and tactless.

I'm still reserving my sympathy for the (no doubt actually poor rather than pretend poor)cleaner one of whingers sacked as part of the terrible sacrifices they were having to make because of their reduced circumstances.

The "average" income is 20k a year gross.

25% of the country ears over 30k, 10% earns over 40k and those earing more then 55k are in the top 5%, (millionaires = less then 1% of the population).

The minimum wage is about 10k a year, most people earn around 16k, take off the tax and add a partner and the yearly household income is around 26k.

could this article be printed in any other paper than the dm

lord not being able to shop in waitrose how tragic

An annual gross income of 70k comes to approx 45k net a year, or 3.8k a month. So there is the first 25k gone, it's income tax. (guestimated figs based on own situation).

Then most of those families will be double earners, so be running two cars and pay towards childcare. A mortgage of 1k sounds about right as well. I don't think you should underestimate how much of that 3.8k goes straight away on regular bills, cars/petrol and other necessities.

We are in a similar situation as the people in the article. I wouldn't say we're struggling, it's a financially secure situation and with a bit of planning and sensible spending, we can buy all we need with money to spare for savings/days out. However, it's also not the kind of money where you can spend without thinking, live in a huge house, take fancy holidays and assume the cash never runs out. On that income, the goverment expects you to give, not receive, and in a way, that's a fortunate position to be in.

Not very sympathetic. I'm planning to take a few years out when I have the baby and we'll by getting by in the south-east of England on around £35k. And we'll still be incredibly privileged compared with many millions of people in Africa and Asia who struggle to even feed their children. Some people in the UK need to realise how the rest of the world actually lives.