How do people afford to live in London?

[galwithkids]

What it says in the title really..
We live in a 2 bed flat with our 2 DCs (4m 3m) in London zone 3. I love our area, I love London and I don’t want to move away. However I keep wondering if everyone around me is making more money that us to be able to live comfortably? Both me and DH work full time in demanding jobs and we bring home approx £9000 net. Our monthly outgoings are £7300. I have tried everything to bring this number down but I am not able to. This is just family basic living expenses, no extras, no commute or car costs, personal
phone or subscriptions not included. I have worked SO hard to bring myself to a point of earning that much, and yet every month I am left without any spare money, I never spend any money for myself, all my clothes are from Primark or H&M, the kids clothes and toys are all second hand, we don’t order take out, the weekends are usually free activities in the park or museums, I don’t save any because there isn’t any left. I feel like I have worked so hard for so long to bring myself to a decent salary level and yet I am not living the life that should come with it. I don’t want extravagant expenses, I don’t mind shopping at Primark. But I would like to have some
savings for the kids’ future, and I have nothing because money is never enough. What am I doing wrong?

That seems mad. Why not just get the nanny to look after your youngest all day instead

Thats nursery and the nanny’s salary combined. Nursery is about £650 per month for 3 hours per day

I would say that you are affording a good quality of life, in the sense that you don't have to use your spare time to clean, or rush around doing pick-ups etc. It's just that that's what your money is going on, instead of expensive clothes and fancy days out. If you would rather have the latter, you might have to drop the former. But you can't have all of it.

Do your own cleaning for a start. That is an unnecessary luxury that SO many of us love but can't afford.

As for the child care, there has to be something you can do to bring that down, because that's absolutely ridiculous.

I'd cancel the nursery then. Paying for nursery and a full time nursery is just crazy.

Cancel the cleaner.

That must be 1k a month saved.

That’s true. Our 4 bed in Liverpool is £400pcm and we still have to pay extra to have our green bin emptied.

*full time nanny that should read

I think you are going to have to rethink your childcare. I thought it was temporary, but looks like it will carry on like this as the nanny does school pick ups and you don’t have after school club.

We have similar outgoings, but with only one child, our childcare is only £1800 a month, and our cleaner is £30 a week as we are barely in during the week and keep everything quite tidy. We are only starting to think about another child now as ours is 2.5yrs and childcare costs won’t be extortionate. Just praying that their school has space for afternoon and morning club!!

Life in the UK is hard for working parents of pre-schoolers.

There are probably some items you could trim such as the cleaner, and switching your mortgage temporarily to interest only is a good idea, but otherwise, you probably need to accept that this is how it is until your youngest goes to school.

To preserve your sanity in the meantime, I would plan your future budget based on once your youngest starts school, to give you an idea of how much money it will free up.

Also just a thought but could you find a job with a shorter commute / more WFH? It might lower your energy levels and travel costs a little.

Paying for nursery in the mornings and for the nanny as well is just crazy , that’s a ‘money to burn’ mentality yet you shop in primark. Cancel the nursery, your nanny is getting paid for that time anyway and can take your little one to play groups etc so they will still get the socialisation with peers.

Wow, we live in London with a similar mortgage to you and both work in demanding jobs but live on much less! We clean at 8pm when the kids are in bed, my DH takes his shirts to dry cleaner to be ironed (significantly cheaper than paying for a cleaner to do it), we online shop and can still get bargains. We use a childminder - she also does half terms so that's covered and drops off and picks up from pre school for my youngest - costs around £1800 a month for both. If one of them is ill we just have to have a day at home - not ideal but that's just reality. There's so much you can cut down on. Sorry, I normally have sympathy for these but really you're not helping yourself here.

Cancel nursery and then the anny can take her to some cheap toddler groups instead.

Cancel nursery and the cleaner and that's £1000 a month saved

Pretty bonkers to hire a full-time nanny. Use wraparound care and holiday clubs for your eldest. Use nursery for the youngest (is your 3 month old in childcare or was 3m a typo?). You don't need a cleaner for all those hours – in a flat! Once a fortnight is enough.

5 hours a week? 5 hours a fortnight? Or 5 hours a month?

Because 5 hours a week is an absolute piss take for a 2 bed flat. You could redecorate a 2 bed flat in 5 hours

5 hours a week but she would deep clean a room each time, clean the fridge and the oven, windows, blinds etc

I think it would be really irresponsible to switch to an interest only mortgage while paying for an extravagant level of childcare and cleaning

You pay £360 for a cleaner for a 2 bed flat?? DH and I work full time in demanding jobs with 2 DC in a 4 bed house. We pay £0 for a cleaner. You can live without one.

100% drop the cleaner and nursery. That’s £1000 a month saved.
Nanny will be doing child related laundry, tidying toys, cleaning up after meal etc so it can’t take that long surely to just clean if the place is tidy.

once youngest is at school I would look at both your schedules. If one of you can do school run in and one goes in work
early and back earlier you can really reduce nanny hours down to 2.30-6/7pm

9000 a month sounds a lot but I wouldn't want your life for double that. You never see your children, you both work full time and yet live in a two bed flat that costs over £2000 a month?

Not trying to compare as I have a child with SEND which some people would struggle with but we have same income yet I don't work, we have a big four bed house and feels like a lovely life? We save a lot, holidays and go out a lot with children.

Which is fair enough but that is descretionary spend.

I think you’re on a bit of a wind up op.

That or you’re genuinely financially incontinent with a keeping up with the joneses mentality.

Just to say that I can’t cancel the cleaner because I will drive myself crazy. Since we got her my stress levels have been so much better.

Do you know what happens if your blinds and windows aren't regularly cleaned?

Nothing...

What are your phone bills? We have cheap handsets bought outright and pay£10 month on gifgaf (and our income is similar to yours)