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Original poster

This will probably get me into trouble... but how can you have money worries...

293 replies

emkana · 02/09/2005 08:59

... when the wife is a full-time GP and the husband a solicitor? I'm just reading "What about me?" by Kate Figes and the narrator in the book is the GP and she moans about not having enough money to buy a decent car or to fix the roof. Now, I estimate that the combined salary of that couple would be about £150.000 a year, wouldn't it? How can that not be enough????????
I know, I know, the woman is the narrator of the book and so it's subjective and you spend what you have so it never feels enough and all that...
but still it puts my back up, am I supposed to empathize with the narrator now over her troubled lot or what???

OP posts:
Fio2 · 02/09/2005 09:55

we need our slate roof doing aswell and we are in a conservation area, thats why i said. bloody nightmare innit?!

Fio2 · 02/09/2005 09:56

oh and hark at you enid with your chocolate box 4 bed country cottage

zippitippitoes · 02/09/2005 09:58

It is, we are in Midlands and have put it off for 5 years and gave the go ahead to the builder 18 months ago. Drums fingers...

Fio2 · 02/09/2005 10:01

crikey 18 months ago?! the money would have burnt a hole in my pocket by now....

sweetkitty · 02/09/2005 10:02

We've lost the highest income in our house yet I don't think we feel particularly poor.

I used to spend money like it was going out of fashion, would easily spend £7-8 a day on rubbish like lunches/magazine etc when I worked in London, ran up huge credit card debts as well but thats a huge different thread.

Now I buy clothes I actually need and day to day don't spend near as much, when we move our mortgage will be less as well.

I do believe you spend as you earn.

expatinscotland · 02/09/2005 10:03

WTF? People like that make me sick! 'Oh, I have no money to buy a decent car'.

Nemo1977 · 02/09/2005 10:05

pmsl no money to buy a car...err what about
I have no money to buy food...

Enid · 02/09/2005 10:05

i know fio, its really show off now as we have finally finished restoring it [smug]

expatinscotland · 02/09/2005 10:09

My thoughts exactly, Nemo!

How about 'What can I sell at Cash Converters this week so we can eat?'

How about 'I need eyeglasses, but I can't afford them. So I have to keep taking paracetemol for these bloody headaches'?

How about 'I had to pay for a bus pass to get to work on a credit card b/c I don't have ANY money'?

'Disposable income'? What a laugh!

swiperfox · 02/09/2005 10:14

expat - that cash converters line has been the most said thing in our house for the last 2 years. We have lost so much of our stuff to them because we couldn't get it back out, my camcorder, our stereo, jewellery that had been given to me by my mum and my nan. I hate myself for it. It make sme so sick when people with that sort of money moan about cars and stuff.

soapbox · 02/09/2005 10:16

In the paper yesterday that the average GP's salary is now just over £100k, although there is still a lot of variation.

As someone who ain't short of a bob or two, I have to say that spending money is a choice, even on the mortgage and its a choice than many don't have. People are not compelled to take out large mortgages, they do it through choice. Therefore, I think to bleet about lack of money when you are doing well, beit tied up in the mortgage or not is actually quite offensive.

I find the whole talking about money quite embarrasing - but to bleet even more so!

swiperfox · 02/09/2005 10:18

very much so soapbox - its a shame they aren't all like you! I wouldn't begrudge anyone having money and people who work hard and do well deserve what they have - but to blatantly rub it in is what winds me up!

moozoboozo · 02/09/2005 10:19

Any money of ours that is "tied up" is tied up with debt collection. I agree that people who bleat about having no money for a new car should count their blessings. If my car (which I need for work) happens to break down in the near future it'll have to be scrapped, as there's njo way we can afford to have it repaired. If we had that kind of money, we'd live in a modest house, and enjoy the fact that we had money to spend.

Mud · 02/09/2005 10:24

i think this is more likely to get me in trouble than the oprignal poster. why should people who have money be expected to hide it and why arent' they allwoed to have moeny worires. i know circumstandaces are dire for many peopel in thjis world but whyu also is there an i'm poorer than you mentality going on in this country . i will admit to doing it myself as though i am embarrased of what ive got i sometimes find myself playing poor church mouse and beamosaing the liack of other things becasue i'm too poor to have them and cos that wll get me more respscst from others

SherlockLGJ · 02/09/2005 10:25

Mud

Well said.

LGJ

jenkel · 02/09/2005 10:25

Also agree Soapbox, we are comfortable, can afford a modest lifestyle. Not everybody who is 'wealthy' bleets about lack of money, but it is in very bad taste those that do. I have friends who are very wealthy, love telling you the price of things and I have friends who are not so wealthy. I find the whole money thing quite embarassing, I even feel embarassed by telling friends who I know cant afford much that we are off to florida in a couple of months. We have also been in the position of not having anything, so I know what it feels like, even though it was a long time ago.

soapbox · 02/09/2005 10:30

Mud - no one says you ahve to pretend to be the poor church mouse - and the thread was not saying you should hide the fact that you've got money. What it is saying that it is distateful if you are wealthy to moan away about not having money.

Very different point to the point you are making, IMO!

SherlockLGJ · 02/09/2005 10:32

As I said in my first post our mortgage is large, but only because we had to quadruple it to move North/ South.

We are not rich, we are not poor but what we do have we worked bloody hard for.

When we lived in Yorkshire my DH worked in London Monday - Friday.

I was on my own 4 nights a week and it was bloody lonely.

Wish I had had MN.

But it was worth it, because DH is now universally accepted as an expert in his field.

Mud · 02/09/2005 10:35

dont care am fed up of the ahve not got that whine and my circumstances have to be worsre than yours competition. we used to have a society where people who got in life were respected and now they are figures of fun, and that's not just money-related but also aceademic, professional. and now some peole makse themselves loatthed by dfeeling they have to talk about money in term s of how hardd one to they are. i am discounting anyone iwho is below the poverty line here but in genreal it is our attitude to money that has changed so much and it is money that is at fault here and our feelings towards it.

Enid · 02/09/2005 10:38

hmm Mud, you talk as if money is a yardstick to measure how well you 'have got on' in life though.

there are lots of rich people out there who have earned their money but crapping all over other people remember. There are lots of vicars and nurses who work tirelessly for their communities and earn feck all.

Enid · 02/09/2005 10:38

sorry

earned their money by crapping all over other people

expatinscotland · 02/09/2005 10:39

So Enid, how did you come to meet my ex bf . Yes, he got where he is by being a t*&^.

SherlockLGJ · 02/09/2005 10:39

Good point Enid.

Mud · 02/09/2005 10:40

its not and i didn't i also included acadmeic and professional. it is the way we have all lsot respect for anyone else. money is one obvious pointer. i am shocked when peole compare salaries and find talk of money extremely distasteful and common but i am digressing now

Enid · 02/09/2005 10:41

well I personally don't respect anyone just because of the money they earn.