Money😩😩

[Keet]

I spent my 20’s working for a high st bank and therefore aware of the borrowing available to me and have always carried credit card debt. I worked 2 jobs to save for my house but am still in credit card debt.
It’s really tough no comparing yourself to others. The last few years I’ve really tightened my belt when it comes to clothes, make up etc etc and it’s been tough. This year I’ve taken on lots of extra shifts through work and finally managed to pay off one credit card and am currently putting as much as I can each month to my second one. Covid lockdowns and restrictions have helped a lot as I’ve not felt like I’ve missed out in the same way as I would if my friends were all going out the whole time or on holidays. I’ve still managed to do things like change my car, spend £500 on my garden and changed my kitchen around a bit. I just save for these things now.

 

[Sardine]

Hi everyone.

Im 26 and own a house with my partner. Its a lovely house and we got it for a good price. We both earn a good enough wage with me around £1600 and my partner £1300. (Doesnt seem alot but it is for all our outgoings etc) Realistically we should have plenty of money left over for social activities and even getting stuff done in the house but every month we are so so skint. We have basic cars, our food shop is low and so is our bills.
We have friends who have their own house too and theyve have just spent £10k on a new garden.. how? Another friend also got aome cosmetic work done that was in the thousands and she paid in cash. She has a similar job to me so similar wage.
How do people afford these things and I cant even afford to go out for a meal once a month? Not really a question but more of a rant.

any money management advice welcome x

Credit cards probably and lots of debt. My BIL is really good at blagging a lavish lifestyle and before covid him and my sister would go on multiple holidays a year, first class. I've found that a lot!

 

[StrawberryCream]

Are you meal planning?

We meal plan our dinners but not breakfast or lunch, but it’s usually cereal / toast for breakfast and I for lunches baked potatoes/ sandwiches or omelette, I have no idea how to get our food shopping down any more than £70

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

Similar-ish story, a neighbour of mine bought brand new flash cars, took holidays to Las Vegas and the Maldives, he and his wife and kids always had the latest designer stuff. He had a simple tradesman job.
I was so envious and confused at how he could afford it all.

Turned out he was was supplying Class A drugs and had tens of thousands in cash stashed in the floorboards. Looking at a lengthy stay in jail now

I saw something like this on one of those channel 4 police programmes! This guy made out he had this campervan business, his wife and kids lived in this nice house and they had luxury holidays several times a year, they had it all! Turns out he was a drug dealer and a major one at that, he went to prison for a long time!

 

[Captainmouse]

£35 a week on food tell me your secret We shop at Aldi mostly and spend between £70-£100 a week on food, that’s for 2 adults a 4 year old

I shop at Waitrose and spend just over that a month, just me

 

[Shoequeen91]

Biggest tip (if it can be called that) is save the majority of your wage. I always set aside the amount I’m spending in a month and then the rest goes into savings. It’s been easier over the last year/ year and a half given that we could barely go anywhere.

Look into the hidden spends too like Amazon prime, Netflix etc. Also phone contracts, you can usually make savings there.

 

[Berty]

Hi everyone.

Im 26 and own a house with my partner. Its a lovely house and we got it for a good price. We both earn a good enough wage with me around £1600 and my partner £1300. (Doesnt seem alot but it is for all our outgoings etc) Realistically we should have plenty of money left over for social activities and even getting stuff done in the house but every month we are so so skint. We have basic cars, our food shop is low and so is our bills.
We have friends who have their own house too and theyve have just spent £10k on a new garden.. how? Another friend also got aome cosmetic work done that was in the thousands and she paid in cash. She has a similar job to me so similar wage.
How do people afford these things and I cant even afford to go out for a meal once a month? Not really a question but more of a rant.

any money management advice welcome x

I'm late to the party here, but I'm also struggling. I'm really good with money but hubby earns a pittance of what he's worth.
With all price hikes on everything I'm now in the situation where I'm dipping into the savings. We had a retirement nest egg that was looking pretty healthy up until the pandemic hit.
Now I feel like as soon as he gets paid the money is gone and the bank balance is bleak.
It doesn't matter how much I budget I can't seem to balance.
I also have friends who seem to have copious amounts of cash and some don't even work.
I'd agree with some of the other posters and write everything down. Maybe try and have a couple of tough months so you can get some cash in the bank.
I'm doing exactly that this month, then Jan, Feb and March before my money situ gets even worse.
Good luck to you xx

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

I’d write it all down and work out what is going out and coming in etc as others have said.

I have minimal outgoings, I have my car insurance, petrol, mortgage, house bills and my £10 a month phone contract.

We have no broadband package, just internet and our other bills are just house insurance, contents insurance, water, gas & electric and council tax.

could you look at your outgoings and see if there is anything you could remove? Anything you don’t need?

I also put a set amount in my savings each month when I get paid and then I live off what is left.

 

[Louisej3]

I get roughly 637 a month
- 380 for rent (normally 352 but paying off some arrears
- 37 gas and electric
- 46 phone bill
- 60 food
- 20 bus fare for the month for scouts
- 20 savings account
What ever is left goes in to a emergency fund in case I need anything
I buy own brand products things most of the time and I sometimes stock up on cleaning products or sanitary items when low I shop at aldi and iceland I fill my freezer for roughly 30 then use the other 30 to get bits to go with it plus a treat or too
I don't work currently looking tho alotso all I can really afford is the bare minimum

 

[Saddlesoap]

Definitely don't compare yourself to friends. Regardless of what you think their salary is, you don't know what else they have stashed away, or how much debt they are in.

I can be quite frivolous with money, some months I can have nothing left so I tighten up and save for a couple, then it starts slipping again. I echo what others have said, go back over your bank statements and write down everything you have bought (harder if you pay in cash), put into columns either necessary or luxury and compare the two.

Do you spend a lot on fuel, do you have kids, or pets, where do you shop, do you pay a lot for mobiles, TV packages or broadband?

ETA; do you meal plan, or buy on whim?

Change saver is great. I don't notice it coming out, but really tops up my savings.

 

[HandTmum]

Some of the advice so far has been brilliant, budgeting and not comparing yourselves to others is the main thing.

I also have a huge problem with impulse buying when online shopping, so try and stop myself buying things unless I really want them and have sat on the decision for a few days.

 

[mindlessness]

Cleaning / household too, I also buy formula milk for my newborn which over £8 a box, I don’t know if I could bring mine down, my husband eats a lot because he does weights at the gym, he can go through a loaf of bread in a day and he’s always buying steaks Mabye if he moved out I could bring my weekly shop down to £30 a week

I don't have a child but am always astonished at the costs of formula! It baffles me that its not heavily subsidised by the government. Congrats on your little one!

 

[StrawberryCream]

Why is you phone so high?

Most likely a contract, mine is the same

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

£35 a week on food tell me your secret We shop at Aldi mostly and spend between £70-£100 a week on food, that’s for 2 adults a 4 year old

Our food shop is only around £40 a week for two adults! I would expect it could be a bit more though if you’ve got young children.

we always meal plan and we write a list based on that meal plan. We also don’t buy any junk and that cuts our bill down massively!

We also make everything from scratch, no jars and no processed food.

I think if you’ve got a list it’s a lot easier to stick to a budget!

 

[RandomFrog]

My biggest tip would be to do a budget each month and stick to it religiously. When I first got my house even a take away wasn't had if we'd gone over budget.

Another thing we did (may not work for you ofc) was we pooled all our incomings together for bills etc and then took an allowance for e.g. £100 each a month. The reason we started was because my partner would spend £5 ish a day on coffee where as I hate the stuff! But with the allowance he could buy what he wanted without me nagging about it also made our true household outgoings easier.

Good luck!

 

[justheretoread99]

We meal plan our dinners but not breakfast or lunch, but it’s usually cereal / toast for breakfast and I for lunches baked potatoes/ sandwiches or omelette, I have no idea how to get our food shopping down any more than £70

Do you have much waste left over and do things go out of date so you throw them out?
I find meal planning for every meal based on the use by dates really helps. And also meal prepping by making lots of lunches from one massive batch. Freeze them and leave them in the fridge overnight to defrost for the next day.

Not sure if you eat meat but switching from fresh to frozen can be cheaper.

Lidl have an app which you can get rewards and money off your next shop. Sometimes it’s only pennies bit it all adds up

Lidl Plus coupons

www.lidl.co.uk

 

[PineappleQueen19]

I like Monzo for discretionary spend. In the app you can click on any transaction and see how much you spend with that shop/cafe/business, over how many transactions and average spend per transaction. You can also add notes & tags to transactions and set up separate pots.

The mainstream banks are catching up to this level of functionality so it’s not groundbreaking now but I’ve been with Monzo since early days. My main reason for joining them was so that my main bank did not have access to every single transaction in the lead up to my mortgage application.

it doesn’t take the place of old fashioned budgeting and it’s not my main current account but it does help when you are slipping with your spending and could do with a “I’ve spent how much at Boots/H&M/Ubereats this month?!” reality check at the click of a button without having to sit down and go through statements.

 

[Welshgal]

Why is you phone so high?

I pay 57 but that includes the contract as well as the phone

 

[Saddlesoap]

We meal plan our dinners but not breakfast or lunch, but it’s usually cereal / toast for breakfast and I for lunches baked potatoes/ sandwiches or omelette, I have no idea how to get our food shopping down any more than £70

Is £70 just on food, or is that made up of other things (cleaning products, fizzy drinks, clothes you are tempted by?)

 

[Belulah]

I just assume everyone earns way more than me and has no debt.