Since starting OS

Trow

What has happened to your household income? - I don't mean disposable income, but total household income.

I will tell you the reason for the thread once I get a few answers and see how it compares to the theory.

Lillibet_2

Ours has decreased but only beacuse I'm so OS that I'm not going back to work now that Spud has arrived, so we've lost 50% of our income & increased our household by 50%:eek::eek::eek:

thriftmonster

Yes, I now OS with a vengeance to continue being a SAHM. I gave up part time work 18 months ago so I'm using every trick in the book to carry on. This website has fantastic tips - wish I'd found it earlier

Curry_Queen

My income only changes when the government decide we are allowed a few more pennies a week every April

My disposable income has certainly increased though since finding MSE

Chipps

Our income has hardly changed, although our savings, such as they are, have increased, and we have been able to have better holidays.
Actually my OH did get a pay rise this year. We were really pleased! Then I got a calculator out & did the maths... he now earns about 50p a week more than last year!!!! (I shall be careful how I spend it - not to fritter it away!!) I suspect that things like the council tax & utility bills may increase by a larger amount than 50p a week though!

Bargain_Rzl

My income has increased, twice - once through promotion (April '05) and again through our standard annual cost-of-living linked salary review (July '05). Pre MSE I would have upped my budget for food and luxuries. Instead, every penny of BOTH payrises - and a little more from the existing budget, to round it up to a solid-looking monthly sum - has been directed straight into my savings account.

I've got good reason to believe I'll soon be due for an increase soon to my second income for professional singing job which I've had for 6 years and never had a payrise! This too will be heading for the savings account. I am determined to save really hard so one day I can put a deposit on a flat.

I wonder if this might be Trow's theory - income increases, outgoings remain static? I mean, I even try to shave money off my existing outgoings to meet the rising costs of things like council tax and commuting, rather than using my "cost of living" payrises which are there for the purpose!

comping_cat

Like curry queen, my income goes up by whatever the government decides, normally a few pence a week, then they take all of it plus some back in the increased council tax and water rates!!! As a childminder, ive left my fees at the same rate for 18 months now, as the area we live in isnt the most aflouent!!! Mind you, since becoming OS ive been making whatever money we have go a lot futher, and we are all seeing huge benefits in our health by cutting out the processed foods and making our own, its cheeper and healthier!!!

joannasmum

Ours has decreased by approx £12k a year as I only returned to work pt after having DD although it feels like a fortune after having 6 months with nothing when I was unpaid leave.

black-saturn

I think I've spent about the same but got better food for it.

kiwichick

Ours has increased but only cause dh had been made redundant when I was looking at MSE for the first time. His salary now matches what he was earning pre redundancy so in effect Isuppose it has stayed the same.

Trow

Ok, I will tell you what this thread is about - I was reading a new agey self help type book, and in the section about money the author said that people that worry abuot money tend to struggle to find enough - the act of worry means that money doesn't tend to find you, if you don't worry about money then you will get what you need (ok, this is my simplistic interpretation).

I reckoned that OSers probably worry less about money than most because they know how to budget, but I wasn't sure if OS in itself meant that money was always a high priority - but based on the current numbers, we don't worry about money so much!!

For myself, our household income has decreased, but only because I sold part of my business because I was stressing myself out - I am on the verge of starting a new one that will hopefully mean I go back to similar levels or higher, but without the stress (completely different type of work, thankfully!)