2.5 Million Families on £100k/year Don't Feel Rich

lemonjelly

kabayiri wrote: »

Exactly

I am doing some work at the moment which allows me use the train to commute. It's such a nice feeling not having to drive in heavy traffic.

All thought about having a nice car have suddenly faded. I am happy with my current motor.

My drop in income has been a lot more than 10% I can tell you, but I will manage, and the extra time with family is a bonus.

The extra time with family is PRICELESS.

There are things money can't buy, & having those is irreplaceable. The peace of mind I've obtained, the ability to relax, the insurmountable reduction in stress from the journey to work (which has now become a pleasure!), the amount of time spent at home, the significant reduction in rushing about, the ability to go home before going out of an evening, working extra because I choose to, not because I am coerced into it.

Life's too short for me to worry about that 10%

You sound about your situation kabayiri, which makes me

The more in the world, the better!

PasturesNew

The objection I have to working is the amount of time you lose. Every day you get up while it's dark, struggle in traffic to get to your desk on time (panicking in case you're 2 minutes late and told off), work through the day flat out, skipping lunch often, leaving late because there's so much to do, back in the car, battle it out all the way home in the dark. You get home completely wiped out, mail to sort out, life's emergencies to deal with, evening m eal to be cooked, then washing up, sort out the things you need for tomorrow and your evening's gone. Repeat the next day, every day, for 50 years.

Meanwhile, other people manage to work part-time or not at all and get by, but when you're single there's no choice, you have to keep doing it... and with one female wage coming in your money's going on paying for a house you're never in... and every time anything goes wrong you struggle to find anybody you can afford to fix it.. then, when they turn up to sort the problem out they chatter on about their holidays! grrrr

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

The objection I have to working is the amount of time you lose.

True. Thats my objection to the reponse of ''live further away'' for daily commuters. Not all that long ago crossing the river was a bit of a trek in London, Hapstead was the Suburbs to the north, and Richmond was definitely suburban. The Good Life was meant to be surbiton...nd that was typivcally suburban....not ''London''. Epsom was the countryside.

PasturesNew

I used to work 50 miles from home. Office hours were 8:45 to 5:30. The route was mostly single-lane roads, winding, narrow and at a standstill. So I'd leave home at 7.30am, getting home about 6.40pm.

Then there was the cost. At the time it seemed most of my salary was going on the commuting - if I still had that job the petrol cost would have increased by 50%.

At 100 miles/day I'd have needed a new car every 3 years - and without it I couldn't get there, which would mean danger of the sack if it broke down.

I got laid off from that job when I'd been there a year, thank goodness, as it saved me making the decision that I couldn't afford to get to work any more. After that year's experience, I decided to work locally, the wages were rubbish but I walked to work, so the car didn't have to be on the road for me to still be able to get to work, which was brilliant.

Just having the car depreciating, needing a new one in 3 years, cost of servicing/recovery, petrol etc was probably £6k/year, so I'd have had to earn £9k/year just to pay for that. The local job I got paid £7,500 less, £15k, but I had no commute, no worries about the ability of the car to make it any more and as I was walking I could pop into the shops on the way home to pick up things I needed, or do things I needed to do. The new job hours were less too, so overall I was saving 2.5 hours/day.

kabayiri

lemonjelly wrote: »

You sound about your situation kabayiri, which makes me

I'm pretty mixed, in truth.

I'm happy to have a good work/family balance. Enough to get me through to next Summer as a minimum I hope.

I'm pretty worried about the future for my children. We seem to be ignoring the real problems ahead. I for one don't want to leave a heavy legacy on the next generation.

lemonjelly

PasturesNew wrote: »

The objection I have to working is the amount of time you lose. Every day you get up while it's dark, struggle in traffic to get to your desk on time (panicking in case you're 2 minutes late and told off), work through the day flat out, skipping lunch often, leaving late because there's so much to do, back in the car, battle it out all the way home in the dark. You get home completely wiped out, mail to sort out, life's emergencies to deal with, evening m eal to be cooked, then washing up, sort out the things you need for tomorrow and your evening's gone.

Absolutely.

A friend of mine, due to redundancy had to travel from the west mids to staffordshire for his job. At the time, I think he could've found one more local, however it fell in his lap a bit, & he also had an idea it could be a dream job.

I think he was barmy. He didn't have a car, so was up at ridiculous o'clock, to catch a bus at 6ish, to catch a train at 7.20ish, to then have a half hour walk to his place of work. Finishing at 5, half hour walk to train station, train, bus, home about 7.15ish.

MADNESS! An 8 hour day became a 13 hour day. He was persistently phucked, had no spare time, we hardly had chance to meet up. For his sake, am so glad he's out of it.

Like you say though pastures, he was in a position, out of work, had a mortgage & bills to pay. He felt needs must. Can't really blame him. Just felt for him. Can't believe he stuck it for a year & a half, then got made redundant.

Former_Spice

mitchaa wrote: »

£500 is fairly easy to do to be fair. 2 big shops fortnightly costs us around £250 (Child costs in there aswell, i.e nappies, wipes, yoghurts, smoothies etc), then lunches for work, (Easily £10pd between the 2 of us) £1-2 a day on newspapers etc, soon adds up to around £500 or so.

Car costs (x2) are around £1200pm all in. My car costs around £450pm in finance, insurance/tax/servicing £100pm or so, Fuel around £250. The wifes car makes up the remainder, £400 or so. Perhaps a little expensive to some but its what I get my pleasure from, flicks my switch so to speak.

The £500pm on crap includes £80 gym fees for the pair of us, her hair and makeup around £70pm or so on a good month, a good meal between the 2 of us a couple of times a month is another £100. I go out a couple of times a month with my pals, £150 or so. Then include cinemas/birthdays/swimming etc and £500 is there before you know it.

Im not whinging about it, it's just what I/we spend our money on. I suppose if we went down to basics, we would be able to cut costs by half and save a hell of a lot more, but for what? I'm here to enjoy myself, not be miserable.

How do you get £10 per day for 2 on lunch? 50p a person is more than enough, £5+ is eating out, clearly a luxury.

longtimelurker_2

Former_Spice wrote: »

How do you get £10 per day for 2 on lunch? 50p a person is more than enough, £5+ is eating out, clearly a luxury.

Can't get a sandwich+drink+crisps in pret for 50p :undecided

BitterAndTwisted

£5 per day to buy lunch is a luxury but when you're living on £100k per annum in the great scheme of things it is not. What other people choose to spend their own money on probably never makes sense to an outsider and thank goodness for that!

Pete111

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

£5 per day to buy lunch is a luxury but when you're living on £100k per annum in the great scheme of things it is not. What other people choose to spend their own money on probably never makes sense to an outsider and thank goodness for that!

£5 is not that much to get a decent reasonably healthy takeway bite to eat in London...