Another take on 'affordability'.

JonnyBravo

60k?? Flippin 'eck! I've obviously missed this before. What competition/gamble did you win Graham?

Mr.Brown_4

JonnyBravo wrote: »

60k?? Flippin 'eck! I've obviously missed this before. What competition/gamble did you win Graham?

It was the fattest pet competition on Sky, you must have seen it, and Graham was fortunate to possess an obese hamster. It came down to him and an overweight Rottweiler, but a body mass expert gave the judgement to the hamster. Competition was sponsored by MyPetCo Foods, who specialise in snack style substances containing small doses of Ritalin. Tagline "Our Food Makes Your Pet Go Faster".

Sadly the RSPCA had no sense of humour over the comp, and Graham was charged with pet abuse and forced to pay a ten pound fine.

Graham_Devon

JonnyBravo wrote: »

60k?? Flippin 'eck! I've obviously missed this before. What competition/gamble did you win Graham?

67k. Was just gambling online. I've said I used to do quite a bit of gambling before now

This was sweeter though, it was the free £20 sign up thing

Honestly don't even think about it anymore, was back in 2006.

Daman, I struggled to get the house. Money came after. If you knew me from that site, you would have known the posts on there from me spending around 8 months trying to achieve the sale. Including selling everything I had, and downgrading to a clapped out £900 golf to get to work and back.

StevieJ

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The R32, Passat for my dad, laptop for mum, private operation fee's for my dad, cooker, carpet througout the house, new kitchen units (all this stuff was needed for the house as I bought it knowing it needed to be done before I had the money) , holiday, help for my sister, £800 TV for my best mate, same for me. Some debt paid off, some gone into the mortgage.

Rest is in an ING account.

Why? What was your point?

Good lad, spend,spend,spend Good to see you looking after others especially your dad.

fc123

carolt wrote: »

I think (?) I did mean you - among others - but (no offence meant), I suspect your attitudes may change and your understanding of the costs involved deepen if/when you do have kids.

I look back on life before kids and it was so EASY financially! My earnings could all be spent on ME!

Once you have kids, as a woman, certainly, you (a) have less earnings and/or (b) you have huge childcare costs plus (c) you have all the other costs associated with paying for other people who bring in virtually no income themselves, bar a tiny bit of child benefit.

Paying for all of someone else's food, clothes, nappies, holidays, a bigger house/car to accomodate them (no having a room in a shared house now! - you need a 3 bed house minimum just to accomodate you and your offspring...), social lives, birthdays/Xmas/etc plus hobbies, toys,... the list goes on.

Whilst I think the Guardian article I gave the link for above is OTT at 200K total, it's certainly A LOT OF CASH. :eek:

But, oh, worth every single penny.

One of the the biggest financial impacts of having kids is the time available to work and generate an income.
If you have a pick up at 3.30pm then you have to leave whatever you are doing/from where you are employed. Even if work has a crisis, you have to go and do pick up.
It's a hidden expense that may result in not being promoted (seen as less comitted maybe?) or losing business.
I remember having a very important appointment in 03 and getting the school secretary on the 'phone to pick up early due to sickness. Had no-one to collect for me (and didn't want to delegate that anyway), couldn't get hold of VIP who then turned up, went nuts and would never deal with me ever again.

I may have lesser energy, but I will confess I used to sometimes feel totally dead from tiredness (toddler up in the night etc) and deff used to have 'mushy head' days which is not good thing when you have your own business.
The teen years are a bit of a headache as they get up to stuff so broken nights at the weekend as you have to get them out of scrapes and so on. OH is manic about pick ups so out he goes at 3am to collect the raving teen from a party.

Kids coming along create hidden expenses and costs that would be difficult to calculate.
On the other hand, if you get along with them OK, they could turn out to be handy when one is old. Like a back up pension? Only a throwaway comment as I am not pension age yet and the kids I lovingly reared may be living the other side of the world when I get old.

Really2

carolt wrote: »

This was in all the papers recently, Really.

I'm clearly not the only one with the impression that children cost more than a social life:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/feb/23/cost-raising-child

How much does it cost to raise a child?

Got a spare £200k? That's how much you'll need to have a child, clothe, feed and educate them - according to the latest data

So I presume al those who don't have children save hundreds of pound each month.

Can't say I have seen any stat that says people without children spend any less money. I believe they just spend it on other stuff.

AFIK most people cope, otherwise why are we having record numbers of births.

Really2

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Yes, I'm average, I have struggled to get a house, I have lost a lot of my old life which I really miss to achieve the house. I work as much as I can from home aswell as going to work 5 days a week, hence being on here a lot, to be able to achieve something more later on in life,

Graham, white flag.

why don't you use your winnings to pay off as much as your mortgage as possible (If it lets you)
Then remortgage (if you can without penalty) over the same term you are currently on.
Thus lowering your outgoings and possibly you to over pay or save more again.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Really2 wrote: »

So I presume al those who don't have children save hundreds of pound each month.
.

Actually, at 200K per child, everyone could be a millionaire just by not having 5 kids.

Imagine that......

(I so miss the rolleyes smiley)

Mr.Brown_4

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Actually, at 200K per child, everyone could be a millionaire just by not having 5 kids.

I've spotted a flaw in this. Due to an accident at work I have been unable to.. ahem.. reproduce in the traditional manner. So my wife and I have used Patel's Fertil-U-Like clinic in order to have children. The bills were astronomical, owing to what the Doctor said were my challenging requirements. So it's not that simple Hamish. Check your facts first mate.

tara747

PasturesNew wrote: »

£22k .... I wish I'd been a hairdresser.

To be honest, it was offered during my 2 minutes career slot. I was asked: "Do you want to be a nurse, secretary, hairdresser or work in the factory?" At the time I chose secretary because I'd done typing, hate blood, the local factory smelt funny .... and hairdressing was done by girls who couldn't read/write (they went off on day release from age 14 for it).

Also, as a hairdresser, I'd probably know how to look good ... thus being able to pull a decent bloke ... resulting in being in a 2-income household.

Er... you don't have to be a hairdresser to know how to look good! Some of the ones I go to are such fashion victims, honestly, they look ridiculous lol :rotfl: