Just not earning enough

cupid_s

black-saturn wrote:

I earn less than most people spend on their utility bills on this board. I only earn £660 per month and I'm on my own so I don't have an OH bringing home a load either.

calleyw wrote:

But you don't have a mortgage and no rent. Which for most people will take most if not all of what you earn a month.

That makes a big difference. And is not comparing like with like.

Without meaning to make any judgments about Black Saturn, I assume she owns her own house outright or would have some rent to pay but I doubt she was lucky enough to have someone appear one day and grant her a free house. She has probably (and correct me if i'm wrong here) worked her @rse off for years to get to be mortgage and debt free and good for her.

At the moment I earn 8k a year. Hubby earns 12k (but he only got 10 last year, and the year before). We are lucky that this is tax free but I would still not say it is an amazing wage. Yet we are saving like crazy and hope (or should I say WILL - I am convinced we will do this) to be mortgage free within 5 years. This of course will involve us actually getting slightly better wages at some point along the way. But even if we simply kept overpaying by the amount we are doing at the moment we would be completely mortgage free by the end of 2012 (took our mortgage in september 2004).

It is probable that like me BS managed to pay off her mortgage by being so careful with her money and everyone here could do that if they really analysed what was important. When I am mortgage free I will probably sell up and buy somewhere bigger and have to start the whole process again but I wont sit there and moan how i can't afford to live in this country when I could have lived the high life if I'd chosen to stay in my small 3 bed terrace which seems perfectly adequate for my neighbours and their families.

I don't mean to sound horrible in this post but I sometimes feel that the achievements of people like BS and myself are belittled and the excuse is 'you don't have a mortgage to pay'. When a lot of people here could be in the same/similar situation if they really tried.

calleyw

saraht wrote:

But when I read on this board how little posters like Black Saturn and Calley spend on food etc, I wonder how much some people could cut back.

Sarah,

It all depends if people want to know or not.

In our case we could not cut back not much more apart from getting rid of the phone and internet. That would save about £28 a month but no contact with the outside world.

Have no TV so no SKY and no licence to pay.

Already on a meter for water mainly have showers and not baths.

Could get rid of the car but then I would have to either try and catch buses to get to work which would mean a 1.5 mile walk in to town and the cost of £3.30 everyday. And as husband is ill at the moment and can't walk I could not talk him to the Dr's or hospital etc. Would not really save anything as it would cost me nearly as much in bus fares and taxis in a month just for me let along adding in husband as well.

This month my food bill will be around £50ish due to eating out the cupboards and have no choice to cut back as husband has now been signed off work for 3 weeks no pay and have to apply of IB. Of a whole £60 a week. That will just cover the mortgage. Good job I am working.

Could downgrade our house but it would cost more in fees etc then it would really save as we pay the same mortgage for a 3 bedhouse as did for a 1 bed flat.

We do not live the lives of monks and nuns we have hobbies that can be expensive if we let them. We grow are own veggies and enjoy spending time with family and friends rather than being out shopping buying widescreen tvs and ipods

But we get no help in the form ot tax credits etc. Even pay for own OU courses as well.

But we are lucky that are only debt is out mortgage. Not sure how we would manage with any debts.


Yours


Calley

ZTD

cupid_stunt wrote:

I don't mean to sound horrible in this post but I sometimes feel that the achievements of people like BS and myself are belittled and the excuse is 'you don't have a mortgage to pay'. When a lot of people here could be in the same/similar situation if they really tried.

Well no your achievements aren't being belittled. Because what were those achievements? You managed to live whilst paying off a mortgage.

All the other posters are saying how damn hard that is!

IYSWIM.

cupid_s

ZTD wrote:

Well no your achievements aren't being belittled. Because what were those achievements? You managed to live whilst paying off a mortgage.

All the other posters are saying how damn hard that is!

IYSWIM.

I do see what you mean. It was just the comment to BS about her not having a mortgage which appeared to me to ignore the fact that she probably did but worked hard to pay it off and live at the same time just as anyone else here could.

I suppose i should not get so defensive about things that aren't even said to me lol !

MoaningMyrtle

cupid_stunt wrote:

Without meaning to make any judgments ....

I don't mean to sound horrible in this post but I sometimes feel that the achievements of people like BS and myself are belittled and the excuse is 'you don't have a mortgage to pay'. When a lot of people here could be in the same/similar situation if they really tried.

But that is precisely what you are doing, you don't know about people housing arrangements and payments do you?

I do not like the sanctimonious tone of your last sentence, when you have no idea what a lot of the posters here have been through, and are still going through to simply 'survive'.

Kevicho

Hey ladies and gents, lets keep this civil

The more i read MSE these days the more people are arguing, as oppsoed to debating.

Personal attacks, which is what this is leading to, are not helpful to anybody

TBH its one of the reasons i dont post here much anymore, as this is becoming a theme.

Everyone has a right to live the lifestyle they choose, some people are lucky that they have less bills, but thats no reason to me nasty.

Anyways my opinion is that the cost of everything is too high today for one reason only.

Credit.

This is too freely available to everyone, so people spend more than they earn, which means the merchants can charge a little bit more for everything, and the credit industry can fund this, while trapping people on there "low monthly repayment" treadmill for life (its called the rat race for a reason).

If there was less credit available then prices would drop, especiallyon the daily essentials, but debt and credit is not considered a bad thing these days so everyone abuses it.

Thus while the majority are wasting money on credit, they are inflating the price for us who choose not to use it.

The only way out of this is to tough it out and do the best you can in your own position, but most of all arm yourself with as much information as possible

calleyw

Kevicho wrote:

Personal attacks, which is what this is leading to, are not helpful to anybody

I assume you are referring to me me Kevicho

I don't think that to point out that someone who says they live off £600 a month and has no mortgage can compare to someone who is earning £600 a month and paying a mortgage or rent plus all other bills. Is a personal attack

I suspect when they where paying off their mortgage they where earning more £600 a month and where lucky to buy at a time when house prices where a lot cheaper.

I can't compare my situation to closely to anyone else because what I pay for my mortgage a month would be rent for two weeks for someone else.

That is why I don't as it is not fair as it irt not comparing like with like.


Yours

Calley

ZTD

Kevicho wrote:

Anyways my opinion is that the cost of everything is too high today for one reason only.

Credit.

Well I would agree with that, with additions.

Not only credit as in bank loans etc, but credit as in money.

What do I mean by that? Well what is credit? It's a promise. You take money and promise to pay it back.

Without the promise it's a gift.

So look on your bank notes - what does it say? "I promise to pay the bearer...". It's debt.

It's a transferrable government debt note, organised as currency.

Now if you look back to 1969 (as far back as I can go), and compare it with 2004, you'll see M0 (basically coins and notes) grew in that time period 11 times.

That means the money supply grew by 7% every single year on average.

Now that could mean the economy grew by 7% every single year on average. Even through the 3 day weeks of the 70's and the mass redundancies of the early 80's.

Or it could mean the Government over-printed bank notes to fund its own spending, and hence reduced their value, and hence made them seem worth less in terms of real goods and services. Which, if you consider the bank note to be a constant value, made real goods and services rise together in price.

Which do you think it was?

Luckystepho

Whoever mentioned tax was right- we are taxed on what we earn, pay taxes on stuff we buy, pay taxes to run a car, pay tax on any savings (savings?? What are those?) and if we want to leave somebody money when we die then that is taxed too!

Kevicho

I wasnt singling anyone out because everyone seems to be doing it

Also I did say that is what this will be leading up too, but anyways, going off topic doesnt help anyone

You have a point re the no mortgage, however everyones budget is different so people have to accomodate for it.

Mines an easy budget at the moment because I am in a very good position of having a decent wage, next to no bills, no mortgage/rent and have cleared the majority of debt which I let build up due to basically drinking my life away.

I think the main thing we should focus on is how to make the most out of the money we do have, and look for as much help, loopholes, freebies or whatever else along the way.

Life is gonna get even tougher in the coming years, not just financially either, so I think veryone on this board owes it to themselves to keep up the good work and keep on trying to evolve