Are you more well off than you say you are?

Miss_Moneysaver

My husband thinks we have less money than we actually have
I have strict budgets for everything like food, diesel, entertainment. I have a bills account and a spending account. I make sure that the total in the bills account covers the bills but the rest, in the spending account, consists of my 'budgets'. I move money into a savings account too £800 a month and I overpay the mortgage.
Result will be...paid mortgage off early and nice hols etc. :j

Froglet

Miss_Moneysaver wrote: »

My husband thinks we have less money than we actually have
I have strict budgets for everything like food, diesel, entertainment. I have a bills account and a spending account. I make sure that the total in the bills account covers the bills but the rest, in the spending account, consists of my 'budgets'. I move money into a savings account too £800 a month and I overpay the mortgage.
Result will be...paid mortgage off early and nice hols etc. :j

My husband does too,or else he would want to spend even more than he does now.I am the saver, he is the spender.We have had some pretty fiery rows about what we can afford over the years.When I met him he was in debt and I helped him out to get straight.If it wasn't for me saving(and I have known a time when I had nothing,so life was a constant struggle) then he would not have been able to take early retirement.


Don't get me wrong,he has always earned more than me and is happy for me to take charge of all the household finances and most of the financial decisions. He trusts me completely.It just seems that now he is retired he wants to spend more than ever before yet we have less than a third of what we used to coming in.


Still,you can't take it with you.I try to be more laid back,but after being hard up most of my life I don't find it easy.

JennyRowling

I wouldn't tell my friends I have no money, just state that I'm saving. But still, I consider money spent with friends as food money. We don't go out that much often, they're also busy with work and are saving themselves (definitely understand my situation), so going out once or twice every two weeks is not something to keep away from.

[Deleted User]

I'm not well off by no means. Infact i earn below the living wage. I have a mortgage to and single. But I still seem to have more savings than people who earn more. Most are or have remortgaged to fund holidays, cars and home improvements. I won't do that. I earn what I do. Take money out for bills and food and petrol etc. Save half and spend the rest. Ive managed to save for a holiday by cutting back. I don't tell friends I dontvhave money or ive run out. But I tell them I'm saving so I can't do this or that this month and I split the rest of my money each month and choose a friend to go out with. This way I get to do one good thing a month with one friend then the next month with another.....

ska_lover

I would say I am not as poor as I say I am these days.

Having that mindset - It is habit y'see.

Years ago, we didn't have a pot to whizz in - and the budgeting and money saving habits have never left me. I am scared of being back in that situation - should redundancy ever strike.

I say now, ''we have no food'' when in reality we have probably got enough for a fortnight. In the past when I had said ''we have no food'' we literally had a bare cupboard and tuppence on the electric meter.

newuser78

Would it help to explain why you are saving? e.g. "I am saving up for a house deposit so need to rein in night outs"

Gaz83

My salary is paid at a nationally-set level (I'm a teacher in Scotland) so I'm quite happy discussing what I earn, which is currently £26,235, due to rise to £27,792 from next month. My wife, who became a teacher a few years before I did earns £34,887.

Our school places a big value on financial education and one thing we notice is that the pupils who have the poorest grounding in reality tend to come from households where finances are not discussed.

Kernow666

i am more well off than i let on to people , i have worked since i was 16 ( now 39 ) and live at home still and save most of my wages and sell on ebay to boost it further , my friends are amazed when i can go on 2 - 3 holiday a year to the USA or asia when i am only earning 15k a year

i have most of my money invested in bonds stocks and shares

SaverGirl1970

I have just joined MSE and found this thread really interesting, so thank you to everyone for sharing their experiences.

I only talk in detail about my financial situation to my fiance, my parents and my sister as otherwise I find people can draw the wrong conclusions or be quite judgmental - at least, that's my experience.

My savings approach used to be that I would try and save whatever was left over at the end of each month but, as a compulsive spender, that wasn't usually much! These days on pay day I work out my outgoings for the next month, then immediately transfer half of the remainder to various savings accounts (car, house maintenance, holiday) and keep the other half for spending. I am still not completely in control of my compulsive spending and often find I dip back into my savings for treats, which is something I need to stop doing. I don't have specific, measurable savings targets - maybe that would help? This week I promised myself I would only spent money on essentials, which in the end was £1.50 on a lunchtime fruit juice with a friend yesterday, which just goes to prove that I can do it!

fr00gality

Not quite as well off as I would like to be...hah.