where do people get the money?

pickledonionspaceraider

wow £750 spare cash each month and you still feel skint? I cant offer any better advice than is on here, but WOW that is a horrendous amount of money to be splurging and not know where it has gone.

Many people budget hugely and seems like you are getting some fab help on here

bigmaz

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

wow £750 spare cash each month and you still feel skint? I cant offer any better advice than is on here, but WOW that is a horrendous amount of money to be splurging and not know where it has gone.

Many people budget hugely and seems like you are getting some fab help on here

I know it sounds crazy eh? I actually feel ashamed, reading about how well other people live on less. Before we had kids we did have more. Dont get me wrong though, we have also experience the other side, for a while we were struggling financially with my work etc for quite a few years, but now the income is back up, not as much as we had before kids, as other half doesnt work very many hours as we decided not to put the kids into full time care.

Hermia

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

wow £750 spare cash each month and you still feel skint? I cant offer any better advice than is on here, but WOW that is a horrendous amount of money to be splurging and not know where it has gone.

Many people budget hugely and seems like you are getting some fab help on here

I know someone who is on £150,000 p.a. and he constantly moans about how difficult it is to live on that amount. He doesn't get much sympathy!

DaveTheMus

it's either smoking, alcohol, gambling, junk food or drugs..........

bigmaz

Hermia wrote: »

I know someone who is on £150,000 p.a. and he constantly moans about how difficult it is to live on that amount. He doesn't get much sympathy!

This was the point I was making too, to some people £750 is pennies. We are all in different circumstances.

bigmaz

DaveTheMus wrote: »

it's either smoking, alcohol, gambling, junk food or drugs..........

Haha, if only my life was that exciting

We dont smoke do drugs or gamble the other 2 things, fair enough

hoglet121

pigpen wrote: »

I think you will find it is sandwich ..

Good spot.

kippers

kippers wrote: »

Just wondered...does your holidays, birthday & Xmas presents, car maintenance, children's activities, clothes, shoes, family hair cuts, school trips & school books, etc etc come out of your £750 per month....if so I can understand where it goes as all these things add up and up. Maybe budget towards these things each month when you first get paid and only use what is left.

I would still like to know the answer to what comes out of the £750pm?

beluga

I don't have a massive disposable income, DH and I budget £200 per month for everything (going out, drinks at home, eating out, presents, clothes, incidentals) - some of my friends spend over double that and always seem to be skint! I do spend a fair amount of time looking for offers tho!

Cinema I try to get free codes on here, or Orange Wed codes. No snacks when we're there, or take some from home. Eating out we don't do that often, but if we do it''s often mid week when offers are on. If we're just hungry because we've been out all day I'll pick up a cheap sandwich (£1 from Boots usually) or go home and heat something. For coffee we go to Lewis's with the free coupons, or check O2 offers, they sometimes have a freebie.

To help with budgeting, we sometimes top up a gift voucher at the start of the month, knowing we'll have something to do later on when we're spent up. Vouchers / tickets for Christmas and birthdays can also be a good idea.

I love going to the theatre, so I have an ATG card (actually 3 of us split the cost) and they have some great offers, often half price for opening night etc. Also, check out Gumtree etc, I've bought cheap gig tickets from there before.

Our holiday budget is our biggest expenditure, but I always shop around and check prices, use Topcashback (not just for this) and have a credit card that gives me Airmiles. Sign up for any loyalty cards if they're free, DH travels for work sometimes and gets points from hotels that we can then use for a free night or two If we have to pay, we've stayed in some lovely places by looking around and branching out from the big chains and saved a fortune! For days out look into annual passes, they can often be quite good value if it's somewhere you'd happily visit again. I have a Chester Zoo pass that's about £100 a year for a couple, and we can go as often as we want. National Trust / English Heritage / Merlin etc all do them, it just depends what's if your area.

For food, clothes, presents etc I always shop around, look for discount codes / special offers, stock up if you see a great offer (only if you need it!), check Ebay, shop sales etc.

You can do loads on a small budget with a bit of effort, and watch out for the expensive extras that all add up. x

lostinrates

Hermia wrote: »

I know someone who is on £150,000 p.a. and he constantly moans about how difficult it is to live on that amount. He doesn't get much sympathy!

Doesn't necessarily matter what you earn though, its also your commitments.

My DH is on a wage many would feel very lucky to be on, we certainly are grateful for it!

But, someone mentioned there costs to work earlier, his to be/ get to work are staggering. I'm horrified even to type it.

Also only he works, for personal reasons, I don't. So his wage is stretched over two people.

We both have health conditions, his minor, mine major. They impose costs that cannot be met by NHs for him with nature of his work. I have a mixture of private ( insurance ) and NHs care. This also isn't cheap, when you go to hospital a lot its amazing how often the costs of transport rack up.

Big salaries are fantastic, but often you really don't live a tremendously different life people imagine you do.