Do you live below your means?

MoneySeeker1

Absolutely the type of circumstances I'm talking about Firefly (ie of where it's not advisable to live up to one's means if possible) - eg if in private rented accommodation. I do sympathise with the way things are for renters these days (with all the deposits/rent in advance etc type stuff I didn't have to contend with when I was having to rent privately back in my 20's - ie the 1970s). I'd find it scary wondering how I was supposed to keep the sort of money for deposit/moving etc on the one hand v. not having more than £6,000 savings in case I was made unemployed and relying on benefits. £4,000 having to be kept for deposit/advance rent would only leave £1,999 of savings that really were savings iyswim.

fred246

When I had short term jobs I had a small house but once I had a permanent contract I bought the largest house I possibly could by taking on the biggest mortgage I could get. My parents had always recommended this policy. I bought income protection. It's the best thing I ever did. Never bought as a status symbol or an investment just a nice place to bring up a family. We have a large drive with plenty of parking. Detached so no problems with neighbours. Kids all have large bedrooms. No arguments over toilets or bathrooms. Nice area with good schools so no need for private education. We moved in just before massive house price inflation so a couple of years after buying it was worth £200K more than we paid. Newish so spend very little on maintenance. Cars on the other hand depreciate massively and don't add anything for me. Just something reliable, with air conditioning that I can park anywhere. I remember talking to a colleague who had paid £40K to reduce his 0-60 time by 1 second. Same car but bigger engine. He sits in his car in a queue of traffic like everybody else. Everybody on this thread seems to group 'big house and posh car' together. I have never regretted spending money on property but I won't waste it on cars.

MoneySeeker1

I don't equate "big house and posh car" personally. I will definitely buy a bigger house if ever I get the chance to (well it is only a 2 bedroom one!), but would still not buy a car, as I believe public transport "should be" good enough that cars aren't necessary for anyone (even though it's poor public transport where I am and I'm waiting for it to be better).

I tend to think it depends a lot on what peoples priorities are all round. Mine are to eat, dress, socialise, heat my house exactly as I decide to (rather than economising) and I'm used to the idea that houses are well-maintained and done in modern style (so still working on transforming my house to "my norm").

Deep_In_Debt

I live below my means now.  I paid my mortgage off in 2014 which I was determined to do before I got to 50 and achieved that.  I would love to be able to retire at 55 in a couple of years but cannot afford to at the moment as I only have a small private pension.  I'd also love to work part time and I'm looking in to that possibility.  

I live on my own and have lived in the same house for 30 years.  It suits me; 2 up 2 down in a very nice but expensive area.  I do have a car which I did buy new but it's now 6 years old and needs to last me another few years.  I've never owned large cars, just generally small, cheap to run and cheap on tax runarounds to get me from A to B reliably. 

I'm saving as much as I can each month in the hope that I can use the savings to as a booster to help with part time work but at the moment my savings are going on house and car repairs.  

I've never had any TV subscription services as I just have Freeview and that suits me,  I rarely watch films and if I do my local library has a good selection of DVDs for rental at £3 a time.  I don't have a top of the range smartphone and don't need one - my phone is a few years old and does what I need it to do.  I don't have a dishwasher or tumble dryer or any expensive electronics. I don't do any streaming so have a cheap internet broadband package which again suits my needs. I'm also very careful with my use of utilities - I'm on a water meter and very careful with washing machine usage and general water usage and only paying £10 per month for water. 

noclaf

I spent life (pardon the pun) spending way beyond my means all the way to my late 20's and ultimately it was the loss of employment that in a perverse way was a blessing for me and life changing. I am saving for my own property quite late in life however at present I am able to save just under 50% of take home. I once threw money about like it was confetti on the finer things in life but am quite sensible now. Still driving the same car I bought (in cash) 10 years back though likely to change it soon for something sensible and practical rather than flash as current car feels like it may wrap me around a tree or lamppost soon.
My only real splurges that I haven't been able to rectify are overpriced coffees..work in progress

badmemory

One of the best things about dumping 2 husbands is that I no longer had to worry about the overdraft!  The only time I have ever borrowed apart from a mortgage was when I was between jobs & didn't make the cutoff time for the new one's payroll.  If I am honest I still don't know how I managed for some of those years & I don't just mean with no debt but to have savings & overpay the mortgage too & mostly without any maintenance.

The best thing about it all was when we got the notice of redundancy for 4 months in the future, which luckily didn't happen as someone very highly paid decided to retire very early & they discovered that I was the only one who had a clue how she did part of her job, 3 months billing didn't get done!  But great thing was that the redundancy notice came a couple of months after I had paid my mortgage off early & a month after I had bought my freehold.  So whilst I was in my mid 50s instead of going the OMG route I just said bring it on, I can do this.

The feeling of freedom was incredible!  I am retired now & still live well within my means but for a totally different reason as it looks as if my son will never work again, so whilst my income is now higher than it was for the last 10 years I worked I am actually trying to live on less than before.  Not really working too well but at least it is working & keeping both of us.

suki1964

I don't see it as living below my means, its living to my means

Our mortgage was kept as small as possible to allow for worse case scenarios. With Mr S being self employed we could have borrowed seriously silly money, back in the 90's we were literally being offered blank cheques, fill in what we wanted. However we also knew that if Mr S couldn't work, we wouldn't be able to make the repayments and our home would have been repossessed. So we took on what we could easily afford

We now have the big detached house in the country which is mortgage free

We could borrow money and go on cruises and have the best car in the supermarket car park but we have instead decided to go part time so we have a better work life balance. We do have some pretty nice cars, all owned, a couple of vintage cars, but they are a hobby that we can afford and also bring in an income

Life is about so much more then being a slave to a wage

Pollycat

suki1964 said:

I don't see it as living below my means, its living to my means

Our mortgage was kept as small as possible to allow for worse case scenarios. With Mr S being self employed we could have borrowed seriously silly money, back in the 90's we were literally being offered blank cheques, fill in what we wanted. However we also knew that if Mr S couldn't work, we wouldn't be able to make the repayments and our home would have been repossessed. So we took on what we could easily afford

We now have the big detached house in the country which is mortgage free

We could borrow money and go on cruises and have the best car in the supermarket car park but we have instead decided to go part time so we have a better work life balance. We do have some pretty nice cars, all owned, a couple of vintage cars, but they are a hobby that we can afford and also bring in an income

Life is about so much more then being a slave to a wage

I found it an odd term, Suki.

Hence my reply:

Pollycat said:

Jonathan_Powell said:

Just curious...
I purchased my home 5 years ago. At the time, my wife and I were earning £30,000 each. Because of bonuses however, we were able to borrow an amount more akin to an £85,000 joint salary but decided against it and opted for a smaller home (which has its downsides in hindsight). When it came to remortgaging, we kept our high payments and took off 6 years off the term. I still drive my first car and we don't go abroad at all. We now jointly earn around £95,000 and everything is pretty much the same, mainly because all that salary increase has been sucked up by maternity leave and nursery fees.  In our position, we could be in a much bigger house, drive a fancier car and be on holiday abroad at least twice a year but that would mean more debt on the house. 

The main reason we live below our means is for some security in case something goes wrong (I am not in stable work and the last thing I want to worry about when not working is a car payment) as worst case scenario, the mortgage can be covered on one salary. I know others (and I am definitely not criticising)  who earn less than us but have a far bigger and better house, car etc. but it works for them as they have stable work and it will take something drastic for that to change. We pretty much live like we're on the same salary as 5 years ago and it's a very conscious decision. I wonder if it's the same for others?

We have always "lived within our means".

suki1964

Pollycat said:

suki1964 said:

I don't see it as living below my means, its living to my means

Our mortgage was kept as small as possible to allow for worse case scenarios. With Mr S being self employed we could have borrowed seriously silly money, back in the 90's we were literally being offered blank cheques, fill in what we wanted. However we also knew that if Mr S couldn't work, we wouldn't be able to make the repayments and our home would have been repossessed. So we took on what we could easily afford

We now have the big detached house in the country which is mortgage free

We could borrow money and go on cruises and have the best car in the supermarket car park but we have instead decided to go part time so we have a better work life balance. We do have some pretty nice cars, all owned, a couple of vintage cars, but they are a hobby that we can afford and also bring in an income

Life is about so much more then being a slave to a wage

I found it an odd term, Suki.

Hence my reply:

Pollycat said:

Jonathan_Powell said:

Just curious...
I purchased my home 5 years ago. At the time, my wife and I were earning £30,000 each. Because of bonuses however, we were able to borrow an amount more akin to an £85,000 joint salary but decided against it and opted for a smaller home (which has its downsides in hindsight). When it came to remortgaging, we kept our high payments and took off 6 years off the term. I still drive my first car and we don't go abroad at all. We now jointly earn around £95,000 and everything is pretty much the same, mainly because all that salary increase has been sucked up by maternity leave and nursery fees.  In our position, we could be in a much bigger house, drive a fancier car and be on holiday abroad at least twice a year but that would mean more debt on the house. 

The main reason we live below our means is for some security in case something goes wrong (I am not in stable work and the last thing I want to worry about when not working is a car payment) as worst case scenario, the mortgage can be covered on one salary. I know others (and I am definitely not criticising)  who earn less than us but have a far bigger and better house, car etc. but it works for them as they have stable work and it will take something drastic for that to change. We pretty much live like we're on the same salary as 5 years ago and it's a very conscious decision. I wonder if it's the same for others?

We have always "lived within our means".

I guess its just new terms that crop up that we aren't au fait with

Ive just struggled with a gender neutral post

I also have no idea what "woke" means either

Pollycat

suki1964 said:

Pollycat said:

suki1964 said:

I don't see it as living below my means, its living to my means

Our mortgage was kept as small as possible to allow for worse case scenarios. With Mr S being self employed we could have borrowed seriously silly money, back in the 90's we were literally being offered blank cheques, fill in what we wanted. However we also knew that if Mr S couldn't work, we wouldn't be able to make the repayments and our home would have been repossessed. So we took on what we could easily afford

We now have the big detached house in the country which is mortgage free

We could borrow money and go on cruises and have the best car in the supermarket car park but we have instead decided to go part time so we have a better work life balance. We do have some pretty nice cars, all owned, a couple of vintage cars, but they are a hobby that we can afford and also bring in an income

Life is about so much more then being a slave to a wage

I found it an odd term, Suki.

Hence my reply:

Pollycat said:

Jonathan_Powell said:

Just curious...
I purchased my home 5 years ago. At the time, my wife and I were earning £30,000 each. Because of bonuses however, we were able to borrow an amount more akin to an £85,000 joint salary but decided against it and opted for a smaller home (which has its downsides in hindsight). When it came to remortgaging, we kept our high payments and took off 6 years off the term. I still drive my first car and we don't go abroad at all. We now jointly earn around £95,000 and everything is pretty much the same, mainly because all that salary increase has been sucked up by maternity leave and nursery fees.  In our position, we could be in a much bigger house, drive a fancier car and be on holiday abroad at least twice a year but that would mean more debt on the house. 

The main reason we live below our means is for some security in case something goes wrong (I am not in stable work and the last thing I want to worry about when not working is a car payment) as worst case scenario, the mortgage can be covered on one salary. I know others (and I am definitely not criticising)  who earn less than us but have a far bigger and better house, car etc. but it works for them as they have stable work and it will take something drastic for that to change. We pretty much live like we're on the same salary as 5 years ago and it's a very conscious decision. I wonder if it's the same for others?

We have always "lived within our means".

I guess its just new terms that crop up that we aren't au fait with

Ive just struggled with a gender neutral post

I also have no idea what "woke" means either

I woke this morning.

I simply opened my eyes and Hey! Presto! I was awake.