fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Good man....

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

I hope you won't take this as a challenge to prove me wrong, but I don't honestly believe you could do it, you just wouldn't be able to live with yourself.

Speaking for myself, I wouldn't know where to start with the responsibility of bringing up kids in the current economic climate, so hat off to you, sir.

davyboy

Fair play. It's all about living to your means. Getting more means spending more, and hopefully saving more.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Inevitably (sp) it does. If I was earning say £30-40k+ per year I bet EVEN I would spend more on a fortnightly shop (currently about £100-110 for the record - inflation eh?!), or on things for the house. As it is, in my situation, I personally enjoy rumaging for bargains which the better off may be either too busy for OR simply not be fussed with.

I'd also have 2 cars

davyboy

I've never felt better off since I stopped spending money on cars!

Hysteria1983

He likes his kitties

Hysteria1983

Good chap!

I'm in a similar position, Chris works, and he has worked hard for years to get to a position where we can get buy ok, and be sensible with our money.

I'm old fashioned with money which helps, but I am slowly dipping my feet in the credit area of spending, as apparently it will serve me well at some point to get some sort of credit rating.

It's all about being sensible with money and only spending what you know you can afford, or at the very least, pay it back.

I got a mortgage at 18, and have never missed a payment. I just try to do what I can to save money, I shop at Aldi one week (it's surprisingly good!!) and Morrisons the next one, tha way I keep stocked up on what we need, but I save about £120 a month by buying non branded products.

The money saved helps us to enjoy the few nicer things the we couldn't afford 18 months ago.

As for cars, I'm a bit like the lady in the article. I do have a soft spot for cars, currently insured on three (own two outright and another company car).

I'm lucky that being a stay a home mum at the moment is possible for us as a family, however, if things were to go pear shaped, the black beast in the garage will be the first to go

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

Interesting thread
I got my redundancy 5years ago from a 50k job I had for many years and having no Morgage took a job of just over half that best thing I ever did otherwise I would of ended up on the slab which I did when I was 40
That was the message to slow down and take things easy ,less stress and less money

I watch the pennies now and can save £400 -£500 per month as the boy has grown up ,earns his own Salery and is off to Australia so just misses who has a part time job supports her family abroad
I would not like to start over again ,my first house was 18k and my last house I paid for in cash was £155k 14 years ago
Thank god I don't have the commitments and kids ,mortgages and high living that some of you guys have as the stress and worries is a potential killer ,believe me

Watch your pennies guys as the way this countries going its going to get tougher as costs spiral and buisness gets tougher

jods

Fair point - Hierarchy of needs isn't it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow'...archy_of_needs

My "Safety" layer has had a severe knock recently

wrighty338

iTrader: (33)

v interesting thread!

StickyMicky

As most of you know, i shut my business down a year ago as it was sucking me dry, i paid the last payment on a loan i took out at the start of the recession last month, so that is gone :-) and generally this year has been me working like a factory dog to help get us back on an even setting.

My basic wage for the past year has been £7.50/hr, totally crap in this day and age when i was paying my own employees £6/hr to do a hell of a LOT easier work, but it had to be done as i needed a job, MANY times i figured i would look for a different job as the immense workload for the pay is not worth it, i`m not bigging this up, as a supplier to the Nissan production plant, our place is ranked amazingly well in the world, we remain competitive because we are soo efficiant (ie we work like dogs lol)

Anyway it has all worked out, i had a set wage i could budget against, rather than cash fluctuations, i recieved a perm contract after only 11 weeks that states i get a 5.5% pay rise above everybody elses yearly rise for the next 5 years, until i am on "full wages"

Our department is closing down in 10 months time, it is on of the few departments that does not run on a days/lates shift, so i am due my first payrise in January (probably 7.5%) then a 12 % boost when i go back onto shifts.

The missus does OK as a teacher, our rent is £600/month, we live OK!

I dont spend daft money on cars anymore, this started due to the recession anyway, but after not doing it for a while, i can see how much cash it was sucking away.

Fuel is an issue for me, £70 every 2 weeks is doing my head in, the car is used to drive to work now, and that is pretty much it, the missus has her own car on finance (mine is all paid)

I started riding my bike a lot, mostly for fatbusting, but once i got into it, i started using it for errands and such, this saved a LOT.

I would love to try dropping down to a 1 car household, but there are times when we need two cars, so its not going to happen.

AT the moment we still seam to have little chance of getting on the housing market, i have been told i have the right quality's to progress through the company and they have looked favourably at my time spent running the previous business.

We will end up on the housing market at some point, its our goal, but it might be another few years, we just don't want to have to sacrifice our current standard of living, to buy a ****ter in a horrible area, just to do it

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Mickey,i think the majority of people are in the same position as yourself..

IE,just enough money coming in to afford a home but would probably not be in the best area or have the most space. Like you say,its a sacrifice that your not really prepared to do. If your finances do only allow you to buy a home in a "horrible" area then tats fair enough,i wouldnt move to anywhere that would make you miserable.

It all depends on your age,if your still young enough to wait a year or two and wait what happens with the housing market then i would.I still think there is to be downward price correction to come,so waiting could be prudent...You may just find that ideal home at 15k less in 18 months time..

Believe me,buying a "fixer upper" and making it your own over a couple of years is tremendously satisfying..
Your current rate of £600PCM would equate to approx £110,000 mortgage with £10k initial deposit at 5% over 25 years... So a £120,000 house would be possible paying the same as you do now,as long as you can get the deposit together..
I dont know what that will buy you in your area,but surely something decent with potential could be had ?

ScoobySteve69

iTrader: (13)

Not with that face

Trout

iTrader: (1)

For most people the ideal salary is around 115% of what you earn.

Very few people increase their earnings and do not increase their standard of living. The ideal is to set a standard, increase your earnings, stay at that standard untll you can retire early.

My outgoings per month are scary. Council tax alone is nearly £200. Did I plan to spend so much on council tax? No! See the first point!

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Did you not know how much the council tax was then when you bought your house ?

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Not sure what your point is?

However in answer - yes indeed I did and it was around half what it is now.

An0n0m0us

lol Trout my council tax is £184 a month and I guarantee my house is minature compared to yours. Another North/South divide.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Could be

An0n0m0us

I remember you putting up pics of your new Porsche and showed your farm land in the background etc. So less than £200 a month council tax for that place is a bargain when I pay £184 for an average 4 bed house down here.

SouthWalesSam

iTrader: (1)

stay with it J4CKO

Dingdongler

I must say that I agree with the sentiment in the link, I struggle a little on a combined income of £400,000 as well.


Sorry misread the original post, didn't see it was £40,000

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Richer than yaaaaow!

You'll be able to "accomodate" a little hit on the Bimmer then Deep

Dingdongler

Come on, admit it, you've waited four pages for me to make a comment like that

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

I laughed which my "doctor" says is better than getting wound up

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Nearly £200, £209 over here !

Thought you had a stately pile ?

StickyMicky

The house i am living in is worth a fair bit more than £110,000 in todays market, well if the one at the other end of the street that has just been sold is anything to go by, and we have the end of the street culdesac bit with all the extra parking, and i belive a bigger rear garden.

You can add another 50k onto that price, its currently not worth us moving!
A fixer upper appeals to my "have a go" nature no end, but you cant fix the estate or location.

Dingdongler

I hope he charged you good money for that advice, I would have

stiscooby

Between myself and the g/f we earn pretty much bang on 40k a year.

No kids (although she keeps going on about having some, lol), we brought our first house 2 years ago - 3 bed semi in outskirts of Ipswich - £165k, put down £44k ish deposit (saved well as we sensible with our money ) Mort just over £600pm. I have a car, nothing too flash but ok (06 Audi = paid for/no loans etc), she doesn't drive, prob spend about £65 every two weeks or so on fuel as my mileage is quite low (g/f pays for bus to get to work).

Foods about £200 per month + the normal bills.

Haven't been on any big holidays for a few years now as we brought the house and been spending money on that, but again, its about living within your means.

We split the house bills/mort between us, we are normally left with a bit of money each month to do with what we wish although we are not the sort to just spend it because it's there. We do ok I guess, well at the moment. Should kids come along then things will change somewhat as our income will drop by a fair bit as the g/f wages isn't that far behind mine.

Like others have said, some people spend within their means and others way over it. If you earn more you tend to spend more so the % of what you have left out of your earnings at the end of each month probably isn't much different to someone whos on 20k or 70k.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Oh, I will, all I want is a change of car, then happy to tip up everything I earn, only after an MX5 I can **** about with !

Shaid

DO IT!!!!!

The MX5 (you will not regret it - do carry out 4 wheel alignment as soon as you get it though)