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and a horse
My daughter wants a horse. Curiosity had me look into how much they cost to run (given we have free access to a large field for riding/stabling) and the costs (excluding the cost of building the stable itself) were eye watering - we could get ourselves a nice new car rather than our knackered 12 yr old Mazda for the same money!
a few of those arguing so vigorously about how little you need to earn before you are ‘privileged’ are really just defending their lack of success to make themselves feel better?
The problem with measuring success in terms of earnings, is you're only a p45 away from becoming an abject failure in your own eyes.
The problem with measuring success in terms of earnings, is you’re only a p45 away from becoming an abject failure in your own eyes.
Unless you have been very successful - I have a friend that has just gone from doing well for himself but still having to look after his money to shopping at Waitrose without a care in the world, knowing he could stop work tomorrow (aged 48) and live quite comfortably.
Assuming you have some restrictions on the type of car you need to buy to ‘qualify’ for the cash alternative, Once you take out the ~£150 PM it’s costing you just to get to work in fuel (50mpg), based on the numbers you stated, and not taking into account personal mileage/fuel etc, i’d say you have no chance.
No restrictions on what we can have (yet). The cost of cars stated was just paying / insuring them. If I didn’t have my company car, I’d be close to £500 off per month before fuelling it! The cost of tax at the higher rate, loss of car allowance, contribution for a slightly nicer car plus damage waiver is a smidge under £500 plus fuel, hence the hope of running something for c.£350 before fuel to save some cash.
I am as tight as the proverbial gnat's chuff, but the one thing that has surprised me a bit on this thread is how little some people manage to spend on food. Completely disregarding any meals out (which we do very infrequently - like once a month or less), my household probably spends £250-£300 a month on food between two of us. And we both weigh less than 65kg. And I don't buy lunch or coffee out - the OH does infrequently.
It's my one extravagance really. Still, you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out...
^ We probably spend around £600 a month on food – we limit our weekly online shop to £100 but then have to buy other things on top (ie, a chicken for Sunday Dinner will be bought the day before so it's fresh and we'll inevitably buy some other bits when at the shop such as things for packed lunches, a treat for the kids for dessert etc).
but the one thing that has surprised me a bit on this thread is how little some people manage to spend on food
Same here, 80% of our shop is at Aldi and our average is still £600 a month, that includes cleaning stuff, nappies and alcohol. We do like food and far too much is spent on snacks and other 'treats'.
However, we rarely eat out or get takeaways and make our own sandwiches or have leftovers for lunch. When I worked in an office most people would spend £100 a week on lunch and coffee!
Yep, we spend around £600 per month on food too (just two of us) and that is as vegetarians so no expensive meat. That is all from supermarket and no takeaways (they don't have takeaways where I live!)
We (2 of us) spend £170-200 a month on food from Tesco.
But we also eat out most Saturdays. Maybe even a Friday too. I've had a pub lunch today and popping into Soho later for a dinner. Maybe I should total it all up, but it's not really something that bothers me so much right now. I don't have a car so it's all the petrol I'd have to spend a month channeled into some nice experiences with others in my life.
I guess if you add my lunch every day at work (£4 - £6 a day) you'd get a more realistic picture.
Yep, we spend around £600 per month on food too (just two of us) and that is as vegetarians so no expensive meat. That is all from supermarket
Hold tight, £600 at super markets a month?!
I'm impressed more than anything.
Hold tight, £600 at super markets a month?!
Well, Ocado - I don't actually endure having to waste time in a shop. No money gets spent on any other food though, no takeaways, no meals out (or maybe 1 a month), take my own food to work etc,.
£600 a month without meat is quite a lot but it wouldn't be hard to hit that if you drink a bit of decent wine.
Ocado is hardly cheap anyway.
Ocado is hardly cheap anyway.
I don’t think it’s that bad. We tried using Aldi for a few weeks and didn’t save that much per shop, certainly not enough to deal with getting stuff like Heinz Beans and ketchup elsewhere. Some stuff from Aldi is really good and cheap but some stuff is poo and other stuff pricey compared to others.
We use Ocado. My wife works around our diary for the free delivery slots. If you take away the costs of our fuel, wear on the car, time that could be spent elsewhere then doing it that way is cheaper.
I probably live like someone with a lower income than I have because I simply can't be arsed budgeting. My mind just slides right off the topic. I'd far rather do this than drive a posher car or whatever.
Ocado is hardly cheap anyway.
No more expensive than any other supermarket, like for like. But they sell products you can't get at the main supermarkets. Tried the Lidl thing as a novelty for a few weeks and it seems cheap for how much you get until you realise you haven't actually got what you wanted because they don't sell it so wasn't any cheaper at all.
It could be cheaper if I compromised on the food I eat but why compromise on that if you don't have to, I enjoy eating nice food.
So spunking the best part of £10k a year on a car is considered normal?
That’s £14k gross if your a higher band tax payer.
No wonder people are living beyond their means if they're that bad at arithmetic....
I had a crazy mortgage and a lot of loans, credit cards etc. I was earning good money but was always without. I had a good job in construction but suffered badly from mental health problems, partly caused by work.
I jacked it in, sold my house in the uk, bought an old sweet house in Austria with an amazing garden. Managed to get enough from sale of uk house to buy my current house outright. I have a 7 year old 69 ps Fabia that I got for little money.
I'm now a government approved tour guide in Austria mainly doing bike or alcohol based tours - vineyards, micro breweries along the river Danube.
I don't make much money but then again, I don't need much. My monthly outgoings are approx 350 euro all in (food, leccy etc). I've never been happier.
I had loans and credit cards in my 20's and was living a bit beyond my means so paid them all off and got rid of them so now I'm in my late 30's with no debt other than a house.
As long as I can pay the bills and feed my family I don't care about having all the other stuff like massive tv's, flash cars, the latest bikes etc. Most bigger puchases are bought by saving up or waiting until I've got the money, I've never spent more than 2k on an everyday car, all my bikes are bought second-hand.
The missus car has done nearly 200k now and the engine is pretty tired so rather than buying a new one I'll just spend a couple hundred quid on a second hand engine and waste a day fitting it but the way I look at things doing that instead of buying another car will pretty much pay for our summer holiday next year.
Some of the amounts the higher earners are spending on things is shocking but I can understand the figures when it comes to cars. I worked out mine costs me around £300-350 a month (a big chunk of that is fuel) and the actual car is all bought and paid for. If you add another car on and double that then add even more if you're paying for it on finance/loan etc then you're soon getting on towards a grand!!
Hold tight, £600 at super markets a month?!
We probably spend over £600/month on food for two people and four cats. £100/week for basics delivered by Sainsburys and then I visit the local Coop / M&S nearly every other day buying stuff.
I had a crazy mortgage and a lot of loans, credit cards etc. I was earning good money but was always without. I had a good job in construction but suffered badly from mental health problems, partly caused by work.
I jacked it in, sold my house in the uk, bought an old sweet house in Austria with an amazing garden. Managed to get enough from sale of uk house to buy my current house outright. I have a 7 year old 69 ps Fabia that I got for little money.
I’m now a government approved tour guide in Austria mainly doing bike or alcohol based tours – vineyards, micro breweries along the river Danube.
I don’t make much money but then again, I don’t need much. My monthly outgoings are approx 350 euro all in (food, leccy etc). I’ve never been happier
That post genuinely fills me with joy. I’d love to see pics of you Austrian house and surroundings if your happy to share them here?
I had a crazy mortgage and a lot of loans, credit cards etc. I was earning good money but was always without. I had a good job in construction but suffered badly from mental health problems, partly caused by work.
I jacked it in, sold my house in the uk, bought an old sweet house in Austria with an amazing garden. Managed to get enough from sale of uk house to buy my current house outright. I have a 7 year old 69 ps Fabia that I got for little money.
I’m now a government approved tour guide in Austria mainly doing bike or alcohol based tours – vineyards, micro breweries along the river Danube.
I don’t make much money but then again, I don’t need much. My monthly outgoings are approx 350 euro all in (food, leccy etc). I’ve never been happier
Your richer than most. 🙂