Cost of living crisis - how are you all doing?

CarlosTevez'sEnglishTutor said:
I'm on 40k and my Mrs is on 22k. We split the bills as a percentage of our income i.e I pay circa 65%. I'm managing to put about £500 a month away which is slowly but surely getting us towards a deposit on our first place. I'm from a low income family with no inheritance, she's from abject poverty.

We've got a big decision this time next year to buy a property, or try our hand abroad where we can do more for our money and have a better quality of life. I'm leaning towards the latter but it would require another sidestep by me into a fully remote role. We are both multilingual so there are a few open doors for us in terms of location.

We go away a fair bit which has shrunk our savings but I'm a firm believer in experiencing things while young, it's opened my eyes massively going to different corners of the world.

We don't drink, smoke and rarely eat out as she's a great cook. We use Tesco delivery service currently which I believe is about £8 a month, she's in charge of that. I find the time saved from shopping around in supermarkets outweighs the increase in delivery cost. However, groceries are definitely our biggest outlay per month.

Rent is £930 which is a killer, but we paid much less previously in worse areas and prefer the security of a nicer area, still have a few shit neighbours though. Ideally I'd have bought by now but I've only been earning good money for around 18 months now. We had the heating on twice last year when gas prices were sky high, I refused to budge. The house is only 5 years old which has slashed our gas and electric bills hugely compared to previous hellholes we've rented.

I've got fuck all to complain about really, hats off to those juggling business at the moment and pushing to make ends meet. My target is to get to a £3k a month income after tax, any more than that and the worklife balance would shift, fuck being senior management in the corporate world. I aim to get some passive income by my 40s by way of 2 or 3 rental properties.

No government is coming to save any of us, I won't ever vote. There's the top 3%, then the 10% of minions who are the face of the show i.e your Rishi Sunaks, 5% big earners, 50% the rest of us working people, 30% ish growing underclass and benefit scroungers. This hasn't been a first world country for a couple of decades now, we've had our time in the sun as a powerful country. Once middle class people are now very much working class.
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Jesus! No decision to be made. Get yourselves elsewhere.
 
MikeF said:
Jesus! No decision to be made. Get yourselves elsewhere.
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If I got on the ladder in UK and stayed here, there would always be that "what if". Thinking of going somewhere for a year at first.

The feeling of treading water in UK is a horrible one. People with good jobs who can barely afford to live or have any privacy. It really is a hamster wheel existence over here.
 
CarlosTevez'sEnglishTutor said:
If I got on the ladder in UK and stayed here, there would always be that "what if". Thinking of going somewhere for a year at first.

The feeling of treading water in UK is a horrible one. People with good jobs who can barely afford to live or have any privacy. It really is a hamster wheel existence over here.
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Get on ladder. Move abroad and rent a place, rent house in U.K. out to cover your rent abroad plus a bit extra on top most likely and jobs a good’un.
If you don’t settle abroad, give notice to your tenant’s move back and you’ve lost nothing.
If you fall in love with new life then eventually sell up at home and enjoy the sunshine :-)
 
Phil1 said:
Get on ladder. Move abroad and rent a place, rent house in U.K. out to cover your rent abroad plus a bit extra on top most likely and jobs a good’un.
If you don’t settle abroad, give notice to your tenant’s move back and you’ve lost nothing.
If you fall in love with new life then eventually sell up at home and enjoy the sunshine :-)
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I think that is sound advice. Cheers mate, we've got a lot to mull over the next 12 months, when our current tenancy expires.
 
CarlosTevez'sEnglishTutor said:
I think that is sound advice. Cheers mate, we've got a lot to mull over the next 12 months, when our current tenancy expires.
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Do whatever you feel is right for you and your own. Everybody is different.

Buying a home is a huge commitment. I’d never been responsible for maintenance and upkeep until aged 41 and it’s been an eye opener!
 
CarlosTevez'sEnglishTutor said:
I'm on 40k and my Mrs is on 22k. We split the bills as a percentage of our income i.e I pay circa 65%. I'm managing to put about £500 a month away which is slowly but surely getting us towards a deposit on our first place. I'm from a low income family with no inheritance, she's from abject poverty.

We've got a big decision this time next year to buy a property, or try our hand abroad where we can do more for our money and have a better quality of life. I'm leaning towards the latter but it would require another sidestep by me into a fully remote role. We are both multilingual so there are a few open doors for us in terms of location.

We go away a fair bit which has shrunk our savings but I'm a firm believer in experiencing things while young, it's opened my eyes massively going to different corners of the world.

We don't drink, smoke and rarely eat out as she's a great cook. We use Tesco delivery service currently which I believe is about £8 a month, she's in charge of that. I find the time saved from shopping around in supermarkets outweighs the increase in delivery cost. However, groceries are definitely our biggest outlay per month.

Rent is £930 which is a killer, but we paid much less previously in worse areas and prefer the security of a nicer area, still have a few shit neighbours though. Ideally I'd have bought by now but I've only been earning good money for around 18 months now. We had the heating on twice last year when gas prices were sky high, I refused to budge. The house is only 5 years old which has slashed our gas and electric bills hugely compared to previous hellholes we've rented.

I've got fuck all to complain about really, hats off to those juggling business at the moment and pushing to make ends meet. My target is to get to a £3k a month income after tax, any more than that and the worklife balance would shift, fuck being senior management in the corporate world. I aim to get some passive income by my 40s by way of 2 or 3 rental properties.

No government is coming to save any of us, I won't ever vote. There's the top 3%, then the 10% of minions who are the face of the show i.e your Rishi Sunaks, 5% big earners, 50% the rest of us working people, 30% ish growing underclass and benefit scroungers. This hasn't been a first world country for a couple of decades now, we've had our time in the sun as a powerful country. Once middle class people are now very much working class.
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I like your attitude
 
Bluesince1979 said:
I like your attitude
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Not many do. Especially colleagues, but life would be shit if we all had the same opinions. Watching 40 something men fearful of the boss and watching what they say in work has made me never want to be one of those guys.

Back to cost of living, we had new neighbours move in back in May. Noisy fuckers, I put it down to them both being 20+ stone but they do mad shit at unsociable hours. The bloke is a teacher and presuming the woman works but rarely leaves the house.

He appears to have been off work a few weeks now, see him appearing unwashed at all hours going out in the car. He always comes back with Costa coffee or McDonald's drive thru. An Indian takeaway arrives at least 5 times a week, usually around 11pm when the rest of the street is asleep. They've either got very wealthy parents, or a very successful plus sized onlyfans set up. Surely they're in debt, I hope they fuck off soon.
 
To be fair, the government over here are giving €450 in credits (€150 x 3) towards electricity bills. One on Dec 1st, the second on Jan 1st and the third one on March 1st. Better than a kick up the arse, I suppose.
 
CarlosTevez'sEnglishTutor said:
Not many do. Especially colleagues, but life would be shit if we all had the same opinions. Watching 40 something men fearful of the boss and watching what they say in work has made me never want to be one of those guys.

Back to cost of living, we had new neighbours move in back in May. Noisy fuckers, I put it down to them both being 20+ stone but they do mad shit at unsociable hours. The bloke is a teacher and presuming the woman works but rarely leaves the house.

He appears to have been off work a few weeks now, see him appearing unwashed at all hours going out in the car. He always comes back with Costa coffee or McDonald's drive thru. An Indian takeaway arrives at least 5 times a week, usually around 11pm when the rest of the street is asleep. They've either got very wealthy parents, or a very successful plus sized onlyfans set up. Surely they're in debt, I hope they fuck off soon.
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The fact is, you have plans to better yourselves and move on. As long as you have a plan
 
CarlosTevez'sEnglishTutor said:
Back to cost of living, we had new neighbours move in back in May. Noisy fuckers, I put it down to them both being 20+ stone but they do mad shit at unsociable hours. The bloke is a teacher and presuming the woman works but rarely leaves the house.

He appears to have been off work a few weeks now, see him appearing unwashed at all hours going out in the car. He always comes back with Costa coffee or McDonald's drive thru. An Indian takeaway arrives at least 5 times a week, usually around 11pm when the rest of the street is asleep. They've either got very wealthy parents, or a very successful plus sized onlyfans set up. Surely they're in debt, I hope they fuck off soon.
Click to expand...
 
CarlosTevez'sEnglishTutor said:
Not many do. Especially colleagues, but life would be shit if we all had the same opinions. Watching 40 something men fearful of the boss and watching what they say in work has made me never want to be one of those guys.

Back to cost of living, we had new neighbours move in back in May. Noisy fuckers, I put it down to them both being 20+ stone but they do mad shit at unsociable hours. The bloke is a teacher and presuming the woman works but rarely leaves the house.

He appears to have been off work a few weeks now, see him appearing unwashed at all hours going out in the car. He always comes back with Costa coffee or McDonald's drive thru. An Indian takeaway arrives at least 5 times a week, usually around 11pm when the rest of the street is asleep. They've either got very wealthy parents, or a very successful plus sized onlyfans set up. Surely they're in debt, I hope they fuck off soon.
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Sounds just like my neighbours.
 
CarlosTevez'sEnglishTutor said:
I'm on 40k and my Mrs is on 22k. We split the bills as a percentage of our income i.e I pay circa 65%. I'm managing to put about £500 a month away which is slowly but surely getting us towards a deposit on our first place. I'm from a low income family with no inheritance, she's from abject poverty.

We've got a big decision this time next year to buy a property, or try our hand abroad where we can do more for our money and have a better quality of life. I'm leaning towards the latter but it would require another sidestep by me into a fully remote role. We are both multilingual so there are a few open doors for us in terms of location.

We go away a fair bit which has shrunk our savings but I'm a firm believer in experiencing things while young, it's opened my eyes massively going to different corners of the world.

We don't drink, smoke and rarely eat out as she's a great cook. We use Tesco delivery service currently which I believe is about £8 a month, she's in charge of that. I find the time saved from shopping around in supermarkets outweighs the increase in delivery cost. However, groceries are definitely our biggest outlay per month.

Rent is £930 which is a killer, but we paid much less previously in worse areas and prefer the security of a nicer area, still have a few shit neighbours though. Ideally I'd have bought by now but I've only been earning good money for around 18 months now. We had the heating on twice last year when gas prices were sky high, I refused to budge. The house is only 5 years old which has slashed our gas and electric bills hugely compared to previous hellholes we've rented.

I've got fuck all to complain about really, hats off to those juggling business at the moment and pushing to make ends meet. My target is to get to a £3k a month income after tax, any more than that and the worklife balance would shift, fuck being senior management in the corporate world. I aim to get some passive income by my 40s by way of 2 or 3 rental properties.

No government is coming to save any of us, I won't ever vote. There's the top 3%, then the 10% of minions who are the face of the show i.e your Rishi Sunaks, 5% big earners, 50% the rest of us working people, 30% ish growing underclass and benefit scroungers. This hasn't been a first world country for a couple of decades now, we've had our time in the sun as a powerful country. Once middle class people are now very much working class.
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'10% of minions who are the face of the show i.e your Rishi Sunaks...'
Are you serious? Sunak was placed 275th on the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List of the most wealthy people in the UK with £529m. He's wealthier than King Charles who has to get by on a paltry £400m. Sunak is easily in the the richest 1%. Clearly, a man who understands ordinary people!
Who are these 'minions' you say make up 10% given that a minion is normally someone defined as an underling, servant or slave of someone more powerful? Also, I'm genuinely interested to know your definition of the term 'underclass' and how you arrive at a figure of 30%.
 
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