Just suck it up is my approach, I've always had a fairly balanced approach whereby my spending doesn't change proportionally with my income so I enjoy myself less during the good times and suffer less during the bad times compared to people who scale spending with earnings.
overtime just to cover living costs
- Thread starter ozaudio
- Start date
Caporegime
- Joined
- 22 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 28,294
- Location
- Boston, Lincolnshire
Depends where you work. The place I am leaving at the end of the month has a constant stream of overtime because they cannot attract the people to work. A lot of sectors are like this.
Soldato
- Joined
- 2 Feb 2010
- Posts
- 11,133
- Location
- Crowmarsh
I saved £100 a week with the switch to home working. Not had to get on the train for two years now. Coupled with a good pay rise, I'm probably still better off than I was pre COVID. I'm sure not everyone is so fortunate though 
Pretty much the same here, having had wild swings of income through life, like from 5k to 50k, it doesn't fundamentally change the way I live though obviously life is easier at the higher end of the scale
I do 15hr ot every week but it’s scheduled attendance so I just see it as my normal hours anyway. I could probably live on half that but would rather continue with the ot and have disposable income.
If things become tight I have a enough wiggle room to cut a fair bit from my living costs.
If things become tight I have a enough wiggle room to cut a fair bit from my living costs.
I saved £100 a week with the switch to home working. Not had to get on the train for two years now. Coupled with a good pay rise, I'm probably still better off than I was pre COVID. I'm sure not everyone is so fortunate though
Very true but that's life unfortunately. Some benefit others don't.
Rent alone has gone up over £200 per month just in the last year for many people and then you have all of the other cost of living price increases on top of that
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Nov 2007
- Posts
- 4,261
Where does he say he has a mortgage?
He didn't - I made an assumption, but on the chance he has one, he might be able to lower his payments in exchange for a longer term when it's due. It's terrible for people who are stuck renting, though.
Over here in guernsey the rent prices have gone crazy
it now about £1100 pm for just a single bedroom flat
Well I'm sure the government of heavyweight statesmen who are all well in touch with the working classes struggling to get by. They'll help out. 
Started a new job working from home so I'm protected from the direct cost of fuel prices. Fortunately heating bills will be dropping now.
Going to spend some time making sure the house is as insulated as it can be before next winter.
Started a new job working from home so I'm protected from the direct cost of fuel prices. Fortunately heating bills will be dropping now.
Going to spend some time making sure the house is as insulated as it can be before next winter.
What some people do is work less than 16 hours a week that way they get housing benefit plus help to pay other bills. The government really need to sort this out and start paying fair wages because more and more people are not going to bother with working full time as its just not worth while.
im no were near the poverty line, i am currently renting, my rent is up a few quid a month so lucky there, i think around £5 a month it went up haha. i am pretty good with money tbh. i have my side hussle aswell as my main job and ive saved a lot towards buying a house but prices have shot up!
£80 cash for doing a cambelt today , £40 a couple of days ago to replace engine mounts, tomorrow i have some rear brakes in a skoda , clutch on a renault if hes not already had it done, yada yada, it all helps
Just gotta get used to living well within your means.
I find it crazy how some people are literally waiting to pay day to have money available. I appreciate for the very lowest earners this is difficult. I reckon I'm about average uk salary, marginally over, Mrs about the same, and we don't spend anywhere near as much as we could if we wanted to blow it all, no unsecured debts either other than mortgage. I think this is where people go wrong, finance is the devil.
To give a perfect example, my son's 4th birthday is at the end of the month and we are getting him his first bicycle. Managed to nab an absolute steal on a really good condition used on eBay, £8!!
Yes, I could have got him a new one would have cost me what, 10 times that?
I'm not proud about things like this, he will be 4 he won't know the difference.
I find it crazy how some people are literally waiting to pay day to have money available. I appreciate for the very lowest earners this is difficult. I reckon I'm about average uk salary, marginally over, Mrs about the same, and we don't spend anywhere near as much as we could if we wanted to blow it all, no unsecured debts either other than mortgage. I think this is where people go wrong, finance is the devil.
To give a perfect example, my son's 4th birthday is at the end of the month and we are getting him his first bicycle. Managed to nab an absolute steal on a really good condition used on eBay, £8!!
Yes, I could have got him a new one would have cost me what, 10 times that?
I'm not proud about things like this, he will be 4 he won't know the difference.
If people didn't buy those £80 bicycles you wouldn't be able to buy a used one for £8 on ebay.
What a profound insight.
I earn over the average income for all workers in the UK (which is around £26,500) but after tax, NI, pension, student loan, rent, council tax, gas, electric, internet, sim, water, local travel etc. I'm left with about 30-35% of my earnings for food, clothing, savings and entertainment.
If you take away the top 10% of earners the average worker only brings in 19-20k pretax, so if their expenses are similar to mine, which I see no reason why they wouldn't be then they're not going to be left with much.
Of course they will pay less in tax and student loans (if at all) and might live in a cheaper area but their take home is still going to be lower.