Monthly expenditure... all necessary?
 

The thread on putting yourself in debt at Christmas got me thinking then I saw this article about pre-packed sandwiches.

'Millennial couples can get a foot on the property ladder in just five years if they stop playing the Lottery and start making their own sandwiches, an estate agent has claimed.

Singling out six “luxuries” generation rent need to cut back on, Strutt & Parker claimed that they could save £64,560 towards a deposit to their first house

Taking their own lunch to work rather than buying it on the high street could save £2,576 a year, while stopping the lottery tickets could claw back another £832'.

*Ignores the urge to mention student debt*

This made me wonder what other expenses are there that we don't really need? Speaking to colleagues who appear to be really stressed about money have what I consider to be unnecessary outgoings, for example one pays £90 for sky TV monthly, another pays car finance and £200 insurance per month.

It seems strange that when we a juggling debt how it isn't always easy to differentiate what we want and what we need is debt inevitable to have a 'normal' life? Are you paying monthly for something that you could quite easily live without?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a8056996.html

This is one of my pet rants, :laugh: a lot of money is spent on stuff we don't actually need, like the latest upgrade to a phone or TV subscriptions for channels that are never watched, coffee is another one, too many clothes (I am guilty of this), shoes (me), handbags (me), I have a friend whose daughter lives with her and wants to move out who has just spent 800.00 on a phone, if you are happy with your lot fine, but if you want to save, sacrifices have to be made, property is expensive but on the other hand there is a lot of help out there now to get on the ladder that wasn't around 20 years ago :hmph: and don't get me started on the amount of tat that is bought Christmas :laugh:

no

its all spreadsheeted out and the TL has accounts for bills, food, utilities etc and takes her own lunch in etc

i check my account every day so know what goes in and out and what is not needed

that said i would not like to think about the "dad can you lend me £30 till Tuesday etc that i never get back" totals and all the pound coins robbed from the car and my change dish

:omgno:

This is so ridiculous. Somebody's already worked it out and it'd take like 100 years still. It was a lot easier to get onto the property ladder years ago. :idc:

Oh wait I thought hat he literally just said we had to stop buying ourselves food for dinner not meaning luxuries in general. I suppose that's fair enough. My mum and dad could save like £15 a month just cancelling Netflix and Apple Music, for example.

We do all buy things that are not a necessity,for example,cigarettes,booze,video consoles,games,having the best smartphones,Sky/Virgin/Netflix etc TV, even takeaways etc, we can cook our own food we can make our own sandwiches,it's nice to have the luxuries in life and even better if you can afford them.

I don't agree with the advice that a city break is given up, you get holiday pay...where are you meant to go? Stay in and look a 4 walls?...
It's counterproductive not to take a break, all work and no play and all that :/

:laugh:

The kids stuff is a big expenditure, Karate lessons (which luke is doing 4 a week of atm) soccer, yoga, supervised study in school, Maths grinds etc etc

But all those things are good for them

and petrol to go to these places. Smallest boy LT has a football match on Sunday and its a 70 mile round trip and that is not uncommon due to the size of the county. Plus dont get me started on bloody horses.

:oh:

Oh yeah definitely, also emotional distress of being in the car 90% of my "free" time

this is totally defeatist, times have changed, no point harping back to the good old days when property prices were low and interest rates were high, there are help to buy schemes, Isa's, shared ownership, low interest rates, time to get proactive instead of moaning :nono::hehe:

drag ha

:laugh:oh it was was so much easier back then... blah blah, no it wasn't, many people didn't have the luxury of living at home so they could save but some managed it anyway :idc:

@Plus dont get me started on bloody horses.

If you love em enough they're worth every penny.

Oh yes Niamh,I have that one too,I feel like a taxi service sometimes.:wavey:

atleast if you were a Taxi service you'd get paid :oh:

it's never been easy to get on the property ladder. Unless you are very fortunate, people have always had to make sacrifices to achieve their goal.

For example, when I got my first mortgage, you had to have been with a building society for years, regularly saving with them before they would entertain the idea of giving you a mortgage. You had to prove that you were a fine upstanding citizen.

It was Maggie Thatcher that shook up the system and actually made it possible for everyone to achieve their goals, she did a fantastic job of equalizing opportunity for everyone, and what thanks did she get for it? None.

mind you we were food shopping the other night with the wee thing you scan the items with and it gives you a running total and we were complimenting each other at getting to the soup bit still at like 60 quid, one sweep past the drink aisle and we were at 125

:omgno:

mind you that is essentials

:hmph:

so what we did was we bought less expensive kitchen roll

we are not made of bloody money :fist:

what is this based on buying a mansion :laugh: what does the average one bed flat cost in the UK, outside London because that is another issue altogether, a one bed flat in Norwich is about 100k is that out of peoples reach :suspect:

Educate yourself on the difference between then and now, not that that has any baring on the thread topic to be fair. People had nights out and spent money while saving then too it has no baring whatsoever on the cost of the property they are saving toward.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-...pared-to-2016/

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/m...se-prices.html

I don't need to educate myself on other peoples experiences, I have my own tyvm, and our eldest is trying to get his own place, we can hark back to the 80s all you like what about negative equity and the recession in the 90s :idc:

how is your house purchase going btw?

Then why ask Cal how much flats cost if you don't want other peoples experiences as you have your own?

The fact is wages to house prices are beyond disproportionate, yes there are more schemes now as debt is seen as good, the more debt you are in the better that is a major difference.

It's going well but then I'm buying my post war prefab for 52k

I asked him how much the average one bed was outside London based on his claim that it would take 100 years to save a deposit!

Please for you :love:

you can thank Maggie for that :tongue:

Up here in Norfolk they're building low cost houses for people who were born in the area and have been priced out. I'm not sure how they stand legally, to be honest. I can't imagine living in London and being told, you can't buy those cheap houses because they're only for people born here.