Life's a Beach

[Mottie]

Very bleak outlook at the moment. My wife and I are fairly young (I’m 31, she’s 29). We have been together eight years and own our mortgaged home. Never had a penny off anybody but now we have a four month old, we are in receipt of the ~£86 a month child benefit payment from the government (which has gone up just ~£24 a month since I was born).

Wife is on maternity until March, but we both have full time jobs (she is an NHS nurse I work in private healthcare). Our combined income is about £56k pre-tax.

The estimate for monthly utility bills is going to surpass our monthly mortgage payment, and the estimate for childcare looks like it will be about £900 a month (with the wife dropping down to four days a week to save a day of costs).

There will be nothing left after this. We will exist simply to pay bills. Somebody told me we shouldn’t have had a child, but we’ve waited sensibly and if we wait any longer (as my Dad did), we run the risk of being ‘old’ parents later down the line and I don’t want to miss out on that.

The next unelected PM to take office needs to offer something as their first promise to us.

The hard facts are that for the majority of people, buying a house and bringing up a child isn't easy. When we had kids, Mrs Mottie made the decision to give up work to support them and didn’t go back to work until the youngest was 10 years old and even then she started on p/t work to fit in with their school hours. It was a struggle and we had to live frugally but if that’s what you have to do, that’s what you have to do. Anyway, you have a jump on most people in owning your own home - from what I hear, buying a house is cheaper than renting one once you have the initial deposit out of the way. Cheer up, only the first 25 years are the hardest!

 

[cwhaley]

The hard facts are that for the majority of people, buying a house and bringing up a child isn't easy. When we had kids, Mrs Mottie made the decision to give up work to support them and didn’t go back to work until the youngest was 10 years old and even then she started on p/t work to fit in with their school hours. It was a struggle and we had to live frugally but if that’s what you have to do, that’s what you have to do. Anyway, you have a jump on most people in owning your own home - from what I hear, buying a house is cheaper than renting one once you have the initial deposit out of the way. Cheer up, only the first 25 years are the hardest!

Never expected it to be easy, and enjoy the challenge! I grew up in the post-industrial Midlands with a rented tele, holidays in a caravan my Dad had saved for all year and second hand clothes. I do look back fondly on it all though. My Mum had also gave up work in a factory to support us. All of this means I don't have high expectations -- not bothered about a holiday every year or a new car or nice clothes, but we do work hard to be house/garden proud and well-dressed.

I just don't know how we're supposed to be able to finance it with the unforeseen increase in utility bills. It's hard to stay cheery about it when all of our income will be going on bills, with only worsening future forecasts predicted.

Will just have to do what most Brits do and put up with it!

 

[Odds]

just don't know how we're supposed to be able to finance it with the unforeseen increase in utility bills. It's hard to stay cheery about it when all of our income will be going on bills, with only worsening future forecasts predicted.

Will just have to do what most Brits do and put up with it!

"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way..."

I'm sure many people will echo those sentiments as winter bites and listening to the Chancellor today makes me wonder what anybody is supposed to make of his advice: 'use less energy', he says. If i use a gas cooker it will still take the same amount of time to do a sunday roast, but cost twice as much in energy. What am i to do, eat salad?
When the weather turns cold what should i do; wear an extra jumper? Go to bed in thermal pyjamas?
It's hard enough as it is without listening to some half-arsed advice from a Tory.

 

[Dork Lard]

Lol. So that’s not exactly ‘don’t pay'. You’ll be paying more as you will be paying on demand so that’s 'pay more' isn’t it?

Get a responsible adult to explain it to you.

 

[Mottie]

Get a responsible adult to explain it to you.

Don’t need to. I’ve looked at the site. It’s a load of old tosh. Only asking people to 'strike' (?) if a million pledge to sign up. The site makes no sense either - "An emergency social energy tariff is essential to prevent people dying from cold this winter. It shouldn't cost the same price to heat up a tin of beans as it does to heat up your swimming pool". What next - cheaper petrol to go to work or go to hospital compared to going out to the coast on a jolly or for a pootle about on t'motorbike? How do you propose they work out who's heating beans and who's heating their swimming pool? Why stop at swimming pools - how about those that power an 85” tv compared to a little old lady listening to the world news on her radio? Should they pay more for the electricity they use? Nah, it’s all cobblers.

 

[Odds]

Enough is Enough​

A campaign to fight the cost of living crisis, begun by trade unions and community organisations is a better way to bring about reform than simply refusing to pay bills - they can't throw us all in jail, seems to be that approach.
They'll be organising rallies in Manchester on the 30th and in Liverpool on Sept. 2nd, with further demonstrations for people to demand an end to Tory Austerity and unfair policies which benefit the rich and lower living standards for people who cannot afford to keep up with the huge rise in the cost of living.

Lizz Truss promises to cut taxes as the latest forecasts for the energy price cap estimate a rise to £6,823 by April and inflation at 18%. Whitehall has drawn up plans for energy-intensive firms to power down this winter - i remember the power cuts of the early 70s, so make sure you've got plenty of candles in the cupboards; you're gonna need 'em.

 

[mattylad]

What a crappy website.

First your presented with a massive cookies popup (yes I know you should be) but then nothing.
The home page has feck all on it, you have to use the menu at the top.

IF the site is that bad then I don't want to know what the rest of it says.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Very bleak outlook at the moment. My wife and I are fairly young (I’m 31, she’s 29). We have been together eight years and own our mortgaged home. Never had a penny off anybody but now we have a four month old, we are in receipt of the ~£86 a month child benefit payment from the government (which has gone up just ~£24 a month since I was born).

Wife is on maternity until March, but we both have full time jobs (she is an NHS nurse I work in private healthcare). Our combined income is about £56k pre-tax.

The estimate for monthly utility bills is going to surpass our monthly mortgage payment, and the estimate for childcare looks like it will be about £900 a month (with the wife dropping down to four days a week to save a day of costs).

There will be nothing left after this. We will exist simply to pay bills. Somebody told me we shouldn’t have had a child, but we’ve waited sensibly and if we wait any longer (as my Dad did), we run the risk of being ‘old’ parents later down the line and I don’t want to miss out on that.

The next unelected PM to take office needs to offer something as their first promise to us.

Tbh I wouldn't feel the slightest bit guilty (not saying you do) in taking the child benefit. You're working and if it's a benefit you're entitled to, take it I say.

 

[Odds]

What a crappy website.

First your presented with a massive cookies popup (yes I know you should be) but then nothing.
The home page has feck all on it, you have to use the menu at the top.

IF the site is that bad then I don't want to know what the rest of it says.

You should find a good ad-blocker to prevent pop-ups, then check your Settings as the home page opens with a video at the top, then text beneath. It works fine in my browser.

 

[mattylad]

The popup was the normal "we want to save cookies" one.

I tried Chrome, Firefox and Edge.
The site looks like it was done by a child.

 

[Odds]

The popup was the normal "we want to save cookies" one.

I tried Chrome, Firefox and Edge.
The site looks like it was done by a child.

Your whining about a cookie pop up that's standard for websites and the way it's laid out rather than the central message?

You'll soon focus on the central message when your energy bill arrives.

Booris is trying to blame Russia for our problems but we receive barely 4% of gas from them. One of the main reasons we're in this position is because our gas storage is one of the lowest in Europe. If you want to blame anyone have a look at the government of the past 12 years and try not to be distracted by the layout of a website.

 

[Deleted member 18243]

The estimate for monthly utility bills is going to surpass our monthly mortgage payment

Did you and your wife go on furlough, take the vaccines and go along with the covid restrictions? If so, how do you think all that was paid for?

One of the main reasons....

The reason for the current price rises is the £400 billions of funny money printed during the covid scam. Foreign suppliers want hard currencies and not our funny money.

 

[noseall]

Did you and your wife go on furlough, take the vaccines and go along with the covid restrictions? If so, how do you think all that was paid for?

Brexit bonus? Imagine all that money saved. Lucky we has Covid, help the UK spend all the excess cash.

 

[cwhaley]

Did you and your wife go on furlough, take the vaccines and go along with the covid restrictions? If so, how do you think all that was paid for?

The reason for the current price rises is the £400 billions of funny money printed during the covid scam. Foreign suppliers want hard currencies and not our funny money.

Agree that the furlough scheme was expensive and - as I and many others said at the time - it would have to be paid off in the future! As time's gone on though I've started to think that the government's chosen method of paying it back is raising inflation artificially to whittle away the debt!

It still doesn't change the fact that families who work and take little are being pushed into unreasonably difficult situations.

 

[Odds]

Agree that the furlough scheme was expensive and - as I and many others said at the time - it would have to be paid off in the future! As time's gone on though I've started to think that the government's chosen method of paying it back is raising inflation artificially to whittle away the debt!

It still doesn't change the fact that families who work and take little are being pushed into unreasonably difficult situations.

I wouldn't say the govt. is raising inflation artificially. Germany has an inflation rate of 8% today and chances are it'll keep climbing. Every country who suffered from covid-19 is having to put up with the consequences of dealing with the pandemic. The UK is having bigger problems because Brexit happened at the worst possible time.