Are You Feeling Squeezed?

everytime I go to the sm things have gone up!

Do you ever feel that you are not going to be able to afford to live?

marciared wrote:Do you ever feel that you are not going to be able to afford to live?

Not for a while now thankfully, but in the past we've been pretty near the knuckle. Hope you're not too bad.

I worry that one day we wont be able to live. we've cut spending and are still over every month with essential items. this isn't "fun"or "silly" money we're using credit for, it's food and bills

This month is going to be a real tight one I think

Warning this is going to be a RANT!

DH got a letter from hmrc after christmas saying that he has underpaid tax for the past 2 years and owed about £600.
Fine, so he rings and they offer for him to pay it back over the same amounth of time (2 years) paying back a little each month. DH says he will pay back in just one year, which they agreed to.

Today is payday, hmrc in their wisdom have taken the full £600 underpayment from his pay packet in one go

Our current account didn't have much left after a very expensive few months and our credit card is edging closer to its max (after we worked really hard to clear nearly £6k of debt last year as well)

It's MIL birthday next week and DH's in 3 weeks, I really hope she doesn't suggest going out for a meal - cause I don't think we could stretch to it. And don't know how I am going to find the money to get DH anything at all.

DH and I were supposed to be going out on a "date" night on friday (something we haven't done for many years!), going to the cinema, a meal and a few drinks. But that will have to cancelled too

I have a few bits to put on ebay later, hopefully they will sell well. And I have just cancelled a non essential Direct debit.

We have just sent the form to stop the overpaying of a mortgage (we were overpaying by £300 per month to try and pay our mortgage as quickly as possible). But don't think it will be processed in time for next months mortgage payment.

Bloomin' incompetent HMRC

RANT over

Sorry about that, but it feels better to get it all out!

Keep on plugging Flibsey, when one of those houses come up for you things will get better.

Pipling, what a nightmare, I bet your heart was in your mouth when the money had gone, you're rightly furious! It's never nice to cancel plans but you could always think of something else to do for your date night. It might have to be cheap and cheerful (or free and cheerful) but you don't have to cancel the date - it's about time spent together, not money. Even if you have to stay at home you can do something to make it fun and special. At least this overpayment is a one-off and it's not forever, you'll be grand.

If it's any consolation, I have only ever bought Dan one birthday gift in the 10 years we've been together. It's never ever about the money when they know you care about them. That sounds very soppy and very unlike me but it's true! If you weren't buying a gift because you were a tightwad and just being a meany that wouldn't be nice but if you're not buying a gift because there's no cash to spend that's different - you can always buy one next month.

money worries are horrible I agree.

im currently paying back a bit of debt so yes things are a little frugal around here. im chuffed tho ive managed to pay back £450 this month. i keep dreaming of what i can do once the debt is gone.

we would like to take holidays to malta florida china and also go skiing so i can guess where it would go really lol x

Well done KML, that's really good going!

thanks im really thrilled x

We are definitely feeling it financially, our income has dropped and the cost of living only keeps going up. I am looking for a job but we know how difficult that is. We have discussed selling the car as that would save us a minimum of £220 a month but really hope things dont get that bad.

Its depressing isnt it. They are talking about cutting the bus passes for free for Oap's. I dont know whether this really will happen though.

loving life wrote:We are definitely feeling it financially, our income has dropped and the cost of living only keeps going up. I am looking for a job but we know how difficult that is. We have discussed selling the car as that would save us a minimum of £220 a month but really hope things dont get that bad.

When we were paying off our debts we took our car off the road for 6 months, that saved us quite a lot of money. We stored the car in MIL's garage so we still had access when we were back on our feet, I don't know if that might help a bit instead of selling.

Thats definitely worth thinking about, hadnt thought of doing that. I dont know anyone who has done it so seems like an extreme option. We will see how it goes though.

All we had to do was contact the DVLA for a SORN - off road notice and the insurance people to keep some minimal insurance then we parked up and that was that. It was a pain for some things but we soon got used to it so not a hassle really.