Anyone struggling?

[Dando]

Cheers. Yes, those are the sorts of cars we'll be looking at. Maybe the Ford Kuga as well as the Puma (not sure which one's bigger). Hyundai Tuscan or IX35 look alright. Or we might just get a Qashqai like everyone else. ?

I absolutely despise DIY. And it's sadly not just painting, our wardrobes are falling apart so we need new ones, and the missus wants all new carpets upstairs as well. So it's a whole thing.

We do want a new top of the range pushchair/travel system though as we looked at some at an exhibition last week and some of them were amazing haha.

I am currently on my 3rd Tuscan and love them. the new one is petrol hybrid and i am getting 55mpg from it.
the boot is big enough for a buggy

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Stopping the news definitely helps and you can find the news items that you want to see very easily these days.

I take the view that the news I really need to know about will find a way of getting to my eyes and ears. I do not need to go looking for it.

After many years of having a ‘washing machine head‘ I have in more recent years come to know the meaning and feeling of peace of mind, and understand how to maintain it. My circumstances mentioned already make that difficult at the moment and maintenance of it needs a lot of work by me. Without it I cannot support my wife, MiL and BiL properly.

 

[stefanovic]

Not a huge fan of Jeremy Paxman, but his TV program last night on his Parkinson's kind of put things into perspective for me.
Well done to him.
“I’m not living with it, I’m putting up with it,” says broadcasting stalwart Jeremy Paxman in this frank, funny and moving documentary about his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. “I don’t want to be involved in a production of a film that is in any way encouraging of the ‘poor little me’ syndrome.” As he explores the disease, Paxman helps dissect a brain, speaks with Paul Sinha (who also has Parkinson’s), agrees to try CBD with Sharon Osbourne (currently caring for her diagnosed husband Ozzy).
He even tries ballet.

 

[PJ87]

Lol.
The people who manage to pursuade golfers that buying 100s of pounds of gear will make them play better golf have learnt all their tricks from the people that persuade first time parents that anything less than 100s of pounds of pushchair marks you out as unfit child haters.
It's mind bending madness.
Once you're on your 3rd offspring you'll look back and think wtf....
...and think of how much further you could have driven the ball if only you'd spent the money on the Stealth....

first child.. everything pictured.. over protective of anything

child 3.. if we get through the day and everyone is breathing its a good day

 

[arnieboy]

Cheers. Yes, those are the sorts of cars we'll be looking at. Maybe the Ford Kuga as well as the Puma (not sure which one's bigger). Hyundai Tuscan or IX35 look alright. Or we might just get a Qashqai like everyone else. ?

I absolutely despise DIY. And it's sadly not just painting, our wardrobes are falling apart so we need new ones, and the missus wants all new carpets upstairs as well. So it's a whole thing.

We do want a new top of the range pushchair/travel system though as we looked at some at an exhibition last week and some of them were amazing haha.

I had a Kuga for three years, great car very spacious but extremely heavy on fuel. Replaced it with a Puma Hybrid last year, slightly smaller, far more fuel efficient and saved me almost £100 per month.

 

[BrianM]

Cheers. Yes, those are the sorts of cars we'll be looking at. Maybe the Ford Kuga as well as the Puma (not sure which one's bigger). Hyundai Tuscan or IX35 look alright. Or we might just get a Qashqai like everyone else. ?

I absolutely despise DIY. And it's sadly not just painting, our wardrobes are falling apart so we need new ones, and the missus wants all new carpets upstairs as well. So it's a whole thing.

We do want a new top of the range pushchair/travel system though as we looked at some at an exhibition last week and some of them were amazing haha.

I’m just about to change my Land Rover Discovery for a pick up truck if you’re interested, it even has tv’s in the back for the wee one ??
My kids love them, great for longer journeys as well.
Boot massive ?

 

[BrianM]

Not sure struggling is the right word but I feel I’ve had a lot on my plate recently, I’ve rented a flat for just over a year where I work (absolutely hate it and feel like it’s wasting money month on month), got offered a new job with a 36k pay increase but turned it down as I really enjoy my job I’m doing and was before the financial world went to pot.
Waiting to see if I’ve just bought a flat for work which will be getting used for 2 weeks of every month, luckily I don’t need a mortgage for it, but I need to feel content as I’m a thinker and let stupid things bother me when really there is no need, first world problems I suppose but feels relevant to me.

 

[Bdill93]

Not sure struggling is the right word but I feel I’ve had a lot on my plate recently, I’ve rented a flat for just over a year where I work (absolutely hate it and feel like it’s wasting money month on month), got offered a new job with a 36k pay increase but turned it down as I really enjoy my job I’m doing and was before the financial world went to pot.
Waiting to see if I’ve just bought a flat for work which will be getting used for 2 weeks of every month, luckily I don’t need a mortgage for it, but I need to feel content as I’m a thinker and let stupid things bother me when really there is no need, first world problems I suppose but feels relevant to me.

What do you do?! 36k pay rise and you said no?! It wasn't from LIV golf was it?

 

[Depreston]

If anyone is struggling and needs to talk

Andy's Man Club | #ITSOKAYTOTALK | Andy's Man Club (andysmanclub.co.uk)

 

[BrianM]

What do you do?! 36k pay rise and you said no?! It wasn't from LIV golf was it?

Went from working offshore to onshore but running offshore operations ??

I’m still waiting for Greg to call ??

 

[hovis]

Government just offered us 2%!!! Strike ahoy!!!! ?

 

[SocketRocket]

I had a Kuga for three years, great car very spacious but extremely heavy on fuel. Replaced it with a Puma Hybrid last year, slightly smaller, far more fuel efficient and saved me almost £100 per month.

Should start breaking even in around 15 years ?

 

[SocketRocket]

I guess this struggling financially is rather subjective when I read here how much people spend on their cars, household and holidays.

 

[Tashyboy]

Like many - Money is a growing concern in our house. The little man is 8 months old now and soon to be going to Nursery. We have to fund that somehow! My wife is going part time when she returns to work too - so less income from her! Cost of living is just going up and up, we have made small money saving decisions here and there and are just being careful. I don't think our lifestyles will be all that different with minor adjustments - just a shame we seem to have a lot less free cash these days to do fun stuff.



Well as a new Dad, I feel like I can help somewhat here!

Car - SUV's are your friend, I strongly recommend finding and buying your buggy and car seat first - then when trying our cars, take it with you and see how it fits in the boot! We have friends who brought the Mazda CX3 expecting it to be big enough - only to find out the car seat didn't fit in the back! We have a Madza CX5 and its awesome for families! Other popular options - KIA Sportage or apparently the ford Puma is decent!

Baby stuff - don't buy too much yourself till they're here!. 1) People are so generous when it comes to babies, we had gifts off friends of friends! 2) Accept everything offered to you even if you don't plan to use it! 3) Babies outgrow everything so fast - your little one might be born tiny, or might be born close to 0-3 month clothes, buy what you need for when they arrive and a week or so after. (Also buy for the season they are due to be born - a summer baby doesn't need a newborn snow suit!)

Multipacks from supermarkets are great value and quality!
Baby doesn't need a bedroom for 6 months so no rush on the painting - sounds like you just need to book out a weekend with the paint brush and just get the rooms done!

dear lord and I thought it was only me. We have a CX-3 or should I say Missis T has. She’s loves it.I think it is rammel. We bought the car and have struggled every day to put kids seats in. I am seriously looking at a CX-5.Had a week travelling down to France.4 blokes.Boot rammed and it did 47 miles to the gallon and was spacious.

Not sure if it comes under struggling but the time spent looking after 4 parents, 2 with dementia takes its toll. Mr and Missis Tash “me time“ seems to be less and less.

 

[road2ruin]

I would have always put my situation in the position as fair comfortable however the last few years have been tough on the financial front.

Firstly Covid impacted my company and due to the fact I am a sole director of a Ltd Co I wasn’t eligible for any support as, apparently, I am likely to be a bit ‘fraudy’. Anyway, got through that period and things were on the up however the recent financial uncertainty has lead to budget cuts and our industry (market research) is always one of the first to be affected so it’ll be belt tightening again on that front.

From a personal point of view we took a punt with the stamp duty holiday and stretched ourselves with a new house. We’ve got a pretty hefty mortgage although did the sums and various interest rate scenarios so went in with our eyes open but didn’t factor in the energy increase along with the speed of interest rates going up. We’re in the process of paying a five figure early repayment charge on our mortgage to secure a far lower rate for the next seven years as a 5/6% interest rate would make things tricky to say the least.

It’s difficult to spend a lot of the time just looking at money although I still count myself fortunate as we always have options whilst many others don’t.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

Don’t watch or read the news. It’s depressing.

Don’t get into more long term debt to buy cars you think you need for a baby. A Golf/Civic sized car is more than adequate. We had a 3 door golf and. Megan Coupe until ours were 4 and 2.

I’m slightly concerned about the business I work for as we don’t seem to be picking up much work compared to our competitors so we are shedding as much overhead as possible. That puts me right in the firing line.
I try not to worry about it as ultimately there isn’t much I can do about the situation. Other than polish my CV and see what happens. Once upon a time I would have been a nervous wreck.

It’s also an opportunity to see if there is any possibility of branching out to other industries, and seeing if there is anything to learn to enable that.

 

[Grizzly]

Government just offered us 2%!!! Strike ahoy!!!! ?

Lucky you - they gave me 1.8%. After a while it gets insulting, it really does.

 

[hairball_89]

Lucky you - they gave me 1.8%. After a while it gets insulting, it really does.

I work for local government (albeit in performing arts! So... not exactly booming right now). We were sent an email in march/April entitled "cost of living pay increase", at the time things were looking at 7-8%. I did the maths on the increase, and it worked out at about 1.8% for me and 2.1% for my team. In the 'open forum' with our Chief Exec 2 weeks later, he declined to answer my question about how that bridges the gap for our lowest earners... We are all getting £250 in this month's pay packet though. So that'll fix things, I'm sure! ?‍

Re: @Orikoru and your car thoughts - we've recently just picked up our 3rd Dacia Duster on PCP. If you're not fussed about the badge on the front it's a brilliant car. Loads of space, lovely to drive, all the technological bells and whistles and 60% the price of an equivalent spec Qashqai, for example. Highly recommend having a look at them.

 

[Grizzly]

I work for local government (albeit in performing arts! So... not exactly booming right now). We were sent an email in march/April entitled "cost of living pay increase", at the time things were looking at 7-8%. I did the maths on the increase, and it worked out at about 1.8% for me and 2.1% for my team. In the 'open forum' with our Chief Exec 2 weeks later, he declined to answer my question about how that bridges the gap for our lowest earners... We are all getting £250 in this month's pay packet though. So that'll fix things, I'm sure! ?‍

Quite - we had our settlement imposed on us, and they snuck the news out during the Queens mourning period. It doesn't hugely affect me - no mortgage now - but it worries me how many of my staff are having to actively seek overtime to make ends meet.

 

[Marshy77]

I work for local government (albeit in performing arts! So... not exactly booming right now). We were sent an email in march/April entitled "cost of living pay increase", at the time things were looking at 7-8%. I did the maths on the increase, and it worked out at about 1.8% for me and 2.1% for my team. In the 'open forum' with our Chief Exec 2 weeks later, he declined to answer my question about how that bridges the gap for our lowest earners... We are all getting £250 in this month's pay packet though. So that'll fix things, I'm sure! ?‍

Re: @Orikoru and your car thoughts - we've recently just picked up our 3rd Dacia Duster on PCP. If you're not fussed about the badge on the front it's a brilliant car. Loads of space, lovely to drive, all the technological bells and whistles and 60% the price of an equivalent spec Qashqai, for example. Highly recommend having a look at them.

I work in local government and don't think we've been offered the £250. Is it for all local government or just certain areas?