Don’t answer this if you’re living permanently in the cab/in a camper van or still living at home with Mummy and Daddy and paying ten bob a week for your keep! I’m only interested in people who have real bills to pay!
When you take off all your necessary expenses, mortgage/rent/council tax/car and upkeep/food/coal, gas and leccy/home maintenance/clothes/haircuts etc,etc, what are you left with? How much work did you do to get that? Does it seem worthwhile?
I ask because I was texting a mate last night and he poked fun at the idea that I might be working for a living nowadays! We’ve worked together so we both have done a bit of graft in the past and were suitably rewarded. But my response to him was “You call this a living?”, and that wasn’t tongue in cheek either! Inflation has definitely caught up with and passed earnings like an Oirish wagon driver IMHO!
Now I don’t live the high life, don’t have credit card debts or loans, don’t smoke, not a big drinker, don’t do drugs but am now finding there isn’t a lot left over after the basics are taken care of. I have decided in recent months to do a bit less work, for two reasons. I want more home time now and the financial incentive is no longer there. And I’m still doing what the vast majority of working people would class as more than your average hours.
I feel more and more like a mug for wanting to earn a living when I look around me and see others who don’t turn a hand playing the system for all it’s worth. If anyone can give me any pointers for extracting the max from the system whilst doing as little as possible, I’m all ears!
44 Tonne Ton:
Don’t answer this if you’re living permanently in the cab/in a camper van or still living at home with Mummy and Daddy and paying ten bob a week for your keep! I’m only interested in people who have real bills to pay!
When you take off all your necessary expenses, mortgage/rent/council tax/car and upkeep/food/coal, gas and leccy/home maintenance/clothes/haircuts etc,etc, what are you left with? How much work did you do to get that? Does it seem worthwhile?
I ask because I was texting a mate last night and he poked fun at the idea that I might be working for a living nowadays! We’ve worked together so we both have done a bit of graft in the past and were suitably rewarded. But my response to him was “You call this a living?”, and that wasn’t tongue in cheek either! Inflation has definitely caught up with and passed earnings like an Oirish wagon driver IMHO!
Now I don’t live the high life, don’t have credit card debts or loans, don’t smoke, not a big drinker, don’t do drugs but am now finding there isn’t a lot left over after the basics are taken care of. I have decided in recent months to do a bit less work, for two reasons. I want more home time now and the financial incentive is no longer there. And I’m still doing what the vast majority of working people would class as more than your average hours.
I feel more and more like a mug for wanting to earn a living when I look around me and see others who don’t turn a hand playing the system for all it’s worth. If anyone can give me any pointers for extracting the max from the system whilst doing as little as possible, I’m all ears!
There’s all sorts you can do, you’ve just got to open your mind. Trouble is people want to reap the rewards without the risk, and that’s why they stay within their comfort zone. I have my fingers in my many pies, some legit, some not, and have no income issues. If you want to stay legal then there isn’t much you can do without a whole pile of time and hassle involved learning other trades.
Frankly I don’t know how you guys do it. If I had to go back to working for a living (ie. truck driving) I would be pulling my (non-existent) hair out. All those hours for a couple of hundred quid and a box of Mars Bars - what a waste of a life. Remember guys, you only get one shot at life (afaik anyway) and I ain’t spending it all being a slave. My life is for living and enjoying, not ■■■■■■■ working.
Ive had to down size my car due to insurance tax and fuel costs. I would say i earn decent money and my lass works a good job but it just dosen’t seem to go as far as it did but ive always found no matter what i make its not enough but i will miss my big car now i have to drive a bean tin
Ive had to down size my car due to insurance tax and fuel costs. I would say i earn decent money and my lass works a good job but it just dosen’t seem to go as far as it did but ive always found no matter what i make its not enough but i will miss my big car now i have to drive a bean tin
At the moment 250 quid would make me feel like a millionaire, however the tabloids dress it up, there isn’t any fun in trying to get by on state handouts, although I do get more than the norm, I share a car as I am a named driver on a disability car.
But one thing I realised when i lost my Brother is that there is much more to life than money. He had a very successful business employing around 30 people. He took 4 or 5 foreign holidays, had 5 expensive motorcycles and a lovely house. By the age of 51 he was going down a conveyor belt into a furnace with his favourite music playing
I took a huge step back and decided to sort out my own health issues, Pete had none. You can work your knackers off, spend all your days and nights in the lorry, missing your kids and watching the wife pack her bags and move back to her mothers or boyfriends house.
I am very poor, but quite happy now! even with ongoing issues!
All I know is that there is more month left at the end of the pay check than there used to be. We could just about get by on what i could earn driving trucks, and other “legal” things i do on the side were pocket money. Now that pocket money is needed to pay for the rise in the cost of everything, and even that is beginning to have to stretch a little further.
We don’t live like royalty, we prefer to stay in than go to the pub etc, but we used to take occasional trips abroad for weekends etc, now we can just about afford a day out at Weston super mare.
Fortunatly my wife has just managed to get a pretty good job so that will ease thing a bit, i might not have to do the extra 6th shift every other week to make ends meet.
jessicas dad:
im not saying what i earn but i have to put £400 a week in the joint account just to cover costs.
Me too, but I dont earn that much
I was made redundant last year, and took the opportunity to do something that I have always fancied doing ( lorry driver in case you were wondering ) I currently earn nothing like I was earning so the toys are no longer affordable, the motorbike has gone and the sporty car is currently being sold, I really need to cut my outgoings but I dont regret my choice, I enjoy the work, so I’m smiling when I start work and smiling when I finish too, this was something that never happened in the past
So what is good money in your opinion?
£100 +/ day for legal work . It’s out there ,people are being paid it ( and before the bull ■■■■ starts - I have the payslips to prove it )
Anything under £1400 take home would have me wondering what bill not to pay or where I could reduce. I would have just about enough left for fuel on that and nothing else.
This time 3 years ago we could go to the pub every weekend for a couple of drinks or eat there if we felt like it. Not anymore. In those 3 years my disposable income has come down at a shocking rate to be honest and it’s not as though I have done anything or bought anything to increase my bills. It’s just the bills increasing at a shocking rate as is the cost of any “luxury” items.
At the moment we get by and rather than be in the pub on a weekend night having a few sociables , probably pop in for one or two on a friday night and thats the pub done with for the W/E.
Mainly stop at home now on weekend nights , and the days can be filled with odd jobs around the house or go out bike riding in the woods , or up the peak district. But even then a trip out to the peaks is more fuel used and the price of that takes the ■■■■ now.
Some respite might come in the future if interest rates hold , I,m locked in on a repayment fixed rate mortgage which is due to end soon. The current rates are better than what I have now , by a nice wedge tbh.
You watch the rates will shoot up , be just my ■■■■■■■ luck
beefy4605:
So what is good money in your opinion?
£100 +/ day for legal work . It’s out there ,people are being paid it ( and before the bull [zb] starts - I have the payslips to prove it )
Is that including nite out/meals allowance ?
I used to get £100 a day including a n/o ,problem for me was the work was not there week in week out
but for tramping upto 2 weeks away at a time, the pay should be at least £100 a day
good money for me would be £1,800 to£2,500 per month take home
Good money for me is about £500 take home a week. I do ADR tramping and means I am able to pay for my house and my sports car. Joys of being 26 without major ties!
If you want to stay legal then there isn’t much you can do without a whole pile of time and hassle involved learning other trades.
) I currently earn nothing like I was earning so the toys are no longer affordable, the motorbike has gone and the sporty car is currently being sold, I really need to cut my outgoings but I dont regret my choice, I enjoy the work, so I’m smiling when I start work and smiling when I finish too, this was something that never happened in the past 