Signing on...

Rope says...

It surprises me just how many people who earn good money live on an
overdraft. For the last 8 months I've been surviving on a take home pay
of 650 quid a month. I've been able to pay my rent and all bills, go
out, buy bits for the bike and enjoy riding it too. In that time I've
managed to spend christmas in the south of France and spend some money
on fixing up the Thunderace and the GPZ500 too. Nowadays, at the end of
the month I am rarely out of dosh. It shocks me when I think of how much
money I used to waste when I earned serious wedge.

 

I recently did a "where does all the money go?" exercise, and it was
hair-raising. And it's all trivial shit that I wouldn't reasonably be
expected to complain about. If, for example, the wife & sprog want to go
shopping in Brizzle[6] on a Saturday morning, there's fuel[1], parking[2],
coffee[3], lunch[4], not to mention 5 hours[8] missing from my life. And
guess who has the privilege of opening his wallet.

Do I sound like a grumpy old ****?

[1]30-ish miles, say £3
[2]another three quid
[3]damn all change out of a tenner, after we've added in pastries, chocolate
squares[5] etc
[4]£25-£40 depending[7]
[5]I have a single espresso/fruit juice/mineral water and no pastry
[6]the cheap option. There's always Bath or Cheltenham...
[7]so, £40-£55 for the morning
[8]Later, "You haven't made much progress on the house this weekend" etc

 

Gertcha.

 

One _can_ claim towards some of the payments.

 

it's what enables you to have nice stuff, and not live somewhere
pikey. Having said that, I only have one out of the 3 things you list.

 

Likewise. On both counts.

I'd just like to raise the question, however, of whether Lozzo, and
possibly Rob, having ever actually been earning 'a serious wedge'

 

would I be correct in assuming the one-of-three you have is the same
as mine i.e. large mortgage?

One man's "serious wedge" is another's "wouldn't get out of bed for
that sort of money". I'm doing "OK" IMO, at the moment, but I've
definitely earned more (like 50-75% more) when contracting.

 

Yes indeed.

I know - which was my only point really.

Difficult to do the sums, TBH, what with exchange rate fluctationa and
all, but although the maximum rates I was on as a contractor would
seem somewhat higher I reckon overall (lax periods, holidays, illness,
pensions etc.) it's not that much different. ISTR it was a ~25% net
drop when I went permie.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^

Good to see the correct latin-derived plural being used.

 

Well it is now but then I don't have very many outgoings and I'm so
boring that I don't have reason to spend my salary each month.

my best friend and his family survive on amazingly small amounts of cash
and they manage to save a decent amount as well. I earn far more and
while I have no debt other than a smallish mortgage I sort of feel
ashamed that I spend more than they do and they have far more
commitments.

Well creating a budget and totting up silly things like how much is
spent on things like lunches or magazines or CDs etc can be fairly
frightening when collated to an annual figure. I have occasionally
pondered how little I could get away with spending in a month if I
really economized and concentrated on the bare essentials.

 

Ace says...
I wouldn't call where we live pikey. This is one of the most desireable
villages in the area. It beats living in a noisy, dirty town any day of
the week.

Serious wedge in my experience is what I was earning back in 1993/94
when I managed 2 sales offices for the same company, one office in the
UK and the other in Indiana. Between both offices I had 12 sales staff.
Both were effectively part-time jobs as I split my time between the two.
I cleared about 45K PA with my commission, after tax. Not bad
considering my basic salary was only 25K PA.

 

Ah.. after tax.

 

dwb says...

What the top line figure is seems to be irrelevant. What matters to me
is how much real money goes in my account at the end of the month.

 

here's a useful little web based util.

http://www.greenstoneco.co.uk/common/calculators/payroll.html

There are a few more calculators on there too for those of you bothered
enough to look.

 

Heh.

 

That depends on your priorities and preferences, as we've discussed
many times on here.

 

Posted that one just for you - glad you found it.

 

Wrong. When you earn 'decent wedge' you always have enough money to
cover all your outgoings, so have no need to go overdrawn.

This is much easier to say when you have it than when you don't :-/

You're prolly right, but in 15 years of EKS I only had to stay away
for two jobs, the first of which was down to a driving ban and the
second was over here, which had quite a different motivation.

Cheapskate.

 

When you earn decent wedge to tend to not care too much if you go
overdrawn because you know you can earn the cash to clear it whenever you
want.

6 years ago the combined income in our house was less than a third of what
it is now. We never used to be overdrawn, now I tend to dip in whenever I
want. Then it used to be 'Can I afford it? no, then I won't have it.' now
its ' Can I afford it, not really but we can always have a cheap month
next month, so lets get it.' Quality of life is different thats all. We
aren't necessarily any happier as we've always been happy. its just the
'stuff' that surrounds you that changes.

Money is not the important thing its how you live your life that counts. I
would hate to be rich and unhappy. I could earn more money than I do know
by going EKS but I don't want to sacrifice the lifestyle I have now to go
living in B&B at the other end of the country to SWMBO. Going home at
night is worth more to me than an extra 20K in my paypacket.

Thats my 2p anyway

 

For sale: irritating, man-of-the people-type humour and concession to
standing own round in pub. Will swap for massive lottery win.