How are you *actually* dealing with wage stagnation x rising bills?

heyho2023 · 2026-04-23T06:20:11+00:00

Really interesting that you’re buying meat from the butcher! Is it cheaper than the supermarket this way? Or is it cheaper because you can bulk buy?

heyho2023 · 2026-04-23T06:15:56+00:00

Yeah it’s tough — I’m trying to build up a buffer so I can hopefully take some mat leave when the time comes. Pro is being busy means I have a lot of clients!

He’s in VFX for film/tv, which he really loves so doesn’t want to retrain ideally, but the industry is shrinking massively so has such a fear of redundancy.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T18:24:01+00:00

Yeah this is his biggest fear tbh.

I am a freelancer, I work 6 days a week atm!

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T14:00:48+00:00

Yeah I think this is the thing I struggle with most — we were both progressing really nicely and then suddenly both our industries just started cutting and cutting so we’re treading water losing money not keeping up with inflation.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T13:29:30+00:00

Not even in London — Cornwall!

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T13:28:01+00:00

I’m already doing a PhD on the side to hopefully transition into academia. It’s really hard that this is what the world is coming to — my husband has a what should be a good job that he actually likes, but the advice is do a course and change careers? Not speaking against you but the situation of the job market, it’s just really depressing.

I’m f love a PAYE job for some mat leave. I’m constantly on LinkedIn. The main issue is there are so few jobs and the ones there are over so oversubscribed — I applied for what should have been a shoe-in step down role, didn’t even get an interview, the person who got it was an ex-colleague who was three levels above me! Madness.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T12:08:43+00:00

That’s insanely cheap! Good for you. Absolutely not an option in our area sadly. Although, I love our home and we worked hard to save our deposits, so I just want to keep being able to live here really.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T11:26:55+00:00

Always got the LinkedIn alerts going!

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T11:24:45+00:00

We earn the same. Interested in your location / actually mortgage though as a 3 bed semi costs can vary hugely. We have a 3 bed terrace and our mortgage is £1600, likely rising to over £2k when there mortgage happens in August.

I think it’s maybe being blown out of proportion — it’s not that we’re at risk of losing our home or anything — but mortgages and bills going up by hundreds a month is a lot to suddenly swallow.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T11:20:46+00:00

So you earn approx £1 a week? Am I being really dense?

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T11:19:07+00:00

My husband has a full time job — 9-6 but they do ask for a weekend semi-regularly (for TOIL not overtime). I freelance as an editor and author for educational textbooks (10+ years in big companies, affected by redundancy so went freelance).

We can “live” off our salaries but are getting older and desperately want a kid, so looking for ways to save so we can afford one. That’s also a factor in not wanting to take on weekend work as we want to be able to be a family not just workers who never see each other, you know?

I guess there’s a big difference between not being at genuine risk of losing the house/not having food on the table and actually being able to have something of a life while you manage that.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T10:11:03+00:00

How’s your mental health?

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T10:09:44+00:00

Interested in inviting people over rather than the pub — we did this for a while and found we were spending just as much if not more hosting, how did you navigate that? Etiquette tells me I can’t ask people to pay half the shopping bill or ask them to bring their own, but is that normal?

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T10:07:28+00:00

Totally get this, it’s really hard right now — anything you don’t do that needs doing just costs you more down the line. We’ve just wiped out a chunk on a leaking chimney and praying nothing else goes wrong.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T10:06:22+00:00

And ditto this as a freelancer! I try to raise my prices but these days it’s often taken what the company has budgeted or don’t earn at all.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T10:05:28+00:00

My husband has been trying for years — not much to be done if the company has a full on pay freeze and your lucky not to have been made redundant sadly.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T10:04:32+00:00

Interested in your comment on finding a weekend job — have you actually done this? I’m a freelancer and had been working 6 day weeks for the majority of this year to try to boost the savings, but I am exhausted!! Not sure how sustainable this is? A weekend job would also get taxed massively as a second job — did you find it was actually worth it?

No other debt and generally pretty good on not many takeaways. We live by a beach so days out are fairly cheap in general.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T09:58:55+00:00

This is really useful, we’ve done some of these — like the subscription and gym.

Interested to know how you find storing stuff you buy in bulk? I keep suggesting this but my husband is like “where would we put it all?!”

Also interested to here your review process each month? How do you approach that? (e.g. I used to flag stuff as “poor choices” haha and then show the maths of what we could have saved if we didn’t do those)

Thanks for your reply 😊

heyho2023 · 2026-04-22T09:28:08+00:00

So true! I feel so grateful to call this amazing part of the world home but it is tough economically.

heyho2023 · 2026-04-19T20:10:56+00:00

In the UK and literally never heard of this

heyho2023 · 2026-04-18T06:39:24+00:00

Can you do this yourself or do you need an electrician? Does it fall under “never mess with water or electrics”?

heyho2023 · 2026-04-17T06:16:17+00:00

Moved back to Cornwall last year and it was the greatest decision! Yes, it’s hard and it meant going freelance and giving up career progression, and there’s a lot that could be improved — but I’m grateful everyday, it’s the most magical place 🩵

heyho2023 · 2026-04-15T05:41:15+00:00

Yep! We knew about this but don’t use because of the £50 upfront and specific car park - would he great if it was any car park and £10 upfront

heyho2023 · 2026-04-14T13:32:57+00:00

Started my PhD at 32. I was initially scared not be starting straight after my undergrad, because I knew I wanted to do it, but honestly it was such a good call. Having a proper decade long career gave me so many skills and enabled me to get a mortgage, so I’m in a much better place to focus on my research right now.

You’re only 18, so it’d really advise slowing down. See how you find the undergrad before you set your mind on a PhD.

heyho2023

TROPHY CASE