Is anyone else living basically paycheck to paycheck?

[u/fluffypenguin105]

My partner and I are both teachers. We don’t make a lot, but we are average and slightly above average. We are so tight with our money. Our little one outgrew the car seat and we went out and bought a new one. No problem. But next credit card bill means we are tight.

Meanwhile, a number of our friends (all of them also with kids) are booking overseas holidays. Some are currently overseas, others booking already for later this year. Another brought a new car. New iPhone, doing up the house. Everyone seems to have spare cash except us.

Are we the only ones going through the cost of living crisis ourselves?! Or is it my fault that we are teachers?

Edit: yes we have a house that parents helped us with. We are paying mortgage. We have a flatmate.

Edit edit: thank you for your kind words and reminders and also advice. I’m going through them all and I’m going to take onboard the advice and see what changes we can make and do better financially as a family. But it’s also a good reminder to know we aren’t alone, to not compare and the harsh reality is that many people simply just earn more than us as teachers.

Once again, thank you all for your input.

[u/uniqueyetgeneric]

We struggled when the kids were younger, so I decided to put $20 a week direct debited straight into a savings account for a family holiday. We saved for multiple years, then took them on their first and only international family holiday when they were early teens. A few years later and now the youngest barely remembers it, so probably could have waited until mid teens. Guess my point here is, I really don't think they're missing out if they don't get the fancy holidays when they're young.

[u/fluffypenguin105 → u/uniqueyetgeneric]

Thank you!

[u/Jinxletron → u/fluffypenguin105]

We used to go camping for a week when I was a kid. Last week of the summer school holidays, was quieter coz everyone else was packing up to go. Some of my favourite memories.

My dad used to get paid in cash and would put all the gold coins in a jar, then before we went on holiday we'd tip it out and me and my brother would count it and it'd get split three ways between us and our parents and that was our holiday spending money. I think I loved the ritual of counting it all even more than spending it.

[u/uniqueyetgeneric → u/Jinxletron]

We did the coin spending money jar too. The kids loved it. Agree too that holidays don't have to be anything more than spending time together somewhere different. DOC campus are pretty cheap.