How much income do you need to support a family???

jellyhead

me too i must admit, we'd live like kings on 30 grand a year, even with the mortgage and loan costing 700+ per month and with 2 children one of which is a new baby. we'd be holidaying in florida instead of a caravan lol! well, once anyway, we do actually prefer to holiday in britain.

we're all so different aren't we. i mentioned my sister before - she couldn't live on 30 grand for a family of 4, i could easily with loads to spare for holidays, savings, pension etc. that's why none of us can really answer the OP as to how much they'd need for one of them to stay at home, it depends on what they would consider to be an okay standard of living and if they'd be happy to cut back if having one person stay at home is important to them as a family. if we had enough room for the baby so didn't need the loan and didn't have a student loan to repay we'd easily manage on less than 20 but i know people who'd look like the 'eek' emoticon at the very thought of it. don't shout at me but for us i'd have to say that we would still have one of us stay at home even if we couldn't afford it, simply because it's so important to us. we'd live frugally and even go into debt for the short term so i could stay at home until the baby is at school at least. not everyone would think that way.

kiwichick

jellyhead wrote:

i'd have to say that we would still have one of us stay at home even if we couldn't afford it, simply because it's so important to us. we'd live frugally and even go into debt for the short term so i could stay at home until the baby is at school at least. not everyone would think that way.

I agree with you on this one. Its the reason I have started doing things the MSE and OS way.I have 3 under 3 and want to stay at home with them as long as I can(even on the bad days-lol).

I KNOW its a priviedge to be able to do so, even if it does mean cutting back on things we have reviously taken for granted.

Al.

funky-footprints

got to admit we made the decision as soon as I got pg with our first that I would stay at home, (but at the time hubby was earning a considerable (3 times) the amount of money he is now) I grew up on a farm and saw my dad every meal time and my mum ran the house, my husbands dad worked abroad for much of his childhood and his mum worked full time and he was in boarding school from 10, so it was realy important to us both in different ways that I stayed at home to bring up our family. finding this board has saved us a lot of money, and taught me soo much ....... I only wish I had found it this time last year in preparation for what I have learned now.

Even with things as tight as they are, I still am not looking for a full time job. (that may have to change come spring) Yes it would make life easier if I used childcare before and after school, and farmed the kids out between the 3 sets of grandparents we have available to us, but at the minute we will remain skint but pretty happy. jelly head, I most definately couldnt survive on any less than 20k a year, but I know many families do.

Sarahsaver

never say never!
Unless you have a lot of debt or a big mortgage you CAN live on less than 20k.
It takes a big leap for some for example to shop at Primark instead of M&S, or a charity shop instead of new stuff.
When I grew up mum would never set foot in a charity shop, although she was from a poor background she didnt want to be reminded I think, I partly became so frugal as a rebellion against her! Dad was a moneysaver in the true old style, so also I wanted to be like him.
Also if you are used to ready meals you may not think it is possible to cook every day. Don't make all the changes at once...but the day when someone says 'your kids are fantastic' or 'that meal was lovely' 'how do you do it' or 'you always look so stylish' when you are head to toe in primark/jumble/carboot bargains you will know why you did it all. It all pays off. My kids value the things which really matter in life and they are not very materialistic at all:)
We need to turn our culture back to being prided on how much we save rather than how much we spend! I saved about 200 quid yesterday by switching my utilities supplier.

DeniseNZ

I've been sitting here busily converting all the British pounds into NZ dollars - have to say we are not doing too badly in comparison.

We are a family of six, have four teenage boys, and earn (and spend) around 1520 pound per month. Still could do better and I'm slowly working on it.

We have no mortgage at the moment as we sold our home and are currently renting until we build - hopefully early next year. But I'm still putting away enough as though we were paying the mortgage (it will be a bit more than the rent).

A quick question if I may ~ When working out our debt - should a mortgage be included in the total? When I look at some of the siggy lines, a lot of people either haven't put their mortgage in their debt total, or don't have one at all.

I'm learning, but some things take time LOL.

jellyhead

just a thought - the average couple working for minimum wage (my parents for example) have less than 20k a year to live on ... okay if they have children it will be topped up but still, the min wage is pretty low, i think you're all quite well off lol!

westernpromise

DeniseNZ wrote:

I've been sitting here busily converting all the British pounds into NZ dollars - have to say we are not doing too badly in comparison.

We are a family of six, have four teenage boys, and earn (and spend) around 1520 pound per month.

I'm stunned you can live on that - the cost of living must be really cheap in NZ....

A quick question if I may ~ When working out our debt - should a mortgage be included in the total? When I look at some of the siggy lines, a lot of people either haven't put their mortgage in their debt total, or don't have one at all.

I would say not. First, mortgage debt is not something you can realistically avoid, unless you rent which costs almost exactly the same. Second, you are getting something continuously in return for having a mortgage debt, namely a roof over your head. So you are paying for and receiving something over a long term.

Essentially it's the difference between 'capital' and 'expense'. 'Capital' is large items with long term use. Expense is stuff you will use and quickly replace, like food, cars, and holidays, and clothes.

A lot of consumer debt apparently arises because people confuse 'expense' with 'expensive' and figure that if something's expensive they'll put it on the mortgage because they can't afford it otherwise.

It's quite an important distinction. Adding to your mortgage debt to improve you house - by building a garage, f'rex - is reasonable and responsible because you will reduce the debt over 25 years and use the garage for at least as long. Adding to your mortgage to buy a car to go in the garage, on the other hand, is not reasonable or responsible because you are going to be paying for the car for long after you sell it, and probably for years after the thing has been scrapped.

IMHO using debt to finance major purchases is fine, but the credit period should never last longer than what you're buying is going to last you.

Starting quite soon, we will see more and more people who have a bigger mortgage now than they did 25 years ago, and who will probably start whining about 'mortgage equity withdrawal mis-selling'. They have loaded the mortgage up with cars, cruises, and caravans, not noticed the cost because interest rates have been low for 12 years, and suddenly find that they're nearing retirement and have no prospect of paying off their mortgage.

westernpromise

kiwichick wrote:

I agree with you on this one. Its the reason I have started doing things the MSE and OS way.I have 3 under 3 and want to stay at home with them as long as I can(even on the bad days-lol).

I KNOW its a priviedge to be able to do so, even if it does mean cutting back on things we have reviously taken for granted.

Al.

According to a colleague of mine it is usually the case that when the mother gives up work and stays home, the father's income rises to exceed what they previously earned jointly, and it does so within 4 to 5 years.

It seems extraordinary, but someone - I wish I knew who - studied this in great detail in the US and found that it is usually true.

It is roughly true in my own case - I have switched jobs since #1 arrived 3 years ago and now make approximately what we jointly earned at that time. It is also true in the case of my best mate. My sample is pretty small, but when we stopped and thought about this, we were both able to think of others of whom it's also proved true.

It must depend on what sort of job you do; perhaps it is to do with timing, i.e. you start a family just as the main earner's career is looking good. I don't know - ours arrived by accident at a time when there was a very good chance I'd get wasted from work...

Food for thought!

MPwannasavemoney

westernpromise wrote:

According to a colleague of mine it is usually the case that when the mother gives up work and stays home, the father's income rises to exceed what they previously earned jointly, and it does so within 4 to 5 years.

It seems extraordinary, but someone - I wish I knew who - studied this in great detail in the US and found that it is usually true.

Oh how I wish that would be true for me - its been more than 4 years now. But, I have a wife who doesn't accept the need to control spending within a budget and our govt doesn't help - council taxes rising so fast, extra national insurance to pay - not increasing tax allowances in line with average earning increases, petrol prices going up etc etc.

kiwichick

westernpromise wrote:

According to a colleague of mine it is usually the case that when the mother gives up work and stays home, the father's income rises to exceed what they previously earned jointly, and it does so within 4 to 5 years.

It seems extraordinary, but someone - I wish I knew who - studied this in great detail in the US and found that it is usually true.

It is roughly true in my own case - I have switched jobs since #1 arrived 3 years ago and now make approximately what we jointly earned at that time. It is also true in the case of my best mate. My sample is pretty small, but when we stopped and thought about this, we were both able to think of others of whom it's also proved true.

It must depend on what sort of job you do; perhaps it is to do with timing, i.e. you start a family just as the main earner's career is looking good. I don't know - ours arrived by accident at a time when there was a very good chance I'd get wasted from work...

Food for thought!

Blimey, how I wish this was true of my situation. OH earns £12K less (and with 3 more mouths to feed) than we did when we were both working and this is AFTER 4 years of pay rises.

We would continue to sink into debt if we weren't turning to theOS way of doing things.