Do you earn enough for a minimum acceptable standard of living?

PasturesNew

At least with a skill you stand a chance of making your own work. e.g. if you go down the pub you might be able to find somebody that wants something doing .... can't do that with a lot of jobs.

wymondham

All hinges on acceptable... strictly speaking if we are all to fund our retirement adequately, then I recon £70k a year should be enough to make pension payments as well as afford to eat etc..!

PasturesNew

If I could just earn £1,000,000 for one year, I'd have enough... just.

lee636

PasturesNew wrote: »

You're missing out on the excitement of finding me attractive for starters!

:rotfl:

A reason to start drinking?!

LeeStarburst

It won't calculate for my situation as I live in a shared house with other adults. I have an income of £2000ish pa and an expenditure of £4750ish pa. This £4750 covers rent, bills, NI and food and no more. What's a luxury?
The figures for minimally decent standard of living appear to be on the high side. It seems that the high rent and mortgage costs for those in the South eat a large chunk of income. Another thing seems to be that not to have those luxuries apparently leads to social exclusion. The social need not to feel excluded often seems to be as or more important than the direct enjoyment derived from a given luxury. There have been a few discussions recently about the 'secretly poor'. People keeping up appearances of middle class affluence whilst behind closed doors doing without. The credit boom has a lot to answer for. I suspect in a few years when the credit has run out, houses are worth less and more people lose their jobs that a more sensible idea of what minimum decency is will prevail. The Joneses will get poorer and it'll be easier to keep up with them. Jemima's piano and ballet lessons will no longer seem so important over on Mumsnet.
Right, I'm off to Tesco to pick up some end of day food bargains.

Harry_Powell

You should shack up with PasturesNew, LeeStarburst. You're both kings of argumentum ad misericordiam

StevieJ

LeeStarburst wrote: »

It won't calculate for my situation as I live in a shared house with other adults. I have an income of £2000ish pa and an expenditure of £4750ish pa. This £4750 covers rent, bills, NI and food and no more. What's a luxury?
The figures for minimally decent standard of living appear to be on the high side. It seems that the high rent and mortgage costs for those in the South eat a large chunk of income. Another thing seems to be that not to have those luxuries apparently leads to social exclusion. The social need not to feel excluded often seems to be as or more important than the direct enjoyment derived from a given luxury. There have been a few discussions recently about the 'secretly poor'. People keeping up appearances of middle class affluence whilst behind closed doors doing without. The credit boom has a lot to answer for. I suspect in a few years when the credit has run out, houses are worth less and more people lose their jobs that a more sensible idea of what minimum decency is will prevail. The Joneses will get poorer and it'll be easier to keep up with them. Jemima's piano and ballet lessons will no longer seem so important over on Mumsnet.
Right, I'm off to Tesco to pick up some end of day food bargains.

It is not a new phenomemon, my granny used to call it 'Net curtains at the window and Margarine on the table'

Reginald_aka

StevieJ wrote: »

It is not a new phenomemon, my granny used to call it 'Net curtains at the window and Margarine on the table'/images2.moneysavingexpert.com/images/forum_style_1/icons/icon7.gif[/IMG]

Net curtains your Royal Highness???!!!

We had barbed wire at our windows to keep out the local circus folk, and margarine??? Margarine??? LOOSE ON THE TABLE??

We were lucky if we had month old dripping and a thimble of butter between the 12 of us!

What is the world coming to? Such a shame....

neverdespairgirl

StevieJ wrote: »

It is not a new phenomemon, my granny used to call it 'Net curtains at the window and Margarine on the table'

"All fur coat and no knickers"

elona

"Spam Hill" ie folk who live in posh area but can only afford Spam to eat.