MSE News: The £14,400 minimum cost of living

Fang_3

ghostmadlittlemiss wrote: »

I'm a student with no parental support whatsoever. Using the figures from the basic calculator and taking off Council Tax as I don't need to pay it, being a student, the figure it spat out at me is £11,129.65 a year. I bl**dy wish! :eek: All the government money I get for living combined adds up to about £7000 a year. If I work part time as well, I might be able to push that up to £10,000 a year, at a push. Plus, there's the cost of textbooks on top of that. And before you say "get them from the library," our uni library often has about 1 or 2 copies of key texts between a few 100 students. Yes, you read that right. There are schools in majority world (to use the PC term) countries with better resources than that! :eek: So yes, the books are a must and even 2nd hand, you can be looking at £50 a book sometimes! God knows where this idea that students spend all their money getting drunk comes from. Only the ones with mummy and daddy's money behind them could afford that. I can barely afford my food and bills as it is.
Kayleigh

You get £7000 a year from the government. Most students don't get that amount.

Reaper

I've skimmed the full report and it strikes me that the cost of meeting the minimum is not going up so much as people's expectations are rising.

When most of the world's population lives on $1 a day they would struggle to understand why all these (taken from the report) are considered impossible to live without:

Computer
Broadband
Both a mobile (contract bundle not PAYG) and landline phone.
Nights out
Annual holiday
New not second hand clothes and furniture
Shopping in Tesco not discount stores

While we all may want those things I'm sure our grandparents would consider some of them luxury items, not to mention central heating, indoor toilets etc.

Fang_3

Reaper wrote: »

I've skimmed the full report and it strikes me that the cost of meeting the minimum is not going up so much as people's expectations are rising.

When most of the world's population lives on $1 a day they would struggle to understand why all these (taken from the report) are considered impossible to live without:

Computer
Broadband
Both a mobile (contract bundle not PAYG) and landline phone.
Nights out
Annual holiday
New not second hand clothes and furniture
Shopping in Tesco not discount stores

While we all may want those things I'm sure our grandparents would consider some of them luxury items, not to mention central heating, indoor toilets etc.

It's not the minimum that essentials cost. It's the minimum cost to participate in this country.

ceridwen

I shall certainly have to study this in detail.

My first reaction to it was that the only way I manage to not just exist, but participate in a fairly standard sort of way in my Society, is because I don't require any money for mortgage or rent. If I did - then I wouldnt be able to on my salary...end of...

I am very well aware of not "being greedy" in my expectations - and don't expect or work for any "super" level standard of living - but I can see that people do need enough money to eat in a healthy way/stay warm enough/have the health care they need/participate in a reasonable way in the life of their Society.

snugglepet20

Well according to the calculator we need an extra £73.11 a week to reach the minimum standard, didn't feel poor until now! Does anyone in the country actually pay rent as low as £77 for 3 bedrooms??!! This area is cheap and even the council houses are over £100, never mind somewhere you would actually want to live!

ViolaLass

debrag wrote: »

How did you manage to live on £10k and live in zone 1? did you share rental costs with anyone, renting a flat alone can be more than £10k

It was a shared place, no garden for about £380 a month plus bills, for which I got a perfectly good, functioning and comfortable if not luxurious flat to live in approx 5 mins walk from Elephant and Castle.

Thymely, if you were struggling to find something that price in Zone 3 (I've never looked so don't know what there is), then I'm extremely surprised. No judgement intended, I'm just honestly surprised. I didn't particularly struggle to find my place, it was the third one I saw. Lived there for 2.5 years with no rent increases, easygoing landlord and generally efficient agent. I left only because I wanted to go travelling.

Renting a flat in London /can/ cost more than £10k, so can a lot of things but I would strongly dispute that you /need/ to spend anything approaching that amount (although if you can afford it, why not?)

I also found it odd that the calculator allowed approx £75 a week for food when I spent £25-30 and did not consider myself to be particularly holding back. Perhaps it's allowing for a family/single who doesn't cook?

tryingto

The calculator didn't allow 75 a week for me for food, 44ish a week I think from memory, not sure why yours did??

jamesd

Worth noting that the poverty standard used by the Rowntree Foundation that is behind this is 60% of median income while this full participation figure is 72-73% of median income. It's not poverty by their definition but the next step up.

The 60% poverty standard isn't absolute poverty either, just being significantly less well off than the median income. You can still have ample cheap food and other basic living while being below the arbitrary 60% relative poverty level, though whether that's possible will depend on where you live - it won't be easy and may be impossible if you live in a high cost area.

Median income is the income of the average person, which is lower than the average income.

PasturesNew

I think as this is about having a reasonable life/participating in society, the £42/week for a single's food probably assumes eating out once a week, or two takeaways.

Fang_3

PasturesNew wrote: »

I think as this is about having a reasonable life/participating in society, the £42/week for a single's food probably assumes eating out once a week, or two takeaways.

Or better quality food with lots of fresh produce.