What do you consider a 'decent' salary (non-London)

spugzbunny

My God! besides the fact that this is ridiculous .... you are approaching this all wrong.

Budget, budget budget. I earn 31K and I can save £400 - 500 a month and I'm only a few bob left on my credit card with out too much bother. My budget looks like this:

Rent 300
Council Tax 44.33
Home Insurance 5.85
Water
Gas & Elec 33
TV Licence
Sky 10.83
Car 110
Car Insurance 43
Credit Card 300
Overdraft Account 120
ISA 300
E Saver 100
Cat 30
Mum's Birthday 60
Ed's wine 34.48
Total1491.49

Account Balance1831.5

Thurs 1st - Thurs 8th 70
Fri 9th - Thurs 15th 80
Fri 16th - Thurs 22nd 80
Fri 23rd - Thurs 29th 80
Wax 30

Total340

Remaining0.01

I share a house with 2 others so that splits the bills 3 ways. I also 'over budget' for things like my Mum's birthday or the cat and if I get a bargain, the extra goes back in my pocket. You don't need to be stressing yourself out on spending only £50 a week but for gods sake cut back on the holidays. You can't have everything! Either you want to retire at 40 OR you want to live life to the full while you are young. You clearly can't do both! My £80 week covers petrol, food, entertainment, clothes. I figure I either get a new dress or I go out - not both.

Before anyone asks - mobile phone, pet insurance etc are all in my 'overdraft account' which is a little bit savings and a little bit misc. bills. This example month happens to be a month where I don't pay TV licence or water so that would come in further down the line!

Ooo I feel a bit wierd putting my life on the board like this!! - It was a particular bad credit card month this month - I always try to pay off as much in full as I can!

jojo90_2

MGCP wrote: »

I'm still trying to work out how on earth you manage to spend that on holidays! Either you are going first class all the way, or you have a hobby you like to travel to do (like scuba diving) which is eating it up.

Nope, standard class all the way and I take the cheaper indirect route... it's one of my hobbies that eats up the cash... but not going into that on here :A.

jojo90_2

spugzbunny wrote: »

I share a house with 2 others so that splits the bills 3 ways.

That's the other option I've been considering - moving out the flat, renting it entirely, and moving into a larger house to split down the bills 4 ways. One friend has a decent place and only pays £350 all in. That would slash my outgoings and mean someone else is paying my mortgage. Need to do my sums on that one as I'm not 100% convinced yet.

Kate78

jojo90 wrote: »

I'm going to try and only spend £15-£20 on food. I reckon 2 x chickens = £8, re-use some spices for flavour, and some vegetables should be £15 for one person. £50 is a lot and guess I don't need things like salmon, olives, etc!

Blimey, this goes from the sublime to the ridiculous. One minute you're spending six grand on a holiday and then you think that buying/not buying a jar of olives is going to make a difference to your finances? :eek:

The issue isn't how much you earn, even if you earned twice as much you would still be in this position. It's about your attitude towards money, things and what you believe you are entitled to.

My advice (before I bow out, I can't stand much more of this) is to go onto the Home Page of this site. Go through the money makeover. Work out where you can make savings. Or don't. Your call.

But whatever you do, please stop whingeing that you're badly done to. It's undignified.

spugzbunny

jojo90 wrote: »

That's the other option I've been considering - moving out the flat, renting it entirely, and moving into a larger house to split down the bills 4 ways. One friend has a decent place and only pays £350 all in. That would slash my outgoings and mean someone else is paying my mortgage. Need to do my sums on that one as I'm not 100% convinced yet.

But the point is - you just don't need to do any of these things.

Cut your food bill by £30 which would leave £120 a month or £30 a week which is plenty.

Halve your holiday spend £250 saved.

Cut your clothing spend by £50 ....

wham bam you've got nearly £4K extra a year!

I repeat - you can't have it all. It's either the clothes, the holidays and the 'hobbies' or it's saving and early retirement. I'm afraid you just come across as spoilt:(

EDT to add - yes exactly what kate said above.

Odette

How nuts, I make 21k and live in North London and I think I live quite comfortably!

To be honest Jojo it sounds like it might be your attitude more than anything. I think I'm comfortable because I can afford to take out my bf now and then, go out in town every other weekend etc...And these things make me happy. Are you doing what makes you happy?

kr15snw

£30 is very realistic!!

I am very lucky that while I am out of work my partner can afford to pay the bills but nothing else. Once I pay out for things like car insurance etc I'm left with £20 a week and this is exactly what we are living off!

£20 a week buys our food and anything else we want! Try living like that, it's not fun!!

MGCP

So to sum up, yes it is a decent wage, far more than a lot of people manage to cope on, even those in London.

No wage is enough if you just spend it all though. If you want to maintain your current lifestyle and save up for the future, you're going to need to increase your income and be disciplined enough to not let your lifestyle expenses creep up so that any extra income goes straight into your savings.

Alternatively you need to accept that you are living beyond what is sensible for someone on your salary. Take a third out of your take home pay for savings, and whatever else is left is what you actually have to fund your lifestyle (including your expensive hobbies).

With that 2/3rds take home pay in mind you can start to think about what you can economise on (holidays would be the most obvious, but if life would be terrible without them you'll have to aim for other things).

Living back with your parents would be a bit pathetic though to be honest (particularly if it was just to save yourself money). You're an adult now and they worked hard to give you the independence to stand on your own two feet. Don't make it look like they failed!

Sorted?

PasturesNew

jojo90 wrote: »

I'm not going to include car travel in that although I will take out parking.

If it's not strictly for getting to/from work, charge yourself 20p/mile and pay for the parking out of your £50.

teabelly

jojo90 wrote: »

I'm the first one to admit I'm completely useless when it comes to money or understanding the value. Maybe I'm just unhappy and buying things makes me happy hence the problem.

Yes. Part of you wants the kudos that goes with the salary and feels you deserve all these shiny things but another part of you realises that you are deliberately messing up your future by refusing to keep track of money.

It isn't rocket science. Work back from what you earn. Take off all essentials like mortgage, utilities etc. What is left is what you have to spend. Take off another third which you will save. Put the other portion on a cash card like an O2 money or whatever and you use that. Divide it by 4 and you have your weekly budget. If you spend a load of money on entertainment then you can't fix your car. If you blow some on useless tat you go hungry for the week. Back to basics sunshine!

Also read liquid millionaire which is about gaining financial freedom by using stocks and shares isas. To fund an ideal lifestyle you would draw down no more than 7% a year and leave the rest to grow.

The sad fact is that the more you earn the more you find to spend it on so after a while it becomes normal so you don't appreciate it.