rent vs income

debrag

How much after all bills (excluding food) should we have left?

pippa80

Our mortgage is about 27% of our net income. We live in East London and purposefully moved a bit further out than where we were renting so we weren't streched (scared of cuts and our the reliance of our employers of public sector money in one way or another!).

PasturesNew

Where I live, LHA rate's about half my income, so a 1-bed flat with parking that I'd need would be pricier, looking at 55-60%. Which is why I am always looking and never renting. Too pricey.

hazyjo

debrag wrote: »

How much after all bills (excluding food) should we have left?

Not really sure what you're asking... how much money we think you need to live on each month after paying you rent/bills? People have given percentages of wages they put towards rent. Did you mean what percent should be left, or what amount in money terms? How can anyone answer that for you? Bit confused...

Jx

casper_g

princeofpounds wrote: »

Just for fun I did a quick exercise and decided to see what I could get for it.

Bear in mind that I am a top 5% earner in the UK according to national statistics.

I could, thankfully, rent a 1 bedroom apartment off a main road in Deptford.

Yes kids, studying at school was the key route to success. I have truly arrived

Nice! You have to pay that little bit more for the cosmopolitan London lifestyle though. Ah, the buzz of being at the centre of the cultural life of the nation... no, wait, that's just the rattly old engine of the bus outside the window.

serious_saver

casper_g wrote: »

Spend as little as you can to get a home you will be able to live in happily. My wife and I spend no more than about 20% of take-home, but at the moment, with no kids, we're very happy with the house we get for that.

We live in a nice 2 bed flat and pay about 27% of our income on rent (bizarely the same as pippa80's mortgage). Working on the basis of 20% we might be able to get a small studio flat or a decent double in a shared house but it's worth it for our own space. We spent quite a while living with family to save up for a deposit so renting the flat is really an exercise in teaching my OH about paying bills lol.

If I was able to get a mortgage (hopefully soon) and buy a flat in our building we would probably be able to get that down to below 20%.

Svenena

OP, if you complete an SOA (available in one of the stickies on the debt-free wannabee board) it allows you to input all your outgoings (eg transport, insurances, entertainment, food, savings, etc) and then you can see how much you would have left over for rent and bills.

debrag

hazyjo wrote: »

Not really sure what you're asking... how much money we think you need to live on each month after paying you rent/bills? People have given percentages of wages they put towards rent. Did you mean what percent should be left, or what amount in money terms? How can anyone answer that for you? Bit confused...

Jx

Sorry how much money (surplus). So say rent is 40% add all bills on top - tv, gas, electric, water, phone, CT etc Is £500 (2 of us) okay or should you have more? - food + travel to come out of this.

day to day living expenses

debrag

princeofpounds wrote: »

Just for fun I did a quick exercise and decided to see what I could get for it.

Bear in mind that I am a top 5% earner in the UK according to national statistics.

I could, thankfully, rent a 1 bedroom apartment off a main road in Deptford.

Yes kids, studying at school was the key route to success. I have truly arrived

You'd live in Deptford?

PasturesNew

If I add the bills on top, then it'd look like:
60% Rent
10% Council Tax
10% Basic Bills
10% Food
10% Travel to work
===
100% Ooops!

No money for anything else.