Is £40,000 really a liveable income for families in the UK?

RenovationMan

lostinrates wrote: »

Probably easier to buy a 8ook property outright or with a repayment mortgage if you have a tighter housekeeping budget!

I guess so, but who wants to spend 25 years eating beans on toast, having no holidays and not letting the kids do any activities?

I'm all for cost cutting in order to buy a dream home, especially when the costs are cut but the quality of the product remains the same (i.e. we have made savings on insurances but retained the same cover, utilities but retained the same service, etc).

What I don't want to do is start scrimping on all aspects of our life, from the quality of our food to the quality of our family time, the kids activities, clothing etc. No dream house is worth that sort of deliberate sacrifice, I'd just rather buy a lesser home and enjoy my life more.

lostinrates

RenovationMan wrote: »

I guess so, but who wants to spend 25 years eating beans on toast, having no holidays and not letting the kids do any activities?.

Is that how you think NDG lives?

Malcolm.

RenovationMan wrote: »

That's £200 less than my wife uses just for houskeeping money. Just goes to show how expensive kids are!

Do you have many kids RenoMan(?). and what does housekeeping include?

If it includes all bills, I can understand how outgoings are this much.

RenovationMan

lostinrates wrote: »

Is that how you think NDG lives?

Eh? How on earth have I given that impression? It was you who made the remark about reduced housekeeping not NDG.

I know that NDG and her OH are lawyers and are on great salaries, why would I think they needed to scrimp?

lostinrates

RenovationMan wrote: »

Eh? How on earth have I given that impression? ?

This is how you gve that impression to me

I'm sure we'll somehow struggle by. How's the £800k house purchase coming along?

then my comment about reduced housekeeping

I guess so, but who wants to spend 25 years eating beans on toast, having no holidays and not letting the kids do any activities?

fwiw, I don't see my situation as comparable to yours: I don't have any children to budget for.

chewmylegoff

RenovationMan wrote: »

I guess so, but who wants to spend 25 years eating beans on toast, having no holidays and not letting the kids do any activities?

I'm all for cost cutting in order to buy a dream home, especially when the costs are cut but the quality of the product remains the same (i.e. we have made savings on insurances but retained the same cover, utilities but retained the same service, etc).

What I don't want to do is start scrimping on all aspects of our life, from the quality of our food to the quality of our family time, the kids activities, clothing etc. No dream house is worth that sort of deliberate sacrifice, I'd just rather buy a lesser home and enjoy my life more.

the way i'd achieve this is by giving the mrs £300 to do the housekeeping with and spending the other £1100 on my lunch at work. i'm not sure if that will cover beluga caviar and dom perignon '96 for the whole month, but we'll see.

paulmapp8306

My sister and her husband have a joint £36k income, and have a home and 3 teenagers to support. Its a struggle but they get by. Thats Nottingham though.

I have (currently) £42k including my wifes megre income, but that is soon to change. Im expecting to earn around £18k (provided I can actually find a job), with the wife earning another £4k or so (ditto) as she has to work around the kids school needs. I will have my forces pension to top up as well, totalling around £33k family income.

Will I manage? Ill have to.

RenovationMan

Malcolm. wrote: »

Do you have many kids RenoMan(?). and what does housekeeping include?

If it includes all bills, I can understand how outgoings are this much.

We have 2 kids. By housekeeping I mean all food, clothing for the family, kids pocket money, kids activities (dance, swimming, skiing lessons, tutoring, etc), days trips and little holidays, nights out, takeaways, food for pets, etc. etc.

In fact it's probably easier to say what the £1400 doesn't pay for: Utility bills, insurances, mortgage.

paulmapp8306

As a further point, the average income at present is £22,600 (from an employment journay dated Jul 2011). So even if BOTH parents could work FULL TIME (which is doubtfull if you have kids) tha average family income is going to be around £45k.

Its highly likely only one parent can work full time, also that the vast majority of jobs are less than £22k. Around £16k-£18k is normal (the few but ultra high wages bring up the average quite a lot).

Id say £30k is probably what most of the masses have to live on. There would be no government help on that income either after April 2012 (when the upper limit for tax credits is drastically lowered), though if you have kids youll get £100-£150 pm Child benefit.

RenovationMan

lostinrates wrote: »

This is how you gve that impression to me



then my comment about reduced housekeeping



fwiw, I don't see my situation as comparable to yours: I don't have any children to budget for.

Quite. You made the comment about housekeeping, not NDG so I'm not sure why you thought I was commenting about her when I was simply responding to your own question?

I was responding to your suggestion that if I cut back on my household budget then perhaps I too could afford a £800k house. I obviously couldn't afford £800k no matter what, but I took your point about the household budget and a larger house and responded accordingly.

Still, these confusions sometimes happen on forums so it's good to clear that up.