Families need £36,800 to live acceptably, study says

Generali

Another point. They use a figure for rent yet most people live in owner occupied housing and half of those people own outright.

michaels

Ha Ha Ha

I looked at housing, 150 a week and thought no way you could rent a property for a familly for that...and then discoverd actually only 82 quid of that was for rent and it also sincluded energy, council tax etc.

Locally a 3 bed is min 1000 pcm and that won't get you a decent road nor any garden space and council tax is 150/month not 90 etc etc

Carl31

Although I think some of the mix might be a bit off, I think that is a pretty realistic view, maybe not a life of luxury but a basic level
If you remove the childcare, assuming a SAHM its around £28k, which is about £4k over the average salary in this country
Speaks volumes, the countrys average salary cant afford the basic lifestyle

JasonLVC

One thing that popped into my mind was the potential damage having these sort of surveys can do.

It seems to set out a 'minimum standard' that everyone should now seek to attain/achieve - wasn't this race to keep up with the Jones' part of what got us into this economic crisis in the first place?

So the average family now must have a car with a roof box and rails, must buy several coats a year, etc?

What sort of toilet rolls cost £2.66 per week (the black ones SImon Cowell uses?);)

This will be picked up as an argument to show how poor everyone is when the reality is, behind the figures, it is just an average calculation based on spurious costings to make everyone feel they are lower down in society than they really are.

the_flying_pig

mystic_trev wrote: »

...families must earn a third more than in 2008, to live within social norms...

even given the impossibility of defining life within "social norms", an increase of one third reveals what a load of, erm, crap this must be.

GDP's lower than 2008, right? so i can only think that average household income is also lower.

lazer

The survey is a joke when you look through the things they have included

Firstly - childcare - not essential - SAHP? Therefore the figure would be substantially reduced for a family with one earner.
Also childcare is generally not this expensive after the first 4 years.

Secondly - Groceries - Almost £106 a week - over £400 a month, with an extra £29 a week on personal care - (Basically toiletories and hair!), and another £6 a week on cleaning products!
Some of the more extragavagent elements of this to me are £3.64 on canned drinks - have people never heard of water or squash?
Dessert - £5.98 - do people really have Dessert that often thats it costs £6 a week? A block of ice cream, Vienetta, home made trifle etc wouldn't cost more than about £2!
Alcohol - £6.50 - Not essential every week, once a month would be enough IMO.

Thirdly - Car and public Transport - why both?

Fourth - £30 a week on parents leisure activities, as well as £5.75 for family days. And on top of this there is other childrens activities. I'm not a parent, but my weekly leisure activities only cost around £5 - £10 a week, if I had children i would expect to cut spending on myself!

Fifth - Holiday - £750 a year for one week self catering and £210 spending money.
I don't think you need a holiday every year, or at least not one that costs £750 - sun holidays for £9.50?, camping (Around £15 - £20 a night?

The survey is being used by people to say that Benefits are too low - Benefits should not be high enough to enable households to pay almost £1000 a year on a holiday, £30 a week on Entertainment just for the adults.

I think a family of 4 earning £38k is well off, not on the poverty line,

The danger of a survey such as this, is that it is based on the perception of the public, and the more the wealthier members of the public have, they will deem it as essential when asked becasue they couldn't live without it, but someone much less wealthy wouldn't even consider it as an essential.

Callie22

Well that taught me that a DFS sofa represents extraodinarily poor value when compared to a set of Wilkinson's egg cups ...

joe_blotts

I think it's meant to be an average. So making points about what each individual on this forum spends per item/class is meaningless. The avergae is what it is. Still 10K over 4 years seems an awful lot. Have prices, on average, risen by 25% in the last four years? Food energy etc. It is though meant to be the worst squeeze since the 30s though so maybe it is true. If it is it's a disaster for families.

FTBFun

£78 a year on oven cleaner? I'm in the wrong business.

And why are the furniture and carpets being replaced every year? Especially in a rental property as that's the landlords concern in most cases.

EDIT: oh and apparently childrens footwear x2 costs £350 a year. I call BS on that one (and a lot of other figures) - this is supposed to be the "minimum" btw.

Norfolk_Jim

I think I'd get by very, very comfortably on that figure. I get maybe half that sum and it is very difficult to get by - not impossible but I dont enjoy life much these days, every waking hour is spent thinking about how to manage money. Holidays - thing of the past. Maybe weekend away but the days of being able to for 1000 on a holiday are long gone. So not sure what to think about this one. Guess it depends on what a reasonable standard of living is - how can you define it when everyone has a different idea about it?