How much to live on?

Maddie

Well I take home £1k a month and am putting £500pm into regular savings, so I must be managing on £500pm!

Fixed expenses are (everything halved with my boyfriend);

Rent £250
Council tax £45
Water £11
Phoneline £5
Mobile £- (cashback deals!)
Leccy & Gas £20
Broadband £10
Food £50 (and thats all very healthy stuff & mainly organic)
Car £- . (mileage allowance from work covers expenses)
Total: £391

The best bit is that I feel rich as I have no money worries at all

southernscouser

I dunno how you do it Phil! :rotfl:

Over 100 reponses to the same thread you did a while back! :T

studentphil

southernscouser wrote: »

I dunno how you do it Phil! :rotfl:

Over 100 reponses to the same thread you did a while back! :T

What you forget is that this is a vital issue of personal economics.

southernscouser

studentphil wrote: »

What you forget is that this is a vital issue of personal economics.

Hang on a minute! :rotfl:


You're trying to tell me I'm forgetfull! :eek: :rotfl:

studentphil

southernscouser wrote: »

Hang on a minute! :rotfl:


You're trying to tell me I'm forgetfull! :eek: :rotfl:

I must admit I had forgotten I had spoken about this before.

alwaysskint96

sheraz2 wrote: »

Not if your under 25. Not everyone gets it:mad:

You do if you have kids

Morglin

studentphil wrote: »

I must admit I had forgotten I had spoken about this before.

How is it that you're doing a degree in Philosophy, yet you cannot be philosophical about life?:rolleyes:

When you have finished your exams, go the the job centre, and they have advisors to help those, who cannot manage, get a job or training.

They will help you to do the forms, and they will set up interviews for you.

There are people out there that will help you get a job and earn money.

Lin

jaffa30

studentphil wrote: »

I must admit I had forgotten I had spoken about this before.

It must have been one of the other shift that had started that thread :rolleyes: , make a mental note that you should really try and remember what tosh you post

lady_fuschia

I think people tend to expand to fill their incomes to be honest. Beyond a certain point whatever you earn you just manage on. If you earn £2000 a month, you start to "need" £2000 a month, even if you used to manage on half that.
A few years ago I was working full time earning £160 a week (so £640 a month) and I used to manage absolutely fine. I lived in a lovely shared house (in a fairly cheap area admittedly) I ate very well and went out fairly regularly, although I didn't buy huge amounts of "stuff" (DVDs, clothes etc) and didn't run a car or smoke - and although I never had much spare cash, I survived without too much trouble.
Now I earn more, live in a more expensive area and I'm not quite sure how I did it! Still my OH and I manage to live off around £1200 pm between us - including paying off a bit of debt.
I think in the right area a single person could live very comfortably on £1000 a month, and could probably survive on half that.
You just have to learn to live off what you have.
There are more important facets to a good life than having money after all - some of the happiest people I know now are those who earn the least, because they've learnt to live within their means instead of always striving for more and better stuff. Conversaly I know some people who earn three times what I do and are always moaning about how they don't have enough money. It's all about finding a lifestyle you can be happy with. Sometimes a tiny rented bedsit, simple food and no debt can be bliss compared to a five bedroom house, three cars and more sky channels than you could ever watch.

mackiex

I live in Sunderland alone and was on around £18000 when I quit work in 2004. This gave me a decent standard of living as I always had a few extra £100 a month 'spare' to play with. Since then though I have been on Incapacity Benefit, Income Support and Jobseekers

this is a breakdown of my bills a month

mortgage £416 - 3 bed semi originally £63000 and currently £52,000 with 18 years remaining (average mortgage in my area is probably around £550 these days so I'm lucky to have such a low mortage)
mortgage insurance - £35
house insurance - £23
council tax - £83
water rates - £30
gas - £20
electric - £25

so just having my home and covering costs is around £632! which is close to £160 a week. People may think I could just sell my 3 bed house as it's worth triple my mortgage and buy something smaller. What is the point as I only have a £50,000 mortgage and that would buy a 1 bed flat somewhere so my mortgage wouldn't really change

now I still need 'luxuries' but lets start with the basic luxuries that most people have these days

tv licence - £11
phone - £18
mobile phone - £15
internet £18

that adds another £62 taking my current running total up to £694

so on an example basic wage of £10850 (£5.35 * 39 hours * 52 weeks) this gives £10850 a year (this is just a rough estimate). After tax it will be £8300ish but I don't know if you get any tax reductions. If you don't then this £8300 works out as £690 a month

so basically I can't afford to work for minimum wage as I'd be left with nothing for everything else and I'd starve to death:(

notice I haven't even included things like food etc but let's just see how much I would need a month to be 'comfortable'

groceries would probably be between £150-200
other shopping - £60-£80
car insurance - £35
car tax - £15
petrol - £80

so this is another £340-£410 taking the running total to £990-£1080 a month and there's a few more things I haven't included like running costs for the house/car and things like clothes or unexpected bills etc. Yeah I could get rid of then car but then it would be awkward to get to work for starters and I wouldn't save that much seeing as I'd have to pay bus fare to go to see family/friends/appointments etc!

I'm starting a new job soon with a basic wage of £13500 but I also get a 10% pension given and apparently the yearly bonus is around 10% so this takes it up to around £16200. I can also get bonuses so I'm hoping for maybe another £1000 taking it to around £17000. This should give my around £1050 or more a month but hopefully I will manage as I've got a nice house and my car is paid for thanks to my old job.

lady_fuschia wrote: »

I think in the right area a single person could live very comfortably on £1000 a month, and could probably survive on half that.
You just have to learn to live off what you have.

are you serious? £1000 a month for a single person? for that you basically won't have most 'luxuries' or not own your own house or rent it and live on the basics for most things. If that's the life people are happy with or maybe enjoy living with parents then fine but I enjoy having things in life that give you a decent standard of living. Maybe some people are mortgage free so this will greatly affect what the need to 'survive' as I'd survive easily if my mortgage was less. I'd like to see your breakdown to survive on £1000 a month for me and giving me a reasonable standard of living . God knows how you expect someone to survive on half that when the rent on a 1 bed flat is probably £300 if you include council tax, water rate insurance and that doesn't include gas/electric or TV licence!

Don't forget I live in the North East so housing costs are cheaper and I'd hate to be down South trying to survive on the basic wage! I'd also hate to be in my lower 20's again trying to live a decent standard of living as it's financially impossible mostly due to ridiculous house prices and bills!!!!!!

lady_fuschia wrote: »

Conversaly I know some people who earn three times what I do and are always moaning about how they don't have enough money. It's all about finding a lifestyle you can be happy with. Sometimes a tiny rented bedsit, simple food and no debt can be bliss compared to a five bedroom house, three cars and more sky channels than you could ever watch.

you sure, living in a tiny bedsit and having simple food and basics is not exactly a decent standard of living . I do agree the more you earn the more you spend but there is a limit to how low you can go before your quality of living suffer