How can I realistically live on a £15k/25k salary?

[Deleted User]

Living on £15K is easy and 1000s of people live on less.

binaryuniverse

Deleted_User wrote: »

Living on £15K is easy and 1000s of people live on less.

Once you factor in tax, it's closer to 13.5k. It's 'easy' if you don't have any rent/mortgage to pay. Otherwise, it's just about enough to survive on, if you're supporting just yourself. There's no way you can plan for the future, with savings or a pension. If you have dependants then it's impossible to cope.

[Deleted User]

binaryuniverse wrote: »

Once you factor in tax, it's closer to 13.5k. It's 'easy' if you don't have any rent/mortgage to pay. Otherwise, it's just about enough to survive on, if you're supporting just yourself. There's no way you can plan for the future, with savings or a pension. If you have dependants then it's impossible to cope.

The OP makes no mention of how much savings he has from 'living at home' or where about in the country he lives as rent prices widely differ from one part of to another.

You can rent 2-bed houses and flats up here for £350 a month or £4,200 a year. Still leaves over £10K for bills and food.

little_green

Deleted_User wrote: »

Living on £15K is easy and 1000s of people live on less.

iving on 15k is not easy. Just to put that into prespective the national minimum wage for 25+ is 7.83/hour based on a 40 hour week, one should be earning at least 16,286.40 if working full time.
as mentioned above, that would be pre-tax so what your taking home would be around 13.5k after tax & NI & that's not including pension deductions which for full time workers i believe is compulsory now.

deductions are a lot:
rent/mortgage
(uk average morgatge- £671/month for the year of 2016-2017, say £8000/year)
council tax (uk average - £1671)
gas & electricity (uk average -£1138)
travel expenses to/from work, whether this be upkeep of a car or paying for public transport - for sake of speaking, a yearly bus pass in my city is £695)
phone line (most people probably pay for a landline whether its for home phone or for internet) & no I wouldn't call that a luxury in today's society for those that live in the uk (let's say £20 for phone & broadband/month probably generous, that's £240/year)

totaling those costs = £11,744 meaning said person would only have less than £2k to actually live on ...

To be fair it's more likely said person would be stuck renting as could not afford to get on the property ladder thus housing costs would probably be halved. There's too many variables for each to get into the nitty gritty but I hope you can at least see that its perhaps not as "easy" as you had first imagined.

Re many living on much less than that, this may perhaps be the case however it would also likely be the case that though their income is less they do not have as many deductions as often receive relief/exemptions from some of the above listed out-goings.

Zero_Sum

little_green wrote: »

iving on 15k is not easy. Just to put that into prespective the national minimum wage for 25+ is 7.83/hour based on a 40 hour week, one should be earning at least 16,286.40 if working full time.
as mentioned above, that would be pre-tax so what your taking home would be around 13.5k after tax & NI & that's not including pension deductions which for full time workers i believe is compulsory now.

deductions are a lot:
rent/mortgage
(uk average morgatge- £671/month for the year of 2016-2017, say £8000/year)
council tax (uk average - £1671)
gas & electricity (uk average -£1138)
travel expenses to/from work, whether this be upkeep of a car or paying for public transport - for sake of speaking, a yearly bus pass in my city is £695)
phone line (most people probably pay for a landline whether its for home phone or for internet) & no I wouldn't call that a luxury in today's society for those that live in the uk (let's say £20 for phone & broadband/month probably generous, that's £240/year)

totaling those costs = £11,744 meaning said person would only have less than £2k to actually live on ...

To be fair it's more likely said person would be stuck renting as could not afford to get on the property ladder thus housing costs would probably be halved. There's too many variables for each to get into the nitty gritty but I hope you can at least see that its perhaps not as "easy" as you had first imagined.

Re many living on much less than that, this may perhaps be the case however it would also likely be the case that though their income is less they do not have as many deductions as often receive relief/exemptions from some of the above listed out-goings.

Massive flaw in what your saying.
Someone on well below average earnings isnt going to have average rent/mortgage. Average costs are generally average families with either 2 earners (or someone on a good salary so that partner doesnt need to work(full time)) and also having kids.

My council tax (band is £1200. Thats £900 for a single person.
My gas & electric annually is around £900. If i were single (cos she always has the heating on) it would be about £750 ish
Where I live you can get a decent 2 bed home for £60k which would be £250 - £300 mortgage

If you live up north, it really isnt that difficult being single & no kuds. Of course you'd need to forego a few luxuries & holidays, but you can actually have a decent quality of life if you're sensible with money.

little_green

Zero_Sum wrote: »

Massive flaw in what your saying.
Someone on well below average earnings isnt going to have average rent/mortgage. Average costs are generally average families with either 2 earners (or someone on a good salary so that partner doesnt need to work(full time)) and also having kids.

My council tax (band is £1200. Thats £900 for a single person.
My gas & electric annually is around £900. If i were single (cos she always has the heating on) it would be about £750 ish
Where I live you can get a decent 2 bed home for £60k which would be £250 - £300 mortgage

If you live up north, it really isnt that difficult being single & no kuds. Of course you'd need to forego a few luxuries & holidays, but you can actually have a decent quality of life if you're sensible with money.

well you are very lucky being able to get £60k for a decent 2 bed home. Where i stay a one bedroom flat in a block of 6 or 8 is usually around 90k. your doing well to get rent around £450 & that means sharing with 2 other people. Council tax at £150 is still another £50pp, that's £500 straight off. That's a lot out of someone's salary.
The reason someone earning well below average isnt going to be paying average on rent or mortgage is bc they simply cant afford to. I disagree about bills & council tax. At the end of the day someone who is working full time should NOT be in a position where they cant afford an average lifestyle. Perhaps people have no children bc they couldn't afford to provide for a family based on those low earnings.

Zero_Sum

little_green wrote: »

well you are very lucky being able to get £60k for a decent 2 bed home. Where i stay a one bedroom flat in a block of 6 or 8 is usually around 90k. your doing well to get rent around £450 & that means sharing with 2 other people. Council tax at £150 is still another £50pp, that's £500 straight off. That's a lot out of someone's salary.
The reason someone earning well below average isnt going to be paying average on rent or mortgage is bc they simply cant afford to. I disagree about bills & council tax. At the end of the day someone who is working full time should NOT be in a position where they cant afford an average lifestyle. Perhaps people have no children bc they couldn't afford to provide for a family based on those low earnings.

If someone is working full time on NMW & is single, then of course it stands to reason that they're not going to afford an average lifestyle, because their incomes are below average.

My OH before she moved in with me was renting a 3 bed semi for £400 pcm. A single person in band A would be paying at an absolute max £100 (most would be £80 -£90)

[Deleted User]

little_green wrote: »

deductions are a lot:
rent/mortgage
(uk average morgatge- £671/month for the year of 2016-2017, say £8000/year)
council tax (uk average - £1671)
gas & electricity (uk average -£1138)
travel expenses to/from work, whether this be upkeep of a car or paying for public transport - for sake of speaking, a yearly bus pass in my city is £695)
phone line (most people probably pay for a landline whether its for home phone or for internet) & no I wouldn't call that a luxury in today's society for those that live in the uk (let's say £20 for phone & broadband/month probably generous, that's £240/year)

totaling those costs = £11,744 meaning said person would only have less than £2k to actually live on ...

Those are wildly liberal amounts even if they are national average.

You can buy a nice refurbished terraced house or flat here for £60K and your mortgage could be under £300 a month.

It would be council tax band A and that is only £1150 this current tax year before 25% single occupier discount.

Someone living on their own in a small 2 bed terraced is unlikely to use £1138 of gas and leccy a year unless you are running and electric heater 24/7.

So like I say. £15K is doable.

mgdavid

little_green wrote: »

........... Perhaps people have no children bc they couldn't afford to provide for a family based on those low earnings.

Absolutely correct, it's quite normal and common on planet sensible to only have what you can afford, or living within your means, as it's otherwise known as.

little_green

mgdavid wrote: »

Absolutely correct, it's quite normal and common on planet sensible to only have what you can afford, or living within your means, as it's otherwise known as.

yeh except many people don't live within their means do they.... many people don't actually sit down & go "oh can I afford to provide for a child" prior to having one... hence why the government has financial assistance available