It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

Sea_Shell

We're not cutting back to £10k !!!! 🤣


It was purely a breakdown of NEEDS v WANTS.   A thought experiment if you like.

zagfles

Albermarle said:

michaels said:

Interesting what people consider as essential - personally I recognise SeaShells 10.7k rather than other posters 25k as to what is really essential - although the 10.7k does not cover nay capital spend (car replacement, house repairs etc) so it is not really long term sustainable.

I think it is worthwhile recognising what is truly essential rather than coming up with a list that includes stuff that many in this country (let alone in other countries) can not afford and is therefore clearly not 'essential'

I must be doing something wrong.
Our bills come to about that much just on their own ( including petrol/diesel)
So that is without any food ( or drink), or any days out, Xmas/birthday gifts, Gym member ship, clothes, meals out, or any discretionary or capital/spending/holidays at all.

So as said before, I would see living off two SP's for two, as a minimum for a normal day to day life for most people, especially since recent price rises for everything . £25K if there is a third adult still to support in some way. Then plus holidays, home improvements, new cars etc, but obviously they are not really essential.

You're contradicting yourself. First you say you're doing something wrong, then you use your circumstances to state what you think is the "minimum for a normal day to day life for most people". Which is it? Or do you think "most people" are, like you, doing something wrong?

Albermarle

zagfles said:

Albermarle said:

michaels said:

Interesting what people consider as essential - personally I recognise SeaShells 10.7k rather than other posters 25k as to what is really essential - although the 10.7k does not cover nay capital spend (car replacement, house repairs etc) so it is not really long term sustainable.

I think it is worthwhile recognising what is truly essential rather than coming up with a list that includes stuff that many in this country (let alone in other countries) can not afford and is therefore clearly not 'essential'

I must be doing something wrong.
Our bills come to about that much just on their own ( including petrol/diesel)
So that is without any food ( or drink), or any days out, Xmas/birthday gifts, Gym member ship, clothes, meals out, or any discretionary or capital/spending/holidays at all.

So as said before, I would see living off two SP's for two, as a minimum for a normal day to day life for most people, especially since recent price rises for everything . £25K if there is a third adult still to support in some way. Then plus holidays, home improvements, new cars etc, but obviously they are not really essential.

You're contradicting yourself. First you say you're doing something wrong, then you use your circumstances to state what you think is the "minimum for a normal day to day life for most people". Which is it? Or do you think "most people" are, like you, doing something wrong?

It was just a throwaway phrase, in response to what seemed a very low figure being talked about. No issue just to edit it out.

zagfles

Albermarle said:

zagfles said:

Albermarle said:

michaels said:

Interesting what people consider as essential - personally I recognise SeaShells 10.7k rather than other posters 25k as to what is really essential - although the 10.7k does not cover nay capital spend (car replacement, house repairs etc) so it is not really long term sustainable.

I think it is worthwhile recognising what is truly essential rather than coming up with a list that includes stuff that many in this country (let alone in other countries) can not afford and is therefore clearly not 'essential'

I must be doing something wrong.
Our bills come to about that much just on their own ( including petrol/diesel)
So that is without any food ( or drink), or any days out, Xmas/birthday gifts, Gym member ship, clothes, meals out, or any discretionary or capital/spending/holidays at all.

So as said before, I would see living off two SP's for two, as a minimum for a normal day to day life for most people, especially since recent price rises for everything . £25K if there is a third adult still to support in some way. Then plus holidays, home improvements, new cars etc, but obviously they are not really essential.

You're contradicting yourself. First you say you're doing something wrong, then you use your circumstances to state what you think is the "minimum for a normal day to day life for most people". Which is it? Or do you think "most people" are, like you, doing something wrong?

It was just a throwaway phrase, in response to what seemed a very low figure being talked about. No issue just to edit it out.

OK, so you think you're more like "most people" than SS, michael or me because you have bills of £10.7k? Do you have evidence that "most people" have bills of around £10.7k (assuming that excludes mortgage/rent). It sounds very high to me. We live in a larger than average house with higher than average gas/electric usage, band E council tax, yet don't have bills of £10.7k, and won't even after the recent rises in energy costs.

Albermarle

We live in a larger than average house with higher than average gas/electric usage, band E council tax, yet don't have bills of £10.7k, and won't even after the recent rises in energy costs.

Energy - £3,300 ( based on current tariffs) 
Council Tax - £2,500 ( Band E) 
Water - £500
Broadband, landline, 2x Mobile contract, one SIM only £1,300 ( will come down a bit at some point)
Fuel for two cars ( approx 1000 miles a month between them ) £2,000
Home and Contents insurance - £250
Two X car insurance - £650
2 X Car servicing/routine maintenance- £600

Comes to over £11K. Appreciate that two cars is not normally 'essential' but we need an extra one with wheelchair access. In any case would still do a similar mileage with one car, and the purchase cost of either car/depreciation is not included.

Not included are any routine house/garden maintenance costs, any food or drink, or any leisure or family activities.

Probably these bills are above average, but even if they were 10 or 20% less, by the time you add on food and drink, leisure activities, holidays , Xmas , birthdays, clothes, house and garden maintenance etc etc. I still find it difficult to see how you can easily spend less than £20K pa or even £25K , and still have a reasonably normal middle of the road lifestyle. 
Anyway as said by other posters, we all have a different view on this point.

Sea_Shell

First you have to define a "reasonably normal middle of the road lifestyle."


I think our lifestyle is actually pretty normal. 

Maybe not on this sub-forum mind.

Maybe we just get a lot of bang for our buck 😉 

Yankee24

Albermarle said:

Are there any parents out there who have older kids who pay for meals out, get the tickets to the game. Does any of it flow back? 
Occasionally a meal will be paid for . Usually when on an expensive holiday, that we have paid for 

Snap.   Though I think kids are the differential here ( as well as where you live.  In the south east my council tax and utilities alone are nearly 8 k. ).  We use Christmas and birthdays to help them along the way…. And have realised a free holiday is a real,opportunity to make family memories.  Expensive but worth it.  

swindiff

Our basic spending is about £17k a year, that's all bills and groceries.
That does not include our current mortgage or any holidays or socialising costs.  It also does not include costs for house or vehicle maintenance.  3 Story modern Town house Band D, 2 small cars averaging a combined 800 miles/month.  I think we will need at least £30k a year for a "nice" retirement.

DT2001

Yankee24 said:

Albermarle said:

Are there any parents out there who have older kids who pay for meals out, get the tickets to the game. Does any of it flow back? 
Occasionally a meal will be paid for . Usually when on an expensive holiday, that we have paid for 

Snap.   Though I think kids are the differential here ( as well as where you live.  In the south east my council tax and utilities alone are nearly 8 k. ).  We use Christmas and birthdays to help them along the way…. And have realised a free holiday is a real,opportunity to make family memories.  Expensive but worth it.  

We are in the same ballpark (fuel costs £5k+). We have a 5 bed barn conversion with poor insulation. Children still either at home or at Uni. When we retire I am sure we’ll still want enough room for family to visit so hope we can find a super energy efficient home to reduce the ‘basic’ figure.

I don’t think it flows back from the children however our budget includes a larger amount for holidays to include a child/children and if you can afford it …..

Silverbullet036

Interesting seeing how much others spend compared to our outgoings. A quick rough tot up of my direct debits/yearly one offs (tv/car stuff) , food/fuel etc and everything comes in under £10k. The only things after that are what we spend on lunches/clothes/days out type of things

I know we can manage comfortably on my db pension of £1300 month and still have money left over to save because we did exactly this for a year when my wife gave up her job (back at work now). Horrible thing to say in todays climate but frankly we are scratching our heads wondering how on earth we are going to spend the money we've got never mind when both our SP kicks in as well