is 20k a year

[reallytinyamy]

we get one wage of 15.5k plus out tax credits. we could manage comfortably and have a few luxuries with another 2-3k a year

 

[candeur]

Me and OH have a combined wage of about £35,000 approx, and we struggle, but out outgoings are about £1500, not inc petrol, food etc. Our mortgage is £670 a month which is just crippling.

 

[beccad]

Well, if your rent, bills, living expenses and childcare don't come to more than about £15k a year (which is, roughly speaking, the take home for £20k a year) then you're fine.

For hubby and I, it would just cover our mortgage on our 2-bed flat in London So no, we couldn't live on that. We're stuck in London too because of hubby's job, which doesn't exist in any great capacity in any other part of the country (he works in TV). We have a joint income of about £60k, but we don't see much of it after we've paid all the bills, plus a loan repayment, travel to work, pension payments and so on. Plus it's a bit of a hand-to-mouth existance as it is, because hubby is self-employed and sometimes doesn't get paid for three months at a time.

Once our loan is paid off, we'll then be able to afford a bigger mortgage so we can buy a house. So we'll still have no money

 

[Pops]

I think it is all relative and depends on what you have had previously, what sort of life you have and what you have to pay for out of it.

OH and I earn what would be classed as a fairly huge amount of money in some places and I won't say how much it is but we still don't feel well off due to the mortgage rate we have, the high council tax, the cost of running our cars, general day to day living. Yes, we choose to have the cars we have etc but we can afford it as our luxury so we do but we don't do much else.

I always thought if I could earn as much as we do we would be rich but we really aren't.

I guess what I am saying is we could not get by on £20k as we are but if its all we had ever had, we would have bought a cheaper house, cars etc and could do.

xxx

 

[booflebump]

I agree with Pops about it being all relative. I have coped on varying amount of wages but once you are at a certain level, you definately cant go back down again without feeling like its a huge struggle. I also thought that at our level of income we would be really well off, but you end up having bigger outgoings the more you earn I feel! xxx

 

[Vesta]

Pre tax, our income is 42k. But our mortgage is almost £800 a month. (Not a big house. But a high interest rate because we were first time buyers with a 5% deposit.) We're not struggling, but we're not flush either. We can always cover the bills but most months we are unable to put anything into the savings account.

 

[LankyDoodle]

I know this is an old post, but I have only just read it as I took a couple of months' break from BnB. I just wanted to say that my husband and I live in the SW, own our own home with a 40% mortgage on it (ie, own 60% outright) so only have smallish mortgage repayments; he brings home 1550 a month before overtime or bonuses (which put it up to a bit over 1600 averaged out); I bring home £1050 from my main job (because my student loan is taken out at the same time as tax and NICs), about £80 after tax from my casual job with disabled children, and in September I will be starting another job where I will bring home about 500 a month. So our household NET income is well over 3k a month (so 36k a year) and WE STRUGGLE even with a small mortgage, so I don't think those saying 20k is an OK wage are meaning to be offensive at all - it's just that when you bring home that kind of money and struggle, you find it hard to understand how you could cope on less.

We don't have children atm (we are TTC) but we have 2 horses that cost us around £600 a month altogether. The mortgage is 570 with the insurance. We have cars, household bills (which we scrimp on a lot), food to buy etc. It all goes down and we are really tight with our money in respect of household bills, always looking for the cheapest on everything.

I'd love a lesson in how to manage on much less than what we do, because it would mean we could save more. We don't have any debt and do manage to save £100 a month, but even so... After we have paid for the horses, we have about 2.5k a month (net) left over, so if anyone can tell me where I'm going wrong, I'd really appreciate it!