To have thought our lower income was enough?

Save a 6 month buffer, take into consideration your kids will get older and want things. If you literally have 400 left it’s more than some but can easily be wiped out at Christmas, birthdays, winter coats, new shoes, sports activities etc

Kids only get more expensive though as they pick up hobbies and their clothes and food get increasingly expensive. Holidays get much more expensive as they get older.

Personally I think. 1300 mortgage on a 3500 net income is a touch tight, I'd want to go no higher than 1000,maybe 1100 at a proper stretch.

As a pp has said, a good rule of thumb is 25% of income to be on housing costs and not generally more.

If current mortgage is £810 and potential new mortgage us £1300, have you managed to save at least £490 comfortably very month?

If you haven't, then it's too much.

It wouldn’t be comfortable for us I don’t think and we don’t have any kids. However, we like to spend a lot on holidays and I also like to put a lot in savings. Still, I think spending over a third of your income is risky. If one of you loses your job or can’t work for whatever reason you’re in a tricky position

But UK average is a pointless number without looking at where people are. £57k is vastly different in London than it is in Lincolnshire

I would think that is really tight. A larger property likely means higher council tax and energy bills. You also have to consider how you would afford things if bills and mortgage rates go up. I take home £3300 and my husband a bit more than that and our mortgage is £1500. I wouldn’t want to spend any more than that because we have enough money for holidays/ house repairs and decorating etc. you have to budget for unforeseen costs- car repairs, house repairs

That would be too high for me with an extra £1K a month coming in but there are 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 kids so it would be a lot harder for us to live on than just one adult.

It could be doable but it would mean scrimping to pay for a bigger house. No more lamb roast dinners, running coaches, shopping in Morrisons and having premium Spotify. We do have pets that cost us almost £100 a month though but our childcare is a lot more than yours and that's only with school holiday childcare and breakfast club once a week.

I certainly wouldn't want to try it just for the sake of a bigger house and it's discussions we've had because we would like a bigger one but it's not a need since ours is adequate and we can survive although it can feel a bit small sometimes.

Save yourself a 6 month (minimum) emergency fund first if you're tempted.to up your mortgage payment.

It depends on your other expenses though. 2 kids in nursery and no, you wouldn't be able to afford that mortgage. Or if you had huge commuting costs or private school fees or very expensive hobbies.

I think it's fine if you don't have children, a stretch if you do.

You're fine that's plenty people on here live on a different planet

So I am looking to buy a house next year. I am renting, have for years, as I live in the South East and my youngest is for to uni next September so I am returning to my native north. I take home currently around 4k a month (single income household) and my rent is £1400 and I can comfortably pay this. I don’t want my repayments to be more than £1500-1600 max though really, as rates could change etc. Plus I like to meet friends, eat out etc, plus go on holidays etc. But £1500 I can easily afford. My dog currently costs me £450 a month, so when he is no longer with us (hopefully that day doesn’t come for a few more years at least) i’ll have a lot more spare cash but don’t want to overload myself

On the whole I think a mortgage payment should be no more than 25% of your monthly income. That’s a pretty solid general rule.

That being said there are exceptions and that’s largely down to what your other expenditure looks like. How much do you pay monthly in misc debt? (Credit cards, car payments, childcare…etc)

Essentially I think you want no more than 50% of your income accounted for before it hits the account. So add up all your monthly repayments, direct debits…etc and see what that looks like.

You could have two couples on £3000 per month incomes wanting to take on £1200 mortgages but if one couple has no other debts or repayments per month whilst the other couple have £400 car payment, £400 credit cards and £800 childcare on top then they are in very different affordability brackets

Usually you don't want to be spending more than 25-30% of your take home income on housing costs.

Mine is 21.5% which means I don't struggle as much as other people on my income despite it being very low (single person on disability).

30% for you would be around £1k so you may well struggle at £1.3k.

YANBU. People on here are bonkers and think anyone earning less than £100k is a "low earner". I saw someone say their DH earned £57k and a poster said he was a low earner. The average UK salary is £37.5k!