Minimum Income For single / childfree person

[Coldemort]

Following on from chat with friend...

We're both single and childfree with similar basic outgoings (Live in a northern city, my mortgage is £550 pcm, her rent is £600 pcm).

We have very different ideas of what minimum take home needs to be for a comfortable life. By 'comfortable' we're meaning enough to not worry about bills, have a couple nights out a week (say 1 meal but somewhere 'chainy' not expensive, and 1 night out for a few drinks). Maybe a couple of weekends away, but not expensive holidays. To dress nicely but high street.

Both work full time, in a 2 bed flat, and 1 bed flat respectively so similar bills... assume debt free.

I won't say what I think as don't want to sway the responses :)

Anyone..... :)

£1600 net per month.

£1500-1600 a month. My niece has just started her first job on £24k and has slipped into 'comfortable' zone by getting a housemate, on her own it was very tight.

You sound like you're using this to gain some sort of moral superiority on your mate. Why don't you just agree to disagree?

About £1800 -2000 a month after tax and pensions. Possibly a bit more if you also run a car.

Moral Superiority

Conversation came about as we're both living on our own for the first time, me a bit longer than her, and were trying to thrash together a budget as we've both probably been a little reckless lately.

I'm also debating taking a job in another city which would add 2k to travel costs (we're both currently able to walk to work).

Thanks for the other answers, they're mostly inbetween my figure and hers :D

I had a similar rent and lifestyle in my early twenties taking home £1,500 a month - so I’ll go with that. Enough to be comfortable and have a few treats and save a small amount too.

Things can add up very quickly - if you run a car and budget to maintain it you’re soon looking at needing a couple of hundred pounds a month extra. Things like clothing and regular haircuts - pretty essential if you work a job where you have to look even vaguely smart - are not cheap. You don’t have to be splurging at expensive shops to be spending quite a bit on e.g. decent shoes and a quality coat.

The car thing is interesting. I don't run a car, but she does. I hadn't really considered how expensive that would be (and neither of us thought to factor it in). I'm a bugger for getting taxi's though...

Approx monthly figures:

600 rent/mortgage
100 council tax
100 mobile/phone line/broadband/netflix/tv licence
100 gas/elec/water
50 insurances
100 general savings
100 budgeting for home repairs/maintenance etc
100 budgeting for birthdays/christmas etc
50 budgeting for weekends away/travel
300 social spends (as per your OP)
200 groceries
150 clothes/toiletries/haircuts etc

Add 50-100+ for a pet
Add 200+ for a car

£2000 take home after taxes and pension really is the least it can be comfortably done on. I'm sure it could be done on less if you're careful and watch the pennies, but it wouldn't be comfortable.

I would say 2k a month.

I'd agree with mrsm. Yes of course people do it on less but there's a lot of scrabbling around when you do so. To be able to have an organised life with modern conveniences you need around that much.

My friend was 2k plus, I was saying around £1,500 pcm. Looking at what people are saying I think I've been optimistic!

My thinking was £550 mortgage
£100 council tax
£35 electric (no gas)
No car....
£12 TV licence
£6 home insurance
£20 mobile
£19 broadband
£5 Netflix
No commuting costs

So total bills minus food is under £750. A grand after essentials for 1 person I thought was loads... but this might be why I'm struggling to maintain a budget...

What do you spend on travel? What do you drink when you go out? A couple of beers or soft drinks or multiple cocktails? How do you get home? Public transport or taxi?

What are you spending on clothes, beauty, hair, dental, opticians, prescriptions? How much does your lunch cost? Hobbies? How much does a holiday cost? You could get a week in a budget AI for about £300 pp or could spend many times that if you go for nicer accommodation/further away.

Your question is a bit 'how long is a piece of string. Some people will feel very comfortable on £1500 pm. Others will feel poor on twice that.

Is your home insurance really only £6 pm for building and contents?

Regarding your new job - does it pay more? How do the hours compare and how much time is commuting likely to add? A job that you can walk to work is worth a lot, but maybe not if it's massively underpaid or undesirable in some way.

Are either of you paying any service charges in the flats you both live in?

Sorry, thought of something else. What are your pension arrangements. In today's prices, the monthly state pension is about £700 pm, so obviously you'd need a private pension or other savings on top to maintain anything like your current lifestyle - are you saving for a pension?

Assuming that council tax is low and commuting costs are low I think I’d be ok on 1400 (taking into account particulars in the OP). But I wouldn’t call what you described comfortable. To be comfortable I think I’d need about 2500 for nice things plus savings.

I think you're underestimating a lot (£35 for all fuel needs to be at least doubled, if not trebled), and forgetting a lot (water, life insurance, maintenance charges, budgeting, savings, medical/dental/optical costs, haircuts etc).
With planning, I'm sure you could manage on £1500. But you asked about a comfortable lifestyle, and for that I really think you need £2k plus.

The main thing that stands out about your situations is that she rents and you own. Obviously that means you might need to maintain and make repairs but she might want to save more in order to buy somewhere in the future.

£2000 take home after taxes and pension really is the least it can be comfortably done on. I'm sure it could be done on less if you're careful and watch the pennies, but it wouldn't be comfortable

This depends HUGELY on the amount of rent or mortgage more than anything else. After taxes and pension (which isn't as much as I might like to put in, but I would put much more in if I took home £2k) I take home £1500. My mortgage, fortunately, on my one-bed flat is £307. No, I'm not in the north, but Gloucestershire.

I don't go on lavish holidays but I don't go without anything I want, don't have to watch the pennies and think "no, can't go out this weekend".

And actually, until two months ago, I only took home £1300 and I've still managed to accrue savings of £21k. There are plenty of people on MN who have little or no savings at all based on a lot of previous threads about money.