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Original poster

How much do you earn?

70 replies

Baseel92 · 12/10/2020 20:32

Salary is such a taboo subject, I know. However, I want to know what people earn and whether its enough for them to support their children?

For a bit of background, I earn £27k p.a. and DH earns £18k p.a. he keeps talking about children but I feel like we can't possibly support children on that amount as we would lose my income to childcare.

OP posts:

emelsie · 12/10/2020 23:24

@blue25 how many kids do you have for that to not go far ?
We get around just your lower salary between us and live in the SE too , in a pretty expensive commuter town.

I don't see myself as particularly frugal but most on this thread must be serious spenders to not have much left.

Heyahun · 12/10/2020 23:24

Depends where you live surely!? We are in London and I earn 40 and he earns 60 - childcare is going to cost us 1600 a month if I go back to work 4 days a week which is my plan - expensive but we can do it I think l

But surely childcare / rent mortgage is not as much in other parts of the country? So the question is hard to answer as it’s all relative to where you are?

sweetkitty · 12/10/2020 23:24

When we had our first DD we lived from the SE to Scotland, DH was on about 36K and I was a SAHM. We managed just fine.

Why are you loosing your salary to childcare? Childcare is a joint household expense and I say that as a used to be SAHM? Surely if your the highest earner it would make note sense for your DH to be the SAHP??

Other ways people make it work - both parent dropping a day/doing compressed hours?/on of your working part time this saving on nursery fees/using family or childminders/working nights or weekends not ideal but people do what they need to.

Also look at retraining options, is there any way your DH can do courses to try and get a better paying job in the future?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Employment advice

Amimissingsomethinghere · 12/10/2020 23:26

@cabinbythelake20 I think it's about 6k ish a month. Quite a lot goes on tax! 😨

cabinbythelake20 · 12/10/2020 23:33

@amimissingsomething its about what I thought, still a very good income but you're right tax takes a huge hit! (You would make more money if two individuals both earned 60k as you would be taxed a lot less!)

Not the same but I am still paying my student loan off and I notice it on my pay slip, I cant wait until I have done! 8-9 years to go hmmph

ChanklyBore · 12/10/2020 23:36

My household income was a single earner at (technically below) minimum wage when I had my oldest. I still paid the mortgage and raised the baby without any ill effects. I can’t say it was easy but you do manage.

kittykat35 · 12/10/2020 23:41

@cabinbythelake20 take home for a salary of 110 is about 74k....excluding pension contributions. So probably take an average of 7kish off that for pension. So that's 67k which equates to...just over 5,500k per month, then take off her 3k... then other bills etc etc...

Stompythedinosaur · 12/10/2020 23:44

We managed by both me and dp getting flexible working agreements around each other to minimise childcare (which we had help from relatives with). So dp compressed his hours to 4 days a week, and I worked every weekend and the day he had off.

We didn't see each other properly for a few years but we got by.

braggeralert · 12/10/2020 23:51

feel for your situation OP, you WILL make it work as parents do. but the responses are laughable and bragging.
eg.
money is very tight on £76K
£108k doesn't go far with kids
£159k never seem to have much money
£128 have to live frugally.

blue25 · 12/10/2020 23:52

[quote emelsie]@blue25 how many kids do you have for that to not go far ?
We get around just your lower salary between us and live in the SE too , in a pretty expensive commuter town.

I don't see myself as particularly frugal but most on this thread must be serious spenders to not have much left. [/quote]
Just 2 DC, but we pay quite a lot on our mortgage as we took it out on a short term to pay it off quicker.

Heidyx · 13/10/2020 00:02

DH earns around £16K & me £5k ...

Valkadin · 13/10/2020 07:39

DS is 19 so what we earn now is a bit irrelevant. When planning on having children back in 1999 we earned around 80k combined. Have just checked on a historical money calculator. But the house we bought only cost 62k, it’s worth about 300k now house prices doubled in a year in the area we live in as it had been underpriced if anything even with huge price rises nationwide.

You need to look at the combined income. Having children means being poorer. My friend had two and then an accidental third. She worked for what was sort of minus wages for three years. As two in FT nursery and one in after school care. Obviously her and her DH saw it as a joint expense. She still worked though as it kept her hand in. Oldest is now 20, she now earns much more than her DH.

peachypetite · 13/10/2020 08:00

Is there scope for your husband to get a better paid job? Otherwise it would make sense for you to go back to work sooner and him be at home with the baby.

Apple31419 · 13/10/2020 08:00

£90k last financial year, £60k this year after a COVID paycut. I'm a single parent in the London suburbs and only just able to make it work right now.
However, I have zero support, no family etc so everything I have to pay for myself and if I need to leave the house child free I need to pay a babysitter.
Costs are reduced right now as I'm WFH so no childcare or travel, or needing to leave the house luckily!

GingerSunday · 13/10/2020 08:57

I think it depends more on outgoings than salary. I earn £32k (currently on mat leave though) and DP £70k but it will be a squeeze for childcare when I go back to work part time as we have a big mortgage and not a lot of savings as we just finished renovating the house. You make it work though whatever you need, it just means making cuts elsewhere.

PeachesTheFlamingo · 13/10/2020 09:06

Me: £40k, DP: 37k.
I work full time, 4 days a week on compressed hours. DP works shifts.

Our first DC is due in March.
We are lucky that DC will have two grandparents nearby. One is retired and the other works part time.

jennymac31 · 13/10/2020 11:12

Joint income of £80k (living in SW). Monthly childcare costs are roughly £1200; full-time nursery for youngest plus after school clubs for eldest. Childcare costs are double our mortgage but we manage comfortably however due to the sector that we work in either one of us could lose our job so we're conscious that our position could change quickly.

LightUpLetters · 13/10/2020 20:15

Joint income of 160k after tax. No mortgage and 2 kids.

Children are as cheap or expensive as you make them

nosswith · 13/10/2020 20:31

Not taboo but private. I'll just say more than average.

dalrympy · 13/10/2020 20:39

Total income of around £35k gross.

Not a lot left after mortgage and bills but just DD and I so it works.

Could do with just a few grand more! Had to take COVID cut of about £7k and before that happened it was a good income for me.

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