Outnumbered - is the lifestyle realistic?

[Mrsemcgregor]

So I’ve been watching Outnumbered on Netflix with my DS (he loves it!) and I’m wondering if the lifestyle they have is achievable in London considering their jobs?

Pete is a teacher in a secondary school and is yet to achieve head of department and Sue is part time in what I assume is an admin/PA type role. I’m hypothesising that their joint income is likely to be around £60k? Maybe £70k. Where I live they would be lucky to be on £50k but I’m adding extra for London wages.

The house they live in is huge! I am not sure where in London it’s meant to be, but their is a scene where Pete mentions problems on the tube so I assume they are within the underground network. It’s 3 stories and at least 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms, a massive kitchen dining area, a garden and a nice sized lounge with a big bay window. Even where I live that would set you back close to £500,000. That house must cost a fortune in London?

Pete’s mum and dad are still alive as is Sue’s dad so I’m assuming no large inheritance, and they mention a mortgage so they haven’t inherited the house.

Can any London mumsnetters confirm or deny that this is realistic?

(I know I have far too much time on my hands and have given this way too much thought )

Never watch Sex And The City, OP.

YANBU, couples with 3 times' that salary live in flats in London, or small houses in the suburbs.

Not if they’re fifty-somethings and bought twenty five years ago Jeanne.

@JeanneFrench

Never watch Sex And The City, OP.

YANBU, couples with 3 times' that salary live in flats in London, or small houses in the suburbs.

Yes, now. But not then. It was all affordable. Where I live, zone 2, houses exactly like that, couples who owned houses bought in the 90s or even 80s, do jobs like - electrician plus part time admin; dancer plus set designer; nurse plus nurse; teacher plus teacher; chef plus bar worker; junior civil servant; copywriter plus journalist. One person is/was a milkman. None of these people could afford to buy now, maybe not even a flat, let alone a four/five bed house. There are no finance workers, lawyers, etc. Most people may have owned a flat before buying a house jointly, which made a house even more affordable.

They really weren’t! I lived in the area and it was posh and expensive then just like it is today. We’re only talking 13 years.

We left sw london in 2005 because we couldnt afford a house there. (We had an excouncil flat) I'm pretty sure similar houses were around 500k then.

*GlummyMcGlummerson

See I think Pete and Sue/Hugh Grant in Notting Hill/Bridget Jones are wildly unrealistic when it comes to expensive London homes...then I watch Location Location Location and Kirsty pipes up:

"This is Tess and Jon. Tess is a part time viola player and Jon runs his own flamingo training business. They're looking for a 3 bed property in Pimlico with a budget of £1.7million."

Are they fucking drug dealers or something?!*

🤣🤣🤣🤣 100% this

Haven’t read the whole thread so may be repeating this .... don’t forget that 100% mortgages were a thing in the 90s. We bought our London flat in 1992 with no deposit.

I grew up in Z2/3 and most of my neighbours, parents friends had normal jobs. Many only had one working parent. Nowadays you would need what a 250k joint income.

Never watch Sex And The City, OP.

Carries small apartment was also rent controlled. Miranda's apartment was very modest for a high flying city lawyer and she eventually had to move out the city to manage a larger home. Charlotte's extravagant home was through the separation from her extremely wealthy old money husband and Samanthas was also extremely successful in her career and lived in a small place. Me big was absolutely loaded!

I thought Sex & the city made sense.

Emily in Paris, now how can she afford all those Louboutins & Chanel??

H and I moved to London in 2002, both on a similar keyworker salary to what Pete would earn, and rented a one bed basement flat about 3 streets away from where the Outnumbered house was. It was an expensive and desirable area even then. When we left that flat in 2003 (for somewhere bigger and cheaper elsewhere) the landlord sold it for £200k. A one-bed basement flat, and not in great nick, either.

A teacher and a PA would have had to have bought a good 7-10 years earlier to get a 3-4 bed semi in that area, which I guess is just about possible on the timeline of the show. Certainly H and I had keyworker colleagues on the same pay grade, who'd bought 10+ years before us, who had large family homes in smart zone 2 areas. We ended up leaving London to buy a house.

We looked at buying a house in Chiswick in 97, we saw lovely 3 bed houses for around £300k, which was way out of our league

But I remember about dreaming of living in Brackenbury Village (not sure I remember that name correctly ) .

We got a flat in Shepherds Bush instead

I think it’s feasible for the characters to have bought a house in in the 90s on their wages, you got interest-only I’d endowment mortgages very easily with very low down payments

@Clawdy

The most unrealistic bit is them having a little girl called Karen.

I always wondered why the dds name was Karen...totally the wrong era.

How is it actually sustainable though? I'm in my 30s & we only managed to move up to a house because of equity on top of good ish incomes. It's much harder to gain equity now particularly as people are buying later & wages have stagnated for a decade. Are all the 500k flats going to be 700k in 3 years, whose going to buy them?

I always wonder why the children are in charge of the parents . The mum is so wet that it's Unrealistic. House pretty average for teachers here in midlands

The thing is Karen is a pretty name. It is (or was) very popular in Denmark. So many names get hijacked and then you can't use a perfectly nice name. I was thinking up dogs' names and came up with Donald. Perfect! Then I suddenly realised....

The child actors were allowed to choose their own characters’ names which is how “Karen” ended up with such a random choice. Let’s face it, Ramona is hardly plausible for a girl of that age either .

The writers’ headcanon is that she was named after a deceased friend or relative.

@Pikachubaby

We looked at buying a house in Chiswick in 97, we saw lovely 3 bed houses for around £300k, which was way out of our league

But I remember about dreaming of living in Brackenbury Village (not sure I remember that name correctly ) .

We got a flat in Shepherds Bush instead

I think it’s feasible for the characters to have bought a house in in the 90s on their wages, you got interest-only I’d endowment mortgages very easily with very low down payments

Do you mean in Ruislip?

It's nothing to do with the dreadful, recent Karen meme and connotations. Regardless of that, it's an odd choice. I've never heard of a child called Karen.

Irl, a child born into that demographic and time frame would be more likely to be an Isobel or Matilda,

Karen - The parents are a bit controversial in some ways though so think it is plausible

My mother and her siblings were all named after elderly relatives (probably in the hope of - non-existent - great expectations). Thus they all had names Isabella, Lucinda, Sophia, Sebastian (+ a whole load more siblings ). They all changed their names. Pre-war they were mortified at having such dreadfully old-fashioned names when everyone else had nice normal modern names such as Barbara or Sheila or Ronald. Now those names are back! What goes around comes around.

@AnythingLegalConsidered

The child actors were allowed to choose their own characters’ names which is how “Karen” ended up with such a random choice. Let’s face it, Ramona is hardly plausible for a girl of that age either .

The writers’ headcanon is that she was named after a deceased friend or relative.

I was always amused at the fact that Tyger called himself Jake. An excellent lesson for all those “I want my child to have a unique name” parents.

@Pikachubaby

Brackenbury "village" is correct.

We also ended up with a flat in Shepherds Bush and an endowment mortgage!

@Mumoftwoinprimary

I was always amused at the fact that Tyger called himself Jake. An excellent lesson for all those “I want my child to have a unique name” parents.

Tyger’s parents (in real life) are both porn stars! His dad is Ben Dover!