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Original poster

How much money do you need a month to pay all bills and feed 2 people?

51 replies

Earlydancing · 19/05/2022 22:01

I was reading an article about a woman who earned £40,000 and had take home pay of £2,300pm. Her mortgage was £800 which left her £1,500pm for all her bills, energy, insurance, car, utilities, etc, plus food for her and her 13yo son. She said she couldn't afford to feed him.

I live alone, run a car, insurances etc, but don't have to feed or clothe a child. So I'm a bit out of touch with family life. I'm not interested in discussing this woman really, she just provides an illustration for my question. If she's struggling, then it doesn't really matter what I think, she's still struggling.

So I was wondering, how much does it cost you per month on average to keep your house going and look after your family? I live in a 3 bed semi in NW England. My mortgage is paid off. I wouldn't think my monthly bills, including food, come to more than £800, maybe less? But I do think I am a bit wasteful which this has made me think about.

OP posts:
cleanbreak2022 · 19/05/2022 22:06

My outgoings, mortgage, all bills, no car, including food (I'm a single mum of two children) comes to £2400 per month. That doesn't include childcare for the youngest. That's an additional £500 but I saved up childcare vouchers over the years so I don't include it in my outgoings. So my bills come to around £800 per month plus food. That being said, I haven't factored in the rising energy bills yet, so I'm expecting my bills to top around £1000 mark.

onthefencesitter · 19/05/2022 22:18

2 bed flat in London. We are a couple. £1020 mortgage, no car, £150 service charge, £300 for bills. £70 for 1.5 weeks groceries so £200 in all- we shop at waitrose and Aldi. We eat out twice a week but take a packed lunch to work and generally eat dinner at home from Monday to Friday.

Its our luxuries- eating out, my cosmetics, day trips, flights to visit family that cost a lot, as well as our mortgage overpayments.. Outgoings are £3k..

onthefencesitter · 19/05/2022 22:23

We are not the frugal type (we used to be when we were saving to buy our flat), but at the same time for a couple in the London/SE area, our 'fixed' costs are relatively low. A lot of our spending is discretionary (50%) so its easy for us to decide not to spend so much if we need to tighten our belts.

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General money
pumpkinpie01 · 19/05/2022 22:28

Our mortgage and all bills comes to £1050, no debt , 1 car , 1 child at home

IstayedForTheFeminism · 19/05/2022 22:29

My income is about £1550 pcm.
My rent is 800.
I have 2 teens.

She needs to learn to budget

lemondrop72 · 19/05/2022 22:30

We live in Yorkshire. 2 adults and 2 children, age 5&1.
Our outgoings are roughly £1800 pm. Including mortgage, bills, food, fuel, classes for the kids etc. We don't budget really and
We probably spend more than we should on top of that on extra things but we've decided to really cut back and save more.

Testina · 19/05/2022 22:31

Was this the police detective at the recent federation conference? I couldn’t work out her finances either, IIRC she was in Rhyl, so no the highest rent area. I did note that no maintenance was mentioned, and thought, “yet another man getting away with that”, though I accept there might be a good reason.

Original poster
Earlydancing · 19/05/2022 22:51

@Testina Yes, it was her and yes, she lives in a North Wales village. I have no idea, though, about her personal circumstances.
I just feel that living on my own, no children at home to pay for, and no animals,at present, I'm out of touch with what most people need to keep ticking over. @cleanbreak2022 certainly opens my eyes over childcare costs. For a long time I've always had sufficient that I've not had to worry about day to day living and it makes you a bit wasteful. I can definitely identify with @onthefencesitter's cosmetics habit. Hehe.
I've always thought £40,000 was a good wage outside London. But maybe these days it isn't.

OP posts:
merryhouse · 19/05/2022 22:59

Before H left his job (excellent severance package) we were averaging £2500 a month without having rent or mortgage. That was two adults and two teenagers.

Of course, that was 5 years ago before All This (gestures vaguely) kicked off Grin

onthefencesitter · 19/05/2022 23:11

@Earlydancing ifs.org.uk/tools_and_resources/where_do_you_fit_in

I don't know how accurate this calculator is (we would be top 14% based on this calculator, top 9% with DH's new job, even though our salaries are definitely not high by london standards), but when I inputted her take home pay plus assumed her council tax is the same as mine (£1500 per annum), she earns more than 53% of the population, taking into account her household size (single parent to 1 child)... so in the top half.

TheFormidableMrsC · 19/05/2022 23:22

While I don't want to put my personal financial details here, I would hazard a guess she is in debt and therefore has repayments to make. Otherwise she needs to learn to budget.

DitzyBluebells · 19/05/2022 23:24

For a lot of "broke" people who can't afford to live on their high wages, it's debt that's the problem. They may have run it up irresponsibly from the get go, or run it up when times were easier but then fell on hard times through no fault of their own.

OppsUpsSide · 19/05/2022 23:26

Everyone needs to be able to manage their budget, but equally I don’t think it is unreasonable as a society to expect a police detective to afford a good standard of living with a dependent.

PaddleBoardingMomma · 19/05/2022 23:27

merryhouse · 19/05/2022 22:59

Before H left his job (excellent severance package) we were averaging £2500 a month without having rent or mortgage. That was two adults and two teenagers.

Of course, that was 5 years ago before All This (gestures vaguely) kicked off Grin

"Gestures vaguely" 🤣

YerAWizardHarry · 19/05/2022 23:28

Our basic household bills are around £800 including mortgage
Food around £300 a month
Childcare is £150 (1x out of school care)
Running 2x cars (bought outright) probably around £250 a month including petrol/tax/insurance

so around £1500?

obviously that doesn’t include things like takeaways or nights out or day trips at the weekend etc etc but I suppose if we had to these are things that would go first.

DP and I take home around £5k a month between us and could definitely cut down and save lots more than we do as we definitely don’t save even close to the £3.5K we apparently have “left over” each month

YerAWizardHarry · 19/05/2022 23:30

cleanbreak2022 · 19/05/2022 22:06

My outgoings, mortgage, all bills, no car, including food (I'm a single mum of two children) comes to £2400 per month. That doesn't include childcare for the youngest. That's an additional £500 but I saved up childcare vouchers over the years so I don't include it in my outgoings. So my bills come to around £800 per month plus food. That being said, I haven't factored in the rising energy bills yet, so I'm expecting my bills to top around £1000 mark.

You’re spending £1600 a month on food?

Original poster
Earlydancing · 19/05/2022 23:31

Thank you @onthefencesitter. I'd thought that £40,000 was a good wage and I know she was making a political point, but I still don't like to think she was out and out lying (maybe exaggerating a bit but, hey, we all do that!). I wonder if for many people who have been comfortable in the past, we've stopped really paying much attention to our budgets and so having to budget as a result of All This (vague hand gestures) (that made me laugh @merryhouse) has made us a bit panicky and out of our comfort zone, which I guess is no bad thing. I feel so sorry for those who were only just about hanging on before.

OP posts:
Original poster
Earlydancing · 19/05/2022 23:38

OppsUpsSide · 19/05/2022 23:26

Everyone needs to be able to manage their budget, but equally I don’t think it is unreasonable as a society to expect a police detective to afford a good standard of living with a dependent.

A previous job of mine entailed working with police officers and it was always considered they were well-paid, especially as in my day they could retire as as 48 on a full pension. I think here the paper has reported 55, which may or may not be accurate. I have no idea,what there wages,are like today. And I must repeat, I don't know this woman's personal or work circumstances so I wasn't really talking about her. It just made me think of how out of touch I am with family costs these days.

OP posts:
YerAWizardHarry · 19/05/2022 23:57

@Earlydancing police wages are in the public domain you can easily Google it. My ex (DS dad) and his wife both work for police Scotland and definitely not short of a bob or two although ex is promoted

YerAWizardHarry · 19/05/2022 23:59

Also the fact she’s a detective doesn’t actually mean anything. She will earn the same as any standard constable. It’s not until you’re a sergeant that your wages increase (on top of climbing the salary scale)

Thursday37 · 20/05/2022 00:11

Bills, mortgage and food here is about £2300 for 2 adults (2 cars) and toddler DD but that excludes her childcare. If you add that on it’s about £3100.
Our joint take home is about £4000 but I have an old, expensive horse that costs another £700 so that leaves us broke.
But the horse and childcare isn’t forever, eventually we will have a lot of disposable income.

GetThatHelmetOn · 20/05/2022 00:18

Detective… do they work antisocial hours? If so, I can imagine childcare should be far more expensive than a bog standard nursery.

onthefencesitter · 20/05/2022 00:22

@GetThatHelmetOn 13 year old doesn't need childcare though... I imagine he eats like a horse!

onthefencesitter · 20/05/2022 00:24

Also does the 13 year old child have special needs? Perhaps he may require private therapy or something like that cos of nhs waiting lists. That would be expensive. Depending on a child's condition, it might be a toss up between therapy and food.

INeedNewShoes · 20/05/2022 00:49

My mortgage is £450. Probably getting on for £1000 total monthly bills including mortgage once all bills are paid and minimum payments made to credit cards. Then £300 on all shopping (food, cleaning stuff, cosmestics, clothes) for the two of us. I don't earn much more than that and it's only just doable. Without the credit card debit things would be much more comfortable as I'd be able to save a bit for a rainy day! My own fault though...