If you live in the north, what's your household income and are you comfortable?

[CarrotMilk]

We love up north with a household income of £43k , 3 kids , mortgage on a small house and still feel skint. I budget well but just never seem to have any money left over for savings, unexpected costs. Anyone else like this?

Up north in Shetland and we need a household income of over £104k this winter to avoid fuel poverty.

www.itv.com/news/2022-09-02/shetland-council-warns-96-of-islanders-could-be-pushed-into-fuel-poverty

We live nw England. On the coast. Joint income of about 70k. We are comfortable.

NW
3 kids
~50k income, including benefits (1 wage)
Small mortgage, no childcare costs

Feel very comfortable and privileged. Holidays are cheap (camping, borrowed homes etc), we can't afford everything we want but I honestly think that what you want increases with your income anyway so I'd feel like that whatever we had coming in. Feel very fortunate to have as much as we do.

Preston, household income £100k, detached four bed four bath, one baby one cat. Comfortable by any standards but nevertheless always anxious about money.

Agree with lots of posters - all the sweeping generalisations about "up north" being cheap are so wrong. Absolutely some places are, but I can guarantee lots of places are more expensive that parts of "down south".

Again, all relative. What does comfortable mean?

We earn well, but have a large mortgage and 3 children (inc 2 going to university soon and we will be expected to contribute £10k per year to their maintenance grant because we earn (jointly) more than £60k). Add in another v sporty child and all the expense that goes with that, feeding essentially 5 adults, a holiday for 5 and it all seems to disappear. So yep, we're not struggling and could definitely cut back but no, I don't feel as if we're rolling in it either.

Central Scotland. Joint income 140k. We feel comfortable as we have 80k left on an 8 year mortgage.

South Yorkshire £100k joint income

I'm in Greater Manchester. My husband and I are both freelance so our income fluctuates a little but we tend to pull in around £80,000 to £100,000 per year. 4 bed house, 2 older teens, 2 cars, 1 holiday abroad each year. We feel pretty comfortable.

42k, one wage.
Sahm, when I go back to work in 2/3 years time, earnings will obviously increase.
3 bed semi in the NW.
1 dc with another dc on the way.

We need to watch what we spend each month but we have a comfortable life nevertheless.
Low mortgage, no other debt.
Small savings but enough for emergencies.
I’m quite frugal, always have been. I buy most of mine & dcs clothes off Vinted. Make the most of free activities & days out/museums/galleries.
We love the outdoors & have membership to National Trust, RHS & Chester Zoo (it’s spread out so more affordable) and I feel like we get to visit lots of lovely places & do fun things together as a family because of it.

Dh and I don’t drink or have expensive hobbies etc. One car household, would love a little run around car for me during the week but not really needed & extra expense not worth it at the moment.

Like many people with similar income/situation, we will feel the pinch as cost of living rises, but I think we will be ok.

That was our joint income until recently when I reduced my hours. We weren't really struggling but only have one child. If we had three and they were maybe all teens I think money would be tightly stretched.

Ouch.

I live in the north west (Cheshire) our joint income is £70k we have 3 teens a mortgage. We feel skint just about get to the end of the month. I think its very circumstantial. Everyone's outgoings and lifestyle differ immensely.

Annual income £12,500 & I’m comfortable. I’ve cut back but I don’t feel poor.

very much dependent on individual situation though - I have paid off my mortgage, bills are low, car bought outright & have a little savings.

Similar houses hold income but S Yorks. Fairly comfortable usually have some spare at end month. Fixed mortgage of about 500 a month for another year. May be different after that.

North West, joint income about 80k. We are stretched but fine..kids do sports, we don't really think about what we spend in supermarket, we go on days out and holidays etc.

Northern Ireland, does that count?

Joint income 90k
Mortgaged 4 bed detached house in a relatively expensive area, 2 young kids and the childcare costs associated with that, one 4 year old car owned outright and 1 new car financed. Mortgage has increased recently with our new fix due to interest rate hike, rates (council tax) have just gone up by 7%, we don't feel particularly squeezed but I still am careful with money and make sure we save a few hundred every month.

Definitely don't feel like we're rolling in it but we are comfortable for now.