Is 2k a month a lot to live on?

[eggplant16]

Mortgage is paid, 2 of us, run a car ( which i would be loathed to be without).

A very long story but a promised inheritance didn't come my way. No I'm not entitled, I was lead to believe this. Its starting to scare me tbh. Huge dental bills for one thing.

Thanks

£2k to cover what expenses? Everything? That depends on where you live.

Including or excluding other household bills, council tax etc, is that £2k spends or total for everything?

It's doable if no mortgage but you'll have to budget.

That depends on where you live, what your needs are etc surely? It wouldn't be enough for a family with housing costs, childcare needs etc, but it might be fine for a smaller household. Only you know what your monthly outgoings look like and if you live in an expensive part of the country.

Not huge but fine depending on what your bills are. Can you downsize to release house equity to put into savings to boost you? Atm savings of about £4K can get £10 a month interest, so if you could downsize and even put £50-£100K in a high interest account you could be looking at an extra 10% income.

Depends on the bills:

Housing
Council tax
Food
Electric
Gas
Insurance
Internet

If you don't have housing costs, 2K should be more than enough. If your housing is £1500, 2K isn't enough.

We have 2.2 to live on and that includes mortgage, our bills and mortgage are 2.1, we have £80-£100 a month left over and it’s shit, we don’t even live in London which is the kicker, we live in the midlands and it’s still not enough. Dreading this winter.

Totally depends. Our bills are more, some peoples will be less. Do you not know your outgoings?

It's enough if no mortgage left. Two of us live on similar and run a car.

Does that include or exclude the state pension. Which for two people is about £2k a month isn’t it? If it excludes if then £4k a month for a couple would seem sufficient for a modest to comfortable lifestyle as you have no mortgage. £2k a month might well be possible, but if the £2k is state pension then the question is also can one of you live on £1k a month, when the other dies. I’d suggest the answer to that is no…

It would only ever depend on your outgoings, otherwise it's a meaningless figure.

One of us is entitled to state pension ,the other not yet. I am beginning to think I've messed up badly. Everything has gone up so much.
4k would be more realistic for sure.

Not really these days with the way everything has gone up. My basic living costs come to about £1,800 excluding mortgage. Utility bills, council tax, food... everything has gone up lots in the past two years.

You could manage but not have much left for emergency savings, let alone holidays or buying new clothes...

How can anyone possibly tell you when you haven't given any relevant information?

What are the outgoings this amount needs to cover?

With no mortgage it is do-able but is the income static? If it is from rent and will go up alongside CoL you should be OK but if not then it will not stay do-able.

My biggest outgoing is the Council Tax and energy bills (200pm) then house insurance, broadband, pet insurance, water, mobile and TV licence - in that order. So total of about £700 out automatically per month.

On things I have to spend but can sometimes cut for us: petrol is huge for me as I have to drive appx 300miles per week which is at least £100 depending on petrol prices. Food I spend £60pw and x1 delivery/takeaway of £30. I have Audible and Spotify and Netflix subscriptions (£8/£10/£10) and nice dog food which I have cut to 3 weeks and she has biscuits for the 4th (£58).

So left over for parking fees, clothing, gardening, extras is usually just under 400pm. I find that is about enough to feel comfortable that if something happened we could cover it, but I am also always wary that if something big happened on the house I would need to wait and save. It is do-able but if you can put some away each month as a fund for emergencies you'll feel better.

How old are you, OP?

When do you plan to retire?

Sorry , in a bit of a flap. Total coming in after bills is 940 and one state pension.

I am 66.

If you don't pay housing then yes it is doable but tight.

If one person is gets state pension presumably the other also will within a reasonable space of time.

If you own a moderate to large house you could consider downsizing which will free up capital to give you more income.

So what you're actually saying is will 2k be enough disposable income per month?
Really?

Wish the state pension was £1k a month!

You need to sit down and look at your outgoings. Work out how much you spend, and on what, over the course of a year.

Then you will know the answer.

I've been in a similar position. I took my bank statements (downloaded from online banking to a spreadsheet) and saw what I spent on average each month. Then I knew how much I had to be taking in.

With my outgoings, £2k (with no mortgage or rent) would have been enough to generate a surplus for saving. But other people have more expensive lives so you'll have to check.

As a full new state pension is £221.20 a week £1k a month is close enough for these purposes :)

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get#:~:text=The%20full%20rate%20of%20new,Insurance%20qualifying%20years%20you%20have

Does after bills mean ALL bills i.e. food and fuel?

Unfortunately I have no choice but to pay for a lot of private health care.