How much do you need to live on?

[Yourcatisnotsorry]

Ignoring housing costs (mortgage/rent) and childcare costs, can I ask how much you need to live on?

Thinking of being an SAHP/early retirement and how much savings I’d need before private pension kicks in.

Family of 4 in the north, I think with £3000 net a month we’d be comfortable.

Single person. I could manage on £1000 a month including bills. No rent or mortgage.

Yes l agree 3k for the four of us

Family of 6. 4.5k

Well there's a huge difference between how much you need to exist and how much you want for a comfortable existence.

We don't even have 3k now... 😳

£2k for 2 people.

If it had to do it bare bones then my utilities are about £400 + £250 for food for me and teen DD.

I WFH so don't need a car now, I could manage without it, DD would have to give her sport up though.

I take home £2k a month and that is comfortable. I don't splurge but I don't worry about spending on heating or minor unexpected bills

Living with teen DDs and about £1,900 a month is necessary to pay bills and cope with minor surprises.

More than I have 🤣

3000 would be doable but tight for me and two kids. 4k to be comfortable. Do need to have a car which is used a lot due to where we live, which is obviously a significant cost.

Two if us, I don't work due to illness and don't get any benefits although the government pays my NI stamp.

My DH earns about £3000 a month and we save at least £1500 a month and we have no mortgage as house is paid off. So for two of us, warm house, nice food, bills, things we need and some treats maybe about £1000 - £1500 a month?

We have a good amount of savings which I am imagining I could dip into in emergencies or if we wanted a bigger item like a new car or a holiday.

⬆️⬆️ this!

And also what you see as being confortable will vary a lot from one person to the next.

Exactly what I was going to say 😂

Without mortgage for a family of four I'd say we'd need to be clearing £2500 a month in take home cash. Unfortunately we do have a mortgage...

And also what you see as being confortable will vary a lot from one person to the next.

'Needs' would too. DD has managed without meds or educational support despite her having an ND diagnosis. We pay for music and we were paying for tutoring. Without which she would not be OK. But are they a 'need'?

Single person. About £600.

If you're not ok without something then yes, that's a need. in comparison, a fancy scented candle is not.

I’m planning on £1,000 a month when I retire to cover all utilities , car expenses and food but that assumes I am still married (no plans to divorce just would change outgoings a lot) then I will have PIP of around £600 a month to use for other stuff like cleaner etc

You need to write down and start tracking your expenses, every little bit. Do it for a year and you’ll be able to work your own number out. Our fixed outgoings are about 2.5pm but we need (quite a lot) more than that to live comfortably.

That's good for food. I live with teen dd (and cats) and my bills not including mortgage are similar to yours, but my food averages £340 - £360, and I don't even eat meat or drink alcohol!

Rubbish! How the hell do you run a household on £600 a month???

My rent alone is more than that. My other combined bills are close to that! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'd say £2000 a month for me as a single person living alone

@Romeiswheretheheartis I get a good discount at the local supermarkets as I have family members that work in them so 10-15% off your shopping bill makes a difference.

The OP excludes rent/mortgage

You'd need to say what you have in mind for your retirement: would you be ok living frugally, or would you plan on travelling etc?

@Springadorable even without rent household bills, car expenses and food still comes to over £800 a month