What’s a reasonable expectation with regards to income?

[AlertCat]

I know this is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, but we have had a similar income for quite a while now with the same fixed outgoings; however, it’s becoming harder and harder to make ends meet. We live pretty frugally and there isn’t a lot we could trim from the budget, so what would you say is the minimum amount you would expect to need to earn in order to cover rent, food, fuel etc each month?

Lots of variables here but the main ones -

How many people? Adults/kids.

What area/are you able to move? If you're stuck in London for work it's very different from being able to move somewhere significantly cheaper.

it’s highly context dependent. We wouldn’t need to earn that much more to feel comfortable, but it does always seem to be out of reach. Wages not in line with inflation yada yada…

What’s relevant is you putting your income, household make up and then fixed expenses that are totally immovable like rent and council tax. Without that no one can help you. Money saving expert may be more helpful. If I put my income and outgoings it won’t assist you to make decisions at all though I can write we spent 28k last year without any housing costs, 2 adults plus adult DS who pays for all his own stuff and is just added to the food bill and uses water.

Yeah, you’re both right, it’s so hard to say without being too detailed. But 2 adults, 1 teen (5 nights a week). We each cover our own bills (things like credit cards and other items like clothes used just by ourselves, not a household expense). Not London, but an area recognised as high cost to live in. Rural, so need 2 vehicles.

This number is actually eye opening, thank you. I think I need to add stuff up properly rather than estimate or just notice if prices have gone up or down.