to think you cannot possibly support a family on 29K?

[AliceBlackwell]

Please please please tell me I AM being unreasonable! My DH has been offered a wonderful job which he would love to take, but the pay is only 29K. Taking the job would mean leaving London, and while I do appreciate that salaries do drop outside London, I really fear that this is just not enough money to support a family.

Back story: we do not have children yet, plan on TTC in a few months. I am self-employed; when we have a baby I will have to stop work (at least for a few months) and will have no income. We have no savings, having recently finished paying off debt (credit cards, old student loans etc.) and do not own a house. This will mean moving to a new city, renting, trying to save for a mortgage, hopefully starting a family - all on 29K!

I have namechanged to prepare for inevitable flaming. I don't mind being told I am being unreasonable/ridiculous - I hope I am! It just seems such a huge drop from what we are earning now, and believe me, it doesn't feel like we are living the high life.
Please tell me money goes much further outside London, and that it would be possible to have a comfortable life on this money. I didn't grow up in the UK, and have only been living here a couple of years, so don't really have any point of reference apart from London. I know that we haemorrhage money just opening the front door here.

Looking forward to being told IABU.

You couldn't live comfortably on 29k in London with a family of 2/3 children - I rent a crap house for £1200 pcm and that is the cheapest you can get so i understand your fear. Is 29k about £1800 a month?

I'm guessing that the OP would have already decided if she can afford to support a family on £29 grand by now as she posted last July!

Right now we could not afford to buy a house in a decent area either. But we can rent and I'm happy with that. Being able to buy a house to me is an aspiration, and a priviledge, not a right, as it were! There are lots of people who live in this country and cannot get a mortgage, but that does not mean they live in abject poverty! But I suppose it depends on the person. If you feel that having to rent or suchlike is disastrous, then no I guess £29k isn't enough to live on. But I suppose I am in a different situation as I know my situation will probably only be temporary as I'm studying for a career that has decent pay (medicine) so perhaps I might feel differently otherwise.

Good lord! I really did not notice that Upahill! Feel slightly foolish now...

Indigo

tbh, ds seems to have decided that GCSE study leave really means wake up at 1pm then spend the rest of the day drinking cider with your mates, so I don't really hold out much hope of him getting into medschool

Haven't read the whole thread, but Bristol is pretty expensive. My brother has just paid quite a bit more than we did for a house - ours is 3 bedrooms, needed no work, and in one of the most expensive areas in our city (not going to say which city as have recently name-changed after giving away too much information!), his is 2 bedrooms, needs LOADS of work and is in what I told is quite a rough area (although must say it actually seems fine to me!). It seems to me that £29k in Bristol is going to mean you are pretty broke after mortage/rent, although I could be wrong.

Disagree with some of you who say cost of living is so much higher in London. DS1 is at Uni in London and although his rental costs are considerably higher than the cost of equivalent property here (in Newcastle) he says everything else costs pretty much the same. We have very high rates here and out travel card costs are much the same as the Oyster. fuel/food etc costs are similar country wide. Mumble - agree with the OP - it is not up to you to fund your "child" through Uni. That's what student loans are for and then they get a part time job! WE help when we can but they shouldn't be relying on you. Are they going to pay your a portion of their salary when they are in work? I think not! They need to stand up for themselves.

Seems a lot of rents are higher than mortgages. But yiu cant get a mortgage even if you can afford the repayemnts cos they are less than thw rent.
Argh

On 27k after deductions brings home about 1550 pcm. Rent on 2 bed in zone 5 is 940 and council tax approx 150 pcm. Utilities are another 150. Travel (bus pass) about 60. I have 2 dc- left with 250 a month to feed and clothe all of us. So yes it is possible but not something I would recommend.

As an aside, certain colleagues are striking so as not to have to pay an extra hundred pound a month into the pension - as you can see that hundred pound would make a huge difference to the standard of living of me and my dc.

But on that money you do get CB.

So for two kids it's £100 as month?

Bloody Hell, I WISH one of us was offered a job paying "only" 29 K :(

Many moons ago DH earned £25k and we had 1 child. We rented, could afford to eat takeaways every week, and still managed to go on one holiday a year. I don't see why you wouldn't be able to survive on that salary if you had one child especially if you're not in London but in somewhere cheaper.

Motheroftwoboys - I think it is much more expensive to live in London. House prices aside, I know from on here people there pay way more than our £700 a month for nursery fees.

Would also argue that it might be difficult to have a part time job at the same time as studying medicine. It worked fine for me studying humanities, but I don't think it would for medicine.

We don't do debt, so will fund ds through Uni unless some dire calamity happens.

I think people do take the piss in London and charge ridiculous amounts for products and services etc as they know that people will pay it (I lived there previously). Like I read on another thread that someone was quoted £600 to have teh house cleaned professionally when they moved out! No way could they do that here in Devon! Here in Devon prices vary from town to town depending on how affluent the town is deemed to be. For instance I pay £3.50 p/hr for a child minder, but my aunt who childminds in a very "middle class" town charges £5 p/hr.

I will say that in London you could eat out at a really decent local restaurant, because there is a lot of competition, for a lot less than a very mediocre restaurant here in Devon that thinks it is really good IYSWIM?

I can understand why someone who didn't have ajob, or had a minimum wgae job would feel like 29k was enough to live like a king but the more money you earn, the less support you get (rightly so of course) so that 29k (£1885 a month after tax) has to cover everything

As messybedhead points out, once everything is paid for there isn't a lot left.

When i was younger I remember having an arguement with my sister who was a single mum working part time on minimum wage. I was complaining I had no money and she lost it with me saying that on my salary (32k at the time) I had nothing to complain about. When we grilled down to it however, she had £80 a month less than me after we'd each paid our respective bills.

I think we are being somewhat mean to the OP. She has gently asked a question and people are coming up with all sorts of nonsense. How they can survive on £15k with lots of children isnt particularly helpful. She is trying to think about and plan for the future.

The people who have a number of children and live on the outskirts of London are proberly helped with benefits/housing etc. £29K could well exclude you from them.

What I did find a shock was childcare. £4.50-£5 per hour per child and often more in London. Unless you yourself are earning £35K and upwards it is really not worth you going back to work.

Rocky like I said earlier she has probably come to a decision as the post is 12 months old nearly