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.

Thats loads in my eyes. We have a mortgage in the south, been on 1 holiday will be going on another this year, go on weekend breaks to places, have all mod cons such as sky, mobiles, plasma tv, car, games consoles etc. We only make 21.5k between us and we are both only 26.

I got a mortgage in devon when I was earning less than that lol!

Tyler, sarcasm isn't making a very good point for you.

Twenty nine thousand pounds a year is a lot of money, and bluntly, the OP could always choose to work.

YABU. Me, DH and 3 DC's live on less then £15,000. DH self employed so work can be hit and miss at different times of the year.
We would'nt know what to do with £29,000.

OP - did you read the thread the other day about being "secretly poor"? Lots of families in dire straights at the moment: over-committed on the mortgage or credit crunch having huge affect on own businesses.
Just something to think about..

One area of concern for the OP is the cost of houses now, versus, say even 10 years ago. I'm sure many people will have bought their homes many years ago when property was a lot cheaper and lenders were prepared to lend on higher income multiples.

A 29k wage will really only get them a 90k house, if they have a 100% mortage. There are not many of those around in Bristol, and mortgage lenders will certainly not be giving them a 100% mortgage.

So how much deposit can you save? If you want to own your own home, the crux of the matter is that house prices have pushed home ownership out of the reach of so many first time buyers, especially in cities. At present, on that salary, you won't be able to buy.

'To all those who say, they've brought up kids/rented and saved for a house deposit on that sort of income, have you done it in the last 5 years? '

No I am 26 and bought in 2003 when I was 18. I put down £6000 that I saved up from my paper round and waitressing money. I then got a mortgage on my own in Devon on a 12k salary.

Then my husband and I sold up and self certified mortgaged on the mext place. He was making £100 a week as a part times sales assistant and I was making £130 a month working in a nursery. (I worked more hours but I had to do a lot for free as was part of my degree).

Yeah so in 2006 I got a self cert mortgage in Devon and our joint annual income was £6560 and we were also at uni living on student loan. I will miss self cert mortgages!

Haven't read everything, just wanted to say check out schools and nursery, even secondary schools - I know it seems a long way off but it isn't (time flies once you have kids).

I live in London on a smidge over 29K. I only have one dc but we cope just fine. After 10 years of saving I finally had a deposit for a small but lovely 2 bed flat. I havent got oddles off money but I have food, a roof, the bills are paid and we are off to corfu soon. You learn to live within your means.

I've lived in London on less than that. You get tax credits. Not great, but we went on holiday every couple of years. With lower housing costs it wouldn't be too bad at all.

YABU I think. We live on the South Coast in a very expensive area, and live a lovely life on around £15k p/a. Admittedly this is only for this year as we're both retraining, and we only have a smallish mortgage but we certainly don't live a frugal life. A sensible one, yes, but we would do anyway.

Drosophilia, that website is really interesting, we don't earn much - or so I thought, just over £33000 between us - according to the questionnaire we earn more than 50% of the population.

You see it all depends on where you live. We live in a very nice area, fab school etc but we rent and don't have as much money as the people who live around us. So it can feel like we are not very well off when in fact we have plenty.

Meant to say our combined salary used to be around £80K, not massive compared to some on here but pretty good for a couple of comparative youngsters with no commitments. We don't miss the money and are happy with out choice. When his salary goes up after retraining (I will be staying home with child for few years at least) we will probably just save the excess and pay lumps off the mortgage (we already have rainy day savings) as we are used to having a nice life on what we earn at the mo.

As others have said, it depends what you want. We haven't 'lowered our standards', we have just made sensible choices. I.E.: Buying a beautiful little house we could afford on only one salary despite having two very good ones to give us the flexibility to make changes later on (I also think it makes sense given that the employment market is in flux anyway); dropping to one car etc.

I personally think it will be tricky - I know loads of people on here are saying 'Oh I get by on £15k a year etc'...

My DH and I have a salary of £35k - we also have a mortgage of £150k which is pretty small compared to others.

Our budget goes like this :
Income = £2200
plus abot £400 tax credits
total £2600

Outgoings = £650 childcare
£660 mortgage
£450 food
£130 council tax
£80 pension
£50 water
£50 gas
£50 electric
£50 telephone & internet
£35 car ins
£20 life assurance
£35 house ins
£50 petrol
£40 school dinners
£40 bus fares to work
£12 tv lic
£12 car tax
£15 car mot & bills
£20 trying to save for xmas

total = £2449

Which is about £151 a month spare for clothes, tolietries, birthdays, going out, suprise bills, holidays.

Sounds easy written down but for us it means we question every single spend every single time - taking kids swimming equals a spend of £15 pounds, icecream after another £5, petrol and parking in town another £5. And so the list goes on. Dont get me started on kids new shoes which is £60 or when say a curtain rail breaks and it's £30 to replace.

I could work more but then child care would be more - for us it is managable but I would not say easy.

Thing is: a) the OP doesn't have children yet b) is self-employed, so if and when they have children, she might be able to still work and not have childcare fees c) as we're talking about children who haven't been born and they're waiting several months to even start trying, it's possible the DH's salary will have increased by the time they have children.

So this is all hypothetical.

pippi - good list, it does show how bloody expensive water/gas/ everything pretty well.

People are going to look at it and question £450 for food though.

I reckon you could save a bit of money on your house insurance though, £420pa sounds a lot. (yes, I realise you didn't ask, I can't help but interject sometimes )

Threads like this make me so sad. I know it's meant to be harmless, but the way the OP reads, feels like a criticism. DP and I earn around 20k between us. I would like to have children and I have thought hard about it. He and I only have student debt and we're not on benefits, but we don't make very much.

Why do you think we'd be such bad parents? Where we live there are wonderful CofE schools, one of which is associated with my local church. We only have a balcony, we don't have a garden, but there are lots of parks and green spaces 5-10 minutes away. What is it about having under 29k that you think makes a bad parent, please?

LRD, don't feel sad

who said earning less makes you a bad parent?

Where we live we'd never be able to afford a mortgage on £29k (ok, maybe a bedsit or tony 1bed flat) but that would never make me a bad parent, just one with less space

x

pippy, sorry

do you do the childcare vouchers?

LRD, I don't think anyone is saying you must be a bad parent to earn less than that. I think people are concerned it is difficult to live on that wage.

It depends what lifestyle you expect. It depends whether you put possessions above a child' wellbeing and whether you value stuff above a secure, happy household, no matter what the income.

argh, tiny, not tony!! arf.

LRD dont be sad! Ive got tons of kids and we earn a lot less than 29k!

We are fab parents

£29k??!! I wish!!! You may have to tighten your purse strings a little if you are used to living the highlife but that is certainly a liveable wage!

I hope YABU because otherwise we are screwed.

We are considering TTC, renting in London, both self-employed in really unpredictable industries (which require us to stay in London). Our joint earnings are less than £29k (and more than half of that is my earnings).

The way I look at it, the money thing you can muddle through somehow, the biological clock thing is totally non-negotiable.

I keep reading this thread and wondering, HOW so many of the posters here, with families at that, manage on such income? [shocked]