In thinking 40k income really isn't a fortune??

[mummymacbeth]

Yes, a thread about a thread kind of. And I am fairly sure it has been done before but still!

I really don't think a forty grand gross income is a fortune. Our income with two kids is currently a bit less than that, though has been that in the fairly recent past. It is - and was - a bit of a struggle. We are not in the south east, we do not have a huge mortgage, expensive cars, kids are at state school and we don't manage to get abroad every year. We are living from month to month. A "fortune" it ain't!! (ref the post about someone wondering whether to have a fourth child)

married I agree - otherwise you find yourself in the situation of having to replace everything at once.

DH has 3 suits - 2 for work and another which he bought 5 years ago to go away in when we got married. He does occasionally wear it for work, but mostly to weddings or if we are going somewhere formal for dinner or whatever. And he has ten shirts, so that if there is any kind of hitch with the laundry we are not in a scramble
I know you can get very cheap work clothing, but it looks awful IMO and wears out very quickly - and then you need to buy it all over again, so it is a false economy.

married to many people a £79 pair of shoes would be thought to be expensive as would the prices of the other items.
many many people do find cheaper stuff lasts just as long.

my fav pair of shoes was brought in a sale of a cheap shop 19 years ago they cost £3.50 and have had heavey wear because i love them im sure ive only had them rehealed once and that was £11.

Agree with it all being relative - my mum friends all earn substantially more than we do but then they have much bigger mortgages to contend with.

First thing we did when we got married was to pay off overdrafts, credit cards and loans (apart from student loan, I owe more on it than when I left!) and we had regular savers going until we had DC

Before we left the UK, DH was on £45k net income, we only paid child care when I worked and I only ever early enough to cover child care. Mortgage was £900/month so almost half his take home wage. Yes DC need new clothes and shoes every five mins etc but our outgoings were massively reduced thanks to not going out all the time. We saved a little each month which we spent on holidays - we weren't amazingly well off but I never really worried about incidental spending on weekly coffees, children's cinema trips, buying books on a whim etc. having said that we prob also saved a but as we both hate clothes shopping so rarely buy new clothes and both commuter cyclists so spent minimal amounts on public transport.

We now live in USA and DH earns what feels like a fortune! But we're in LA where cost of living is high, rent is half his take home wage, child care is roughly £500/month, we need to save thousands to be able to visit home etc etc but somehow despite our whopping expenditures on basics and essentials, we manage to save a decent amount too - probably thanks to frugal living when we were first married and paying off debt

You can make cheaper stuff last ages if you look after it imo.

I did buy a pair of £80 boots last year in the hopes they would last but they fell apart very fast, I was really annoyed. In contrast my £7 tesco summer shoes have been going strong for nearly 5 months now! They're only being retired because they're dirty and I don't think they'd survive the washing machine, although I suppose I might as well give it a go before chucking them.

It's only essential that you clothe yourself. How expensive the clothing is is totally a matter of choice.

My DH has one suit - but he works in an industry and company where it's all casual jeans and trainers to work, as do I. His company also seem to give them company logo emblazoned t shirts every 5mins so he doesn't even need to buy new stuff often!

But traditional men's shoes don't come in cheaper and don't last. I can get similar in Barratt's for £35 or two for £50 but they look dreadful after a month and are worn through with holes by the end of term. I can't buy shoes that don't conform to the requirements of the uniform code. BTW dd has lived in a pair of barratt's canvas pumps that cost £7 in July this summer but some things, in a professional environment, are expected to be of a certain standard.

Maybe it's different in London but my DH has always got by with very cheap shoes and he works in a professional environment. No one has commented or thought badly of him as far as he knows. I think the most he's ever spent on shoes is about £30 but that's mainly because he hates clothes shopping and can't be bothered looking further than M & S.

Bare essentials for office work for men are x2 decent quality, well cut suits. Cheap suits stand out a mile and you don't get taken seriously wearing one. And they will wear out and need replacing. They get worn 12 hours + a day, 5 days a week.

I am finding this discussion really interesting, how out of touch with reality most people are. We live on 16k as do most of my friends, we live in a nice area, have a lovely house and do not go without anything much, we have a car and go on holiday (alright the hols are free apart from spending), we have to watch where money goes but dont feel like we do without. We get tax credits and cb but none of the free school meals or housing benefit that people seem to think. Its a bit mad that people thin m this is totally unrealistic or that people are making it up.

DH works in high end sales.

If I can tell a cheap suit and shoes, you can be damn sure his clients can. There is a massive difference between smart and well dressed when it comes down to it. The sales are our friend when it comes to suit buying but it's still never cheap.

Narked
"Bare essentials for office work for men are x2 decent quality, well cut suits. Cheap suits stand out a mile and you don't get taken seriously wearing one. And they will wear out and need replacing. They get worn 12 hours + a day, 5 days a week."
Golly gosh are you out of touch with what the VAST majority of people wear to work every day.
ESPECIALLY those earning less than the median wage.

I think London is different and it may be a size issue. For example DH and the DC are all very wide and they burst out of shoes. DH has bought one pair of M&S shoes which he found uncomfy and which wore badly.

As for clothes i do think it's worth investing in good stuff but you can get it in the sale. DP has a 'city' job and has 3 suits for about £350 each and has 2 pairs of trousers with each. He has 2 pairs of good shoes, about £100 each reduced from £200 in the sale (russel & bromley/jones the bootmaker). He also has about 20 shirts (TM lewin 3 for £50) and an overcoat £300.

These were not all purchased at once but over the last 3 years. They are looked after well and should last about 10 years. Which will mean about £250 per year on work clothes.

His casual clothes are jeans from primark, polo/t-shirts and some decent trainers.

a bloke i know one of the smartest looking chaps i come across in my day to day life is very proud of owning a very inexpensive wardrobe and you would never know it to look at him. it can be done.

but i agree if you work in a enviroment where wealth is the norm then i may not want to wear cheap stuff.perhaps i would combine cheap or high st with a more expensive kinda statement item.

i think ive explained what i mean but forgive me if i havent im never really bothered on a day to day basis about fashion and i can go to work wearing fancy dress if i want and nobody would bat an eyelid i expect thats because i own the company and am fairly known for being both very good at what i do and very very strange

Does anyone remember a TV programme about people who all earned the same amount and how differently they used the money and how differently they felt about the money?

YABU. Our household income is a little under that and we are skint. However, we are paying off pretty significant unsecured debt. Without that we'd be laughing.

So, ditavonteesed...how do you do it?

What are your expenses?

Because it's all very good people saying they live brilliantly on less that £20K, but until I see a breakdown of their spending, I won't believe it.

I'm talking London office work. And that is the standard there. It's work uniform. and if you stand outside my southern (well out of London) train station between 7 and 8pm that's the uniform you'll see men wearing.

I used to think a couple of years ago when I started coming on here that I didnt have as much but if your on lower income I think you can have a decent life on a lot less as you have no commuting, expensive clothes to wear to work etc so living is cheap.Only drawbsck is harder to get massive mortgages post 2007 thats my only complaint.

And if you earn less than the average wage, and don't need to fork out for suits (like me) then you're lucky. Lots of not very highly paid people do have to wear suits for work though.

And you'd be surprised. That's the median wage after tax. DH works in an office full to the brim of people, a good % of whom are on less than the median wage. That's how they dress too.

but Narked you have missed the point that NONE of those people are on anything LIKE below the median wage ; it does not EXIST at commuter stations at 7pm
those people are utterly unrepresentative of the vast bulk of the population - but many, many mumsnetters still cannot see beyond the Reggie Perrin suits to the real world.

Seeing as I know bigger all about this, but sounds like SpuddyBean has it right - buy good quality stuff in the sales, over time and look after it properly so it lasts longer and reduces average yearly spend

Yes NKF, it was really interesting to see how people spent the same amount of money and what people considered to be luxuries etc. The programme also highlighted the fact that the people paying over 1k on their mortgage or rent didnt have the same disposable income as the others paying so much less.