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)

I will give my breakdown.We live in south and are mortgaged and both in 20s.

355 - mortgage
72 - water
100 - council tax
52 - sky with internet phone
50 - 2 smart phones on contract
56- car insurance
130 - petrol
260- food nappies cleaning stuff etc
23 - life insurance
60 - kids savings
7 - house insurance
11 - aa
13 - tv licence

The rest is for buying electricals living costs etc.

squeakytoy - of course we need to live here, this is what it costs.

I'm not living here because I have one brain cell

How could YOU possibly know I don't need to?

lol,better than poke in eye wi sharp stick
I agree
one generally live to one means

Bulletproof sorry how many children do you have then? You have an au pair and they are at nursery. I'm interested because it sounds insanely expensive just wondering whst makes it cost so much.

sorry missed electric gas 65!

YANBU, you just live to your means. We have a joint income of over 80K but I don't actually feel any better off than when I was on student placement of 16K per year. More debt, big mortgage, child, more weddings, anniversaries and so on and so forth wipe out a huge amount of money.

Depends how much debt you have. We have lots so it all goes...

I live in the south east. It ain't that pricey. You just choose not expensive places

Gingerchick - yeah - I can see that. Had a period about two years back when our combined income was about 15k and our rent was about the same as yours and it isn't easy to live on. But since then our circumstances have changed - we earn much more and yes, we do have more disposable at the moment but because we've had to move for that extra it has upped our spending on the essentials. I guess it's all relative in the end.

I live in the SW and it's bloody pricey,thanks to 2nd home owners.Would love to know where in the SE isn't pricey as dp's family lives there and we've yet to find anywhere we could live on dp's salary if he was commuting.

Well round here (sw) childminder is £4 / hour so £40 a day (incl food). Like I say nursery slightly less. So if full time, about £800 per child per month if both under 3 - my SIL pays over £60 per day in SE (yes she did shop around). Childcare is v expensive (to be honest, as it should be if they're looking after children properly. But that's a whole different thread!)

So can easily see how you could have costs of £1400 per month.

It depends what you want. I live in Portsmouth. My friend just bought a 3 bedroom house for 95k.

Ginger, not when a family home costs 500k, nurseries are 1500 PCM. And you have more than one child. Nursery fees are post tax. I have had two years with two children in nursery. There's nothing left!

There have been countless academic studies done both in the US and the UK, that no matter what a person's income levels, they would feel rich if they had double their income. That holds true whether the household income is thousands or millions. Which is why plenty of people will say YABU while others say YANBU.

Our household income has significantly increased over the last 6 years, and a couple of days ago, I was looking at one of our bank statements from 6 years ago. I was shocked at how little money relative to today that it took to run our household back then (although we didn't have kids then)....it's certainly true that the more we have earned, the more we have spent.

Hmmmm commuting to London(DP works in IT,v specialised,would only find work in London)would be v expensive and knackering from there.We'd want half decent schools too,not outstanding but not shite.

Sounds like a lot to me, my DP is on min wage, we can't get a mortgage so rent, and that's via a housing association so it's cheaper than private rental, he uses my banger of a car to get back and fore to work and I'm a SAHM to DD. His wages pay the bills and rent, while my child ben and child tax pays for the weekly food shop, he gets naff all in working tax and that has to go on petrol. We last went on holiday 5 yrs ago, as there's nothing left after the bills to save.

Maybe you can see if you can cut back on utilities OP, could you drop the heating a bit etc?

I live in the south west and I never spend any money on myself, buy reduced food to freeze, rarely put my heating on, no treats for my kids ever its a case of having to

I have three. Two at school and the third is at nursery. An au pair is not suitable for preschool children both dh and I work full time and I travel a lot. As I mentioned au pair is cheaper than a child minder for --after school care

A family home does not cost half a million! Wherever you live (except central london) you can definately find a house for under 200k. Even in London you could live in bigger flat and not pay half a million!
That's ridiculous. That definately is a choice.

Beebee12 - maybe that comes into it slightly. However, I don't think our lifestyle has changed significantly. Forgot to add, we don't have sky tv, have cheap phone packages ( £10 per month ), no expensive hobbies etc. I think I need o do another budget analysis to see where the money does go !

Depends how you live.
20k is more than enough to live comfortably where i live.

If i continued to live how i do now, that would be over 20k a year disposable income.

You couldn't find a family home for under £200 down here SW,there is a shortage of affordable homes.In Surrey there is nothing-we've looked.

You pay 1500 in nursery fees for 1 child! Most people don't even pay that for 2!
Au pairs are fine for pre school age children. It's like a parent looking after them.

An au pair is not trained,not Ofsted registered-I wouldn't dream of leaving my dc with one.