To ask how much

[feelinghothothot]

Is enough for a family of 4 to have a sah parent? I know this is not a one-size-fits-all scenario, but generally speaking. No debt (except home), happy to go camping but with the odd great day out!

You need to do a budget. Work out how much you currently spend on bills and essentials like food and transport- go through bank and credit card statements to see how much you actually spend on things like food.

Then decide if you can cut back anywhere. Maybe shave £5 a week off the weekly shop? Cancel Sky subscriptions and just have freesat?

Then decide how much you want to have to spend on luxuries. DH and I take out our luxuries spend in cash at the start of the month, and the cards are only used for petrol and food. That way we can't overspend and if one of us DH runs out of money, well no more takeaways that month! Try and cut back but still be realistic. Things like haircuts, new shoes, clothes, days out, toys for the children will have to come out of this money.

Add it all up and you have your answer!

I'd say minimum of maybe 50k? That way, depending on your outgoings, there may also be a little left over to save?

About 15k a year if just needed mortgage, 1 car, uk hol etc.

I think the answer will be so dependent on the family - it is not really possible to answer. Surely the best way would be to do a quick budget for a year and see what you get.

Mortgage/rent
Bills - water/elec/gas/food/petrol
Yearly outgoing - car tax/ insurance/ MOT
Anticipated expenses - e.g.assume new car every 5 years, so add 1/5th cost of car per year.

For me I would say
1/3 salary =mortgage
1/3 salary =bills etc
1/3 salary =everything else. (Clothes, going out, treats, holidays, unexpected events, savings).

So if adding it all up you can do it on one salary, go for it! Dont forget you wont have to pay for commute, work clothes or child care with SAH parent.

Sorry I'm sure I'm teaching you to suck eggs!!! This is just how I would approach it.

broken yes, that was the ballpark in my mind

chronically thanks - could you do my budget for me? That kind of thing brings me out in a sweat!

I think the range of answers here £15k to £50k shows just how hard it is to answer. I would say £30k for us, but thats living quite nicely (no kids).

It all depends on where you live. I dont sahm as I like the high life and on 30k we have 3/4 holidays including abroad, decent car, mortgage, no debts, 3 children etc.

See DH earns roughly 30K and that barely covers the bills. We get by ok with my wage as well (15K), this goes into some savings and pays for general repairs to the house/car and emergencies. However, we have no holidays ever, we run one small car, we have no gym contracts or mobile phone contracts.

In that case I would also say 50K

It varies a lot dependent on things like where you live, how big is your mortgage, what travel costs do you have. In the area I live where you can get a decent family home for £100k it would need a lot smaller a salary than the area my siblings live which would be a minimum of £300k for a home.

Feelinghot are you trying to work out if your family could afford a SAHP?

For a comfortable lifestyle I would say 50k minimum and that would be a fairly average house, car, one holiday type setup. We lived SE though so that will make it higher than other areas.

For a very good lifestyle, no worrying or budgeting then over 100k

It's going to depend how much your mortgage payments are, how much your council tax is, your utility bills, cost of commuting to work, etc.etc

As the first poster said, there's no 'amount' - plenty of families do it where neither parent is at work. You need to write down what your monthly outgoings are and work from there.

Our essentials are £2k a month - mortgage, bills, insurances. Food, clothes, fuel, commuting etc is on top of that. We don't have savings or pensions. Can't afford it at the moment.

chronically thanks - could you do my budget for me?

YABU

If you can't be arsed to do your own budget, keep working or you might be in for a nasty shock in the future.

I don't work. One child in nursery costs £80 a day round here. X2 children is more than I can currently earn.

Depends a lot on where you live/travel costs/mortgage etc. Here, (home counties) I'd say minimum 60K and that's living fairly simply.

Where are you living the high life on 30 grand, melissa? I know for sure it's not London

I live in a small place so my mortgage is only just over £300. Im a good bargain hunter and get holidays dirt cheap. Deals like 4 people away for 2 weeks abroad for £500 etc.

Yes, I live in SE, am a SAHM with 3dc. We have a few holidays, a few cars, and a nice standard of living but to do it on 50k, we would have to say goodbye to most of those things I think.
Whereabouts do you live OP? I think it depends on what sacrifices you're prepared to make should you need to

chicken yes - DP to be the sahp not me, though. very new territory, but for it to be considered i just wanted to know what the consensus was.

It all depends on what your on now or whether you have concieved yet? If you are on about 30k you could get a large amount in tax credits as well which make it worth working even with a couple of children. Its hard to say without knowing your personal circumstances.

I'd add up your essentials (mortgage, utilities, council tax, food) with your nice-to-haves (holidays, cars, swimming lessons etc), your extras (birthday presents, clothes etc) then add 10-20%.

I would say about 75k but as others have pointed out it depends what you want and if your prepared to drop your std of living. I also think you need to I consider what you would do if your OH was made redundant or paid off.

i should add that DP wants to become a 'rent-a-husband' handyman. low key. i said if he could just earn food shopping money that would be ok. we live in the south-east and i would be commuting to london every day