Cant live on 50k? (article)

[BlancheBlue]

I know these sort of things are designed to annoy and are probably twisted but families with £50k + income complaining about "no foreign holidays" and "oh my god I buy clothes in supermarkets" need to realise they are pretty lucky

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3759081/Why-families-earning-50-000-broke-end-month-figures-say-couldn-t-pay-unexpected-bill-500-four-explain-money-goes.html

I could believe Guinea pigs at £20. That's £5 a week and presumably includes bedding, fresh vegetables, dry food etc. For two pets it's seems reasonable

Two cats cost around £80 a month here for food, cat litter, insurance, and random extras

I spend nearly a grand on 'other bills' and ulitiles a month not including childcare and morgage. This does includes 350 of payback on debts though. It's also includes professional subscriptions/ insurance and running costs of 2 cars. Not food though

Ive got two guinea pigs.

I spend £10 a year on hay.
£10 a year on sawdust

Food is something like £4 a bag and lasts a month.

It depends where you live. I earn around £50,000, and I live in a one bedroom rented flat in Slough. That's fine for me as I have no kids, but even a 3 bed semi around here would be around £1800 per month in rent. If you had kids and needed to pay that out of the £50,000, you wouldn't have much left. If you needed to live in London for work, you wouldn't be able to manage unless you had an inheritance/a massive deposit to buy somewhere cheaply/a housing association property. In fact, even the government says that £50,000 isn't a huge amount in London, as you are eligible for a Housing Association property if you earn less than £60,000. In the North, the threshold is lower.

Not quite true, lots of HAs don't have any income limit at all. In some areas you actually get extra points from working, which will sometimes amount to giving people priority if they're richer. I think you might be thinking of the different threshold at which 'market' rents (inaccurate and loaded term but the one they use) for SH properties kick in. The proposal is for it to be 40k household income in London and 30k elsewhere.

50K gross isn't high. It is only 36K net - approximately the median income for a household with 2 adults and 2 children according to the IFS. If it's split over two earners then it's higher net and a bit above the median, but not much - and you will have childcare costs.

Of course, if both adults are making 50K that's a whole different thing...

There's a big difference between earning 50K as an individual and as a household.

www.ifs.org.uk/wheredoyoufitin/

irregular
Just tried that link. Losing one disability benefit (PIP) has moved me from the 6th decile to the 1st!

Although it doesn;t take into account disability costs.

I personally hated the article because, but just to give you an idea: my husband and I together earn far above 50k & still struggle sometimes because my commute to london is almost as much as the mortgage. But my job (investment analyst) doesn't tend to exist outside of London so we're kind of stuck. We don't have kids yet, so are saving the cost of childcare in the area (600/mth) so we'll be used to budgeting it if baby ever does come. It means no yoga classes, holidays, or £100 sky bills (mine is 23/mth after serious negotiation), but chances are we won't be starring in daily mail articles any time soon!!