Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

So if you're in a job earning less than 25k are you happy in it? Have a good Work/Life balance?

35 replies

MellyPapa · 17/04/2018 19:38

Inspired by the 50k job thread.

I earn £18k as a secretary in a law firm. I do 35 hours a week, 9-5, and it's fairly flexible with good holidays etc.

On this wage I have my own house (partner pays half the bills), save (or overpay mortgage) roughly £200 a month. Pay for my car, have nice food, meals out, attend events etc, couple of short foreign holidays. [disclaimer: I don't have kids]

Of course more money would always be nice but I'm pretty happy at this level.

Anyone else happy with their lot? What do you do?

OP posts:
overnightangel · 17/04/2018 19:43

I’m a carer/care coordinator.
4 hrs on the shop floor so to speak Monday, same Tuesday, Wednesday off (one wed a month 9-3 doing admin). Thurs and fri 24 hour shift (8am to 10pm on the job, 10pm to following 8am sleeping).
Sat and Sunday off.
£23,500 pa.
Own house, car paid off, no worries with affording holidays/weekends away etc, v happy with my lot finance and work/life balance, but studying in spare time to rise up the ranks so to speak.
Should add I live up north and don’t have kids!

LambertsGlambert · 17/04/2018 19:46

I work in a school (37 hrs a week). Went from being a teacher to a support role and love it.

Money isn’t great, (17k) but I get all the holidays off and am home by 4.30pm most days.

It’s an excellent work/life balance.

KanielOutis · 17/04/2018 19:48

I earn £24k per year in office admin. I'm struggling to make ends meet and am applying for roles around the £30k mark. Work life balance is great, but not at the expense of having enough to live and support a family.

Bilbonaggins · 17/04/2018 19:50

I’m 25 and earn £25K as a civil servant. DP on more but not by a huge amount. We own our own (albeit small two bed) house and both have our own cars, gym memberships. We’ve just come back from Florida and manage to save and have a meals/days out. We don’t have kids either.

Although my job doesn’t pay the best, I have really flexible hours and can work from home which is a massive bonus.

Icklepickle101 · 17/04/2018 19:50

I am on £18k for (work part time so pro rata this amount) and very happy, much more so than when I was on £27.5k as an office manager. It’s a charity I work for and as well as the people being lovely I get great job satisfaction Smile

Bilbonaggins · 17/04/2018 19:51

Just realised I didn’t actually answer the question... work life balance is great and happy with our lot 😊

Skatingfastonthinice · 17/04/2018 19:52

I went from teaching primary, ft permanent post, to a salary that’s around half as much as a supply teacher.
I’d rather have beans on toast and no fancy holidays and the work/life balance I have now. Happier, sane and I sleep better too!

AwkwardPaws27 · 17/04/2018 19:56

33hrs/week (slightly reduced hours as I'm studying for a degree as well which is 2-3 evenings a week 6-9pm), £18k.
I have a mortgage with DP, recently sold 1 bed flat and bought a 3 bedroom house, only possible as he earns £40k now.
We're on the outskirts of London and I really need to earn more, really hoping I will once I have the degree as most employers in London seem to ask for a degree. I have about £250 a month after my share of mortgage, bills, food and travel expenses.
We don't have children yet as I want to establish my career first and at the moment I couldn't afford to pay childcare on my salary.
We drive an ancient Clio that amazingly keeps passing its MOT, and have one European holiday a year.

happyasasandboy · 17/04/2018 19:57

Firstly I want to disclose being on the £50k+ thread!

I used to be happy on less than £25k, but I now have three kids and their childminder/after school/Holiday Club childcare costs me £21k per year. So I don't really have the option to be happy with less than £25k because the £22k is paid after I pay tax, so I realistically need to earn £30k+ to make it more attractive to work than stay at home.

Candyflosss · 17/04/2018 19:57

Makes a difference financially without kids isn't it :) My local nursey charge at least £60 a day to look after 1 kid.

theSnuffster · 17/04/2018 19:58

I'm a nursery nurse earning just above minimum wage. I'm happy with it because I (mostly) work term time, school hours. So no childcare costs, able to do school runs etc. I'm lucky in that my OH earns enough to pay the bills... My income doesn't even cover our rent let alone everything else! I do think I'm underpaid though, that's generally true for all nursery staff.

Crabstick · 17/04/2018 20:00

I work pt House Keeping and earn just above min wage. I used to have a managerial job in London earning a good salary. I wouldn’t change things for the world, no out of hours phone calls, stressful meetings.

I can drop my children to school and pick them up. Discounted holidays as well.
Thankfully what I earn is put into our family savings for holidays.

Tisfortired · 17/04/2018 20:02

I'm on 22k and have 1 DS, DP in similar.

I leave the house at 7:25, start work at 8:30 and get home for about 6:30. It's not a great work/life balance at all I feel like I barely see DS through the week but we couldn't afford for me to not work, or go part time unfortunately.

Although we make weekends special with days/trips out and I console myself on my lunch breaks with popping into town and buying clothes/books etc for DS so it's nice to be able to do that I suppose.

AnnabelleLecter · 17/04/2018 20:03

I earn almost that part time. Variable and flexible hours, works out about 16/18 hours per week, very occasionally an odd weekend evening. Get perks, bonus, good holiday allowance, pension.
I'm a supervisor in tourism responsible for two areas. Tbh the work is fairly easy and we're only a small team. I work alone half the time and often take my dogs with me.
Good work life balance, I have time for dog walking, swimming and the gym, hobbies, we go out and on holiday a lot.
Enough household income as DH could be on the 50k thread.
Own home plus holiday cottage, car, holidays, savings, decent pensions, early retirement on the cards.

jaseyraex · 17/04/2018 20:04

My DH earns about 20k as an assistant manager in retail. He works generally 40ish hours a week and has two days off every week. We live in Scotland, rent our home and are quite happy to keep renting. We live comfortably enough for me to be a SAHM to DS and have another baby on the way. I budget well and make sure we still have enough for days out etc and save a little for ourselves and the kids every month. DH loves his job and is hoping to be promoted by the end of the year. Work life balance is great for him. He gets two days off and is home every night before DS goes to bed. More money would always be welcome but we're pretty happy with what we have and how we manage.

FittonTower · 17/04/2018 20:04

I work for a charity 30 hrs a week and earn less than 25k. I adore it: flexible, great holidays, awesome collegues, job satisfaction, no crazy hours. I couldn't be happier.
My parnter and I earn enough to afford a small house, car and the odd holiday.

Original poster
MellyPapa · 17/04/2018 20:05

Really interesting that kids seem to be the deciding factor.

I doubt we would manage to pay childcare so we'd probably share part time or rope in our families (I know we're lucky to have the option of free childcare from them).

I would never have imagined childcare could cost 21k a year though, that's opened my eyes!

OP posts:
grasspigeons · 17/04/2018 20:11

I have a lovely work life balance working part time and only earning 11k a year. I do all the wrap around childcare for our children too - saving a fortune.

However, its only lovely because its a recent state of affairs. I previously earned much more for many years and bought my first home when they were much cheaper. I also have a DH who pays for more than half of our current running costs.

I wouldn't fancy doing this without the benefit of my previous hard work which reduced our running costs considerably or the benefit of a partner able to contribute more than half of a current expenditure.

Polarbearflavour · 17/04/2018 20:21

I moved area and jobs to be with DP who is in the military, there aren’t a lot of jobs down here and the pay is low. So I took a big pay drop to be with him but then house prices are much, much lower here.

I work 9-5 ish in an office but it’s a creative and friendly environment and I’m not just stuck doing admin and I get to travel with work sometimes and manage events. I can leave on time and switch off from work, it’s pretty low stress.

We will move next year - to London or the south-east and I can hopefully get a well paid job job again! We will be married then so we will rent our flat out and live in married quarters which is pretty cheap.

My current job pays £24k and I also have free healthcare and “wellness benefits.” I was earning nearer the 40k mark in London in the City in a more stressful environment where I had a work Blackberry and laptop.

We own our own place down here with a tiny mortgage, 3 holidays a year, lots of eating out! I will caveat that by saying that DP earns more than twice my salary with rental income from other properties. No DC...yet!

Fairylea · 17/04/2018 20:27

Well dh earns £18k working full time and we are very happy but then we have a combination of factors which make things manageable financially-
High rate dla for ds
Carers allowance for me
Tax credits including severe disability element (amounting to £200 a week)
Small mortgage on a house we already own more than half of
Dh walks to work so no transport costs
Neither of us like to go out much (apart from at weekends as a family) so we don’t spend much

We have a really good life, and manage well but I have to be honest and say it’s the combination of additional money and our low mortgage that lets us. Ds has severe autism and attends complex needs school- I don’t work as he doesn’t sleep much at all so I am a full time carer and catch up on sleep during the day!

Over time dh would like to further his career and earn more but we live in a rural area and salaries for his type of work are not high.

Fairylea · 17/04/2018 20:28

Sorry I feel I actually didn’t answer your question! Dh says he’s very happy, he loves his job and enjoys the life we have.

DBoo · 17/04/2018 20:29

Im on 20k in an office job. Have a fair bit of debt but if i didnt i would be comfortable.

Im happy with the salary and the work although sometimes i wish it was a bit more exciting and a bit more flexible. They are good but you always want more dont you?

Freshprincess · 17/04/2018 20:35

Work/life is great. Very flexible, my colleagues are all lovely, Busy but not pressured.
But I don't earn enough. I need to be on £10k more to make life a bit easier. Was on twice as much when the DCs were in nursery, but it was very stressful.

DCs will be out of high school in two years so I'll be looking around in 6 months time to see what's available.

Galaxyseeker · 17/04/2018 20:37

I earn £25k as a teacher. I obviously have all the holidays off and I feel I have a brilliant work/life balance. We have 5 children (all school age) and it works very well for us as a family. My husband works 40 hours a week.

BitchQueen90 · 17/04/2018 20:40

I'm a single parent on minimum wage but with tax credits and maintenance from exh my yearly is about £20k.

I do have a nice work/life balance. My job is quite stressful (sales) but once I leave then I can forget about it and I'm treated nicely by my employers. My job involves weekly commission and bonuses so I'm very lucky that I can work a 16 hour week and come out with almost a 40 hour wage most weeks. This means I can do all school runs, don't have any childcare worries and I get one weekday off to myself every week.

My lifestyle is simple and I live in an area where bills are low so I feel comfortable and can afford a few treats for myself, days out for DS and a couple of holidays a year. Exh isn't rich but earns significantly more than me and is generous financially, he pays regular maintenance and if I need anything extra he will give it to me although I only really need to ask when it comes to buying new school uniforms or gifts for DS for birthdays and Christmas.

I do worry about the future sometimes though as I am not in a position to be able to buy my own home or save much for a pension. I will inherit my parents home and as an only child everything will go to me but I hope to be in a position to at least buy a home before that.