To think £30K is a decent salary?

[priceisright]

DH earns that. He is under 30 years old. I earned that before but now earn far less due to wanting to be there for my son all the time, and taking a considerably big pay cut when going PT in a less skilled role.

Between us we have about £45K a year. I feel well off... We go abroad twice a year, can buy luxuries, no worries about bills or food, save a small bit. I feel very privileged.

If I worked full time, we'd earn around £55-60k between us. That seems like loads to me! I feel as if my life is already very comfortable so to earn that would be even better.

AIBU to think 30k is a decent salary? And £55-60K combined salary is fantastic?

I do wonder what people spend their money on. I say that as someone who wastes a lot of money buying baby clothes and eating crap on rubbish.

We live in the South East. Currently saving for a mortgage, but rent is £900 per calendar month if that helps.

We have a joint salary of £57k - and love in the South. It's taken us both over five years of no holidays and saving hard to get onto the mortgage ladder.

We also have four DC so out budget each month is limited but manageable. I think this will change once they are all a few years older though!! Hopefully my career will improve next year!

What an utterly pointless post because there are so many variables. Also, If you feel privileged and that you’re doing fine, what the hell does it matter whether other people agree?

FWIW it sounds as though your childcare costs are very small, just a few hundred pounds a month, and your rent is much lower than if you were in London or other expensive UK cities.

But really I’m not sure what you want anyone to say? I mean, you have enough to live on comfortably, great for you, it doesn’t really matter what other people think because they are not you, living your life in your house with your family!

Kingkuta. Salaries are just part of the picture. Overall income and take home pay can be very different.

OP you have obviously decided it’s the right income for your family. Why ask the question and drip feed information to justify the decision. I stand by my opinion that it’s not enough. But unless you provide a full breakdown of the family finances it’s impossible to debate it . Because of course you will always have one more detail to drip into the discussion to justify that you are right.

Lemon But why is it not enough? Please explain that to me.

I'll give a rough breakdown

Childcare - 300 per month.

Rent - £900.

Water bill - £30

Food shop - £230

Travel expenses - £150

Gas and electric - £50

Netflix - £15?

TV licence - however much that is, can't remember

Savings - £300

I’d say 30k for one person is a good salary though plenty would disagree on MN.

45k between two people isn’t bad but I wouldn’t say you were ‘well off’. It’s ok/decent.

Council tax?

Internet?

Acci Internet £15, council tax is £102

At your age, I’d be getting a mortgage.
You’re throwing money down the drain by renting!

And £30 for water a month? God my water bill is around £600 a year

Seriously though, you don’t need to provide a full breakdown, I was just making the point that you’ve not included quite a few costs which you obviously have.

Plus your childcare and travel bills are exceptionally low... many working people would be paying a lot more than that.

Also £300 a month savings, with the number of holidays you take, doesn’t seem much when you need to factor in big one off costs like car repairs. Even normal things like servicing the car could easily take out one months savings. I suppose because you rent you don’t have house maintenance and repairs which is another big cost to many

X post there. Your council tax is a load cheaper than many people too

@NotSuchASmugMarriedNow1 me and my DH both earn £30K and we own our house and have pensions.

OP, as long as you are comfortable and not struggling to make ends meet then you don’t need validation from strangers on the internet! Especially on a site where everyone’s DH earns millions and couldn’t possible survive on less than £100K a year.

What about generally having fun? I can't see that factored in.

Trips to cinema, meals out, clothes, incidentals.

How many cars do you run?

Your savings each month wouldn't cover 1 family holiday for us.

We don't go crazy but 10 days abroad in August for a family if 4 is cheap.

Is not cheap

Are you saving for a deposit? You say home ownership isn’t out of reach, you might need to become more focused on achieving it (depending on your age).

£900 rent might be affordable now, but will it be once you retire. My retirement plans depend on mortgage paid off well in advance of retirement age.

MN has such a twisted view of what a good salary is imo.

Up until recently DH and I survived on just over 30k between us. We have a mortgage, own two cars outright, can afford a couple of holidays a year and save a decent amount each month too. We live in a cheap area, bought a house that needed work doing to it and don't really have expensive tastes.

We manage just fine and compared to lots of our family we are considered well-off as we own our home and run two vehicles. It's all about perspective.

We manage on £30k between us (I'm definitely employed so it can be even lower) and we have four kids so yes, I think it's alright!

It's all dependant on where you live and what kind of lifestyle you'd like to have. My friend is claiming benefits and her exh gives her an amount. All this adds up to over 30k a year, but if you asked she'd say she was skint.

DH and I earn about £70,000 combined and our mortgage is only £240 a month (Scotland and outskirts of Glasgow) he owns a property with rental income generated. We’re both mid thirties with two children. We have childcare costs of about £400 a month which will hopefully drop sharply when younger DC turns 3.

I would say we have a a lot of disposable income on our wages.

Money is so subjective, we have lived on various different amounts over the last 13 years together. I just think you live to your means (whatever they happen to be at the time).

Depends on what area you live in and your outgoings i wouldn't consider it a large amount but i live on much less than that per year and manage

This is mumsnet where people swear 150k isn’t enough to live on after you’ve paid the nanny....

We live off my 25k salary. I wouldn’t say we’re skint.

at the two holiday abroad bit. We rented an apartment in Italy during August school holidays last year and the cheapest apartment could find was £800 per week, plus extra fee towards broadband, bedding etc. Flights for 4 of us were 1200 (booked several months in advance) Had to pay train fares, connection from airports. Even buying food in the supermarket and a bottle of local wine was about 30 euro a time. Spent easily £3.5 k and that wasn't even doing anything that extravagant. We get household income of about £70 000 in the North and there's no way we could afford to do that every year.

Whether you continue to feel 'well off' depends on what you want to offer your DS I suppose.

I take it he's a baby at the moment so not costing you much (other than your drop in salary)?

We have 1 DS too but he's 10. We spend £1k a month on school fees (which you may not want to do, but you may then want tutoring etc). We also spend probably £400pcm on his extra-curricular activities- maybe more after factoring in travel to and from these as he trains and competes all over the country. He also needs clothes, shoes and kit replacing alarmingly regularly as he's growing like a weed and eating enough for a small army.

We bring in around 3 times your income but don't have much spare sloshing around because we sink it all into him. I also can't take a job at the level I could be at because one of us has to have the flexibility to facilitate DS's lifestyle!

You may be happy not to do that sort of extra-curricular stuff (sport, music etc) with your DS- but if he wants to and you go with it, it will really add to your outgoings.

This is mumsnet where people swear 150k isn’t enough to live on after you’ve paid the nanny....

I have just illustrated this point nicely.