Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

A post for 'low earners'

106 replies

Maybeimweird · 27/04/2020 19:43

Right so I've just seen the thread asking what people earn and these threads always surprise me at how rich people are and I suppose I do feel abit meh afterwards, I cannot believe how low my household income is comparing to others, feel like I've been living blindly as I thought dh wage was ok. I also read on a thread that the average salary was 35k! Me and dh bring in around 2k a month if that, we were also paying £665 in rent a month. I earn £700 a month it doesn't actually pay me to work, if I stopped working then I could stop having to out my children in a childminders and I would get higher universal credits, doesn't sound great but that's the truth!

So my question is are there any families living on a similar wage and still happy and coping and going on some holidays or should I be feeling deflated? Am I the normal average and sniliar to others? I want to hear positive stories

OP posts:
madamehooch · 27/04/2020 19:49

Is £700 a full time or part time wage?

Original poster
Maybeimweird · 27/04/2020 19:51

Part time. I know I could work full time but it still would be an normal wage, then I would have to out the kids into even more after school childcare and pay out more and see them less

OP posts:
Original poster
Maybeimweird · 27/04/2020 19:51

Put*

OP posts:
RyanStartedTheFire · 27/04/2020 19:54

How old are your children? It will get better once they're all school age and the childcare costs lessen.

willieversleep · 27/04/2020 19:55

Are you fulfilled in your job? I'm not a huge earner but wouldn't change for more money and so try to live within my means.

I'm sure lots of families with one working parent have an income similar to yours and not that massive a difference in outgoings.

ComtesseDeSpair · 27/04/2020 19:56

The average wage isn’t £35K - at least not outside of London.

If you are on minimum wage and zero hours contracts with no guaranteed hours then things are shittily tough and I really feel for you.

Additionally, if it makes you feel any better, MN is not a good place to compare situations because a) people who have high incomes post disproportionately about this whereas people on low incomes don’t because they feel embarrassed or ashamed and b) many posters tell lies. You are not as alone as you feel.

I earned under £25K for years and years and felt the same way you do. I managed to go on holiday sometimes but only by spending little on groceries and going without things like heating. Don’t ever feel inadequate because of your income.

maddiemookins16mum · 27/04/2020 19:59

You know when you’re at the Drs for something and he/she asks how many units of alcohol you drink a week, most people will knock off a few (10 😊). Keep that in mind when reading about the mahoosive salaries most MNetters earn, I’d guess a fair few add on 10K at least.

ChicChicChicChiclana · 27/04/2020 20:00

If you jointly earn £2,000 a month after tax and your rent is £665 then that's not too bad I wouldn't have thought? It's the childcare that makes your joint income feel small at the moment, but it won't always be like that.

Mumsnet either has an unusual number of very high earners, or an unusual number of very high earners who like to mention it at every opportunity. Try to ignore them if they make you feel bad.

ChaoticCatling · 27/04/2020 20:01

I'm on £20k as a sole parent of a teenager and my rent is £600. We're happy and doing okay on that. We eat well, including shopping local where possible and go on UK holidays in B&Bs or camping.

rosiejaune · 27/04/2020 20:02

You won't get higher UC for ever though (depends on the age of your children); you would be expected to seek work at some point. And it may not be any better paid than your current job.

chunkyrun · 27/04/2020 20:02

Low earner here. Work as a carer little more than min wage. Work really hard, lots of overtime and just about get by. Going to uni in September so hopefully will be earning more in the future

Theukisgreatt · 27/04/2020 20:06

People with high wages are going to share, because humans love to show off. They aren't typical.

Original poster
Maybeimweird · 27/04/2020 20:09

Thanks everyone. Yeah so I earn £700 a month and dh earns around £1300.a month depending on overtime. I suppose I was just looking for reassurance as pathetic as that sounds that I shouldn't feel bad about that, I mentioned it to my dh and he said I should go full time then but that means seeing the kids even less! And higher childcare, they are both at school but after school childcare is what they go to and it's not great, food looks grim and I hate putting them in childcare for an average paid job that isn't actually getting us that in front, I have thought about quitting my job and setting up a cleaning business I have done it briefly in the past and then I could do school hours but I'm abit scared.

Anyway this wasn't meant to be a mopey post I know people have it far worse etc I just wanted to think surely there are a lot of families on a 'normal wage', I am Midlands by the way

OP posts:
Babyroobs · 27/04/2020 20:09

Yes I read the same thread and ended up feeling depressed so stopped reading.

Original poster
Maybeimweird · 27/04/2020 20:14

Babyroobs glad it wasnt just me then!

I just think God if they think they're on a normal wage then what the hell are we on?!

OP posts:
GrumpyHoonMain · 27/04/2020 20:14

Everybody makes decisions to suit them. Working p/t suits you, whereas aiming for high paid professional jobs that allow me to work f/t with some days from home (and plan my own schedule) works for me in terms of childcare costs.

Boswello · 27/04/2020 20:14

I think we've known for a while that the demographics of Mumsnet skew quite heavily toward the well educated, well paid liberal leaning mums. I don't think people are lying they are just over represented here.

raspberryk · 27/04/2020 20:15

DP earns between 14 & 15k pa as an lsa, take home is 1050pcm.
My student finance is roughly 9.5k plus 80% of my childcare paid for which is a godsend.
Including child benefit we work out just under 2k pcm.
I'm lucky that my rent is low as it's only on 50% of my house.
We would be better off on universal credit if I wasnt a student and my first year of being qualified I'll be no better off, but I'm thinking of the long-term gains.
I was also better off single.

We don't go without though, I run an old car, the kids go to swimming lessons, we can't just do and buy what we want but we aren't scraping by, although we have little to no savings as they get wiped out when the car needs fixing or an appliance breaks.

Original poster
Maybeimweird · 27/04/2020 20:18

Yes and I know that if I work full time I would get a better wage but at the expense of not seeing the children as much so I understand if I want more money I need to suck it up! Its when dh suggests I work full time I think why should I never see the children when I know of so many other mums where only the husband works or they have school hours. So I feel like this is maybe the kick I need to change my hours.

Don't get me wrong as I want the children and work life balance I will never get the super wage and that's fine I just want to know that there's a lot of people as normal as my family

OP posts:
lokoho · 27/04/2020 20:18

For the whole of the UK the median wage is around 30k. Outside London (ie without London dragging it up) the median wage is more like 26k.

Livelovebehappy · 27/04/2020 20:18

But the majority of people who earn a lot live in cities or expensive areas where outgoings are much more. I live in the North and our mortgage for a three bedroomed semi which we’ve just got within the last 12 months, conservatory, big garden, garage is £600 pm. But i bet a similar sized property in for example London would probably have a mortgage of at least £2k pm. So you cant really compare, because incomes might be more, but outgoings more too.

Original poster
Maybeimweird · 27/04/2020 20:20

raspberryk that's great to hear, we are similar too! It's not an awful financial life I just wondered if I'd been living in the dark haha. Thanks everyone though

OP posts:
oldlongjohnson · 27/04/2020 20:21

We're on similar incomes OP. My DH works full time (well, 34 hours) NHS clerical and brings in £1200 a month, I work part-time as a receptionist (16h) and bring in about £700 a month. We pay £850 rent.

Tbh We are happy and healthy, and we do still have treats and a good life. We just can't afford big things or holidays and we have no emergency fund whatsoever.

NoIDontWatchLoveIsland · 27/04/2020 20:22

This is meaningless without considering:

  • London/SE is a totally different economy. Salaries are much higher but costs are too, just because people have a higher salary does not mean they are better off in terms of lifestyle etc.
  • you seem to be confusing average and normal. You can have a "lower than average" income and it be perfectly normal, particularly given that income disparity in the UK is high.
  • there are several ways to express "average". The mean is the sum of all incomes divided by the number of people. It will be very skewed up by a tiny number of people with exceptionally high incomes.
The mode is probably a better representation for most people's experience. It is the middle number in a series.

Eg. 3 people in a room & their income
Queen: 1 million
Joe bloggs: £20k
Zero hours guy: £8k

Mean: £343,333k
Mode: £20k

Both are averages.

GrumpyHoonMain · 27/04/2020 20:28

* Yes and I know that if I work full time I would get a better wage but at the expense of not seeing the children as much so I understand if I want more money I need to suck it up! Its when dh suggests I work full time I think why should I never see the children when I know of so many other mums where only the husband works or they have school hours. So I feel like this is maybe the kick I need to change my hours.*

I would go for companies that offer work from home / compressed hours / flexible working. At my company everyone can apply for some flexibility even new staff - it doesn’t have to be ‘earned’ like in a lot of companies. I usually go to the office twice a week during which DC are in nursery / with childminder full time. I work from home the rest of the week and plan my days so I have 12pm - 5pm with the kids. I then make up my hours after 7pm. It helps that I work for a global business that is very much around the clock.