To ask how much you think a family of 4 need to earn ...

[Jesscarbqueen87]

Minimum for a decent standard of living.

Depends on:
-where you live
-what you define as a decent standard of living
-whether you have outgoings like child maintenance /debt payments
Etc etc etc

How is anyone supposed to answer that? What are your outgoings? What part of the country do you live in? What do you consider a “ decent standard of living”?

this is like asking how long a piece of string is.

It depends what your idea of decent standard is?
We are a family of 4, we have an income over 70k but we pay nearly 1k a month in childcare, we do our food shopping mostly at Aldi and we don't drive fancy cars - we have 2 cars but just bog standard models.

We also prioritise savings each month so we are fortunate to be able to do that. Probably my biggest "treat" is getting my hair done a couple of times a year. We don't really ever get take-aways etc.

I think it depends where you live - I'm from the north west and I think £35000-£40000 would be enough for a decent standard of living as in roof over head, food in belly and electric on and still have some left over for a holiday or days out etc - I maybe wrong but that's my thought process.

id say minimum for decent standard would br joint income of £100k

@Betty94

I think it depends where you live - I'm from the north west and I think £35000-£40000 would be enough for a decent standard of living as in roof over head, food in belly and electric on and still have some left over for a holiday or days out etc - I maybe wrong but that's my thought process.

Thats the basic on the poverty standard youre describing there.

We earn about 50k combined and it's enough for us. But we only have one child living with us and live in a cheap area of the country so it's not comparable if you've got 5 kids and live in London.

Really? I wouldn't have thought so especially in the north west - we have around that coming in maybe £45000 and we own our own house, two cars and have roughly around £1600 when all the bills come out at the end of the month - didn't realise that was poverty.

@ArnieLinson poverty?? Affording holidays and days out?

We are from two different worlds

Depends where you live.

Gets out 🍿

It not only depends where you live but what you class as poverty. As above.

We live on just under 3 grand a month take home. In the south east. Certainly wouldn’t say we are living in poverty, not flush or wealthy but comfortable.

We are a family of three humans, but we have lots of pets. I think our household probably costs more than a family of four humans

how long is a piece of string again?

Tell me how long this piece of string is 🙄

Snap Chic

These responses are hilarious. Our household income is waaay less than anyone has said so far, and our life is amazing, it's simple and stress-free, we're happy and healthy. We drive old bangers, live in a tiny house and have very basic holidays but our life is seriously blissful.

As pp said, depends where you live.

We have 50k income but have a lovely 4 bedroom detached property, 2 cars, DC also have a car each, eat well, socialise (in normal times) and have at least 1 foreign holiday each year.

As others say depends where you live, what your rent/mortgage/bills are, if you pay childcare costs, what you’d class as a ‘decent’ standard of living etc. Even things like if you eat meat or not can affect the food shopping costs. Answers would really vary.

@ArnieLinson no Dear, that's real life for the average British person. Poverty standard is no holidays, no days out!

Where does this theoretical family live and how much is their rent/ mortgage?

These threads always have at least one person who claims you can't possibly survive on under 100k (we actually have a substantially higher income than that so this isn't jealousy). In most parts of the country you can be comfortable on much less than that.

We survive on £26k, well myself and my 2 dd's

Poverty on 45k a year??? Really???
We are in the south west, on about 45k. We have everything we need ,mortgage, car and can afford to save a little although not loads. I would say we are comfortable enough. Another 5 to 10k would be nice