To wonder how ppl do it...afford it all?

[wishywashyy]

How do ppl (I mean the average joe!) afford everything? I know, I know situations are different BUT in general
Mortgage
Car payments (usually 2!)
Childcare
Savings
And general living

It doesn't add up
Mortgage/council tax on average would be what? 700-800?
Car payments x2 600?
Childcare (let's just say one lot) approx 1000
That's 1400 alone at least!
Saving? I suppose that's depending
General living? Another 800-1k
So That's 2k
Then there's other bills which would be 500ish
That's 2.5k in total

That's a take home of about 40k! Gone! And no savings!

I'm baffled and freaked out at the thoughts!!!

The average salary in the Uk is 32k op. Eighty percent of mothers work. So easily affordable if you earn the average.

I didn’t work while the children were little so no childcare costs
I also don’t drive so no need for 2 cars
Everyone’s circumstances are different

I don't think your numbers add up...but sometimes it just depends on how you spend your money. I buy my children expensive clothes but maybe I can afford to do that as we own our cars outright? Some of my friends go on holidays I can't afford, probably because I buy my children expensive clothes?

Oh and it’s not forty k take home, that’s forty k before tax. Take home is after tax,

But on that basis, there two adults are working, that's 40k but two people on a salary of 23 each would being in 46. So there's 6k spare.

If one isn't working they're not paying childcare. Lots of people don't have two cars.

If people are on lower wages there will be some top up of income through benefits.

Child benefit for 1 is 1k a year.

Well it does add up really if two people work full time? Yeah they might not have savings but they could afford that. Also £1k for general living per month seems a massive overestimate to me. Being baffled and freaked out also seems a massive overreaction as presumably their lives don't affect yours. Let me guess, you've never had anything on finance and always have thousands in savings?

I worked when my DH didn’t, so we had no childcare costs.

We saved lots before kids, overpaid mortgage. Then went interest only on mortgage while kids were small.

@SleepingStandingUp

But on that basis, there two adults are working, that's 40k but two people on a salary of 23 each would being in 46. So there's 6k spare.

If one isn't working they're not paying childcare. Lots of people don't have two cars.

If people are on lower wages there will be some top up of income through benefits.

Child benefit for 1 is 1k a year.

Exactly and well below the average wage.

I know what you mean op, when you run numbers it just boggles your mind. Truth is everyone has a different set up so that changes things.

Now a days a lot more women work too and that does play a part in being able to afford “it all”

Depends where you live. Our mortgage is £500.
Car payments were £400 but now one of the cars is paid off so £200. Childcare full-time 4 days/week is £600.

Mortgage - 15% of our take home pay (includes an overpayment)
Car payments (usually 2!) - bought second hand cars outright. Never understand people buying brand new cars.
Childcare - used a local childminder and staggered our kids so we weren't paying 2x full time
Savings - we save what's left at the end of thr month. Sometimes is 0, sometimes its £400
And general living - our other direct debits come to about 350pcm, food another 350, days out and clothes etc another 150 max.

We dont earn a lot. We dont spend a lot.

@Bluntness100

The average salary in the Uk is 32k op. Eighty percent of mothers work. So easily affordable if you earn the average.

That is the mean though I think, not the median so in reality many earn well under that. One in 8 women working in London are on zero hours contracts.

I'm intrigued as to what your £1000 a month general living expenses are if accommodation and bills are covered elsewhere.

That aside, people don't do all that if they can't afford it all do they 🤷‍♀️ if people are on lower incomes then it doesn't make sense to pay for childcare, so work will frequently be arranged to avoid needing childcare. Not all families need two cars etc etc. Of course that doesn't mean it can't be hard financially for people, and all the juggling to make things work. We're in the fortunate position of both having good incomes but I still only bring home £50 more than our childcare bill 😭

Childcare for my 22 months old 5 days a week is £1,200. I took a carer break. Crazy prizes.

Career*

Some people are well off, some are on middling incomes and some struggling badly to afford basics and people prioritise different things if they're in the middle group.

And if you're well off enough to spend 100K on new shiny cars, possibly annually as I read on here yesterday, you won't even understand the concept of juggling your income, let alone grinding poverty.

Your adding up is wrong, you've missed £1000 to your early sums.

But it's a personal decision as to how you spend "the pot". Our mortgage is more than double what you've quoted, childcare was double for a while but we don't have car payments and were careful with bills etc and didn't have any savings during the childcare years.

There's no getting away from the fact that life is expensive.

I don't earn anywhere near the average salary unfortunately. And I have a "decent" job. Dp earns slightly less. We struggled when we had 1 ft in childcare. Only ran one car and had a tiny mortgage but it was still hard.

Much easier now he's at school.

Buying second hand cars outright works, and reduces payments. My dh's last pre retirement car was about £1500, a Saab, which trundled between the UK and Brussels for years, and worked well for his daily Brussels commute. We had it for 7 years, put thousands of miles on it, and scrapped it when we moved back to UK.

My Saab was £3500, I've had the car for 7 years and use it much as dh did his. I reckon I'm good for another 75000 miles in her at least. No finance payments, and so far I've had new tyres, a new battery and annual servicing. No major problems as yet.

We Live in The North so small mortgage and we bought the house 20 years ago when house prices weren’t stupid
We have no childcare costs as such but we do have school fees
We had dc later so both earned well for 10 years or so first
Cars paid off but not replacing them
We do earn really well now but a lot of it goes into saving for retirement, we aren’t really frugal but not flash either.

bought second hand cars outright
You have to have a certain level of income to finance that.

A big difference for us is that we've never had car payments. Always bought cars between 8-10 years old for less than £1.5k and maintained them well, driven for 3-4 years. It's only now we don't have childcare costs that we're starting to consider getting finance to buy a 3-5 year old electric/hybrid.

While this doesn’t hold true on MN, in rl I know very few people who have a child in FT childcare.

Most people have family help for a couple of days. So that brings costs down.

@PixieDust28

I like both the term carer break and career break.

When women take a career break it's heavily stigmatised (it shouldn't be, being a woman is hard enough), but if it were rebranded a carer break then i think it naturally would lose some of that stigma.