Is £1800 enough to live on?

[AlpacaMyHandbag]

I've recently been offered a new job and I'm deliberating whether to take it or not. It's part time and the take home salary will be just shy of £1,800 a month.

My bills total £1,300 or so which includes mortgage, utilities and all food. So with the remainder I'd have to buy petrol and any other bits and pieces as needed. One child left at home.

Does it sound doable?

I have savings and I have other money I don't tend to touch.

I don't want to touch my other bits of money. It's not a question of claiming UC - I don't need to

Just going forward, I'm wondering if i can - relatively comfortably - live on this bit of money alone and it seems I probably can

You must get child benefit too no?

I think it's hard to answer as we don't know what you mean by 'all bills'. Are you saying that the £1300 includes any car repayments, insurance, repairs, house maintenance, mobile phone etc. or do you just mean basic bills? To run a basic car costs around £100 a month I think plus repayments so that and even just £100 for petrol is going to make a big dent on £500. Have you calculated how much you really spend on these essentials and then figured out what you'd actually have left? It if it is £500 just for petrol and fun money, well that's fine.

@Whatiswrongwithmyknee yes I receive child benefit and I have money saved, money invested and money elsewhere I can draw on. I'm also not a single parent

I just don't want to pull on my other funds with things as they are in the world right now. So I wanted to know if people thought it was possible to manage on 1800 a month

I'm not frugal particularly, no. So I think I'll see how i get on I think

@Whatiswrongwithmyknee oh and to answer your question, my car, insurances, etc etc are all covered with money elsewhere, no need for me to factor them in

In that case I think it's perfectly doable.

No one can really properly answer this question for you OP. You need to sit down with a spreadsheet and work out what all your expenses are. Not just the weekly or monthly ones, but also things like Christmas, birthdays, clothing, how much you need to set aside for long term things like house maintenance, savings etc. There are loads of examples online, you can easily complete one by going through your outgoings via your bank statements.

you should be able to work this out
you are left with £500 a month
so over £100 a week or if you spend £100 on fuel then £100 a week
that sounds doable

how part time is it?
do you not want full time?

Do you have a pension?

Are you factoring in the energy rises in April and October and the rising cost of petrol, in your initial estimate if so yes you can. I'm a single parent and have roughly that income per month we manage, we have to be careful though.

@violetbunny

No one can really properly answer this question for you OP. You need to sit down with a spreadsheet and work out what all your expenses are. Not just the weekly or monthly ones, but also things like Christmas, birthdays, clothing, how much you need to set aside for long term things like house maintenance, savings etc. There are loads of examples online, you can easily complete one by going through your outgoings via your bank statements.

This - ultimately it's not hard to know how much you spend on petrol because you open your bank statement and look for the payments to petrol stations! You need to work out how much you earn currently (irregularities and lump sums are ultimately irrelevant if you have enough cash saved to prevent cash flow issues) and then have a real genuine look at how much you spend remembering to include everything from haircuts to a budget for new shoes or a coat which might be a cost borne only once every few years.

DH brings home less than this for a full time, quite stressful role. It's our only income and we've been ok up til now, but the imminent price rises mean we soon won't be. That said, we don't drive so no car costs and he wfh so no fares, and we've never been on holiday, I cut our hair, we don't really have evenings out or anything and so on. So even though we don't struggle, there's not much room for fun stuff and there's nothing really to cut back on when prices go up. Also we can't afford to save.

I'd think it could be ok as long as you can pick up some freelance on the side, your travel expenses are low, you accept that saving isn't likely and that you don't live in London/SE. Given some of your household bills are taken care of I'd say it's doable, just not comfortably.

@MrsLargeEmbodied nope, I don't want full time. I do other bits and pieces elsewhere. And it's pretty part time yes.

And yes, energy price increases taken into account and I do have a pension, again, accounted for elsewhere out of a different pot

Thanks all. I'll give it a go

I wouldn’t say it was doable at this moment, what sort of cushion have you got when it rains? & let’s face it, it IS going to rain

You need to sit down and work out what you're currently living off. Shouldn't be difficult to add up what you've earned over the year and divide it by 12.

I’d say so yes - dependant on your area maybe.
I bring home a fair bit less than that, but along with my child benefit and a small amount of child maintenance from my DC’s dad (3 DCs), we get by just fine.
Once all my rent and bills are paid, I have enough to comfortably manage food, fuel and the odd treat.

I wouldn’t say that’s comfortable- doable but crap if things break down, school uniform needs buying, too many birthdays etc.

I would take the job and continue self employment as a second income. Bird (money) in the hand and all that.

If you’re not a single parent and several of the expenses people are mentioning are covered elsewhere then it’s impossible for anyone to give you a meaningful answer really.

On paper it sounds fine but it wont leave a lot of wiggle room for savings or unexpected costs . But as you have savings and investments, can top up with freelance work and aren't a single parent ( so presumably have financial support for DC at home) I think it will be fine as you have access to extra money if needed.

@mogsrus I've got plenty of cushion which I'm very thankful for

I just wanted to see if I could possibly live off this specific set of money. I'll see how I get on and if it's tight, I'll
Have to pull from elsewhere

Yes that's more than enough! But it depends what you're used to.

That's what I earn to support two adults and a child. And that includes paying for my car, insurance, holidays etc. So if you don't have any of that to worry about it should definitely be enough!

It's certainly doable considering all essential,s are covered ,but it depends on your life style ,if you like socialising ,nice holidays etc then it would be fairly tight .