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

Is £85k a good salary in London (family)?

299 replies

SleepDreamThinkHuge · 09/04/2023 11:21

You may have been aware of a recent Twitter post where one guy was saying £85k a year in London for a family means you will still struggle. Other posters were saying it is not comfortable and definitely not rich. Others were also saying that £85k means your income is higher than 95 percent of the population in the UK. And some have mentioned just because you are £85k you do not need to send your child to private school it is a choice or buy a financed car.

Where do you stand? I can see both arguments but as someone who lives in London how I would love to earn £50k+ let alone £85k. Working in the public sector in a job I like means I earn just over £32k. In the near future, could earn closer to £50k in the next 5 years if I train, and take a more team leader/management responsibility. I think I am not the only one. A lot of people assume just because you live in London you are guaranteed to earn over £50k easily. Many professions are earning less than £50k in London (nurses, teachers, some doctors, police, public sector workers, banking staff in branches etc...

OP posts:
WeAreBorg · 09/04/2023 18:27

85K for an entire family in London would be miserable surely. Imagine being near all those lovely fancy shops and never being able to buy anything!

TrueScrumptious · 09/04/2023 18:30

WeAreBorg · 09/04/2023 18:27

85K for an entire family in London would be miserable surely. Imagine being near all those lovely fancy shops and never being able to buy anything!

FFS, 85k is loads more than my entire family have in London - total salary -35k +27k, a total of 62k, and that is just fine. Not miserable at all.

Dibblydoodahdah · 09/04/2023 18:37

@Botw1 my friend is getting fuck all at the moment despite him earning nearly twice as much as her. She’s spent most of her savings on legal fees and housing her kids for the last couple of years. Ex DH is refusing mediation so it’s having to go to court. He’s being an arse. She’s been given notice to leave her current property (as it is being sold by landlord) and she doesn’t know where she is going next. She doesn’t earn £85k (he does) but it’s pretty similar to the breakdown I gave above as she has no childcare costs.

You really have no idea. Look, I’m a former free school meals, working class Northerner. I thought I would be rich if I ever got to earn £50k…but now I know it’s not quite as straight forward as that.

Dibblydoodahdah · 09/04/2023 18:39

@TrueScrumptious how much is your rent/mortgage? And your childcare costs?

WeAreBorg · 09/04/2023 18:41

TrueScrumptious · 09/04/2023 18:30

FFS, 85k is loads more than my entire family have in London - total salary -35k +27k, a total of 62k, and that is just fine. Not miserable at all.

Show quote history

Apologies Truly, I live in the barren wastelands of the North where we are informed we can live as queens on that salary.

I presumed 85K would be the whole mortgage/rent/childcare/bills down London with nowt left for Liberty scarves.

Botw1 · 09/04/2023 18:42

@Dibblydoodahdah

I never said anyone earning 50k above was rich.

But what tends to happen is princesse their outgoings to match their wage and then still feel hard done by.

It's a bit odd. (The feeling hard done by)

proppy · 09/04/2023 18:42

Its almost 3 x the national average

Of PAYE salaries?

The trouble is the cost of housing, wage stagnation & now frozen tax bands. So if you got on the ladder 20 yrs ago you will be fine. Trying to rent, save to buy & particularly if paying childcare it will be tight.

proppy · 09/04/2023 18:46

FFS, 85k is loads more than my entire family have in London - total salary -35k +27k, a total of 62k, and that is just fine. Not miserable at all.

So your 62k is take home of just under 4.2k plus if you have dc you would get child benefit bring you up to 4.3k. 85k would be under 4.9k.

Dibblydoodahdah · 09/04/2023 18:49

@Botw1 you’re not listening. We’re talking about small one bedroom flats in zone 6. How much smaller and cheaper are you expecting a family to go. There isn’t cheaper unless you manage to get social housing.

thelinkisdead · 09/04/2023 18:51

Goldenbear · 09/04/2023 12:36

£95 in the North of England must be a pretty high end standard of living? You would get a big house for that and have money left over easily for holidays and new cars.

Show quote history

Not true. I’m in a city in the North West and house prices in the area we live in are high. Not London prices, but you’re talking half a mil for a 3/4 bed extended semi or detached. Nothing fancy - no land or anything. We’ve just sold our (small) 3 bed and bought a bigger 3 bed semi for just shy of half a mil. My husband earns 100k and I’m on (part time) 25k. We don’t struggle but we certainly don’t live like kings simply because we’re in the North. Not everywhere in the North is cheap!!!

Botw1 · 09/04/2023 18:54

@Dibblydoodahdah

You're not listening to all the people saying they manage on less

AllTheChaos · 09/04/2023 18:54

Botw1 · 09/04/2023 17:43

Then they would get maintenance?

And would have had a double income ore split so presumably would have had some savings?

It's also just as easy to make up an imaginary scenario where someone on 85 k isn't struggling at all

1 earner on 85k with a sahp. No childcare fees leaving a disposal income of 2.5 k.

So a single person. With no kids. Or someone whose partner didn’t f*ck off. Or someone who actually gets child maintenance from their ex. That leaves an awful lot of families in trouble. Not as much trouble as those with less, of course, but still very, very hard.

AllTheChaos · 09/04/2023 18:56

TrueScrumptious · 09/04/2023 18:30

FFS, 85k is loads more than my entire family have in London - total salary -35k +27k, a total of 62k, and that is just fine. Not miserable at all.

Show quote history

How do you do it? What’s your mortgage / rent and childcare costs and how do you pay them in that? (Presuming you didn’t buy 20 years ago or have free child care?)

Dibblydoodahdah · 09/04/2023 18:57

@Botw1 and has anyone actually given an example of where they are managing on less but are paying market rent for a basic flat plus average childcare costs?!!! Show me the example, tag me in it!!!! Come on, @Botw1 I am waiting!!!

AllTheChaos · 09/04/2023 18:58

WeAreBorg · 09/04/2023 18:41

Apologies Truly, I live in the barren wastelands of the North where we are informed we can live as queens on that salary.

I presumed 85K would be the whole mortgage/rent/childcare/bills down London with nowt left for Liberty scarves.

Show quote history

I keep hoping I’ll find a lovely Liberty scarf in the charity shop for tuppence ha’penny - no luck yet though!

Botw1 · 09/04/2023 19:00

@Dibblydoodahdah

I'm picturing you snapping your fingers and stamping your feet

🤣

Dibblydoodahdah · 09/04/2023 19:03

@Botw1 and I’m picturing you putting your fingers in your ears!

Still waiting for the examples…

AllTheChaos · 09/04/2023 19:04

ibis17 · 09/04/2023 16:06

Most of our money goes on rent, bills and nursery. We don’t really buy anything other than groceries and the budget is very tight. My partner does a lot of WFH around childcare and I work part time. We saved up before having children by doing house shares and working extra hours and we have small children so perhaps less outgoing than with teenagers. Our holidays are fairly modest. We do a lot of free London things and don’t really eat out/ order in. We’re quite into membership discounts and voucher type things when it’s something we really love (eg, London zoo membership is about £150 a year for unlimited free access, toddler time cinema is £3 per child & adults go free, I wild swim, we do a lot of free museum stuff, National Trust is £10 a month).

don’t get me wrong, money is tight, there are compromises and we may well have to move at some point, but it’s also possible.

Show quote history

Sounds like you do a lot of things like we do! Still struggling to save for train fares to get away on holiday (was hoping for a house swap with a friend this summer but the tickets to get there would be £200!), but London is definitely amazing for free and cheap things. I’ve started a budget spreadsheet and am trimming things as much as I can so we can have some savings for fun. We do ‘eat out’ twice a month - but that’s a shared £5 sandwich in a lovely park with an adventure playground so not exactly the Ritz 😂 Will be sticking to taking our own food now the weather is nice enough to sit outside and eat, and that will help go to the savings fund 😊 I do wish DD didn’t have allergies, and it would certainly make out food shopping cheaper if she didn’t, but that’s just life.

Wilkolampshade · 09/04/2023 19:06

My DD1 lives in Hammersmith, rents half a 2 bed flat for £850 a month (she knows this is good btw, ll just wanted to keep them both in this year). She earns 30k. So after rent, council tax and bills over half her earnings are gone. Travel etc she pays as she can afford, often walking or bussing instead of tubing. It's too much to sustain forever probs, but she's having a great time atm. We're she to move in with BF they'd be able to rent a smaller flat but have double the ££ coming in so yes, under 85 is totally doable.

AllTheChaos · 09/04/2023 19:07

Dibblydoodahdah · 09/04/2023 18:57

@Botw1 and has anyone actually given an example of where they are managing on less but are paying market rent for a basic flat plus average childcare costs?!!! Show me the example, tag me in it!!!! Come on, @Botw1 I am waiting!!!

Exactly! The people who only earn £2.5k a month after tax and still pay £2k nursery and £1.5k plus for rent and manage to get by 😂

Dibblydoodahdah · 09/04/2023 19:11

@AllTheChaos but apparently I’m the one stamping my feet!!!

Come on@Botw1 show me the worked example!

Botw1 · 09/04/2023 19:28

I think ibis17 said they were paying market rent and nursery fees?

The op didn't mention them though.

It just says for a family.

Or do only people with kids in nursery count as a family?

Hhjfue · 09/04/2023 19:37

I definitely think that it could be tight but depends on outgoings. We used to pay out 2k for full time nursery for one child and 2k for a two bed flat. At the time we brought home 6k per month which was 100k after tax and pensions. It was ok ish but not much. If we had been on 85k then it would have been a lot tighter obviously.

FloatingBean · 09/04/2023 19:39

A couple on £45k who have 2 DC, are renting and have nursery fees as ibis17 is will be eligible for CB and unless they have savings/capital over the limit also a UC top up.

meanspacequeen · 09/04/2023 19:41

We are a family of 3 and that's approx our family income. We've managed to get on the property ladder although it's a flat without a garden and we can't afford a house. We are ok but still struggle because of the cost of childcare and our mortgage so have very little in savings with not much to fall back on in an emergency. We are only now able to contemplate a second child now our child gets the funded hours but we aren't sure we can really comfortably afford another that anyway which is sad. Our industries are very London centric so we are stuck here for the time being.