To think we could manage a £2200 mortgage payment

[Dyr]

on a take home pay of £4k.
After purchasing the house we would have £40k - £50k left in savings / investments.
The repayments would be about £2.2k per month but our combined take home would be £4k, and due to the jobs we are in its unlikely to increase. late 30s/early40s with 2 kids (primary school age)

For me, £63 is was too little of a buffer per month. My children’s nursery fees increased by £8 each per day recently and that equates to more than your buffer extra per week, never mind month; so had we used the same calculations as yours, we’d be screwed.

For what it’s worth, our take home pay is around £6000. Our mortgage is currently £1000. We just worked out our finance spreadsheet and we are cutting it super fine at that. The only “luxuries” we have in this are life insurance policies, sky, Spotify and contact lenses. I’d probably also include our pension payments as a luxury that could be cut if necessary. All other bills are things like gas, water, council tax, car insurance, food and of course our killer at £2500 a month, childcare!
we always worked on the rule that we could afford our mortgage and absolutely essential bills on one of our wages which we could comfortably do until the cost of living crisis (by comfortably I mean still have the odd meal out, a family day trip here and there and a bottle of wine a week plus haircuts etc and cover mortgage and bills on one wage). Now let’s assume I lost my job…which is the exact amount of money the childcare costs (so nursery doesn’t affect this equation) and now we would not be able to afford any extras, we’d have to sell one of the cars and we’d have to drop all the none essentials like contact lenses, sky, Spotify and probably pension payments for a while too. Ridiculous really but it’s the way it is. Too many people have, through inflation ended up with buffers much smaller than yours, or even deficits who three years ago would have been deemed as “well off”. I would not knowingly put myself in a position where my buffer was £63 a month in the current climate unless I absolutely had no other choice.

Could you get a lodger? We managed a very tight mortgage by doing this and gave us an extra £800/month

I personally would look to buy a cheaper house AND use a significant chunk of savings to reduce the mortgage.
I would not be comfortable earning £4k joint a month and only having £63 left. The slightest bill increase, luxury or issue and that is gone, every month.

Are you mad?

Yabu. £63 is based on your current outgoings. Your outgoings will increase. That is an inadequate buffer. Are you prepared to live without luxuries, too?

Oh god no! Our combined take home is around £4K and we are struggling with paying £1100 plus all our other bills, and that is just for two adults, no kids in the mix. You would be insane to even consider this.

No chance. You’ve found a bank that will agree to this?

Our take home pay is 7.5k and our mortgage is 2.55k. It's a real struggle!

Really?? It's a "real struggle" to live on almost 5k a month after tax and mortgage? We're getting a very skewed selection of responses here. On other threads this response would receive outright derision!

No way
We have joint income over £5k a month and struggle with all bills and a mortgage of £1400 a month
You would be surviving not living with little flex in finances for the unexpected
Kids get more expensive as they get older and there's still so much unknown about living costs in the short term
You'd be bonkers

but thats "keeping savings for a rain day" is going to cost you money, can you make as much on compound interest on the £50,000 which is going to cost £50k in extra repayments on a mortgage

If the interest rate on the mortgage and savings is the same, then it makes absolutely no difference to the final financial position whether she reduces the mortage now or or hangs on to all the savings and pays down the mortgage later.

Of course, if she ends up spending the savings at some point, then that is equivalent to borrowing more and will cost more in interest. But the ability to dip into the savings does give a bit more flexibility, for as long as she still has them.

I don't think that's bad. Our mortgage is £980 and our take home pay £3300 so you'd be about the same.

No way. We take home a lot more than that and there’s no way I’d even consider those repayments.

Trying hard to understand this. Our combined take home net pay is £7k. On this was manage to -

1. Overpay mortgage (1881) significantly to actually pay 3130 a month on mortgage by choice. That’s £1249 in OPs monthly.
2. Keep 1 child in FT nursery
3. Have other child attend an after school activity club daily, plus various holiday clubs and 3 additional activities, both also swim at non bog standard pools.
4. Have £200 stashed away monthly for holiday
5. Manage to save for ourselves and kids
6. Do all other bills, including having a dog and live in the SE.

Our personal allowances are ridiculously low I guess. We cut our own hair, never buy new clothes etc.

How are you quite so struggling?

Have you actually accounted for all your expenses? I don't mean the monthly direct debits that come out of your account, I mean absolutely everything you need to pay for over a year? Car maintenance, home maintenance, birthday gifts, Christmas, birthday parties, dental treatment, haircuts, clothes, replacing technology such as laptop, etc.? When people post their budgets on here, they often miss out loads that has to come from somewhere.

£63 buffer ... wow!

And if you haven't accounted for that stuff in your budget, your £63 is suddenly gone and you are into the minus.

I would have daily stress diarrhoea on this budget and end up spending the £63 on new underwear.

It isn't the same because your mortgage is less then 1/3rd of your salaries and the OP is proposing one that is > 50%.
Obviously it also depends on other factors such as whether you have children, need to pay for childcare, etc.

No way would I overcommit like this. I'm also surprised you'd pass an affordability/suitability assessment.

You don't only have £63 left after all expenses. You have £63 of your wages left and £40-50,000 in savings. You could use some of that each month or use it to reduce the amount you borrow in the first place. I know you said you would like to keep some for a rainy day but what sort of rainy day would require £50,000 in cash? Don't forget if you need £50,000 for a rainy day (unlikely) you can borrow some of it then. I would keep £5,000 for a rainy day and put the rest in the deposit reducing the mortgage payments and the amount you will pay in interest.

Insane

That seems really tight. Our mortgage is 2,100 and our take home is 9k and with childcare costs and rising prices, I wouldn’t want higher payments. In your position I would keep 20k in savings and use the rest to lower your mortgage payments.

This is a terrible idea. Our take home pay is 7400 and our mortgage was 2600. With a now 4.15 mortgage (we paid 10k down on the principal....by doing this we will save 20k on the life of the loan) our mortgage is 3400.
Council tax is 300.
Our car is paid off and we paid an annual insurance of 860 just now, but I will save each month for next year too.
Electricity and gas is 450.
Groceries for toddler and dog plus 2 other children is 1000 at least every month.
Subscriptions/internet is 120
Clubs and gym/swim is 190
Water is 70
House budget £100
Social, gifts, emergency, etc is £400
Savings is 315

We're struggling every month so I would not recommend!

No, it is far too much for your income to manage.

Fill in the MSE budget planner spreadsheet totally honestly and see what it says.