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)

No way. That's just not affordable on your income. Unless you tell me you cook vegan budget meals from scratch, have no subscriptions, have no car or travel costs, go on no holidays and have no unexpected costs each month, there's no way I would contemplate repayments of that sum.

My instincts would say it is too much but have you done a proper budget - the planner on MSE is good as it includes the annual or irregular things people forget like MOTs, dentists, haircuts etc. if you have childcare costs it makes it tighter still. Basically no-one can tell you as we don’t know your outgoings.

eg on the sums it might be affordable if you’ve got one earner, no childcare, limited transport costs etc. it probably won’t be if you’re both commuting to London, running two cars, using lots of afterschool clubs and holiday childcare.

haha okay, you're asking for an opinion, but pissed you got one.

Our mortgage is similar (within 200 pounds) we pay 2800 EACH into a joint acocunt to cover bills and living expenses for us and one child. This includes 1500 childcare.
We often have to top it up and arent particularly fancy. (Eg aldi shop and one cheap car)

I normally think people are too Conservative on here but what you are proposing is way to close to the wire.

We bring home just under £5k a month, I wouldn't consider that sort of repayment.

What if interest continues to rise?
I'm assuming a bigger house, so bigger bills, council tax etc.
Don't underestimate the cost of teenagers! Especially when you take into account the fact that with that sort of income you'll need to pay for all of uni costs (if applicable).

We have a joint household income of just over £5,000 (net) and our mortgage payment is £2,000 pcm. We have no children, so don't have that added expense, but we would struggle on £1,000 less disposable income per month, which is comparable to what you're suggesting, OP.

However, only you can decide if it's achievable for you. I would be willing to make certain sacrifices for long-term goals. Do you have capacity to increase your income, via side-hustles etc, if things get tight?

Well, because as I said in my post - Personally we already find life tight with a mortgage of just under 25% of the take home so would be especially more so at 50% - we have childcare fees of around £1k a month. Mortgage and council tax come in at another £1k a month. Each to their own but We would not choose to ever spend 50% of our income on housing costs.

Absolutely not, we have take home of £4.5k ish and a mortgage payment of £1k (including an overpayment). I can’t imagine paying more than double that, it would surely be absolutely crippling?

Way too tight

Ours is a similar amount but out take home, after all other expenses, is more than yours

Hi OP our take home pay is around 4.5k each month though we do expect this to increase.

Our mortgage is around 1k and then we spend another 1.2k on childcare. Soon to also increase when we have baby No. 2.

We have nothing on finance just bills, food and the general day to days costs.

We comfortably save £500 every month, £900 in a good month. So I think it’s doable. Affordability criteria is really tight right now so if that’s what mortgage companies are willing to lend you then it would have passed all their stress tests.

£2.2k on £4k makes me do this face: 😬.

We pay £1.2k on 5k and I don’t love it!

Gosh no, our take home is £6K, our mortgage is £1265 and that feels like a lot (just gone up from £888 🙄)

Shoot me neither, but it's sometimes unavoidable . We spend 50% on rent in the south and we live in a 1 bedroom, we can't downsize! Renting is ridiculous!!

Need to start own thread

It depends on if you can get a cheaper house to suits your needs (not wants) and were in the country you live. Here in Liverpool you could live on what's left, but then you wouldn't have to spend so much on housing to start with. Other places, you couldn't do it without living on benefits level. Is it in the best interests of your children?

Our take home is around £3500 and our mortgage is £600 which feels about right. We have a big house so bills are correspondingly high such as council tax £270.

If you have your heart set on the house, or if you're in a stupidly expensive area, then being a bit creative and looking at things like interest only, 40 year terms, or offset (using your £50k) would be worth it. But I do think you're cutting it very fine with a 55% of income mortgage - sorry.

I would say no! Our take-home is a few thousand more than that and we don't find it easy on a £2k mortgage.

Why not pay down those savings to reduce the mortgage?

How exactly would this work? You'll never be approved anyway so it's not going to happen. Just for comparison our take home is 5k and our mortgage is £470 a month, we want to move to a bigger house but I'm not taking on a bigger mortgage until we earn considerably more, thankfully it is possible in the areas we work. Buy small and work your way up, this is what we have done. Technically we would be in a better position if we'd stretched ourselves when we bought 8 years ago given the low interest rates during this time and now soaring house prices, but I'm glad that when our mortgage deal is up in December even if the interest rates hit 15% (they won't) we'd still be fine. Overstretching even slightly right now would be pretty mad.

Not unless you want to make life very stressful. We have a mortgage of £1700 on a take home pay of just over £6k. Having to really budget at the moment to ensure we have enough money left over each month for unexpected expenditures. For example out shower has broken this month so having to pay a plumber to come out and fix it has taken £200 out of our monthly budget. Have you factored the kind of thing in?

I see so many posts with people struggling due to change in circumstances.

One small change in yours and you would struggle. Dont put yourself through that.

Are you for real ? Stop trying to live beyond your means, you cannot afford that lower your sights, and be more realistic.

I've done a budget calculator, and excluding the mortgage our total expenses would have £63 quid left over each month.

We bring home just over 6k between us after tax and we are in love with a house that would mean at 2.4k mortgage payment. I mean seriously in love with it but we are sadly considering the fact we can’t justify/afford that much on a mortgage. So I don’t think you should put yourself in that situation!

@Dyr you know that's not enough, is it really worth it?

£63, so what happens when the council tax goes up, or the water costs increase, or when the cost of gas increases in the fourth quarter?