To think a family of 5 can’t survive on 25k take home?

[Backpainagain]

Just that really. We are f**ed.

We're a family of 4. Earn more than that & really struggling!

@Backpainagain has left the building.

Family of 1000 here and we have leftover funds on 50p/month.

Evening Sue.

I hope you are saving for your retirement. You will need a work and state pension. Have a look at the State Pension and the average work pension and see what you will need in retirement.

No you can’t. Single mom with one child and we manage on 22k

In the north I think it's easily doable, in the south east/London not so much

Well as you can’t be arsed to respond to the posts I’d say yeah your totally fucked but heyho so are millions of others in the country; tighten your belt; cut back on treats & luxury’s; walk instead of using the car; warn the kids Christmas is going to be different this year & stick to a set budget; check your subscriptions are you paying to much; shop around for cheaper deals; cancel things like tge landline phone if you use mobiles; use store branded goods instead of the big brand names. Good luck

Why say this? We were on less than that during covid, albeit not so many kids!, but not eligible since we owned our own house (with a mortgage that we were paying interest only on). It’s not cut and dry. Op needs to find out if eligible for any support via the gvmt benefits calculator.

I feel like OP was just fishing for a news article 😥.

Rent or mortgage would be the main factor.
After my maternity leave ended I didn't go back to work, then my partner's job went tits up.
We lived in a cheap area, had low bills and because I was at home I could cook from scratch, go to supermarkets when they were reducing, do cheap days out and we didn't drive. Our outgoings were less than £1k Inc food and mortgage, bills etc.
Now we would be truly effed due to mortgage rates and energy prices.

His Salary has not risen to anything like that amount - yet here we still are - still managing on one salary which these days is approx £22k. So, yes, quite relevant I think.

So many variables, so little information.
However, even with our mortgage paid off, no car and no childcare fees, my family spends more than 25k pa on a far from extravagant lifestyle, so I doubt it.

Its doable if you're careful. But it also depends on your expectations. For example if you consider expensive holidays or extravagant gifts at birthdays and Xmas then no prob won't work out. Whatever your situation I hope it does work out for you x

I think the pp meant that 25k in 2003 is worth around 42k now due to inflation (ie you could buy a lot more back then)

https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/2003?amount=25000

Value of £25,000 from 2003 to 2023£25,000 in 2003 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £50,571.57 today, an increase of £25,571.57 over 20 years. The pound had an average inflation rate of 3.59% per year between 2003 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 102.29%.
This means that today's prices are 2.02 times as high as average prices since 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics composite price index. A pound today only buys 49.435% of what it could buy back then.
The inflation rate in 2003 was 2.89%. The current inflation rate compared to last year is now 10.70%. If this number holds, £25,000 today will be equivalent in buying power to £27,675.00 next year.

Well, a take home amount of £25k is a salary of around £32k, which is around average, but not really a suitable amount for a family of that size - is it two adults working p/t, one f/t, one f/t one p/t? Rent or mortgage? Benefits other than CB? YABU to have such a large family without the means to support them (unpopular opinion, I'm sure).

Being fair to @Backpainagain, she simply put “family of 5”. For all we know, she was pregnant with triplets! Perhaps they were managing before but their financial situation changed.

I'm sure that she came here for support, not rebuke or derision!

I can’t understand how women love to tear other women down! Perhaps try for some compassion or empathy.

Yes, we must always assume that every poster is at the extreme end of very unlikely scenarios 🙄

As OP seems to have dumped and run, I guess we'll never know.

You would still expect there to be two parents, who are capable of supporting their children.

@JoanOfAllTrades
When a very practical question is asked why would an assumption be made about stress or anxiety. The OP asked a question that at its root is simply mathematical.

She was asking for feedback and input from a group of strangers on an internet forum. She was not in a therapy session.

If she wanted less than honest opinions, she would probably have prefaced her posting with the words, please lie or give me less than your honest opinion.

Not all women are so fragile that they need a virtual cup of tea and a "tut tut," as they are being patted on the shoulder. This is the a chat forum and there is and should be no pretense that this is some form of therapy.

To suggest that women who share their honest opinions are tearing each other down is in my opinion to have a very low opinion of women's capacity to hear and weigh the merits of feedback.

These women all live in the real world with normal everyday give and take. They are not fragile ornaments in need of a handle with care wrapping. Most often they present as ordinary people in situations which require decision making and action of some sort. Tea and sympathy may be the only input that some can provide, but others will have varying thoughts and opinions. On an open forum, all should be expected; it is not just a medium for sympathy and validation.

If a posting indicates an extreme situation. the advice should always be to seek counseling therapy. Alas enforcement or legal advice as soon as possible.

law enforcement not Alas enforcement

@Mari9999
I agree - practically here? family of 5 on a lowish wage with seemingly 1 salary although take home on 1 min wage is £16,005 - so if both were working they would have a take home of 32k - then surely the advice is to work more? and earn more?

This needs far more explanation and information. Which area do you live in? What size is housing? All live together? Ages of kids? Working or not working? Claiming any benefits?

Is the £25K a year after stoppages or before? If that is after tax & NI and pension contribution, then it is possible if you budget carefully.

If it is before, then there is likely to be a great shortfall, and I do not think that is enough to save for a pension, so it will be pension credit on retirement. The State Pension is about £700 a month, give or take, and if you are not saving for a pension pot, or have employer contribution, you are going to be very badly off, and will have to apply for benefits.

Many posters on here have ignored the pension question, and that is something which is very clear, and so many pensioners in the future will be living hand to mouth on benefits.

If someone is working full time and does not take home enough money to put a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, then they are no better off than 19th century slaves. The accommodation may be better, and the food better, but no one should work full time and not earn enough to feed the family.

I don’t think it’s the extreme end of any scenario. It’s plausible depending on circumstance, which you must admit, we don’t know!

And maybe never will since OP hasn’t returned to comment.

We also don’t know if one parent lost their job/was injured/childcare was too expensive and became unaffordable - any one of those situations may have occurred after the 3 children were born!

I don’t think you should have made an assumption that the OP decided willy nilly to have three children on a tight budget and I think that is on the extreme end of unlikely scenarios!

Ah, I must have misread the original post as I didn’t realise that the OP was asking if she was being unreasonable having so many children on the stated salary!