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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What would our lifestyle be like in U.K.

189 replies

Isitsconeorscown · 07/02/2024 10:06

On this wage-£37 grand a year-Dh
Me-possibly-£18/19 grand a year

We’d be in Cornwall and would have a mortgage of around a grand a month.

We have one primary aged dc

British, but living abroad and wishing to return.

Also, lifestyle on just Dh’s wage (I intend to work, but chronic illness and may not be immediately)

OP posts:
Supernova23 · 09/02/2024 13:37

My household is around this in the south east. It’s not easy. Not enough that you are on bare bones of your arse by any stretch, but equally you aren’t going to be living lavishly. It’s a problem when something breaks or goes wrong.

Fluffywhitecloudsinthesky · 09/02/2024 13:39

@ButteryBase I don't think anyone was saying the OP couldn't live on two salaries. They were saying if she couldn't work, as her OP says, due to illness, that the one salary of her husband won't go far enough to live an ok lifestyle, it would be tight. Of course with the two salaries it would be fine.

flea101 · 09/02/2024 13:44

I'm in Cornwall. We are in a small town, not really near the coast, but good commute time to both Plymouth and Truro by train. One thing to factor in is public transport-a lot more sparse in smaller areas! Our bus to Plymouth is now every 2 hours, and no bus at all on Sundays. I don't drive so I rely on public transport. Also there is a lot of seasonal work.

HappyHedgehog247 · 09/02/2024 13:47

I think it's doable with DH, and families manage and with you earning is more comfortable. It's a buyers market so a good time for a house purchase. I wouldn't let the finances be the deciding factor here probably.

Moreorlessmentallystable · 09/02/2024 14:15

GlasgowGal82 · 08/02/2024 23:09

@Moreorlessmentallystable Where do you live in Scotland because I don't relate to your prices at all? I pay £180 per month for gas and electric in a three bed house where the heating is on most of the time. I commute 70 miles round trip by car once or twice a week, plus a couple of miles locally most days and a bit more at the weekends and I rarely spend more than £70 per month on fuel (this probably depends on how efficient your car is, do you drive a tank?). I suppose both those things don't change much with location across the UK, but hair cuts?! We pay £8 for a kids short back and sides at the barbers or about £12 for my husband. My eldest sometimes goes for a dry cut at the hairdressers instead and that's still just £16. And council tax for Glasgow in Band B is only £97 a month. £150 would almost cover the bill for a Band E house in Midlothian which currently has the highest CT bills in Scotland (you're maybe getting mixed up because the bill that comes from the council also has water charges, which are billed separately in England).

Well I am hardly going to say where I live but my council tax is £250 a month not including drainage or street lights as we live semi rurally. Nearby seaside town is £21 for a child haircut. Not a big car but it is a 7 seater. Going by your name you are in Glasgow , I have colleagues that stay there and their council tax seems to be cheaper than ours, also things like school out club are considerably cheaper in Glasgow. For example ours would be around £80 a day for 2 kids. You guys get a lot of free activities, museums etc, here you have to drive if you want to do things in the weekend, any farm parks or similar, looking at £75-80 per family tickets, even a cone if you go to the local gelato place will set you back nearly £4, so I am saying is not cheap 🤣, of course you can adjust lifestyle but I am saying they are not going to have a comfortable on on 37k a year with a mortgage of £12k a year....

ProtectMotherNature · 09/02/2024 16:31

It's crap living here in England now - my advice is stay put.

MacPoot · 09/02/2024 17:56

THEDEACON · 09/02/2024 11:04

I would live very comfortably on that budget no idea if you would.

In Cornwall, with 2 kids and 2 cars?

Angelil · 09/02/2024 20:19

Also, you’re being naive to think you would have no childcare costs with 2 children if you plan to teach in Britain (even part-time). When I last taught in Britain (in 2020) I was out the door at 7.30am and usually not home until between 5.00 and 5.30. PT won’t be much better (it’s a false economy IMO). So unless your partner can work flexibly enough to do all the drop-offs and pickups then it’s completely pie-in-the-sky. Teaching abroad is a totally different lifestyle. I drop off my kids 3x a week, and collect the eldest from school once a week. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I taught in a school in the U.K., I don’t think.

Isitsconeorscown · 09/02/2024 20:49

@Angelil I haven’t got two children and the part time job isn’t a full teaching role. I don’t need childcare for the hours I’d work.

OP posts:
TweetypiePez · 12/02/2024 11:12

Hi Op

I think you need to factor in the state of our public services. They are crumbling. Like another poster said, if I wasn’t living in the U.K. already I certainly wouldn’t choose to live here.
The deterioration in public services includes everything from local council (e.g Libraries, swimming pools etc) to the NHS (huge waiting lists, rationing), Education, Public Transport, to name but a few. All public services have been purposely eroded over the past 15 plus years.

Also, there are multiple Foodbanks in every town across the country. Because people cannot afford to feed themselves despite working full-time. Significantly, foodbanks have exploded over the past decade. This speaks volumes in relation to what the U.K. has become. Gross government mis-management means salaries and wages have remained stagnant for the past 15 years while costs have soared and public services are in ruins.

Many of us can no longer get our basic healthcare needs met in the U.K. Those who can afford it go private. Living costs are extremely high. The price of housing, council tax, food, petrol and electricity are through the roof. I’m just being honest, many people are really struggling to achieve anything beyond existing.

A holiday is a luxury many can no longer afford. It‘s looped around now, travel became very cheap at one point & a week/two weeks abroad each year was normalise. That’s now changed.

Just some food for thought.

onwardsup4 · 12/02/2024 13:34

Bigdoglittlecat · 07/02/2024 14:36

@LlynTegid have you been to Cornwall? There’s no way you can live there without a car. Public transport is virtually non existent and everything is miles away. In fact I think you’d provably need one each unless one of you can work within walking distance, which again would be fairly unlikely in a rural county.

Yes realistically you need a car , public transport is definitely not virtually none existent though. You can get around if you need to. However OP hasn't indicated she wants to stop having a car and on that income I don't see why they would have to.

onwardsup4 · 12/02/2024 13:41

Isitsconeorscown · 08/02/2024 23:09

I’m so shocked, how much are people earning? Looking at jobs I don’t see even £60 grand jobs being advertised, what am I missing?!

This is Mumsnet and I think you're getting a lot of snipey responses. Plenty of us survive in cornwall on that income or less! I mean things aren't easy for most at the moment and I'm sure you wouldn't be expecting a life of luxury but you'd need to work out all of your figures and see if its doable for you.

hamsterchump · 12/02/2024 14:00

I live in Cornwall and think in some ways you don't need as much money to enjoy a good standard of living here because so much of the leisure is free (beaches, natural beauty, outdoors lifestyle) or has a relatively low cost barrier to entry (surfing, kayaking, etc). There is less availability of expensive events to attend and no one cares very much if you have expensive beauty treatments, what car you drive or what you wear. Rich and poor spend their leisure time more similarly, on the same beaches, enjoying the outdoors and so in my experience you don't feel as poor as you would in other areas once you've got the basics covered.

Housing can be expensive, but OP has a deposit of £150k which will be very helpful and where I am in Newquay there are 3 bed doer uppers starting from £200K or more done up ones from £250k, a budget of up to £320k would give her her pick and should work out to be a mortgage of about £1000 a month on a deposit of £150k (according to Rightmove) so she'd manage quite nicely in my opinion.

In my experience how rich or poor you feel has more to do with your immediate surroundings and how rich or poor those around you and particularly your friends and family are so I agree with other posters that you should survey your relatives currently living in Cornwall.

We live frugally but very happily on a very low income (but we're mortgage free and no kids so quite unusual I agree). Obviously it depends on what you value, for example I cut and colour my own hair, buy most of our clothes secondhand and as much other household stuff secondhand as possible as well (we just got a new to us cooker for £10 from facebook marketplace) but I don't mind any of that, in fact I enjoy it and would probably do it whatever we earned as I hate to overpay or feel ripped off and the cooker was exactly the kind I wanted and was looking at spending at least £500 on new so I'm really happy with it.

We needed new armchairs recently and I ended up with an as new Ikea Strandmon with footstool for free (again fb marketplace) and the lilac cotton velvet armchair from Anthropologie of my dreams in the sale at a third of the original price. I spent £200 on those two items but if I'd bought them both new and not reduced it would have been close to £1000, when you have less yes you have to cut your coat according to your cloth but it doesn't have to mean you can't still get exactly what you wanted sometimes, you get better at figuring out what that is and prioritising.

Our car was £300 from a friend, it lets the rain in slightly somewhere which ends up in the back footwell but it goes, is cheap to run, easy to park, I don't worry about it being scratched or stolen and it gets me where I need to be so I'm happy with it. Living this way I feel like I can buy whatever I want with a bit of time and searching and OH and I both work low part time hours and mostly are able to do whatever we want, but of course your mileage may vary and it depends on what you want to do.

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