40 grand a year

[Howmanytimeshasshesaidimnotgonnalie]

Would you consider this a good wage?

Could you live on it fairly comfortably?

Two adults, one dc and dog, South west, renting

Is there any particular reason for not selling your current house?

This probably depends where the OP us moving from (somewhere in the EU she said). In the EU country I live in nobody talks about annual gross income, they always refer to monthly income and often net (there are loads of individual compulsory deductions and your tax class depends upon your household dependants not just your income here, plus there are some extra payments within the gross salary for people in expensive areas... So it makes sense to talk about monthly net income as identical basic gross pays out differently for different individuals).

Each would be fine. If renting would be fine as then universal credit will top it up. If you have a mortgage and its only one of you earning it then it would be quite tight financially unless its a cheap mortgage (~500 or so)

@SummerSnowstorm Would we get universal credit for earning that amount?( never had it before)

I think it will be really tight TBH. After rent you’ve got potentially only £1600 for the whole month to support 2 adults, child and pets including transport (car etc), food, utilities, clothes. That’s only £400 a week for both of you. And that’s before you factor in when things break/ go wrong, car needs 2 new tyres, car needs to go to the vet, school trip, presents for family etc and the odd holiday. You’d survive but IMO I don’t think you’ll feel comfortable.

Where will your dh be based for work and how frequently will he be on site? Perhaps good locations that might be more affordable could be suggested?

If you have a child and rent you should do. There's calculations online to check the amount.
There child benefit which is separate to universal credit too.

@Genevieva Well, we’re hoping to rent it out for part of the year and have our holidays there in the summer-that way we only have to pay for flights and we get to see our friends here etc

It really depends where in the South West and whether you will work remotely as depending on where you live you could have high transport costs. It’s a completely mad system here where you could go someplace 2+ hours away for £20 but then pay £200 for a peak time ticket to someplace less than an hour away. Train from Bristol to Birmingham or London is ridiculously expensive but Bristol to Plymouth is a fraction of the price.

You can live on £40k after tax, you won’t have much fun money but you will manage rent, bills and food! Be careful when taking on a rental to also check the council tax band as some houses have really huge council tax bills despite being small! Our current house is two bands more expensive than our last house which was much bigger and in a nicer area - it is so random.

As long as you're careful you'll be alright. Just budget and if you've got money left, save.
For a family of 4, myself and the 3 DC, we manage and are fairly comfortable on £52k...
One DC in college with travel costs of £60+ a week and a sen child so some things cost extra

As I’m sure you know, the Cornish coast is mostly expensive, but moving inland can be cheaper. For example, the Redruth/Camborne area is less upmarket and more affordable.

If buying, bear in mind that radon and/or mundic are a problem in some areas.

I think this may be deluded if your child is too young to go home alone. Teachers in the UK don't get out of school with the children so still need wrap around care. It varies more with support staff but they're still usually out 15 minutes after the children and wouldn't be immediately available to fetch their own children, especially if the child is at a different school requiring travel.

You're fine if the child is secondary age obviously or younger if the school will let your child walk home alone, but UK schools often won't let children under about 10 (often year 5 or 6) out unless they're collected by an adult even if they've been walking to and from school without an adult for years in their EU country.

That’s £3,300 per month. Work out a budget.

will you have a car?
average grocery shop for a family is around £80-£100 per week (including the dog). Say £400 a month
electric &gas say £150 per month
broadband, tv license, sky tv - £100 per month
pet insurance £20
etc etc.

on that income you would want rent below £1000

Sorry just seen you said Falmouth- is he based on site or hybrid?

Only 3 holidays a year, how awful for you.

For me its £300 or so a week, for 1, no problemo, very comfortable, as I say purely relative to your aims

@Howmanyusernames123 we live 3.5hrs away from all family so mainly fuel..we have 2 cars and the main one we use is a 2.3litre so is not cheap to run. We live in the middle of nowhere the closest shop is about 20 mins away. We live in a 4 bed 3 bath house it's not particularly cheap on bills council tax ect. We use greengrocers butchers bakery's ect for food so that's quite a bit. Work from home so spending £70 on broadband a month for decent connection..still paying finance for one of the cars, go on 2 city breaks a year (not as many as we'd like and no weeks abroad or long hauls as we can't afford to!) put enough in savings for emergency's and house maintenance..we enjoy clothes shopping and days out but there is tonnes more we'd love to do in life that our friends and family do that we simply just cannot afford although I'm aware we could cut back on things and shop in Aldi get a cheaper car blah blah. We put money into renovations which we could cut back on as the house is in a nice state anyway but I suppose one is never fulfilled and always wants 'better'. I suppose it's also who your surround by to. If you come from a family of money who go on luxury holidays 5 times a year and drive brand new 2024 Mercedes even on 60k a year you can feel 'behind' but to lower income families they'd dream of the life we live. I guess it's how OP likes to live to suggest if 40k is enough for his family to live on

I guess that is the crux - "comfortable" means different things to different people.
We have 1 car (3 yr old) as my partner cycles to work, and a modest home - into which we've ploughed our spare cash.
That to me is barely comfortable, others seem to view comfortable as just about eating and heating which seems way below comfortable to me.

@maddening On site

It is about £1250 (it was under £800 until the Lettuce budget)

I'd be concerned with rent that's half of income, it's too high a proportion. Water is expensive in the south west, utilities are expensive everywhere now, plus council tax, insurances, food. Then things like school uniform, running a car etc. I don't think it would be comfortable. You need to look for cheaper rent

To you perhaps, to me comfortable is affording these things. That's what I work hard for.

Two basic European city breaks a year, plus a UK week away with dog.
Try to do a long haul every 5 years or so

You poor thing 🎻

When did I say we are barely getting by? I said barely comfortable. Perhaps improving your comprehension skills would help increase your income too.

If its what you want, fair enough - I last went on holiday at 16 (now 45) bloody miserable experience, hope never to again, certainly not 3 a year!