Is £200 enough between 2 of us

[Sparkles2295]

Hi

were thinking of going for a bigger house our mortgage will be double than what we have now

after all our bills, groceries, takeaways we will be left with £150/200 is that enough or is it a tight squeeze??

tia

A very tight squeeze! Also depends if you have any savings.

Yeah, a very tight squeeze. Are the takeaways really necessary? I would go back and look at budget and see if there is anything you can either cut back on or cut out all together. If not, I wouldn’t take on this new mortgage

Is that per month? And how much would you save by cutting down on takeaways?

It depends what you’re including in “bills”, does that include any savings eg for house and car maintenance, holidays, Christmas? If not I would find that very tight and worry how you’d find the money when something large needs replacing.

Drop the takeaway, sit down and go through the budget very very carefully. Otherwise you are going to be struggling

Does that include fuel? Train travel for work? Does your grocery bill include toiletries?

I think that would be way too tight personally

that’s only £2400 for the year to include Christmas gifts hair cuts days out holidays

£200 a week or a month? If it’s a month, I’d consider that quite difficult. What about presents and holidays and days out? What about savings or an emergency fund?

No it won't be anywhere near enough. Look into how often you have to replace white goods, big furniture, mattresses, windows, doors, kitchen, bathroom, carpets, underlay, and redecorate, and factor that into the annual cost of running your home.

I don't think that would be enough at all

What happens when you need new tyres on the car, or the cooker breaks? Or there’s a few birthday parties? Or if (like mine) your DC take up a stupid sport that means driving all over the place every weekend? Petrol adds up fast.

Living in a bigger house miserably doesn’t sound fun.

Christ no! Do not double your mortgage unless you absolutely have to.

It wouldn’t be enough for me. I spend a lot on myself.

Are you at a stage in your career where your salary is likely to increase, any DC, TTC? It would be too tight for be tbh.

@Sparkles2295 how would you cover a rise in mortgage interest rates? A lot of people (myself included) are paying far more each month for the same mortgage now than they were two years ago.

I'd imagine you'd fail the mortgage affordability test and you wouldn't be given such a big loan that was going to leave you so short each month.

You definitely couldn't afford takeaways in this situation! Or any nice things at all! I'd stick to the smaller house with more disposable income.

Put the additional mortgage amount into savings fir a couple of months and see how you go - you’ll quickly know if you can manage and have the added bonus of a small savings buffer.

Well, it depends on what it needs to cover, if you give some information you'll get better answers

But I can't believe anyone with that kind of budget buys takeaways, what's the story there?

Try for 6 months...
Before you go for the bigger house.

Depends what’s included in the ‘bills’ before you get to the money left over. Sounds like you’ve got takeaways (obviously non-essential) in there so it wouldn’t surprise me if there are other areas you could cut back on.
Does it include money put aside for birthday/Christmas presents, holidays, unexpected car repairs, boiler breakdown etc?

Definitely not enough.

What about haircuts, birthday presents, occasional meals out with family/friends, car service/MOT...So many incidentals you probably haven't accounted for

For us yes as we never have any spare money left but it's not a nice way to live.

If you prioritise a house and not going out then that's fine.

Too tight. At some point, say, the tv might blow or someone might be off sick from work or your transport might breakdown and you need an unexpected taxi. And on and on.
You need a much bigger cushion.

Yes, you could get a weekend job or evening job but from experience, trying to cram all the cooking and laundry and cleaning into the few remaining hours is very tiring and grinds away enjoyment of life.
The house you want is beyond your means.
Plenty more properties around, especially after Christmas when people start their 'after Christmas we will put the house on the market'
Have a rethink @Sparkles2295 in the New Year.

Very tight, what would you do if something changed like one of you were made redundant or your mortgage payments went up?

A month is very tight. All it would take is a washing machine or a boiler breaking or a car or a hospital stay or other family emergency etc and you’re screwed. Any one of these thing could possibly cost double what you have to spend which you can not add to for a whole month.

a week and it’s still tight but more manageable as that gives you the option to pull in tight and put away say £20 a week every week you don’t spend it so you can build up a cushion but still have small non essentials or afford a pair of shoes for work if the sole suddenly falls off or something.