To have thought our lower income was enough?

[BraOffPjsOn]

Ok so after all these posts where people with huge monthly incomes are worried about a mortgage payment, am I being mad to think that an income (after tax monthly) of around £3500 is enough for a mortgage of around £1200-1300?

I had thought it would be ok but after those posts I feel like maybe I’m wrong!

It’s all relative to lifestyle and expenditure. Ignore mumsnet and do your sums. What are non- negotiable expenses? You may want a foreign holiday ever year or you may be perfectly content with camping. You may want a new car every three years. Everyone is different. If you are saving £900 a month currently it sounds perfectly doable.

Kids get expensive and houses get expensive.

Clubs, clothes, music/sports lessons, bus passes, textbooks, uni, driving lessons, oh and allllllll the food!

A simple leak at a weekend could cost a couple of thousand. A bad storm can cost thousands in roof repairs or fences. I'm around the 20 year mark and eVeRyThInG seems to be needing replacing.

What if one of you loses your job or the interest rates go crazy again?

I guess I'm just risk averse, and have stayed in a cheaper house for peace of mind, disposable income and nice holidays. I don't see the point in a huge house if you can't afford to live.

I don't include anything like lessons that the kids do in that almost 2k! We do have some childcare costs but it's £160/month for occasional after-school club as we also juggle drop-off and collection most days.
council tax: 320 (not a big or expensive house at all, we just live in an area where CT is ridiculously high)
gas/electric: 180
water: 70
life insurance: 20
house insurance: 50
food: 500
after-school club: 160
car insurance/tax and MOT: 225
TV licence: 15
pet insurance: 40
pet food: 30
fuel: 250
mobiles phones: 40
broadband: 35
That comes to £1935

Do you not have life, house or car insurance? I know not everyone has pets and that costs us £70 but everything else we shop around for massively and can't get cheaper.

£225 a MONTH on tax and insurance. Seriously what are you driving?.

This is area dependent. You must know that in many, many areas of London that is a low income? That would barely cover any of our expenses but then again it’s area dependent.

Yeah I deliberately didn't buy a bigger place as didn't want to be a slave to a mortgage. I've never had a " fancy" lifestyle though. Travel is my thing but I don't have TV or streaming stuff, expensive clothes etc. id feel ill spending hundreds on a handbag for example but then I don't care about " stuff"

FedupofArsenalgame
£225 a MONTH on tax and insurance. Seriously what are you driving?

Seriously nothing exciting. Our one car is a teeny tiny cheap car but it does a lot of miles - that is ~£500 a year insurance. The other car is a bigger family one which admittedly is newer and is ~£1200 a year insurance. But we've always paid roughly this for insurance regardless of what we've driven.
Tax is £390, then there's the service and MOTs. Doesn't leave much left over from the 225/month for any minor repairs that need doing each time it goes for a service

We have home insurance and car insurance but always pay that annually as it’s cheaper.

We were just very careful since having the kids as ended up with 2 under 2 and both in nursery for a time so we’re trying not to get used to extra money and working out what we’d rather spend it on.
We have an all in holiday abroad booked for the summer but know if we got a bigger house and needed to do work we’d sacrifice that (like we have for years as not had the money) and go camping again instead.

We pay annually for these things but account for the in our monthly outgoings. So our budget has the annual cost/12.
Just the way our insurances fall we have home insurance, two car insurance, two car tax, an MOT and TV licence in a 3 months window just after Christmas. As our monthly standing order into our bills account covers it. Our account bills account builds up a surplus and over the year and when we reach the time of year for the annual costs the money is there.

I'm not sure your husband is the benchmark of what people should be earning really. Why even mention your husband's earnings? What do you earn?

I don't think £57k is very high if that's the only income but 2 people earning £40k each could live very comfortably where I am in the country. It's all relative really.

What's driving the move for a bigger house?

Do you need more space? Could decluttering help? Or do your kids need bigger rooms? Could an extension help?

Or is a move just a nice to have? In which case think about whether space is the driver or whether you'd prefer a better location for the family needs, a bigger garden etc. Space may not be the reason.

Save the mortgage money for a year or two if there is no impetus to buy now. We say we're happy camping for a few years until we are a few years in and then we want to go abroad again (yeah yeah, I'll ring my own privilege bell 🔔)

Fwiwnif you don't need to move, it's a costly thing to do just because you fancy an upgrade (I dont mean that rudely, I just know some people see it necessary to move up the ladder when they can afford to)

I said his earnings as I was a SAHM for most of married life. I now work PT and make around £20k per annum.

When my income was 3500 a month my mortgage was 600.

Ouch I have a car that I use for work and therefore need hire and reward insurance and that's £900 for the tear ( £350 odd for regular insurance) and £20 a year tax. Mot was £50. Went through no advisory

We need more space - we’ve got open plan living and dining room and a small kitchen and we’d like either a bigger kitchen or an extra living space. The garden is pretty small so we’d like a bigger garden. Its also a terrace so very overlooked and we’d like a bit more space from neighbours!
We had talked about converting the garage and it would give us an extra living space but not really solve everything.

It’s definitely time to move but it’s just working out where to limit it.

Dh and I earn approx 4k our mortgage is £700 and bills approx 1k, we then have food, petrol, hobbies/lessons etc . We typically save around £500 a month can be up to 1k. We know we are privileged but not huge earners by Mumsnet stndrds.

When our income was over 4K and before kids our mortgage was £560 but then inflation hit!

Just how it goes. We used to overpay then anyway.