Mortgage costs

[Lorijune]

We are thinking of a house move next year and have fallen in love with a house which blows the budget a bit. Our mortgage would be £1350 a month and we earn £5600-6000 a month. On paper it sounds fine and we don’t have any other loans or debt but I know how expensive life and kids are. Does anyone service a mortgage this size on this type of salary and does it work and leave money for fun/holidays/clothes? We are in our mid 40s and wonder if we should be downsizing rather than upsizing! Any thoughts welcome.

I should think you'll be fine but what's your current mortgage payment?

Almost exactly the same situation. Joint income of just under £6k with a £1430 mortgage. We live well (one child) and save between £1500 and £2k per month.

Depends once you've counted in bills - council tax, gas and electric bills, insurance, maintenance etc.

Our mortgage will be 1700pm next year!

We're bring home roughly £5k per month between us. We are going to get an extended mortgage to do a single storey extension next year and our payments will be £1300 per month. My spreadsheet says all will be well including all those outgoings.

Our mortgage is a little bigger than yours and we earn similar. We also pay high nursery fees. We have money for days out, holidays and eating out plus some savings.

That all sounds promising. Can I ask what others are spending on bills and food?

We have the same mortgage and income roughly.

£600 for food
£160 school lunches

We earn around £5k net and our mortgage is £125 more than yours a month. We have two teenagers, one at uni, and we manage ok. Gas and elec is currently around £220 a month, but we've been using the heating more this year than last, so i'm hoping it's not going to go up. Council tax is £220.

Food is easily our biggest expense, my ds is a weight lifter and eats for England. I dread to think what we spend! We also send £60 per week to dd when she's at uni.

£100 a week for food then more for meals out and a takeaway each week. Bills are roughly £600 a month including the usual utilities, council tax, internet and insurances.

Are you moving to a bigger house? We did and thought we had budgeted for running costs, but it's far exceeded what we planned for.

It’s the same size but a new build rather than period property so should be much less to run.

Ultimately only you can run your complete budget and know the answer but I'm in a basically identical situation and it's fine. I can save over £1000 a month. I don't spend a lot on holidays etc or have a car to run, so it really depends on how else you live but in theory it should be fine...?

Have you done a spreadsheet OP?

Although I don’t trust mine! On paper we can afford a bigger mortgage but I don’t know there’s something holding me back.

Paying extra for a more expensive property than you originally had in mind is a false economy. We have a household monthly income in excess of £10k after tax. I wouldn't want a mortgage of £2k. Money is far better spent on enjoying yourself and being able to retire early.

Yes it is a very much 'it depends' question.

It should be easily affordable unless you have other large expenses eg childcare, car payments, commuting costs.

Or if you like to spend a lot on 'lifestyle' eg eating out, hobbies, holidays, clothes, accessories, personal grooming etc.

Maybe some would see living in a lovely house as enjoying themselves?

Everyone's different. Some might want expensive hobbies/cars, some might want more expensive houses.

Single parent to 2.

Take-home £3k.

Mortgage £1400

You will be more than fine.

Unless you pay for an awful lot of expensive fun.

Ours is £1280, take home £4.4k to £5.4k depending on bonuses

We manage fine but we don’t really do holidays tbh at moment.

Our biggest outgoings are about 330pm for energy (includes running electric car). Council tax 210. Childcare 350-400 with CM and tax-free childcare. Car lease 290.

I wish it was lower but with the rates the way they are it’s the best we’re getting for a while!

we don’t go without anything that’s for sure. If we want to buy something we can mostly afford, and shopping I carefully budget for anyway so as to still allow for savings

We have slightly higher earnings (£6.5k) and we up sizing which means our new mortgage will be 1600. We also have a young child in full time nursery and want another. Our spreadsheet says it will be fine. Tight on the 3months I don't get smp and if I get pregnant again when we hope, there will be 7 months of nursery crossover before school, where we pay double, which again, will be tight. But manageable.

Our income is £6000 and I think our mortgage will rise to £1600, I wouldn't want much more than that, our outgoings are pretty low, commuting is around £100 and no childcare costs. 2 kids. So yes £1350 would be fine for me, tighter when you're closer to £5000 pcm.

I think you can afford it, if it's what will make you happy. My son earns quite a bit less than that and his rent is more! Cheaper bills though and no children. But depends what you want - when I got to my late forties I kind of mourned my previous house which would have had the mortgage paid off by now because I don't need as much space now they don't all live here.

Our youngest is off to school next year so no nursery fees at all and I also have a side job which pays all my personal spends. Our food shop is expensive at £850 and commuting £500 but hopefully we can manage ok. Thank you for all replies.

If you love your job go for it personally we wanted to retire early which we have done 55 DH and 50 for me next year. Our take home from pensions will be £3400.00 a month and I budget £850 a month to help DS in Uni. We can both dip back into work if we need more money.

@crazycrofter does your dd live at home when she is at Uni? I wish my son could last on £60 a week. Does she have a part time job?

How much extra is new mortgage /place ?

How much spare money do you have at the moment each month