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Original poster

This is such a nosy question but if you are a sahp, how much does your partner earn to make it viable?

352 replies

WideWebWitch · 08/09/2005 20:53

I fully expect people to change names for this but I have long wondered: if you're a sahm/d, how much does your partner earn? In other words, how high does one salary have to be in order for 2 people and child/ren to survive? And what does your partner do to earn this? I'm not asking out of anything other than total nosiness so do tell me to bog off if you like! Name changers extremely welcome!

OP posts:
compo · 09/09/2005 10:56

I am a sahp and dh earns £1290 a month after tax.

LilacLotus · 09/09/2005 11:02

about 20k, night shift relief manager in a warehouse
mortgage about £250 a month
debt repayment £250 a month
bills about £300 a month
one child

elliott · 09/09/2005 11:07

I've often wondered this too www. What's your answer?
For us, dh takes home about £1800 and that covers most day to day expenses, but not the mortgage, holidays, our own spending, home improvements etc etc. If I didn't work, I guess he would work full time and bring home a bit more, but I think we'd find it tight. If I worked full time I'd bring home probably closer to £3000 and I think that would be fine.

Whenever I think this through though I realise that the prime reason why I work isn't actually about money (well not the absolute amount of money, it is a lot to do with financial independence but that's different)

womanwithnoname · 09/09/2005 11:07

Really Hollywood?

Not sure what he's working on at the mo - he used to write for tv, but got bored, found it a bit grinding week in week out. So, he's doing something else currently, but making time for writing stuff he enjoys.

notsayingwho · 09/09/2005 11:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

acnebride · 09/09/2005 11:22

we could certainly live on dh's wage - he earns £40K approx for a four-day week. Our mortgage is only £50K so we would do fine.

It has to be said though that we would have to make some quite big adjustments in order not to find things tight, IYSWIM. We are still trying to live a dinky lifestyle (organic meat, occasional meal out, dh doesn't make his own sandwiches for lunch) on a much less dinky income.

ggglimpopo · 09/09/2005 11:22

Message withdrawn

ggglimpopo · 09/09/2005 11:27

Message withdrawn

nailpolish · 09/09/2005 11:28

i dont work and my dh earns £30K. we have a £97K mortagage. we dont have a car or go on holiday, we dont have credit cards or store cards, but we do have meals out and days out with the girls fairly often.

if we need to buy something big (like a new washing machine) we take out a credit card that has 0% interest, then pay it off before the interest rate changes. we throw away the card once we have used it to buy the big thing, so we are not tempted to use it for anything else

we buy clothes from places like asda and tesco (which are very nice i have to say!) except for special occasions or dd's shoes and coats

we are both extremely good at saving (big change from when we were YFandS!)

Hermione1 · 09/09/2005 11:32

My dh earns £20 a year i earn about £2. get £200 roughly tax credits, and £100 or so cb. we have a £67 mortgage and £160 debt management thing to pay each month. We are always skint,

Hermione1 · 09/09/2005 11:33

my mortgage a month is £394.67

Gameboy · 09/09/2005 11:37

I am major breadwinner at mo, and earn just over £100k (incl. Bonus). DH has his own business, and takes as little as possible out of it as salary (not tax efficient) but I guess he's probably c. £40- £50K.

We know we're relatively well-off compared to some, but still don't feel it (panicking about school fees at the moment)

And actually, I would prefer to be a SAHM, but can't as I'm the major earner at the mo.....

slackjawed · 09/09/2005 11:40

I cannot believe how much some of you earn. What I find shocking though, is that some of you don't seem to be able to manage on your huge incomes.

I've not seen anyone post yet that has a lower income than me.

Moho · 09/09/2005 11:41

I earn approximately £30k I am a single mum working full time, I have 1 child and a mortgage of approx £560 per month.

I do not think I could support another adult on my wage I'm suprised at some of the figures here but I think it must also depend on the cost of living in your area

dinosaur · 09/09/2005 11:41

I'm actually rather pee'd off at how little I earn in comparison to many but I did make a lifestyle choice to do this, I suppose.

Moho · 09/09/2005 11:42

Gameboy, what do you do? I'd like to earn that sort of money.

slackjawed · 09/09/2005 11:45

I'm not peed off that they earn so much, although I'm probably slightly envious. I am mildly irritated at huge wage earners complaining about their big mortgages and school fees. Am I expected to feel sorry for them? Probably not, but it is annoying.

PeachyClair · 09/09/2005 11:48

£17,950 per annum- way under the ging rate for his job, a Transport Manager, he's looking around as that even involves permanent nights! We have three kids. I get a grant for Uni soon, but we have been managing on this for 18 months and it's just a constant, depressing nightmare, but AS son necessitated me being home, and working in the sector I did involved a lot of unsociable hours and on call. There's nothing left to cut back on. DH covers his hobby by registering it as a business so essentials such as Broadband are claimed back, but meals out , clothes etc are just non- existent- have had two items in two years of clothing.

peckarollover · 09/09/2005 11:48

DH earns about 32 - this would do us just fine if it wasnt for my ridiculous debt! He works very hard to enable me to be at home - he did 70 hours last week so pretty much works for both of us!

Im about to work as a childminder which should hopefully earn enough to cover debt repayments and ease things up a bit.

We have 2 cars and a 105k mortgage.

peckarollover · 09/09/2005 11:49

Have you noticed its only really those on mega salaries that are name changers!

PeachyClair · 09/09/2005 11:49

Costs= £600 per month rent
£200 per month petrol / bridge fees (the Severn Bridge) for Dh to get to work

We need him to work locally soon!

slackjawed · 09/09/2005 11:51

I know, wonder why they feel the need to hide behind a different name? Is it just because it's not the done thing to discuss salaries?

milward · 09/09/2005 12:08

Just to add that I'm a sahm & last year I had to put down my own, non joint income, - absolutely zero!!!

MascaraOHara · 09/09/2005 12:08

I think it probably partly because it's not done to discuss your salary but partly because it gives people an impression of you. Particulraly if you are a high earner because people assume people with high incomes have an easy life or can't understand the problems that people on lwer incomes have and that's not necessarily the case.

Also if anyone reocgnised me from real life I wouldn't want them to know how much income I had regardless of what that was.

NotQuiteCockney · 09/09/2005 12:24

I know City employees (which I suspect many of the high earners are) must keep their income secret, presumably so people can't notice any unfairness.