Can this be right????

[Earlybird]

What do you think of this news story today - can it possibly be correct?:

The average person has just £27 a week left to live on after meeting all their bills and essential outgoings.

Recent rises in council tax and utility bills, and high levels of debt, have left the average Briton with £954 worth of monthly commitments to pay from an average income of £1,070, says Combined Insurance.

The group said around 89% of people's pay was already committed to bills, debts and essential living costs before it even hit people's bank accounts.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest monthly commitment people face is their mortgage, with homeowners paying an average of £450 a month each towards their home loan.

But people also have to find around £152 a month for debt repayments on credit cards, loans and store cards.

On top of this people also need £153 each month to meet the cost of gas, electricity and water bills and council tax.

Other monthly commitments include the cost of running a car, telephone bills, child care and insurance.

about right in my case!

Sounds right to me.

yep right for us, well between us not each.

Christ, I wish those 'average' figures were even close to the truth !

that sounds about right, early, give or take a few quid. i'd venutre to guess millions are lucky if they have £27 left over/week.

pretty presumptuous to assume everyone has a mortgage, however. LOL! should have been 'housing' or 'shelter' costs.

our rent just increased. to £505/month. for a two bed, second-floor, unfurnished flat. and that's pretty 'market' for here.

welcome to rip off Britain!

got even less tharn that between the two of us. and the figures fo mortgage and council tax are laughable imo (ct is 130 a mnth here). But then as they are an average they are taking into account people who bought their houses years ago I suppose.

our council tax - into which water, rubbish collection and sewages costs are rolled - is £134/month. for band C. scottish power charges us £102/month.

2 bed flats for rent here range from £475pcm for a tiny, unfurnished hovel in a dodgy part of town, to over £800pcm for a bigger one in a better area

We have a ten pound note between us for the week when we have paid the bills.
If theres a school trip or disco or a prescription needed its half gone already:(

Yeah, same here, NdP. You can easily pay £800pcm for a two-bed in the New Town, for example.

cor thats loads left over to have spare!!

thinking about it actually..... once ive paid petrol and milk and bread and veg and fruit for the week.... then no, i would say i have slightly less!

I do OK until something unexpected comes along - for instance, last month I had a repair bill that I was expecting to be around £150, but had heart palpitations when I got home to find an invoice for almost £500. An unexpected expense like that means lean times for quite awhile, and it takes my finances a long time to recover. Consequently, at the moment, I'm feverishly researching things dd and I can do for free during half term next week. Anyone got any great ideas for Londoners?

we have more - but we rent.

would rather get pissed than be a slave to the system for a roof so my kids can fall out over it when i'm dead.

LOL, custardo. Spot on!

We rent as well.

I wish my water, leccy, gas and c/tax came to £153 per month, I'd be rich with all the left over cash!!

Mortgage si less than rent where I live. Might jsut get a crappy 2 bed flat if we were lucky.

Sounds as if things are tightly budgeted for many of us.

Yeah, that's a good way to put it, EB. Sounds better than the ol' 'hand to mouth' or 'paycheque to paycheque.'

Always waiting for the other shoe to drop, me.

It's all made me very, very skeptical.

It's not the average as in the mean though, because the average wage is now over 20k (i.e. monthly income of over £1200).

I know things are tight for many people, but suspect that this survey is bollocks.

It's deffo bollocks if there's anyone able to pay council tax, gas/electricity AND water for £153/month.

ROTFLMFAO

and 'Other monthly commitments include the cost of running a car, telephone bills, child care and insurance. '

Transport to work and childcare so you can give Tony and Gordon their slice - on £954/month?

that could be right if it's per head, expat - i.e. 300 quid a month per couple. It does say the average "person" and not the average family.

they don't say how they count children though - I still think it's a load of meaningless numbers.