Can we live on 42k?

[Canweaffordit]

Name changed as embarrassed as speaking about money blame my parents.

So I am on mat leave, due back in December. DH just been promoted. New salary is £42k so take home is about £2400 a month after pension student loan etc. Our month to costs are mortgage £800, council tax £200, utilities £100, tv/mobiles/contact lenses/ insurance etc is probably another £200. No fuel cost as company car provided.

We are discussing me not returning to work and whether or not we can afford it. We in the past have been not very careful with money, just spent what we wanted too. I used to earn £1900 a month but will drop to just £500 as I would be going back part time and nursery costs would come out of my salary. We do operate as "one pot" but easier to explain this way

Do you think it is manageable ? Does anyone else have similar income/expenses? I understand e won't be having twice yearly holidays, slap up meals etc

out

Canweaffordit I think its best to be cautious about stopping work. We all have an idea of what it would be like but until it happens you don't know if you will enjoy it or if it will change the dynamic of your relationship with your DH. I took a 16 week sabbatical this summer and after 3 weeks I was ready to go back to work!

Also, your disposable income is GBP1000 a month. You are increasing your disposable income by 50% if you work. So while it doesn't feel like a lot it is a significant contribution. Also, you have to look at your pension contributions. If your employer are paying into a pension for you than it really is worth staying employed as long as possible.

It's interesting seeing other people's opinions on how much disposable income is considered liveable By those calculations you'd have over a grand a month left ?! I'd love like a king well queen lol if I had that left a month
I think you'll be fine !

Live *

If you are going to take home £500 a month AFTER tax and childcare then returning to work after having kids should be a no brainer actually unless you really hate the work.

Has your DH considered going PT? You both working 4 days a week will give you more money than your DH working FT and you not working. And it would mean your DS could spend quality time with both of you rather than having one parent and one who had to focus on work because there was no backup if he lost his job.

We did this on similiar figures but dh had a pay rise by the end of my time out. It was fine. We had a decent standard of living. We had to be careful rather than frugal. No holidays overseas but we did holiday in the uk (term time is cheap). No new cars. I could buy anything I felt I needed.

By the time I went back to work (when youngest was 3) I was fed up with it and have been on a bit of a splurge ever since building my wardrobe back up, redecorating, replacing stuff that has got shoddy.

I would do it again (career did take a hit by the way even though I thought it would be ok).

Also though from another angle ... as others have said you may dislike been at home all the time ? Also what would happen if your husband lost his job or something ?? I think part time would be a good balance between the two plus an extra 500 a month disposable income would easily pay for a holiday abroad a year and yout still be able to spend a bit more freely as you say you are used to.

My only advice would be to think about the long term.

Everyone I know with a professional job (I'm a solicitor FWIW) has only managed to get part time hours by staying in the job albeit part time after mat leave.

Part time professional jobs are like hens teeth.

Children are little for a short time. Whilt it may be nice to have a couple of years at home if it then means you can't get an equivalent job you may end up in a lower paid unsatisfying job or face having to go back full time which will be hard on you and DC if they are used to you being at home.

I worked 3 days when DD was small. Then converted those reduced hours to school hours when she started school. Some mums say oh how lucky but it's not luck. Personally part time has worked for me and I'd prefer 25 hours from age 1 than say 2 years off then 40 hours a week. Working when they are nursery age is easier than at school. Plus remember he will be in nursery for 15 plus hours from age 3 (not sure when increasing)

If you both work you can both claim the childcare vouchers to pay towards nursery fees (save you tax and NI)

Yes, you might be able to live on it, but you need to consider how different life would be; a small child, not being able to pop out for coffees and lunch, possibly no holidays? We have a similar outgoings - yes you could do it shopping very cheaply etc, but I found that hard (possibly because I grew up with nothing). I like knowing that we have a good quality of life (DH works part time, and both of our jobs are rally flexible). Would part time be an opinion?

Psychobabble - I agree. Over a £1,000 a month to spend on food, clothes and entertainment is plenty. Your long term career is a different issue though.

We have never had to worry about money before or be on a budget and that worries me.

This will seem like a flippant comment but really isn't: don't worry, you will learn how to budget once that little bundle arrives as you will find you will fit in with a new routine very quickly & you will most likely enjoy every second and not worry about having to do without!

Was assuming mat leave /= baby arrived yet?!

It's interesting seeing other people's opinions on how much disposable income is considered liveable By those calculations you'd have over a grand a month left ?! I'd love like a king well queen lol if I had that left a month shock
I think you'll be fine

Completely agree. Lots of people don't get much more than this a month in pay

If you aren't used to having to think at all about what you spend, just get out on cash every week what you have to spend, after the bills are taken care of. You have more than £30 a day to spend. But if you want to keep some back for clothes and holidays, set yourself a budget of £20 a day for day-to-day stuff. Then you will have over £400 a month to spend on bigger purchases, clothes or holidays. £20 a day is easily enough to enable you to pay for coffees or meals out.

We'd be on about £40-42k gross if we both went full time after our shared parental leave ends (I'm back end of year, DH then taking a couple of months).

I'm hoping to go part time, and if that works out we're lucky in that we'll only need one day a week childcare. But that would put our gross household income at about £36k.

Our mortgage is less than yours (nearer £550) and we have no debts to speak of, so we'll easily manage I think. Our current net income is about £1,700 a month (as I just get SMP) and we're doing fine.

If I were you I'd start keeping track of all your spending now so that you can see where any cutbacks could be made. Software like You Need A Budget is incredibly helpful, or even just a simple tracking app on your phone. For a lot of people food/household shopping is the place they can make a big saving. I budget £50 a week for me and DH (DD is breastfed and in cloth nappies so that's no issue) and we definitely could cut back further if we had to (we don't buy meat though).

For us, yes we could easily manage on that sort of money. It really depends on circumstances though, our rent for example is cheaper than your mortgage.

Our monthly income is about 3,800 per month - that's one full time worker and one part time (also including child benefit) Our mortgage is around 650 per month.

We have two pre-schoolers so our nursery fees are a crippling 1,200ish per month for 3 days a week.

After all fixed costs (mortgage, bills, childcare, car) we have about £1,200 a month left to feed, clothe, buy petrol and whatever else for the four of us. We manage but don't eat out often, don't go on holiday, don't buy expensive clothes. It's fine for us for now - but we are counting down till the kids start school!!

To be honest it might make more financial sense for one of us to work full time and the other to be a SAHP but we've assessed it and decided long term it would be too much of a career hit. And neither of us wants to be a full time SAHP to our two little shits darlings

Is that definitely the right net monthly salary after pension and student loan deductions? I thought it might be a bit less?

Its quite tight with your mortgage, but little kids are cheap and you have room to make cutbacks

I don't think I was very clear. I am on mat leave at the moment and due to return at the end of December.

I am in discussions with my work to ascertain whether part time is even possible in the role I have. If it isn't I will either have to resign and be a sahm or resign and get another part time job which is just a whole new pita. I think I am likely to just resign and be a sahm hence the thread . And as someone said about part time professional jobs being like hens teeth - you couldn't be more accurate. If I went for another pt job it would be at a lower level so likely wouldnt even make me 500 a month disposable cash.

I am 34. Been working in my field for 10 years so have decent experience. My salary is 33k full time and I get bonuses of around 5k a year as well as decent pension, private health ins etc

Common sense would have me returning to work ft as even after ridiculous nursery costs of £1000 a month I would still be walking away with close to a £1000 a month. That's before any bonuses. I do not want to do that. Having ds was a nightmare and I feel I deserve it to him and myself to enjoy him being so young.

I am not a typical career woman.i have drive to do well but work life balance is important to me. I have happened to find a job that was degree related that I love and that i am good at. I do not have any professional quals in this field so i don't think a career gap would be as detrimental. I know I won't return to the same level and salary when I go back to the working world but it's a long time till I retire so hopefully I can still have a higher earning potential in time.

My dh can't do 4 days. I take on board what you say about if he was made redundant etc. We have insurance policies incase the worst happened but if it was a case of losing his job we have a small savings safety net. If it happened and he couldn't quickly find a new job I would look for one. The city we live in has a huge number of employers in my field so I am sure one of us would secure work. If we didn't my inlaws would help out - they are wealthy and would not see us struggle. We would have to be desperate to have to ask then for a loan but it's reassuring to know it's there if needed.

I know there are lots of areas where we can make savonga. It boils down to whether we want to live in that lifestyle and the long terms consequences.

Canweaffordit "I know there are lots of areas where we can make savonga"

Gosh, savonga...a wine? A soup...? A casserole style dish?

better still - I can see a loan company calling itself Savonga

sorry, ignoring my stupid sense of humour...
when you say "long term consequences" I don't know what you mean. It looks to me as if you will be okay and able to save on that money. you mention "live that lifestyle" - I have been in the position of working stupidly long hours etc so doing things like batch cooking didn't happen that much, and I also didn't have an Aldi supermarket then.

I don't really think that cutting back on stuff will feel like a lifestyle change tbh. If you have stuff that you will really miss, e.g. Sky TV, it might feel like it I guess.

have you put all your figures in a spreadsheet and worked out how much you can save? Sometimes when you do that, you feel absolute joy and this will be on top of the fact that you want to spend more time with your child as well.

if you are saying you are worried because you'd save a lot more with you in FT work, I can see that argument, but I'm not clear ATM what your worry is. I do think you will be fine on that monthly income as long as you are okay with a non-luxury lifestyle.

We have a similar mortgage and we estimated we needed DH to be earning about 50k when I was considering staying at home. Our bills were higher though, plus running a car and wanting to have at least one UK holiday. In fact I took a year's unpaid after maternity leave and then decided I wanted to go back anyway. The year itself was ok though. Can you do anything like that with your company so that they keep your job open if you do decide to return?

Ha yeah savonga, similar to savings just posher. I like ur idea for a pay day loan company. Sure there would be some competitions rules in that though ,,,.

As for long term consequences. I just mean getting back into work. I will likely drop down a level and pay rate but I am cool wih that, well I think I am . As I said its a long time till I retire so I have time to claw my way back.

Ha I wouldn't be giving up Sky! Baby tv etc is the only peace I get. Which reminds me of a point someone else made - what if I don't like being at home. I've done it for 6 months and I admit there are days when I just think "kill me now" but I always remind myself how lucky I am. Infertility is a bitch. I feel bad conplaining about having a baby when there are thousands of women who would give up everything to have my complaints.

I suppose the other question is do you think you would enjoy been a stay at home mum ? I love being a mum more than I ever could have imagined but I also know I'd go mad if I was home everyday !! Maternity leave was great because ds was a baby but fast forward a couple of years to toddler strops , a house that didn't stay clean for more than 2 minutes I don't think I could do that everyday ! I love my job though and take a lot of pride in it so I guess it makes up a part of who I am and I wouldn't not want to do it .
Part time has def been the right balance for me I honestly wouldn't go full time for all the money in the world i love the days I can pick him up from school and when he is on school holidays I get plenty of days off with him but also I get to do something other than being a mum to which I think I need that !

Everyone is different of course! It sounds like you have a pretty decent job though and the money and lifestyle to go with it , it's quite a big change to give that all up . I also think maternity leave isn't a fair representation of actual life as a sahm long term .
I hope I don't sound a total knob lol I'm not intending to!

U don't sound like a knob, this is what I need to hear

Good point on that he won't always be a baby and that mat leave isn't a fair representation of being a sahm. I have NCT friends who are all going back to work so I will miss out on seeing them so much and as for toddler tantrums and the mess-id be lying if I said it wouldn't bother me. We would def be getting. A cleaner if I went back!

OP, it sounds like you would like to go back to work? Part time maybe?