How much money do you need to live on in the UK these days?

[Malaleche]

For a family of 4 (with 2 pre-schoolers), renting, no car, both parents working, or one full and one part-time, in a large city but not London. Don't expect many luxuries but don't want to scrape along either...

Come on, just need a vague idea!

If you need childcare then that could make a massive difference but, oh maybe £25k plus child tax thingy.

£6 - 800 on the flat
£60 on food and stuff per wk
£40 on utilities per mo.

then factor in if you intend to have things like sky, mobiles etc.

mostly guessing though as i don't fit your requirements.

Thanks saggar! What is child tax? Do you pay it or is it paid to you?!

thanks kiskee,
any one else?

They are paid to you.

Here . You can claim for childcare costs, it's quite a complicated system based on your income.

We live in a city, pay mortgage, run an oldish car, 3 big kids, we get just under £30K (gross) plus tax credits and child benefit. It's enough for us, we have a holiday every year only occasionally abroad, don't have Sky TV or expensive hobbies. Not poor but not loaded either. There are so many variables though aren't there? One person's poor is another person's rich.

you'd need a minimum of 40k IMO.

good grief i am starting to sound financially ignorant.

then i didn't factor in council tax. not that that would make up the difference.

makes mental note to review bankstatements properly.

We are only on one wage c.£28000 we have 2 small children , we run a car, have a reasonably small mortage and we do ok. We don't have too much left at the end of the month but I go out at least once a month and we have wine and stuff. Oh and we live in Liverpool. I reckon we'd be extremley comfortable on about £35 grand.

You may need to factor in travel costs - cars are expensive, and so is public tranport!

I agree, it TOTALLY depends on what you are used to...

Ok, lots of good info here, thanks all. I know its hard to say how much we'd need as everyone has a different idea of how much is 'enough'.