How much do you earn as a family?

[BertieBasset82]

Why I ask. I am currently pregnant - I earn £18k (dental nurse) and my partner earns £60k. We’re in Yorkshire and our mortgage is around £550 a month.
I’m wondering if we would manage if I didn’t go back once my maternity ended.

We earn less than your partner between us and mortgage is £800. Depends on your lifestyle, we're happy with a simple life so it works for us.

Same as PP. Our mortgage is higher and out income lower. If DH earned £60k I wouldn't go back to work.

£550 is a fairly low mortgage its worth doing a budget plan (money saving expert does a good one) and work out what is right for you.

What others do is meaningless really you could be comfortable on 22k in the NW if you were single and mortgage free or buggered if your household earnings drop below 100k and you are a single earner in a family of 4 with mortgage and bills of £4k

Do also have a think about how or of you'd want to go back to work

Good luck and congratulations!!!!

You can't really ask a random forum that, you need to work out what your childcare options would be if you returned to work, could you go back part time, what are your other outgoings, is you partner happy with you being a stay at home mum? Are you happy giving up work as it might potentially put you in a more vulnerable position long term. So many variables.

Thank you. We don’t have a big house (they’re reasonably cheap where we live anyway), we have old cars and mine was only £1000 so that’s paid for, we haven’t done anything to the house but we always seem to live payday to payday.
I think we need to do this budget thing and work out what we are wasting our money on! It should be manageable without my wage.
DP doesn’t really want him/her to go to childcare if we can avoid it and would rather I was home, which I can see his point as I would be working just to pay for childcare really. Difficult! I’ve got a while anyway as my maternity hasn’t started yet and I’ve got a year on maternity leave so I don’t need to make any big decisions yet just wanted an idea on what others did and how they manage.

Think give answered your own question if you "live payday to payday"'...and it suggests that you are going to ha e to significantly alter your lifestyle regardless of whether you go back to work or not - nurseries aren't cheap and will eat into a significant chunk of your £18k salary.

as I would be working just to pay for childcare really.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking paying for childcare is your responsibility alone.
Do you share finances currently?

Stay at home with your baby if you can, you don't want to miss out on those early years. It sounds like you'll be fine financially and you can go back at any time later

Keep your hand in at work if you can, even just 2 days! Work is more than about money, it is much harder to get a part time job then go part time from full time hours!
I would be more concerned why you live payday to payday with a salary of nearly 80k and a mortgage of £550!! Where the hell is your cast going? That sounds dodgy to me!!

Ha ha complete contradiction to pp! Sorry OP how confusing

£67k (£20k me and £47k DH). Also in Yorkshire, mortgage £430pm.

As work provide subsidised child care and even after paying for two kids in nursery I was still netting over a grand a month, it wasn’t viable for me to give up work.

I would imagine that is plenty. I'm part time and our combined income is about £40K. We pay £530 nursery bill, mortgage is nearly £500, council tax £260 and we run 2 cars. 1 is owned outright and the other is a family car brand new on lease. We go holidays abroad every year (well pre COVID lol) We have plenty money spare and can pretty much buy what we want when we want.

I wld imagine your income would still be more than ours with just ur husband working. Depends on all ur other bills and spends though.

As others have said it's sort of irrelevant really what other people earn as how much you need will depend on so many other factors.

I agree though that you really shouldn't be living payday to payday currently if your mortgage is so low and your income so high. Can you look at where your money is going and if your maternity leave hasn't started yet can you try and really save as much as possible over these last few months? That will at least give you some more options in future.

Plus I could never give up my own money and live off someone else. I don’t care what people say about family money, divorce happens to the best of us and I needed to keep my earning potential.

I am a single parent on less than your joint income with rent of £1700 a month. You really need to look at where your money is going as unless you have very expensive tastes, a lot of money seems to be wasted.

That's loads. His 60k alone should be more than enough with such a small mortgage. Have you tracked all yoyr spending as you really should be struggling on that without your wage. I support a family of 3 in London on less than half that and we're quite comfortable.

Sorry. On my phone! Should not be struggling. And your not yoyr. Damn dodgy autocorrect.

My mortgage is a bit bigger, £636 a month. Household income 24.5k a year for family of four and running one car. We feel comfortable, eat well, save a little and have holidays.

You’re not married
If you split, other than child support you’ll only be entitled to 50% of savings and house (presume joint owned) and no claim on your partners future earnings
You live payday to payday

Do not give up your job!!!!

@shouldvebeenme

You’re not married If you split, other than child support you’ll only be entitled to 50% of savings and house (presume joint owned) and no claim on your partners future earnings You live payday to payday

Do not give up your job!!!!

Sorry I meant 50% of any joint savings. As not married you have no claim on your partners sole accounts, if he has any.

It's definitely manageable if you are organised.

I earn 40k before tax and pay all bills in our house.

Rent 600pm, childcare, shopping, food, electric, car loan, car insurance etc..

I put money away for Christmas, holidays and birthdays monthly and the kids have the best of everything all year round.

Joint income of £60k living well in the SE with mortgage of £900 and other financial commitments added on top

My husband earns under £40k but if he earned £60k I would definitely at least delay returning to work as things have been so much easier for us all with one out of work much of this year

I think you would be mad to do this. What would happen if you split up? Of course no one wants to think of that, but sadly it happens to about 1/3 or 1/2 of us. You owe it to your child to plan for the long term - you will have a LO to support for the next 20 years.

Baby’s father will have his well paid job at £60k and will see his child at weekends or evenings to he doesn’t have any childcare costs.

You will be unemployed with a child to care for and skills that are out of date. You won’t be able to afford the mortgage on your house on benefits ( or even a low part time wage ) so your ex will buy you out.

You will end up like many single mums in low paid jobs - in poor quality insecure housing and not being able to afford to work. Meanwhile you ex will complain about paying child support while you “ sit on your arse”.

If he moves in with another single mum ( as most men do) you will lose some child support. If he has more kids, you will lose even more.

So do NOT give up your work. Go back full time and split the costs of childcare ( like all bills ) in proportion to your earnings ( so he pays three times what you do ).

If your boyfriend doenst like his child being in childcare then he needs to give up his works and take the hit to his earnings, career prospects and Pension.

I'm sure your partner would prefer it if you were at home with the baby, but think long term about the implications of doing this. You're not married, so giving up work would put you in a vulnerable position in the event of a split - a lot more vulnerable than him.
Childcare costs should be seen from the outset as a joint / household cost - it may seem simple to equate it as equivalent to your earnings, but that shifts the perception of responsibility. Also, are you factoring in your pension? Would your partner be prepared to keep up your pension contributions while you are not working?
High-cost childcare is for a relatively short period of time, even if you have more than one. If you can keep your foot in the door with working - even if part-time - then it will benefit you in the long term, especially if you want to move to a bigger house later down the line.

Given what you said, you currently take home £1323, your partner £3620, or just under £5000 per month. You pay £550 in a mortgage, leaving over £1000 per week.
To put in bluntly, if you are living payday to payday you are spending some serious money on something, yet you don't seem to know what it is?