Living standards for a family of 4 on £75k a year

[Onfire]

I know there’s so many variables due to expenditure but based on a family of 4 running 2 cars, one paid for, one that’s £200 a month, no other loans, no childcare, a mortgage of £1100 how would you expect to live?

It’s 2 people earning so the total amount coming in per month is around £4600 after tax and deductions.

I ask because it seems like a lot, but yet it doesn’t seem to stretch very far. We do manage to save a little bit but most of the time this is maybe a role £200 a month here and there.

DH is in need of replacing the paid for car, it’s not worth a huge amount as it’s getting old and ropey but I’d be worried about borrowing money

With £75k between two salaries (so 2 lots of tax free allowance etc) and a reasonable mortgage of £1100 a month I'd kind of think you'd have a very good lifestyle indeed.

It sounds like you're spending £1600 a month (your sort of, truly disposable income after all utilities, childcare, food, petrol) That is SO MUCH money. £50+ per day on gifts for family and days out.

You need to do a money diary quickly and if you are being genuinely honest that you don't know where it goes then I'd be very very wary of uncovering some sort of secret bank account or gambling addiction to be honest. It is so much money to be just disappearing.

Get it on a spreadsheet! Analyse where is all goes. We bring in 3k at the moment (but no mortgage and one DS in nursery to pay for) and put away about £800 a month in savings.

Pay for things like insurance annually out of your savings and plan for it so you don’t have to add it to your monthly budget.

We generally save and buy rather than pay months (cars etc, only buy second hand 3-5 year old cars and we both have one)

You need to do some in depth analysis and decide what you’d like to spend and what you’d like to save.

I think you should do ok on that. If you aren't paying off large credit card debts.

[quote UnfinishedBunting]**@Pissinthepottyplease, but that's @thesugarbumfairy's list! [/quote]
Ah! I missed that but.

*bit!!!

We earn a similar amount and have the same mortgage, we bought our cars outright though. We generally save £900 ish a month - with most going to overpay the mortgage. Some months more like £500, e.g around Xmas and summer hols. We could save more but we spend far too much on food.

Is the problem that the income seems high to the op and her dh and therefore they have got used to a standard of living that does not account for savings.

@CaptainCorelli

We earn a similar amount and have the same mortgage, we bought our cars outright though. We generally save £900 ish a month - with most going to overpay the mortgage. Some months more like £500, e.g around Xmas and summer hols. We could save more but we spend far too much on food.

It wasn’t an observation it was a genuine question. My children are younger and I don’t know when/if this cross over occurs.

How much do you spend on petrol? Alcohol?

Would you be better off with a job that wasn't school hours even if it involves some childcare? Term time school hours jobs are often poorly paid.

I have really noticed how much food costs lately, feel like my supermarket bills are a lot higher.

“Pissinthepottyplease” sorry I’m not sure what you are asking.

Do children who are old enough/responsible enough to have a phone need childcare? How long is the cross over for? How long would I need to plan to be paying for both childcare and a child’s phone.

My post was directly to the op I haven’t commented on the childcare/ phone issue?

Confused.. You said you manage to save 200 a month but then said you have standing orders of £450 going into a savings account. I think you need to actually calculate how much you are spending each Month. Go through the last 3 months of bank statements and see where the Money is going

@Pissinthepottyplease you probably need to start your own thread as your question isn't relevant to this one. Also check who has posted what before you reply randomly to folk!

However since you're here now, my answer would be how long is a piece of string? There are too many variables to give you a straight answer. I gave you a perfectly good example of my personal situation.

@Onfire

No other loans other than the one car finance.

No childcare at the moment.
Come September there will be some morning clubs for one but otherwise I work around school hours.

I budget £500 a month on food shops and tend to keep to that .
Fuel to around £150

Council tax seems expensive to me at £170 (it was £135 when we first moved here 5 years ago!)

We don’t have expensive tv package, just Netflix and basic sky.

Only 2 mobiles in the household and they are £30 each

Car insurance comes to £70 a month

What I do find is that every month there seems to be something, usually a birthday and this seems to swallow up loads.
I also think because we haven’t been going on holiday we may be spending more on day trips in the mindset that it is ok as it’s instead of holidays.

We’ve had 3 months in a row of family birthdays. (As in 3 of the 4 of our own households)
Abs later this month are 4 more family birthdays in my family (siblings and godchildren) so there’s gifts, meals etc and i think we haven’t yet had a month where that hasn’t happened

September we only have one sibling birthday and that’s potentially the month we will have the least outgoing

How much are you spending on birthdays, surely (unless your own kids) a 10 or 20 pound gift is more than enough. Birthdays shouldn't really eat much out of your income

@Onfire

No other loans other than the one car finance.

No childcare at the moment.
Come September there will be some morning clubs for one but otherwise I work around school hours.

I budget £500 a month on food shops and tend to keep to that .
Fuel to around £150

Council tax seems expensive to me at £170 (it was £135 when we first moved here 5 years ago!)

We don’t have expensive tv package, just Netflix and basic sky.

Only 2 mobiles in the household and they are £30 each

Car insurance comes to £70 a month

What I do find is that every month there seems to be something, usually a birthday and this seems to swallow up loads.
I also think because we haven’t been going on holiday we may be spending more on day trips in the mindset that it is ok as it’s instead of holidays.

We’ve had 3 months in a row of family birthdays. (As in 3 of the 4 of our own households)
Abs later this month are 4 more family birthdays in my family (siblings and godchildren) so there’s gifts, meals etc and i think we haven’t yet had a month where that hasn’t happened

September we only have one sibling birthday and that’s potentially the month we will have the least outgoing

So all of that plus mortgage and car comes to 2300 ish, with 2k still left. Surely you aren't spending 2k on birthdays.

No mention of utilities (gas, elec, water), clothing, toiletries, kids activities, take aways, days out. All of that needs to factor so people can suggest where to make cutbacks

I think it's an interesting point re whether there's a crossover between having to pay childcare and for a child's mobile phone. For me, there hasn't been - childcare stopped and mobile phone began, but for others there might be a crossover due to their particular choices or circumstances.

I hate these threads because anything over £40K is considered huge sums and the OP is reckless and stupid etc etc
£300 on food for a family of four seems tiny to me. Fresh fruit and veg every meal? I think not

We earn the same, with a lower take home pay of around £4100 after good pensions, student loan, work car parking permit and my salary sacrifice car. We only pay for the one car (DH has a work van which costs him nothing). Our mortgage is a lot lower as we live in a cheap part of the country, but with childcare costs it’s the same as your £1100. My long commute means petrol is around £175 a month. We live very well! A few family days out and meals out a month, and we manage to save quite a bit - around £600 per month actual savings, plus we put money away every month for Christmas, birthdays, house maintenance and a holiday.

I find sticking to a budget, and including everything in that budget really helps. We do spend less on food (around £300) but it takes a bit of effort and planning to keep it down. DH and I have around £300 per month each personal spends which includes hobbies, socialising, clothes, coffees, lunches at work if we don’t take something from home etc. DH would definitely spend far more than me if it was just a free for all so having a limit helps rein him in. We also have a monthly limit for family spends such as meals, soft play, days out.

With regards to birthdays, we have a big family and we do tend to spend quite a bit. I set a budget for everyone, added it up (plus mother’s/Father’s Day) and divided by 12. That amount is put away on pay day and it means the months where there are 5 family birthdays don’t impact on our spending that month at all. Same with DC clothes, and annual expenses like boiler service. There is no such thing as an expensive month, the budget is always the same.

The ages of your DC could make a difference though. We only have DD4 but number 2 is on the way and the numbers above include my new budget once baby arrives. However I know once they are both older they will cost me more. I’m hoping the lack of childcare bills will offset that

Oh cross posted DGFB . My £300 certainly does include fresh fruit and veg every day, and meat most days. However we don’t buy much in the way of snacks, pre-prepared and convenience food which is how we cut our budget right down.

@DGFB

I hate these threads because anything over £40K is considered huge sums and the OP is reckless and stupid etc etc £300 on food for a family of four seems tiny to me. Fresh fruit and veg every meal? I think not

I actually thought the same before I posted and assumed I’d likely get many responses of being told it was a tiny amount to live on and I should only be able to afford beans anyway or that it was a huge amount and I should be living like a king

We do put a lot of importance on eating well which to us means fresh fruit and vegetables, good quality fresh fish and meat etc

@Pissinthepottyplease

my DC started walking to school and playing out from age 9, so it seemed sensible to give them mobile phones. In their case it was brick PAYG phones that cost 50p originally so virtually no cost, but good enough for them to keep in touch with us and their friends and taught them how to be responsible.
They got smartphones (albeit still cheap PAYG ones) at 11, which for DS (summer birthday) meant no cross over in childcare but for DD winter birthday) she had a fair bit of Year 6 left.
But lots of people do give their children mobile phones from 9, 10 or even 7 or 8. And some people pay for childcare in the early part of secondary school. So it's an open question really. I would certainly agree that you shouldn't be making significant mobile phone spending on a child that was not old enough not to need childcare.

[quote thesugarbumfairy]@Pissinthepottyplease you probably need to start your own thread as your question isn't relevant to this one. Also check who has posted what before you reply randomly to folk!

However since you're here now, my answer would be how long is a piece of string? There are too many variables to give you a straight answer. I gave you a perfectly good example of my personal situation.[/quote]
I replied to someone who asked me a question!

I am a huge fan of You Need A Budget (YNAB) which I learned about here on MN a thousand years ago. It was a godsend when our income was small and I still find it brilliant now we have more money.

They have 35 days free trial and loads of tutorials.

We have saved a fortune.