How are people surviving?

[Snowbear96]

We are on a household income of 45k a year. I work term time on a support staff salary, and partner is full time on a basic salary. After all out bills have been delegated this month (inc all bills and food etc) we are left with £150 to play with. This is for days out, treats and bits and bobs for the kids. I am grateful we do have some left as I know some don’t , but how are people affording nice things like holidays? It honestly baffles me that on minimum wages people can’t love comfortable anymore.

You must be entitled to some UC with that household income?

I’m sorry you’re struggling OP but I don’t think people on minimum wage have ever been able to live particularly comfortably. £45k for a household income isn’t much really, it is less than 2 adults working full time on NMW would bring in.

They might, but it's not purely income based. I have a feeling they wouldn't get the child element or much of it on that salary unless they had quite a few DC. The big awards are generally when people are privately renting and/or have high childcare costs. It could be that neither apply here. With OP being term time they might not need much childcare. Housing wise, if they own they'd get nothing and if they have low SH rent that probably wouldn't qualify either.

They earn more than you or choose to have fewer children.

Thanks for everyones reply. I should have mentioned we have 2 children and rent. We have recently had some inheritance to put a deposit down on a house so we aren’t touching that money. However it means our UC was cancelled as we now have over the 16k. Were going to have to grin and bare it if we ever want our own home 😢

Minimum wage isn’t about a comfortable life . It’s a minimum.

It's the same story as it always has been.

Reduce expenditure and / or increase income. Or live within your current means, which should be possible, albeit basic.

Working less than 2 NMW jobs with 2 young children is never going to be a luxurious life.

That's very tough.
So many people are working day and night and struggling, yet I know a good number of boomer couples who are very, very, very, very, very comfortable.
I don't think any of this will end well.
All we need now is another world war to put the cat amongst the pigeons.

Most people don't get to work term time only. I have always worked full time

@Snowbear96 you’ve had some good advice already but ultimately if you want a better quality of life, you need to increase the hours you work/the salaries you earn.

I was in a long term relationship until the end of last year, I have always worked and earn good money but recently it hasn’t been enough. I now have a second job, and my total income as a single person far exceeds your joint income. It’s hard, I am very tired, but it’s worth it to have financial independence. I was not eligible for UC as a homeowner, so a second job was my only option.

In your position, I would be reviewing your jobs, scope for promotion, increasing hours, retraining where possible and undertaking a course to up-skill if appropriate. The reality is that things are likely to get worse, so try to get ahead of the curve so you weather future financial storms.

Yes that’s a very good point about grandparental contribution

People on minimum wages have never lived comfortably, they have always had to scrape by and make do with whatever they could afford (or go without).

A genuine question….if you could rewind the clock, would you have preferred to not have children (and therefore enjoy your dual income) or would you have preferred to have children but managed with say, one full-time and one part job and lowered your standard of living?

You won’t like me saying so but once, when probably your age, I went to the ATM and found ( I had been paid) I had just £4.00 in my account before I went into the overdraft again. And this was common. In the 80’s.
Ditto my other half. I would have loved to have had £150 to play with.
Holidays I recall ( we had no car then) sometimes were spent doing walks in the park. I am not exaggerating.
No, £150 is not much to play with. But for some I suppose it will be a marvellous sum.

OK so is there a plan? Can you afford a place of your own and then will the housing costs drop and the UC return? When will you be doing this?
Your update explains the problem- whatever you’ve lost in UC is the shortfall for a basic standard of living.

Most peoples household income is higher than yours, is one of your answers, or it isn’t and they’re better with money than you, or only have one child or none.

For most people it is a luxury to have a term time only job. A bigger household income will give you more options when it comes to the house you want to buy AND the mortgage you’ll be offered. You are disadvantaging yourself and your family if you don’t improve your income.

It depends really on lifestyle and where you live. £45k is above the average income which is around £40k per annum but after tax I would assume it is closer to £36k or £3k per month. So assuming you pay £1k (one third of income) on housing that leaves £2k for bills and food which sounds doable. However if you have high housing costs by living in an expensive area or pay a lot for childcare (as you are term time I assume this isn’t the case) then maybe you have debt or have over extended on cars. Do you budget? There will be some who say a family of 4 can easily live on £3k a month or others who say it isn’t enough.

£45k is above the average income which is around £40k per annum but after tax I would assume it is closer to £36k or £3k per month

For one person it’s above average. OP has a partner who also works.

I have nothing much to add other than I'm just sorry for all the families who are struggling.

I wouldn’t consider 45k household income a great income tbh. Can you increase earnings?

Our income has recently dropped very suddenly. We only have DH's salary coming in now (£31k) and I don't know how we'll manage. DC left home long ago so it's just us but even so. We're not long off pension age and have nothing saved and no private pensions because we could never afford them. Old age promises to be a hideous slog with very little joy and it's absolutely terrifying.

And before we even get there we have the slog of now to contend with.

In the 80s couples on modest wages e.g. jobbing builder & shop assistant, nurse & firefighter, two factory workers, etc could afford to buy a house, even in London

Those days will never come back - younger people today are totally screwed by the cost of housing relative to income. The terraced house in Chiswick where my DCs childminder lived with her builder husband is now occupied by corporate lawyers

I use my local “save from landfill” place for food and it saves me a fortune. On a good week I can do a full shop for 3 adults with plenty of meat, multiple packs of sausages, eggs, 10 lots of fruit and veg and all the bread we can eat for about £12-20. Then i do a top up shop from b and m on the restock days and get reduced stuff for packed lunches for £5-10 and freeze them. Then Aldi/Farmfoods for butter, cheese, chips , whatever else I need. Maybe £20-40 depending on where we are in the month. It’s honestly saved me a fortune. So typically my food bill is £40-60 a week and we eat VERY well with tons of protein. But you never know what you are going to get from there. one week it was two huge slabs of belly pork for £15. Then another week a 6kg joint of pork which was £5 and I froze that for Xmas. Another week it was 5kg of bones chicken thighs I bagged up and froze. Fresh sausages for 50p a pack. A horseshoe gammon for £20 which I got for my daughter’s wedding. 6kg of lamb mince for £10. Is brilliant and I love a bargain.

Tonight’s dinner is chicken massaman curry, last night was roast belly pork with all the trimmings, tomorrow is chicken leek and potato soup with sourdough . I use the copious amounts of veg to make my own sauerkraut and preserves .

The average nurse salary in the UK is £39k (top of band 5), so a household with two nurses would have a joint income of £78k. Ok they may not be able to buy a house in London but in plenty of places in the UK they would (including parts of the south east). OPs problem is that they have two very under average wages including one part time and term time only.

The cost of housing has eaten into all of the wage rises over the decades and some meaning that we are going backward in terms of disposable income

but whatever if you are trying to raise a family and buy a home on minimum wage it won’t be easy