If you are mortgage free how much does it cost to live?

[Notimelikeyesterday]

We could be mortgage free if we relocate...
But DH would have to give up his job, I could just find another/go supply/bank as I'm a key worker....preferably we'd both give up stressful jobs and get some minimum wage ones... we have 1dc...would like another...
Could we survive/ have a decent quality of life/ afford basics if we did this?

I'm a teacher and DH needs a city for his job (can't say anymore on that it'd be too outing).

It still sounds like a pipe dream op.

Rural living comes with costs- transport. Houses if they are heated by oil can be more expensive.

Plus many other points others have raised.

Would you verbally be happy shelf stacking? How would you feel about having to work Christmas? All the bank holidays?

That should say really, not verbally.

All of this.

You can't be doing this on the back of an envelope and a handful of guess work.

You've even said that £32K would give you £3k a month. It wouldn't, it would give you £2666 a month. You can't be doing those sort of 'rounding up's if you are talking about major life decisions like this.

I also wonder why you wouldn't do a PT teaching job rather than working full time in a NMW job.

I have no real idea what annual minimum wage is so that's why I was asking. I understand MW is about £8/hr depending on location, age etc.

I mean - that really is so very easily searchable. But also wonder about your understanding of life generally. If you have a National minimum wage, then the clue is in the name. No, it doesn't vary depending on location.
You really, really, really need to spend some time finding out facts before going any further with this.

So basically asking if anyone gas done this and it's been the right decision.
I'm happy with living frugally. No holidays abroad, maybe camping once per year etc.

As has been asked previously - how old are you, and do you have / are you planning to start a family ? Yes, when saving for my deposit for my first home, I was happy to 'live frugally' and 'no holidays abroad' was fine. for a fixed term though. The idea of never having money to treat yourself (and tastes change, it might not be holidays) for the next 20, 40, or 60 years of your life is a different thing altogether, if you have choices that would give you a more comfortable life.
Decisions I would have taken in my 20s, 30s, 40s would be different from those when looking at retirement. If you are of an age when you are looking towards retirement, then living rurally is something I wouldn't choose to do.

I'm frankly a but pissed if by your comment @UsingChangeofName are you reallythus rude in real life?

Do you think I'd be on mumsnet asking this if I'd be litterally about to do this next month 🤔 😅 Crikey, that would be fag packet work.

Go back to your cave please, I'm asking nicely.

Ffs.

And having grown up in the particular area I'm considering yes, ideal retirement area. I wasn't asking what you would do, frankly I couldn't give a shit.

It is worth thinking about how frugal you want to be for the remainder of your life, which might be a long time, and also what impact stopping earning at those levels will have on your pensions. Frugality is often 'fine' when it's for a short, finite period, but if you're talking about the rest of your life then you do need to be honest with yourself about what kind of standard of life would you have. Such as, do you really never want to go on holiday for the next potentially 20-30 years? Or is a short-term frugal situation to plug the gap until you can access a good pension pt?

This is my experience too, even though we had a bigger mortgage. Between saving for renovations we couldn't afford before, and higher pension payments, it really hasn't made much of a difference to our day to day lives.

We have been mortgage free for more than 10 years. However we save heavily instead.

I currently don’t work because I am a carer. I find our day to day costs are slightly higher than when I worked because of electricity use, heating, I have to drive a lot.
I think if you do it you should still try to earn money if you can. I think you mentioned you are a teacher and there is always supply work but this is more complicated if you are rural as you need to be available very early. Worth factoring in.

I survive on 1,300 a month, no frills. Run a car

I work for NHS part time, my choice snd cut my cloth accordingly

Remember to include money for sinking funds to cover tax, insurance, maintenance, repairs, etc. in your calculations.

Our none mortgage bills are around 1000 a month in the north west.

One thing you have not covered is moving to where. I live in the north west and we have found a lot of southerns came here during the pandemic thinking it was an easy life. Many have sold up and left. They cannot handle the culture and have a bit of a reality problem. "The you going to get some min wage job" like you will be some kind if big fish. It's not easy to get a min wage job in cheaper areas of the UK.

Sounds hopelessly naive you havent even completed your family yet.

What about

• kids need tutors
• kids sports hobbies
• neededing extension as kids grow
• changing kids furniture
• kids IT equip (phones, laptops)
• babysitters

Etc and this is just kids .. they are so so expensive!

Eg my son got gluten allergy diagnosed privately last month (food around £20 a week) and my daughter ADHD costs around £2k pa in appts. Thats just for starters

Theres a reason ppl retire when kids have grown up, not before !!!

@Diyextension

Council tax is not cheaper in cheaper areas. It is actually much more expensive. Councils in cheaper area have higher social care costs so those that can pay are made to pay a lot more than a rich area whose council has a lower level of responsibility due to general wealth within the council area.

I live in the 12th most expensive council in the country. It's in the north west.

Looking at all your messages I wonder if you could do with spending more time defining the problem that you're trying to solve and what you'd want to get out of a move rather than jumping straight to what is a very dramatic solution. What's prompted the idea?

We are mortgage free but have a gigantic nursery bill and pay for clubs etc… our mortgage was a relatively small proportion of our bills. We paid £3200 a month for nursery at one point plus all other bills that’s another £1200 on top so at least £4400 a month excluding mortgage.
Now that our kids are going to school it means that out childcare bills is reducing significantly.
You just have to workout what you need to earn to stay afloat. If you have another kid this adds significantly more costs esp if you need to pay for nursery.

For those people who think supermarket / shelf stacking jobs are easy to do and easy to get, think again. Where I live the big supermarkets rarely advertise as unlike most retail jobs, they are secure and normally offer permanent contracts and decent benefits so staff turnover is very low. Plus full time positions are rare, 20 hour contracts or less seem the norm.

We are mortgage free. Have a child in childcare 15hrs a week. We need £1800 a month to live comfortably- £1400 without nursery. That's for 2 adults and a 3 year old. We live in a large 4 bed house, and spend £188 a month on council tax....

We are mortgage-free and our basic outgoings are about £750. We are supporting two at university on top of that though which is another £700 a month.

I can’t begin to imagine choosing to give up your jobs and take minimum wage ones when you haven’t even finished having kids yet though. Childcare, clothes, holidays, uniform, trips, university-all that to come!

Unless you move to a hugely different house in terms of energy expenses and council tax, your current outgoings minus the mortgage payment would be about it.

Other than the luxury of no mortgage , it costs the same as it did before, nothing else changes but do tend to at least have some spare cash every month

Why is there no way of increasing your income? 67 is no age. I’m 62 and no prospect of retirement from a full time career. And there are many more like me - in fact the majority of over sixties I would have thought.

Would you mind expanding on southerners not being able to handle the culture shock please? (Genuine question, not aggy 😁)

You must be able to work it out. Your other expenses will be similar; council tax varies a little, bills too but petrol/ car/bus could be a bigger change depending on area. You're still going to be eating.