I live alone in a rented first floor one bedroom flat in a small non descript town about 12 miles from Nottingham City on one side, and Derby City on the other.
I earn £22,776.96 per year before tax and deductions. And this is enough to pay all my monthly bills and give me a little bit of disposable income a month. It’s not enough for me to have any savings. I don’t have a car or drive, I don’t smoke. I don’t eat out at expensive restaurants. If I need to replace a kitchen appliance, I have to buy it from a mail order catalogue so that I can pay for it over a period of time.
If I want to buy new clothes, I have think about it and wait until I can afford it, even if it’s just a pair of shoes.
A holiday abroad is out of the question.
BUT: I’m not in debt.
The wages in this country are shit. I believe that, on paper at least, the national average wage is around £35k.
I live in the outskirts of London on an average salary of £24000. Im a scientist an we’re typically underpaid.
The rent on my 3 bed house is £1250 the council tax is about £250
The rest of my bills equate to about £200 on top not including food.
paying £300 a month on a car zaps most of my budget. I would like to note that my living cost are split 50/50 between me and my partner.
Living in and around London is very expensive if you’re renting. Me and said partner have been lucky enough to have families that have helped us with the deposit on a house, we’re moving an hour away from my work so that we can afford to buy a 3 bed house for £295,000- which for where we are is a great price. Our mortgage payments will be around £750 a month then onwards.
If you can afford to put a deposit down, most places are affordable. I wouldn’t recommend renting if you can get away with it.
I’m going to talk about take home salary. This assumes you are living in a major city, and are a young person.
£1000 – you live in a shared house, and shop at budget supermarkets. You use public transport (no car) and you have a couple of nights a month socialising. It’s not much fun, but it’s doable. (Salary of £13,000)
£1500 per month. You live in a shared house. You have your own cheap second hand car. Your social life is ok, you do stuff most weekends. You will be able to have a couple of cheap holidays in UK/Europe a year. (Salary of £20,000)
£2000 per month. You can either rent your own flat and and live the same as the £1500 per month person or keep living in a shared house and live a nice life with lots of luxuries. Or be sensible and save £500 a month. (salary of £30,000)
£2500 per month. You’re starting to make enough money that you might be able to get a mortgage and buy some shitty flat if your parents have £50k lying around to give you as a deposit. If you’re stupid, you can probably afford to finance a brand new car, or go on some outrageous holidays to make your Instagram followers jealous. This is where life starts to actually be quite fun. (salary of £38,000)
£3000 per month. You can no now actually serisouly look into buying a flat and maybe even saving the deposit yourself over a few years. You can easily rent your own place, and have a very nice lifestyle, go on some nice holidays, or have a nice new car (Mercedes, BMW etc.) Whatever luxuries you like you can probably have if you don’t go crazy. (Salary of £48,000)
Beyond this, not a lot changes. You either make sensible investments with the rest or live a playboy lifestyle.
If you want to buy an actual house in the UK (not a flat), and don’t have rich parents, you will need to earn significantly more than this, or have a partner with a good salary as well.
The UK is a very expensive place to live, with good quality accommodation being hideously expensive these days. Down south, don’t expect to buy much of a house for less than £400,000 ($500,000USD). A good cheap flat can be had for around £200,000 ($250,000USD).
