[Closed] how much income to live with a partner and a kid.

write down everythign that you and your partner spend each week/month.

subtract from weekly/monthly income.

positive result = happiness

negative result = misery.

Seriously - only you can tell for your own circumstances. Where are you living now and how much income do you have?

sounds doable. plenty of people live on a lot less.

i assume no car?

I will have to buy food for the little one.

Is that you? Since when did you have a kid.

As to is it possible? Yes but it really depends on what you consider a reasonable standard of life doesn't it - you could live in a sh!thole flat and have plenty of spare cash or in a big place and stuggle to buy bread...

I am not sure of rent prices in hampshire but in Watford where I live you'd need half your actual (after taxes) monthly income for a small two bedroom place (so the kid can have his own room). It would be a tight squeeze. I live comfortablyish for a bit more than that in Watford but that is with a working partner and no kids.

£27-28k gross or net?

Either way, in a word no.

Rent £600-700, Council Tax £150, Utilities £100, TV Licence £12, Food/Household for 3 £400 - that's £1300 pm already

Do not forget that you may well be entitled to benefits (working tax credits, childcare allowance etc).

Biggest cost is nursery. For my two, the combined nursery cost full time is £1700 each month. That's after I've paid tax on the income and the £243 maximum childcare vouchers make laughably little difference.

Nursery = 3x my mortgage and certainly more than mrsG is bringing in as a result. However, it's necessary to keep her paying NI and pension payments for the years befor the kids are in school. Child tax credits pay about £400/mth towards it.

For my two, the combined nursery cost full time is £1700 each month.

Facts to consider:

A hungry 3 year old will eat the same on a daily basis as an entire herd of dairy cattle.

When 5, a child will require a new pair of shoes or trainers every other day

Middle-classness tax (or after school activities as they're politely termed) will add up, over the course of a year, to the GDP of a small African nation

Have you seen the price of cakes and Lattes at the cafes where all the yummy mummies congregate?!!! Shocking!!

Hampshire is a very expensive county to live in. Where abouts are you thinking of?

Either way, in a word no.

what branch of maths did you study?
that's in a word yes according to conventional maths surely?

I thought that, I managed to support me and the mrs on an income of £18k in the past. Though I am in the West Midlands.

Isn't around £20k about 1300pcm anyway?

We now have a household income of £30k (mostly mine) and hence new bikes etc. 🙂

<i>However, it's necessary to keep her paying NI and pension payments for the years befor the kids are in school</i>

Why, she'd get the NI anyway as long as in receipt of Child Benefit - and is her pension really worth that much?

[i]what branch of maths did you study?
that's in a word yes according to conventional maths surely? [/i]

Not really £25k gross = about £1500pcm, and I only covered the absolute basics, no living/clothes/car/insurance etc etc etc.

aye.. fair enough br

Juan, I think that you could do it with that sort of income. People's opinions will vary becuase of how they would want to live. But the main thing is that if you WANT to make it work, you can. You don't mention if your partner will be at home looking after the todler or working as well.

[url= http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=334 ]averages fro uk[/url]

But is 27000-28000 per annum okish to pay rent tax and bills in the hampshire.

my brother lives in hampshire with 2 kids for less than that

but then it is Portsmouth

I'm currently not with child, but on that level of income and renting at about the prices b r suggests, but I could easily afford it. Going through my monthly figures the other week for house buying purposes:

Approx figures:
Rent 500
council tax + water - 115
Elec £20
Gas £30
TV 12
Insurance £7
Food (for 2, eating well, £200)
Car running fixed costs £45
Car fuel costs £80.

total ~£1000. Net income from 28K should be in the region of 1600 a month. Leaving you 600 a month to play with?

Although we don't have a plus 1 me and Mrs XC-Steve are renting happily, running a car and funding my bike addiction on a fair bit less than your on.

Rent is only £450 mind!

If you don't mind me asking what on earth are you living on to only spend £200 month on food?! I assume that this includes other household bits and pieces or is it just food?

On the OP topic, as others have said it really comes down to what your priorities in life are and how extravagent your lives are. People survive on much less than that but you may not like the compromises you have to make. If you do that maths and the numbers are very close I would be inclined to say that you won't do it as there will always be some disaster that crops up and needs money and if you are already living right on the limit then you will be pushed over. If you have some savings then you at least have a slush fund you can dip into if you really have to for an emergency.

you can do it for sure... working tax credits and other benefits will top you up to the minimum they deem fit for you to live on..

I can't tell you the exact figure but me and the mrs and our little one live on it frugally but not uncomfortably..

Does WCA not have a spare room or two?

Go to the Citizens Advice bureau and ask what benefits you can claim in various cirumstances and how much they are worth.

Unless you are married, yes, her pension is worth something even if it will be small. If you ever split up (I note you do not say you are married or getting married before you move in so she is vunerable) she could be left penniless in her old age as it is very possible she will not be able to claim your pension.

How much is the father of the child contributing and could he be forced to pay towards its upkeep?

Would you be better off financially living in seperate buildings and just getting togeather a lot? You might be able to claim more benefits and also if you have more cash, there will be less stress and rows and a better financial quality of life for the child.

Saddly, if you have more kids pretty sharpish you can claim more and more on the state and get better and better living conditions. I know someone on thier 3rd upsize of car (to extra large people carrier) as they are now on thier 6th child and only 1 parent earns on a low wage. His wife is keen to have more but he has said no, he does not want the responsiblity of bringing up more children!

[i]but then it is Portsmouth [/i]

and you call it "living" ?

If you don't mind me asking what on earth are you living on to only spend £200 month on food?! I assume that this includes other household bits and pieces or is it just food?

Just was I was thinking, your secret pray tell 😉

I'm on about that, with a wife (who's off work atm) and 9 month old nipper. We're struggling, but that's not to say we can sustain ourselves. There's nothing going into the rainy day/bike fund though.

£30k gross is a net of arround £1800 (£1660 for me after student loans and pension)

Plus if there's two of you and your married and only one of you is working, can you not split the income tax in two (i.e. you'd pay less income tax as the income is divided by two)?

I'd say easily doable, a 4-bed house in a nice area of Reading(hideously overpriced being on a direct train to london and bucking the trend for falling prices) is £1100 a month, 2 beds started at arround £700-£800 depending on your priorities (garrage, garden, detatched, area etc).

I could probably suppourt a kid based purely on what I spend on the car each month!

For the income I am suppose to call my ex boss in a minute.
At the moment we are both in France. The kid will be 5 in november. So I take it no nursery but then depending where we live we'll have to pay for private house.
To be fair I'll probably come with my car. It's an old French peugeot and I know I can do most of the maintenance myself. I know it will be a massive change of lifestyle from my previous years in southampton (no motorbike, no nights out, barely any climbing and probably almost no bike as if it brakes I am not sure I'll be able to afford to fix it). But then I think I can do it. I am not sure whether or not get a tv. I happily do without, but I guess it will help the little one to learn english.
As for priority it will be obviously feeding ourselves and the boy, preferably not with tesco value garbage (the 3 of us eat a lot of veggies so I know it's going to cost me a fortune).

Then I have no idea of how much tax I am going to pay, what benefit we can claim (we wont be married, more of a supportive union).

But thanks for all the replies.

My girlfriend and I used to pull in a bit more than that between us (no kids). That was living in Nottingham (most likely cheaper than down south), running a two cars. We weren't broke but we weren't rich either. That said, I pretty much paid for all my car's running costs with mileage expenses, and the girlfriend drove an old Citroen. And I did the majority of the work on them (servicing, discs & pads etc).

I personally think that is marginal money if you've got a kid to pay for as well. I've no idea of what tax credits etc. you can claim though.

The system is a wee bit different to France, and at 5 he'll be in school and yes, you'll be renting privately.

Together or married makes no difference on tax/benefits (if you live together).

We lived pretty comfortably with 2 kids with me making something like £26k at the time and my wife making naff all with a very part time job of virtually no money (after child care she was making something like £3 or 4 an hour, for a 20 hour week). That was while paying the mortgage on a 3-bed semi and maybe even running a car.

That was before house prices went mental though, and in the North East.

Put your details in here:

www.entitledto.co.uk

It should give you a pretty good idea of what benefits etc.. you'll be able to get.

Thanks slient sparky but it won't work for me. I guess we'll just have to wait and see once there

If you don't mind me asking what on earth are you living on to only spend £200 month on food?! I assume that this includes other household bits and pieces or is it just food?

Dunno, just normal food. I don't really think about what I'm buying, I just buy what I want and keep an eye out for multiple deals and freeze them. We cook all our meals (ok, almost all) from fresh veg, of late we've been eating a lot of chinese dishes so plenty of chicken, rice and veg. I eat sandwiches at lunch and we often get 2-3 meals from something like a chicken. Made lasagne the other day, total ingredients came to £6 (decent lean mince mainly) and it lasted the 2 of us 4 meals, throw in a few veg each day and you're looking at about £3 a day for main meals, 1-2 for lunch. Thats about 150 a month, plus some niceties like a bottle of wine or two, puddings etc. "Food" is anything I buy that can be eaten, plus odds and sods like sandwich bags.

i get 28k and clear 1625pm, lots of my wage goes in tax for company car

200£ a month seems cheap to me. I use to eat (just eat) for more than that on my own when I was there. But again I mainly bought fresh veg and continental stuff.

Can you tell me which planet it is a lot of you live on, how can anyone manage on that kinda money - or am I missing the benefit/credit 'income' that seems to exist these days (and not when mine were little with a non-working wife).

The last time (as a family) we had that little coming-in was in the 80's...

My mrs works PT for the council and gets around 17K.
We cope pretty well, in fact prob never been so well off. only have 1 kid (12).

Only credit benefit we get is child allowance and a tenner a month for some tax credit thing. Working tax credits depend on how many kids you have (the more the better) and how much you earn (i think threshold is about 18k, but dont quote me)

But is 27000-28000 per annum okish to pay rent tax and bills in the hampshire.

You could do it but it wouldnt be pleasant, it also wouldnt be worth moving anywhere to do it I wouldnt think. If possible ask for more money or dont bother.

hmm. I spend about £95 a month on groceries - that includes things like toilet roll. I don't really budget and I don't eat [i]that[/i] poorly. I do spend extra on going out to eat once or twice a week. I'm not sure why £200 a month for two people would be that difficult? (not including child. agree that £200 for three people wouldn't work)

mmmm, I'm earning 12,500 a year, the other half is now unemployed so thats the only wage, I get 110 per month working tax credit (she cant claim anything at the moment for various complicated reasons) now we dont have kids but we manage to keep a mortgage on the go and 2 (small) cars (although one may go soon). We scrimp on luxuries but we both eat healthily. We don't drink or smoke though and eating out is a no no (but i'm too picky to let someone else cook for me :0) ) but we are happy and enjoying life so Its got to be possible on your wage surely?

LOL I was a single parent on income support for 2 years, my food bill was £12 a week as it was all we could afford!

My new wife and I lived for 5 years whilst she went to Uni on £22,000 a year we were bloomin skint and are having to pay back the extra money we had to borrow now 4 years after she finished.

When I was PhDing there I was earing 1000£ net.
Sharing a house (rent + bills on the 350 mark) I was still able to save 200 a month (more or less). So eating going out biking and buying the random stuff for 450 a month.

The unknown are going to be the taxes (council and income) over my net salary. I will indeed bring the expenses down a maximum by riding a bike everywhere (probably a SS one as they are cheaper). I guess it's going to depend on the rent which is going to be school related :s

£200 a month on food for two is easy, that's what we spend and we eat very well. Just don't waste food. I do a meal plan and buy to a list. It's not hard at all. That also includes decent quality free frange / organic meat, not cheap shit.