sayang

Median full time salary is 28,000. so around 50k would be 'good'

phat-dave

50k almost feels like a minimum (~3100/month) albeit i have no experience - looking on rightmove etc, run of the mill 2-3 bedroom semi detached homes outside of london seem to vary between 1500-2000/month, add a car in there too and i can't see too much left over for play time.

verystormy

christmasoompa

TinaU

Hello! I'm new on this forum and in a similar situation. Planning on moving to the UK next year with my two kids. Will land with some relatives in Ramsgate, Dover initially for a couple of months, and figure out housing, job, etc. Would be very helpful if you could share your monthly expenses with me - to get an idea.
Tina

Quentinb

@christmasoompa
Yip, that would be a great help, we know things will be different, but just to have some sort of idea what people spend on a monthly basis for the basic must have's.

christmasoompa

OK, so our monthly expenses are as follows:

Electricity - £345 (all electric house though, no mains gas here)
Water - approx £15
No drainage/sewage cost as we're not on mains drainage (hence the low water charge, we have a private supply)
Phone/internet - £25
Food/groceries/cleaning stuff - £400-500
Car insurance - pay annually, but would work out at £80 per month, that's only for one car though as the other is a company car so we don't pay the insurance. It's a high value car so could be a lot less, although I don't know how cheap it could be for you with no UK driving record
Petrol - we drive one electric car and one hybrid now so most months we don't need to buy it, but when we had two petrol/diesel cars it was £600 per month (although one was a gas guzzling 4x4, but I don't do big distances)
Car tax - again, not applicable to us anymore, but it used to be around £60 per month irrc.
Kids clubs - after school stuff is all free here, but they do other extra-curricular actives, around £50 per month.
School food for kids - £80ish per month
Other misc expenses (clothes, kids friends birthday pressies, haircuts, bits for the house etc) maybe £150-200 per month

So roughly £2000 a month, plus our mortgage (the housing cost will obviously vary depending on what you decide to spend). I suspect you wouldn't spend anywhere near as much on electricity (we have a big old house to heat, plus I run a business from home which uses a fair bit, and of course electric cars to charge sometimes), and you could easily cut the car costs down by having something much more efficient.

You may need to add other things on i.e. car repayments if you don't have enough to buy a car outright when you arrive, eating out if you like to do that (we rarely do) etc, but that gives you an overview of what I spend each month on maintaining my family! I've not included things that won't be relevant for all i.e. our pet food, holidays, etc.

HTH.

benhila

This is a bit misleading, Richmond is hardly "the outskirts of London", it is a very posh suburb with prices to match.

az2014

Agreed. Anyone that thinks Richmond is on the outskirts of London and is not 'fancy' has clearly not lived here for an extended period of time.

TinaU

Thanks so much! Gives me a good idea of expenses. You are very helpful

scot47

It depends where you are. There are HUGE differences between urban and rural,between North and South.

spouse of scouse

Christmasoompa's one of our most helpful members, one of BE's shining stars

CO - do you pay Council tax as that would add a bit more?

christmasoompa

Ooooh yes, forgot that! Thank you. Ours is £253 a month iirc. Sorry peeps, add that on to the total, our last house was smaller and was about £170 I think just to give people an idea.

Also forgot TV licence - £13 a month.

When I get a mo I'll try and check my bank statements in case there is anything else that I've missed!

phat-dave

so my observation would be for a family, you probably need two incomes... 70K (4K/month net) & 30K (2K/net) to leave comfortably, definitely not living the dream but comfortable.

Moses2013

That again depends where in the UK and what type of person you are. Although I now live in the Republic of Ireland, Ireland is always considered more expensive than the UK and I do not know anyone earning that much outside of Dublin. Take away 30K and these people can still afford a large house, have 2 new cars, can afford holiday homes, go on regular holidays etc. without taking out huge loans. Unless of course you have 5 kids and send them to crèche, I can not imagine that you need that much to live a comfortable life (whatever that is).
According to info here" With £70,000 of household income split equally, a two working parent family, with two children under 13, would have after tax income of about £53,900 - higher than 76 per cent of the population" How rich are you? Work out where your income and wealth sits in the UK | This is Money