Cost of living in the UK

[Boozy]

Hello all,

Due to a family illness there's a very real chance we'll have to up roots and move back to Englandshire, so here's the question - what does it cost to live a comfortable life in the UK these days? Aside from the mortgage what is the cost of decent Sky package, internet, holidays, keeping the three girls occupied at weekends (aged six, three and ten months), shopping, yada yada yada.

Answers on a virtual postcard please!

[GT03ROB]

As with most threads this will go very simply......


....those that tell you you can live a comfortable life on 20k per year & those that say life is impossible even on 100k per year. The two groups will then argue the toss about snowflakes, entitlement, baby boomers stealing all the money, house prices, Waitrose v Lidl, Sky being a rip off, BMWs on leases vs buying outright, Club vs Easyjet etc., etc..

All of that & the correct answer will always be 42.

[GOG440]

Whereabouts in the uk?
This will have a massive impact on the cost of housing etc.
In the north 40k will get you a fairly comfortable standard of living, in the SE you would struggle on the same amount

[Hugo a Gogo]

Exactly. Mentioning Sky there, some will say that's essential, others will say 'WTF? Paying 40, 60, 80 a month for telly? '

[Pints]

Let's start with a list and then argue about the amounts.

• Mortgage / rent
• Cost to run a car
• Phone, TV & broadband
• Water
• Gas & Electricity
• Food
• Entertainment
• Insurance
• Travel

[GT03ROB]

Pints said:

Let's start with a list and then argue about the amounts.

• Mortgage / rent
• Cost to run a car
• Phone, TV & broadband
• Water
• Gas & Electricity
• Food
• Entertainment
• Insurance
• Travel

You sure we need the list to start the argument?

[Pints]

GT03ROB said:

You sure we need the list to start the argument?

Every little helps.

Besides, argument isn't just contradiction.

[Boozy]

Winchester area, Pints that list is a really good start! To add some context here's what it costs now:

Mortgage / rent
Cost to run a car $800 for both cars, petrol is 30-40 bucks to fill up
Phone, TV & broadband - $260 for cable/internet, mobiles are about $150
Water - $90 every three months ish
Gas & Electricity - $250
Food - $200 a week
Entertainment - varies but roughly $100 a weekend
Insurance - Car insurance is an eye watering $160 a month, house is about $20
Travel - Varies depending on where we're going

Edited by Boozy on Sunday 5th February 12:57

[battered]

Winchester isn't cheap. If cost is an issue have you considered moving further away from London? What are the job constraints?

[Pints]

For house costs, browse rightmove.co.uk to get an idea for the area.

For an average family, perhaps £40 on water, gas and electric each.

Petrol c. 1.20/L at the moment

Council tax likely to range from 120 to 200 (non London areas)


That should help the argument get started.

[kiethton]

Well I'm London but have:

Car - £3k then about £1.5k a year in insurance/tax/repairs
Council tax - £120pm
Virgin TV & Internet - £55pm
Water - £30pm
TV License - £150 a year
Gas & electric - £50pm
Food shop - £180-£250pm depending on booze/washing liquid etc
Eating out/entertainment/take aways - £200-£250pm
Commute - £1.4k motorbike then ~£15 a week in petrol plus tax & insurance of ~£1k
Gym - £30pm subsidised virgin
Golf club membership - £100pm

[Boozy]

kiethton said:

Well I'm London but have:

Car - £3k then about £1.5k a year in insurance/tax/repairs
Council tax - £120pm
Virgin TV & Internet - £55pm
Water - £30pm
TV License - £150 a year
Gas & electric - £50pm
Food shop - £180-£250pm depending on booze/washing liquid etc
Eating out/entertainment/take aways - £200-£250pm
Commute - £1.4k motorbike then ~£15 a week in petrol plus tax & insurance of ~£1k
Gym - £30pm subsidised virgin
Golf club membership - £100pm

Brilliant thank you sir.

[trickywoo]

kiethton said:

Gas & electric - £50pm

That is on the low side. I'm more like £60 and thats for two adults in a two up / two down with minimal heating, no tumble dryer.

Council tax for the same in Surrey is £1,700 a year.

Just to add for eating out you won't really get a main and a drink for less than £15 for anything that will be better than you can do at home.

[Don]

Nice town Winchester. I live in Basingstoke (not as nice). North Hampshire is a very nice, affluent part of the world. It's prices are not cheap, but not as high as Berkshire or London.

£500K buys a nice family home.
All other costs secondary,as collectively they will be less than the mortgage.

Most people require two salaries to live.

What industry are you in? There are some good employers in the area with fairly high income employment available. IBM, Vodaphone, a range of software companies like Micro Focus etc.

[Don]

kiethton said:

Well I'm London but have:

Car - £3k then about £1.5k a year in insurance/tax/repairs
Council tax - £120pm
Virgin TV & Internet - £55pm
Water - £30pm
TV License - £150 a year
Gas & electric - £50pm
Food shop - £180-£250pm depending on booze/washing liquid etc
Eating out/entertainment/take aways - £200-£250pm
Commute - £1.4k motorbike then ~£15 a week in petrol plus tax & insurance of ~£1k
Gym - £30pm subsidised virgin
Golf club membership - £100pm

I'll try your approach, Keithon.
Car: £16K plus about £500 a year in electricity and servicing.
Council Tax: £200 a month or so
Sky TV: £44 a month. (knocking this on the head soon)
Water: £30 a month or so.
Gas and Electric: £150 a month on average over the year
Food shop: £300 a month probably. We like wine.
Eating Out: We don't do that very much. When we do its between £30 (pub) and £100 (restaurant) for two.
Commute: £20 a month of electricity
Gym: About to be £25 a month for a rowing machine in the house
Golf: I don't play any more.
Mortgage: Mortgage free now but was paying £1500 a month or so on a £260,000 mortgage. Interest rate are low so mortgage costs are historically very cheap at the moment.

Ordinary four bedroom property in a decent but not super posh area. We're a couple.

I hope this helps, OP.

[Wilmslowboy]

Slightly different way of looking at it.
With three kids, you would still qualify for Tax credits all the way up to £39,700 (all be it pennies a week) this is £2,500 net
I imagine this is the minimum required to maintain an existence (as worked out by science bods).


Take annual/ occasional spend on items such as children's clothes, toys, parties, school trips, house maintance, holidays, dentist, glasses, gardening etc etc ...and that can easy add up (even at a modest level) to an extra £500 a month.


With ferrying the kids about, lots of stop start journeys etc even at a modest couple thousand miles a month (across two cars) we spend circa £500 a month on fuel.

Don't get me started on what our lanky chocolate lab costs, with food, insurance, vet check ups and the occasional bath/groom.

[Boozy]

I work in and around technology for a bank, hoping they'll help out and move me back.

[Don]

Boozy said:

I work in and around technology for a bank, hoping they'll help out and move me back.

I work in banking and financial services software. There's plenty of work, especially if willing to commute to London.

[Yipper]

You will need a minimum of £10k net a month in Central London, £5k in Greater London, and £2-5k everywhere else.

[w00tman]

I know it's not comparable, as we are in the Midlands, but here are ours:

2 adults - total income c.£32k, 2 kids, wife works part-time and grandparents provide a huge amount of childcare for practically FOC. My income dropped from c.£45k last year, to likely c£21k this year..

• Mortgage - £300 a month;
• TV Licence - £12 a month;
• Cost to run a car - £120 petrol, road tax equivalent to £10 a month, insurance c.£20 a month;
• Phone, TV & broadband - £30 - 100meg cable, basic tv;
• Water - £30 a month, unmetered;
• Gas & Electricity - £62 a month, full use of tumble dryer etc;
• Food - £400 - including all cleaning, household items, wine etc - all meals are homemade (i.e. no work lunches out) from this budget;
• Entertainment - £400 total, £200 each, entirely discretionary spend so any meals out, toys etc come from this money;
• Insurance - £15 for house & contents, £6 for gadget insurance covering 3 phones;
• Travel - holiday c.£1,500 a year, somewhere cheap;
• Netflix - £7 a month;
• Mobiles (3) - £20 a month all-in;
• Children's fees - c.£80 a month for ballet lessons and childcare.

Anything we can pay for as a lump sum to save money (car insurance, for example) we do and then divide that annual cost into 12 to allow us to pay again in full at renewal. Mobiles are 3 x iPhone 7s on sim-only deals (20GB data, unlimited text and calls for £6.50 each) as I work for a telecoms firm so get staff discount here.

I'm super-anal about spending money needlessly so I have tracked every penny we have spent (except for the discretionary spend money which is ours to waste as appropriate) for the last 4 years on a spreadsheet, so if you need super-specific detail, I'm your man!