So I asked this 3 years ago and am curious about now: What lifestyle could you realistically live in your city on £1,000, £5,000, and £10,000 per month?
Posted by Necrullz@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 85 comments
Hey all 😄
I asked this question back in 2023 and while it only got a few responses I found them really quite interesting, so I wanted to revisit it now that we're three years down the line and the cost of living landscape obviously looks pretty different between more inflation and the rental market.
So...same question as before!
What lifestyle could you realistically live in your city on the following monthly budgets?
- £1,000/month
- £5,000/month
- £10,000/month
I'm still a Londoner at heart but I've been living abroad for years now (Japan), so I'm mostly out of touch with what day-to-day life actually costs nowadays across the UK. I know I could use a site like Numbeo, but a discussion here beats a chart there any day.
Cheers
No_Law_1528@reddit
£1000 is about what an average Tokyo worker make
Necrullz@reddit (OP)
So I live in a city right next to Tokyo, v. similar cost of living to Tokyo itself. I can say 1k GBP/mo definitely isn't enough for anyone anymore except a new grad or someone happy to live in a sharehouse type situation. You can make a basic life work and you'll actually be fine, but it's not a desirable life.
Once you get into 1500-2000 GBP/mo you start getting more towards normal monthly expenditure for many singles and even couples in a major city here.
sheepinsuits@reddit
As another Brit in Tokyo, I agree.
I'd say ~60k (£400) would cover a student dorm room in West Tokyo, with £1500-1600 being what I spend with my husband on a bad month with aircon 24/7 (inc. cat, coffees and the odd cd or something).
No_Law_1528@reddit
I could definitely imagine AC running cost being very expensive in Japan, there’s no insulation at all in many Japanese houses and walls are literally made out of paper.
No_Law_1528@reddit
Tokyo rents are expensive, I felt like if we include rent the conversation will go: no that’s downright fucking poverty. So I will exclude rent for now as some Japanese people can live rent free and London is hard on 1k even if there’s no rent to pay.
MonkeyBoy697@reddit
To be fair £1k is downright poverty everywhere - I live in the north east and rent on a studio flat is at least £550 a month. So by the time you pay rent, council tax, gas & electricity you would have nothing left to buy food with
BrillsonHawk@reddit
Yes, but you've added rent into the equation when the post you are replying to specifically excludes
Alarmed-Newspaper994@reddit
HMO means you don't pay CT or utilities (it should, anyway). If you can walk or cycle to work, you can definnitely live in many places on £1k a month in the UK. Your only bills are rent and food. It's not going to be a great life, but yeah it's definitely doable.
sugarrayrob@reddit
The person you're responding to said that it's £1000 with no rent to pay.
O_C_Demon@reddit
I live in Huddersfield and unfortunately live in a studio flat on £1100 a month disability benefits.
Its absolutely soul crushing. Luckily im a former chef so Im OK cooking healthy food creatively on a ridiculously tight budget but its incredibly hard.
MonsieurGump@reddit
Merseyside- 3 kids under 10.
1K we’d be dead in the streets.
5k bills would be covered but very little else
10k we’d be able to go on holidays, have decent car and savings.
It’s once those bills are covered that things change. Every penny above that 5k would be on a “want” not a “need”. And therein lies the difference.
Smeeble09@reddit
I'm in the Wirral and we have a nice life in below £5k p/m, with two kids.
We don't struggle to pay bills or food, can buy odd things we want (eg just got a steamdeck controller) and don't really worry about money as we always have some left over each month to put into savings.
We don't have any childcare costs as both kids are in school (8 & 3).
Interested in how it can be so different when we live in the same county?
MonsieurGump@reddit
Add in an extra kid and see what happens.
Smeeble09@reddit
Maybe it is just that, but didn't think that the extra kid would be taking up like £1200 p/m?
MonsieurGump@reddit
What are your housing costs and how many bedrooms in your place?
Smeeble09@reddit
Four bed, £600p/m mortgage.
Suitable car is £10-20k depending on what you want from it, Ford s-max or kodiaq take four isofix don't they?
MonsieurGump@reddit
No bother.
We moved back from living overseas so started from scratch in 2017. Our 4 bed is costing us 1200/month mortgage.
It’s the afterschool clubs and so forth that mount up the costs. Every activity starts at 50 quid with five of us!
Smeeble09@reddit
That might explain it, extra kids worth of food and clothes, double the mortgage p/m and lots of clubs (only my eldest is in clubs so far).
Alarmed-Newspaper994@reddit
Fucking hell how much are your bills???
Rabbit-1989@reddit
Came here to say pretty much exactly this!
£1k we would be destitute. £5k we would struggle simply due to childcare and the cost of travel. £10k would mean we could afford a nice overseas holiday each year and be able to save some money each month. We currently sit on the upper end of the two latter amounts, and we just about manage to stay out of debt. We are comfortable, but by no means living the high life. We can't really afford holidays, we have one car, we live in a very average ex council semi etc.
sparklybeast@reddit
How many children do you have? I cannot imagine a family earning £5k and struggling to afford a holiday, unless you’re a family of 8 or something.
peppermint_aero@reddit
Childcare in some parts of the country can be £100 a day.
TheMagicTorch@reddit
£5k a month would just cover bills in Merseyside...?
I find that very hard to believe.
Ponichkata@reddit
Assuming it's a single person with no kids. In Sheffield:
£1,000 would be a real struggle, even in the cheaper areas.
£5,000 you'll live an incredibly comfortable life. You'd be able to afford a mortgage, car, bills, spending money and money to save and invest.
£10,000 you'll be in the 1 percent in Sheffield.
handsome_vulpine@reddit
I am actually currently living off of a bit over £1k a month thanks to Universal Credit and Housing Benefit, and I am very much living payment to payment, trying my best to spend as little as possible.
Not easy when I have a partner who has bathroom-relared health issues that require a lot of extra toiletries to take care of, but we manage, more or less.
Our residence is of very poor quality, we're totally in the slums here.
£5k a month would allow us to afford a much better quality residence, plus pay for a few luxuries we currently can't afford that could really improve our quality of life.
£10k a month? We could probably do a mortgage on a pretty decent full-on house with that!!!
Etheria_system@reddit
Can you speak to your GP about getting bathroom stuff on prescription. I’ve had them prescribe things before like creams etc for toilet troubles.
handsome_vulpine@reddit
We've been trying to get a diagnosis for her issues so she can be treated but so far tests have not shown anything wrong that could be causing the problems.
It doesn't help that the issues themselves make it difficult for her to attend appointments or really do much of anything.
Etheria_system@reddit
You should be able to get things like creams etc to help soothe soreness without a specific diagnosis. Explaining to the GP that eg going to the toilet a lot is making her sore down below and that she would like some creams prescribed to help with wiping and soothing should be within a GPs remit. It’s still a symptom even if there is no specific name for it.
hunsnet457@reddit
On £1000 a month i’d be homeless, even flatsharing in my city would be near impossible unless I lived very far from the city, had absolutely no luxuries and lived on the bare minimum.
£5000 i’d be able to live alone in a very nice flat and have a pretty generous lifestyle but not a grand one.
£10000 I’d be able to do whatever the fuck I wanted.
Top_Fun@reddit
South Wales, between my wife and I our household income is around £5k, and I'd say we're comfortable. We can afford luxuries, put money away, can plan holidays, but also well aware a particularly heavy month could put some strain on that number.
1k would be impossible. 10k would be lovely, I think honestly anything above 7k household a month here would be more than comfortable.
JavaRuby2000@reddit
I'm only 27 minutes from central London and 5k a month would go a long way. You'd be able to mortgage a house, run a car, go on a long haul holiday a year and put money into your savings. You wouldn't be super rich but, very comfortable. If I only move 2 train stops closer to London then things change dramatically. 1k a month you'd be living in a tent, 10k a month you'd be rich. This is of course you mean after tax.
rockdecasba@reddit
Glasgow £5000 I'd be pretty decent. £10K I'd be loaded. £1000, if I did nothing I could last, but wouldn't be a nice way to live
Interesting_Annual81@reddit
Love the chaos crumbling vibe of this comment ahahha
rockdecasba@reddit
Yeah originally sounded chaotic but headphones in at the library, walk through the park to get there. Sign me up sir
YourOwnDemise@reddit
In a relatively cheap part of the UK. I’m also single (😔) and a sole earner with no dependents.
At 1k you’d be struggling, but not homeless like in many parts of the UK. You’d be able to get a 1 bedroom flat (or 2 and split with a friend) for about half that, and burn another few hundred on your bills, which would probably leave you enough money to afford food as long as you were frugal. Even then, getting a letting agent to sign off with that level of income could be kinda rough, so you might be relegated to a flatshare as those tend to have less thorough checks.
At 5k (assuming post tax), you’d be very well off. That equates to about 85k pre-tax, which is much much higher than most people in Scotland are earning. With that kind of income you’d easily get a mortgage most places in the city and could buy a large enough (3-4 bedroom) house, eat out and party regularly, and still have a fair bit left over for holidays.
At 10k you’d be one of the wealthiest people in the city easily and could basically do whatever you want financially as long as it didn’t involve expensive cars or property (And even then, you could do it, you’d just need to be smarter about it). To take home 10k after tax in Scotland, you’d need a pre-tax annual salary of over £200,000, which is about on par for the top 1% of sole earners UK-wide: That number is pumped by London though. In Scotland, top 1% is closer to 125k, so you’d be taking home more than some of the highest paid people in the country.
Of course using pre-tax salary as a sole identifier isn’t amazing as plenty of people have tax-free income (Disability benefits, rental income, etc), but it puts the numbers into perspective.
Interesting-Law7788@reddit
I rent a room in a shared house atm, so I could probably just about make it on 1k, all the others sound like luxury.
nivlark@reddit
Those are an awkward set of budgets. £1000/month is extremely low and would be a struggle almost anywhere in the UK. It's also well below minimum wage.
Whereas £5k and £10k per month are both well above the median income, which is around £2700/month. On 5k I could easily afford to buy a house, and I'm not even sure what I'd do with 10k.
In reality I actually earn close to that median figure, and that allows me to live independently, pay a mortgage on an apartment, all bills and living costs, and still have about £1k left over for spending or saving.
mooseblush@reddit
Median income is 2700p/m? Is that correct
nivlark@reddit
Median salary is £41k, which is about £2700 monthly after tax but before student loan and pension contributions.
mooseblush@reddit
Ah makes sense
Alarmed-Newspaper994@reddit
Monthly budget meaning after taxes and so on... £5k a month is absolutely fine to live very comfortably anywhere in the UK. You could pay £2000 a month on rent and still max out an ISA every year.
My mortgage is £700 a month so I'd have about £3000 left after all bills (including food) to dispose of. Even if I maxed out my ISA every year, I'd still have £1400 to spend on fun stuff, way more than is needed unless I got some very expensive hobbies.
Miserable-Ad7327@reddit
Our mortgage is incredibly low - £590
However, with bills, council tax, groceries, etc. it’s minimum £1700. And then there’s always something wrong - car needs fixing, something broke, etc. so below £2100 we’d be miserable
ARobertNotABob@reddit
£1000 is my state pension.
I thankfully have a couple of small private pension pots taking that up to £1600.
I'm "comfortable", but there's still not a lot of living can be done on that.
0oITo0@reddit
On £1000 per month, I wouldn't be able to afford to pay for my house and bills. I would likely loose my home.
On £5000 a month I would be very happy. I could afford to save and have a pleasant quality of life for me and my family.
On £10,000 I could easily save for a great retirement, live a good quality of life provide an amazing upbringing for my children. It would be the dream!
lxxmng@reddit
In London £1,000 is survival mode in a zone 6 house share. £5,000 is the sweet spot for a comfortable life in SW15 with a decent flat and zero stress about the price of a pint. At £10,000 you are living the dream and probably never checking your bank balance at the end of the month
Impressive_Radish365@reddit
…and yet state pension is only just over £1,000/month! Interesting that ‘everyone” wants to abolish the triple lock, and yet it is almost twice that in Europe!
Curious_Ad3766@reddit
Surely 5k per month is enough to live in any UK city as thats almost double the median monthly salary.
meadowender@reddit
Live in the countryside, lucky enough to have a council house, £500 and something per month, not at home to check, earn slightly more than minimum wage, 58, single, no pets but need a car due to location and in the last 5 years, I've bought a car for £4000 cash and saved about £10k. Ok there's some overtime in there and a couple of thousand in bonuses, so I'll say £2000 per month would be plenty for me
bars_and_plates@reddit
I always find the way that people discuss this stuff online weird because invariably wealth (either existing or accumulation) is ignored almost entirely.
If I have 0 in the bank e.g. no house, paying rent, etc, then my lifestyle would look like this on the three:
1k a month: move out of London, go up north, live a bit like a monk, study/train, potentially come back down later 5k a month: spend about 2-3k a month, save/invest the other 2-3k 10k a month: spend about 2-3k a month, save/invest the other 7-8k
Basically, as soon as I hit the minimum viable spending amount, stash the rest of it away.
Lots-o-bots@reddit
If this is post tax, in Plymouth, £1000 a month is pretty dire, it would be a small room in a HMO, basic groceries, no car, no savings. £5000 would be very comfortable, a mortgage on a house worth £500k perhaps, one or two holidays abroad every year, regular meals out, expensive hobbies, children in nursery etc. £10k is so far above the average salary as to be functionally unlimited. Pretty much any house in Plymouth, drive whatever car you want (within reason), eat whatever you want, holiday traveling by business class wherever you want, etc.
tobotic@reddit
I live in Darlington, which is not technically a city, but quite large for a town.
I'll assuming the income is net (after taxes), not gross. Though if you're on £1000/month before tax, you won't pay income tax anyway as that's below the threshold.
£1000 per month: You should be able to rent a reasonably nice one bedroom flat for under £500. (I rented a pretty nice three bedroom terraced house for £525 from 2018 to 2023. I appreciate there's inflation and you would have difficulty finding somewhere like that now, but I believe they only bumped the rent up £50 for the next tenant when I moved out.) So that leaves you at least £500 per month for council tax, bills, food, etc. You won't be able to eat out at fancy restaurants very often, but you should be able to live a pretty comfortable life.
£5000 per month: You should be able to afford a mortgage on a three or four bedroom detached house, pay your bills, eat well, and save about £1000 to £1500 per month, some of which you could put towards a nice holiday in the summer.
£100000 per month: You should be able to afford a mortgage on a three or four bedroom detached house, pay your bills, eat well, and save about £1000 to £1500 per month, some of which you could put towards a nice holiday in the summer. And buy a £5000 Cartier watch every month.
pmazdan9@reddit
£1k a month is well below minimum wage whilst £5k a month is top 5% earners. Double that is top 1%. Your figures are out of touch and make very little sense.
DrH1983@reddit
It really is quite a huge jump, isn't it?
DrH1983@reddit
Below is based on my experience being single and child free.I live in Bristol. £1000 would be an awful lifestyle, would almost certainly need to live in a houseshare and even then that would be over half the monthly income. Kids would not be feasible at all
£5000 would be much better. I take home less then half that but, can afford to rent my own flat, but I do need to be careful with spending. Kids would be feasible.
I've also houseshared and lived a pretty comfortable life where I didn't take need to really budget. If I did watch what I spent whilst housesharing I could save 500 quid or so fairly easily.
£10,000 would be a very comfortable life and I wouldn't really need to pay attention to my day to day spending. Anyone who struggles on that much must be living what I'd consider a pretty lavish life.
oneyeetyguy@reddit
I'm from Birmingham so I could just about get by on £1k, I'd thrive on 5 and for £10k I would actually become king of Mercia.
GarethGore@reddit
£1000 is nothing, I get double and some more of that and moving out on that would be rough, having less than half would be no chance Territory
5k is fine you'd do fine, and ten k would be rolling in it. I'd say 3k for my area and you're comfortable ish with a little bit left over, assuming you've bought a place and are fairly frugal and no crazy expensive, but even then you'd likely want more
SolentSailor@reddit
Brighton, 2 adults, expecting a child in next few weeks. Assuming take home pay for all numbers
£1k - we’d have to sell up and move elsewhere / move in with parents
£5k - similar to our take home at the moment so similar lifestyle to now. We own our flat and this would cover mortgage, necessary expenses and going out a bit.
£10k - we’d hopefully be able to stretch to a mortgage on a 3 bed with this so wouldn’t need to move out of the area. Currently we will need to move away in the next few years if we want a 3 bed (and we’d like this because we want to have a bit more space and like to have 2-3 kids).
leclercwitch@reddit
I live in Leeds. If I only got £1000 a month I could still afford to pay all my bills and get food in but absolutely nothing else.
On 5k I could pay my bills, do a huge food shop with good fresh food, afford to drive a nice car, not live in a council flat, be able to go out every weekend and be able to go on nice holidays.
On 10k I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, no questions asked. I could get a Porsche and go on holidays to wherever. Eat in restaurants multiple times a week. I wouldn’t live in Leeds though if I had 10k a month to play with lmao
Necrullz@reddit (OP)
Leeds that bad?
leclercwitch@reddit
It’s just expensive. I live in a council flat so the bills are around ~800 a month all in. Food I usually spend £200 a month to feed two. Going out for food and drinks and learning to drive is all expensive though
Left_Hippo7282@reddit
I retired in my mid 30s a few years ago.
I remember reading some cynic and stoic philosophy books in my teenage years and that entire school of thought just completely absorbed me - as if it was written for me.
Was able to save 60-80% of my paycheques for the better part of my working career, invested it global trackers and managed to build a decent enough portfolio that returns me minimum wage or there about now at 4% withdrawal rate of the total
I’ve tracked my expenses for about 8 years now, it varies between £900-1200 each month.
No kids or cars, just a bike and two fat cats. I live in NI so no council or water tax. Mortgage paid off (100k house bought 15 years ago).
Hobbies are music and gym, reading, meditation, lots of walking and podcasts. All shopping done at Lidl, HomeBargains, B&M etc
I feel very content and lucky. Some people look down on me when I tell them my spend and I’m retired but I really do feel grateful and happy.
mirthandmurder@reddit
5k is a good balance if you budget right. Half or less goes on your rent and bills and whatnot and the other half could sustain a decent quality of life. 10K is dreamlike. 1K is barely scrimping by these days.
Necrullz@reddit (OP)
I'm assuming you're talking about London?
mirthandmurder@reddit
Indeed I am. How's life in Japan?
Necrullz@reddit (OP)
Overall it's good here, thank you for asking :) Been here since 2017 so coming up to a full decade now and while life has gotten a lot more expensive (where hasn't?) everything feels manageable and still orderly.
We keep wanting to move back, and even nearly did last year. We got my spouse's visa, were looking at specific neighborhoods and all...but both just called it off last minute as we felt starting a family here was likely to provide more stability. So, still here!
mirthandmurder@reddit
I have the opposite problem. Keep saying I'd visit Japan, years have gone by and closest I got was looking at travel websites. But maybe one day I will.
Life has definitely got expensive. Saw some biscuits today for £3.50. They used to be £1 or so.
therealstealthydan@reddit
Over £10k mo here in Cardiff (take home). We live well but are not Jeff bezos on a yacht wealthy.
We have a leased polestar on the drive, a 5 bedroom house in the countryside which we are eternally grateful for, so have a nice day to day life. I don’t look at prices when I grocery shop and couldn’t tell you what my utility bills are. I’ve discussed with friends and it’s sad to see that being able to fill your fridge without worrying makes you wealthy now, and it’s worrying you need my income to be able to do so.
I don’t ski, I don’t have a yacht or a Porsche, I don’t wear a Rolex, I try to be nice to people.
Necrullz@reddit (OP)
Can I ask how Cardiff is in general? It really seems like such a well-run, quality city whenever I hear mates talk about it.
Ornery-Wasabi-1018@reddit
North east UK, 2 adults, 2 teens.
1k a month would be homeless. Not doable at all.
5k (about us) very comfortable - 2 cars, savings, holidays. Usually money left at the end of the month, rather than month left at the end of the money.
10k, the savings accounts would be looking very full!
g00gleb00gle@reddit
If you can’t live on 5k a month you have problems or have over committed in life.
LondonCollector@reddit
At £1k a month I’d assume you’d have to rent a room in a flat or house share and have little left over each month for food etc.
At £5k you could afford to pay a mortgage but likely not get one.
At £10k you’d likely be able to get a mortgage and pay for it with money left over.
Redgrapefruitrage@reddit
Suffolk - 2 adults, 1 baby.
£1,000 a month - Couldn’t pay for our basic bills, we’d be moving back in with parents. Broke.
£5,000 - We’d live very comfortably. Have decent savings, a holiday or two a year.
£10,000 - Would feel like luxury.
genxerrr@reddit
Depends on individual circumstances.
£1k is what I earn working 2 days per week. It's fine for me as no mortgage or kids.
£5k I'd be saving at least £3.5 and £8.5k for £10k. That would be nice.
Canadian5566@reddit
I assume your figures are take-home, not salary?
I'm in London, so costs are high, and a household of one.
On £1000 I'd be homeless (you can probably find a run down or small room in a HMO or share house for less than that, but once you add share of bills, you'd have nothing less for food and transport).
I currently spend around £2000 a month on housing (renting an ordinary 1 bed apartment, plus council tax, and utilities - which have gone up enormously in the past 10 years). Add £300-400 for groceries, transport and household essentials. So that's your basic requirements covered as a single adult. So £5k in take home allows a nice lifestyle (2-3 holidays a year, regularly going to restaurants / nights out / entertainment) with some left over for savings or big purchases / splurges.
It's not enough to live a life of luxury (you could easily spend more than £5k a month on a luxury apartment) but it will buy a comfy life.
Beabettame@reddit
You know what? I really don't miss London.
I live on the outskirts, the area is better, my mortgage for a 5 bed 2 bath 3 reception room with huge garden. I live on a cul de sac with 12 other houses and we all know and help each other. And I'm 22 minutes into Liverpool Street and pay less for my mortgage than you pay rent. London is such a scam.
TedBob99@reddit
In London:
* £1,000 a month would be difficult, even if you pay no rent, considering utility bills, food, transportation etc. If you have to pay rent, then a room in a flat share may use most of the budget already
* £5,000 a month: comfortable for a single person, unless spending a very large amount of that in mortgage or rent (e.g. central London) or cars etc. With a normal rent further away, then should leave plenty for bills, going out, savings and trips
* £10,000 a month: very comfortable for a single person (but not luxury living). Should be able to afford living in a nice area, have a reasonably nice car, eating out, travelling weekends and on holiday etc. Should be also able to save/invest some significant amount
Just back from Tokyo and yes, everything seems very cheap but of course that's for someone paying in GBP. I assume someone paid in Yen on a local salary may have a different story.
Going out to restaurants was very cheap for quality food, and local people seem to eat out a lot, so must be not that much more expensive than cooking at home (unlike London).
Public transports were very cheap too. I think someone can easily commute 30 minutes from Central Tokyo and find some affordable places to rent (and I think the employer pay for travel). Overall, I feel that even on an average local salary, Tokyo must be cheaper than London and provide a better quality of life.
SeoulGalmegi@reddit
In Seoul, 1k a month is survivable, but tough. 5k is comfortable for raising a family and 10k getting into the realms of 'rich'.
Forsaken_Bee3717@reddit
South Wales, 45F single parent.
Assuming Hess are all the take home amounts.
I couldn’t live in my current area and pay for food on £1,000. I could rent a house somewhere else in the same city but then the rest of the money would go on bus fare to get to work and I’m not sure whether I could cover food or other bills.
£5,000. More than I have now, so this would be great. Could save, go out a few times per month, daughter can do whatever activities she wants.
£10,000. I know a few people who do earn this and they don’t seem better off than me but it would be an easy life as I could keep most things the same and save £5k a month.
It would be a more nuanced question if you said £2,500 or £3,000 as I think this would be on the boundary of what a lot of people would be able to live on but not comfortably.
username994743@reddit
You should have raised option #1 to at least minimum wage for people to try to answer. 1k is to cover rent/mortgage in general, maybe some bills if you lucky.
O_C_Demon@reddit
I live on £1100 a month disability benefits (not exactly raking it in Mr Daily Mail..)
Im in Huddersfield so not exactly the most expensive place in the country.
Its absolutely awful. I can survive but thats about it. No luxuries or anything. No takeaways or days or nights out.
Pretty shit really.
danmingothemandingo@reddit
Presuming that's take home, not pre-tax, you need £5k/month take home as a single person in London to start having any sort of optimism about life. £10k if you want to have a family and a few nicer things in life here and there.
You need to add a £20k /month category to enter into the world of living large in London
Here's the £5k/month breakdown for basic comfortable living as a single person :
About £500-600k is the starting point for a less depressing freehold 2 bed (only 70 sq metres) in a less depressing part of London, so there's £2800 or so a month assuming you need a mortgage.
Minimum £500/month for gas/electric/water/broadband/mobile/TV licence/insurance
You really want to expect a minimum £150/month on house maintenance sinking fund.
£500/month on food to live normally, with a coffee here and there, occasional eating out.
Since you're single you'll want a cat or sth £120/month
Clothes £120/month
Basic electric car lease £300/month
gym membership or other club memberships, a few quid set by for basic holiday etc £300/month
Narrow_Description52@reddit
£5k in London is just about enough these days! You would be able to save a decent amount/go on holidays/have a car etc in addition to rent or mortgage.
10k would be very comfortable
Drath101@reddit
Obviously can answer the question from my perspective, which is no kids in the picture. I'm also assuming these figures are the amount you actually have to spend each month I.E after tax.
1000 is doable, but it'd be HMO living and not doing a whole lot outside of paying for the HMO and food. You could afford the odd small luxury but not much more than that.
5000 would be very comfortable. I'm not saying absurdly wealthy by any means, but it's more than me and my partner make combined after tax and we do okay. You'd certainly be able to secure a mortgage, or rent somewhere nice. You could afford decent amounts of luxuries, days/meals our, some holidays etc. You can easily run a car on top of this
10'000 is where to me you start getting beyond my ability to comfortably "understand" the lifestyle. I don't know anybody to compare this sort of figure to. You'd certainly be able to secure a very nice mortgage or rent somewhere extremely nice, save tons of it away, numerous holidays (not necessarily a month but per year). Basically whatever you want to have. Again, assuming no kids, you can also probably have a nice car on top
Danuk9455@reddit
1k - dead probably by starvation 5k - what I get now and while I live a decent life I’m down to bare bone every month. (It’s the weekend feeling) 10k - this would be perfect. Though when u earn more u just end up spending more which is what I’ve learnt about myself. Other people won’t have this issue but most will
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