What's a good wage?

Gawd, not done a budget since the days I graduated and had to eek out a meager existence. For two or three years I had a budget that I lived by to make sure all bills were paid. I do not really need it now as have been successful with freelance work and was lucky enough to buy a house many moons ago so my outgoings are relatively small compared to my income. Anyway, I waffle, my list was something like this...

Monthly:

Rent / Mortgage - £200
Electricity - £25
Gas - £25
Phone - £30
Mobile (had to add this one as they were not around in my youth!) - £35
Water - £15
Sewerage - £15
Food - £300
Car Tax - £15
Car Insurance - £35
House Insurance - £30
Council tax - £120
Car slush fund (repairs, MOT, fuel etc) - £75
House slush fund (spares and repairs etc) - £50

Total - £970

Well - that is what I always saw as being the rough essentials, cannot remember any others... Oh year, council tax, have added that now. Oh yeah, and slush funds for the unexpected things like wheels falling off cars and washing machines breaking down etc.

So, the essentials plus a new DVD every week = approximately £1,000 per month to live comfortably in a household that has a car!

I have not budgeted for new clothes as I was a skanky bastard as a kiddie although I do enjoy buying nice clothes now and would need to add a hundred or two a month there. Plus have family now so would need to add money set aside each month for their futures...

I think I had better put my rates up to cover all of this stuff!

Edited....

I was always generous with my budget and usually had a nice amount left over for extras! No holidays budgeted for above either though!

This was also a budget for myself and girlfriend living in a rented flat at the time, think the rent was £300 a month between us so a lot of this was added up and then divided by two so was a lot cheaper in reality but if living on your own then £1k per month of income after tax should be more than enough to live on. Scrap the car and use public transport and you would be laughing!

MickeyFinn, post: 1270 a écrit : Scrap the car and use public transport and you would be laughing!

Or scrap public transport and start jogging! Then you'll be laughing even more.

…and possibly wheezing heavily… before collapsing on the pavement…

Heh, interesting thread mate.

I've always found that whenever you're budgeting you'll always miss something the first few times around, so tend to largely over-budget...that way if nothing unexpected happens you're left with a bit more money than you planned, which can only be a good thing?