can you manage on £40,000 a year?

london
You hear often in uk from people on £40,000 a year saying they cannot cope.
that is the average wage for a family with both parent working. of course, if it is before tax, than the after tax pay will be only £34,000 which is not as much as it seems at first glance.

it surprised me that they cannot cope even on the lower figure. i think there is something they are not doing right. well, tonight, there is a tv program which asks these people what they spend it on and i shall find out where they went wrong.

I find it fascinating to see how people budget because i want to spot where they do it wrong. haha.

i have a theory that everyone can save no matter how small their income. if they cannot , then somewhere they are doing something wrong.
to be continued ...

Added. Well, i have seen the program and everyone interviewed seemed to be very sensible about their spending. They all earn about £40.000 after tax.
If they find it difficult to cope it is because of their unusual circumstances, like a filipino couple who had one child and then 3months later found she was pregnant with triplets. a naturally conceived event that is 1 in 200million chance. They find it difficult to cope but that is not surprising and they are not typical .  it is one of the reasons why i am so glad to be gay and have no kids.
The other couples are also in a happy state and no debt and they have no kids, or one only. Kids... they are the main cause of poverty.

or another couple who have a child with cerebral palsy with all the costs involved in looking after it and the cost of a future operation in america. He is a police sergeant, she works also. but from what they say they are in some debt.

and a couple who are putting their daughter through private school.

There was only one couple who spend freely, they are unmarried with no kids and she spends a lot on clothes, shoes and every two years changes her car ; but they still remain within their means and are not in debt.



there was one couple who were declared bankrupt about 3yrs ago, and now paying a mortgage of £1300 a month on a house that is in negative equity, 2 daughters, and seem to be rather more poorer than the other couples featured; even though earning the same amount, made up of his salary and child credit and benefits plus having a lodger. She described her situation as draining.

their food bill is about £100-£150 a week or so. some of them buy organic food.

There was a single guy, in scotland, who is quite big in the university; who lives quite a frugal life, his only vice is buying expensive electric guitars and single malt whisky.

there was a retired couple, he is 73, she 61. before retirement their combined income was double what they have now. they should be comfortably off but they do worry if their investment will last if they both live long...
though if their income is made up from pensions, than that money should last as long as they lived.

it is interesting that circumstances that are out of their control affect their finances. both of those difficult cases involve kids.
I know i am biased, but what is the point of them i wonder? who in their right minds will have kids? I am sure many a parent must have this run through their mind in some dark night of the soul. haha.

it is a deep deep sacrifice for any parent to have kids. but the kids will never appreciate their sacrifice.

And do you know why that is so? i think in the past it is not like this, because there was the extended family and that takes a lot of the load off being a parent.

now no family has that extended family of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, even older brothers or sisters to support them anymore.