Hand to mouth? On £50k a year? And spending £25k on "basic" expenses? Even breaking even at £45k sounds amazing.The average person in the UK spends around £32,000 a year. This is made up of £25,000 on basic expenses (transport, food, clothing etc) and £7,000 on mortgage repayments.
The upshot is that the average person needs a gross salary of about £45,000 just to break even.
That is why, I reckon that the average person won't be happy unless they earn around £50,000 a year. However, it is may still be a hand-to-mouth existence.
And if Mr/Ms Average are a couple, then their income is doubled while they will save on some shared expenses. Of course, two average children will add a fair bit more to the expenses but even so I'd quite enjoy getting Mr/Ms Average's solo income as our entire household income.
So will Mr/Ms Average please step forward and confirm that it is indeed tough scraping a living on £50k a year?