£38,600

Good deal that

Thought you'd know all that by now:

Anyway, yes you can - Old calculation for how much savings do I need was (Required Income - Actual Income) * 2.5 (Visa Length) + £16,000 (Benefits Cap)

So say I only have £10,000 from my pension.... old rates: (£18,600-£10,000) *2.5 + £16,000 = £37,500 of Savings Required to meet FM 1.7 Financial Requirement rule

well--theres a coincidence. We had a member on here a while back--Graham. He also worked for the BA--and lives in the same place as you. Maybe you know each other.

By the way when I said Car Insurance that's for 2 Cars it's £51 per month for the little Citroen C1 and £245 per month for the Ford Kuga however when I see Malcolm paying Insurance of £230 per year I can't get my head round the difference, we have already decided one car has to go.

The Kuga at £245 per month must be the one to get ditched

with tesco insurance. Went up from under 200 previous year. On i o wight--fiesta diesel--under 5000 miles a year--includes business use . Wife as learner on policy.

Had online quotes to swap for kuga--around 450 a year.

Cheers I am right on to Tesco Insurance, will let you know what the quote is.

Just got the quote from Tesco the Gold package is £1408 or £109 per month it does not include breakdown cover, none the less that's still a big saving, which shows that comparison sites are sometimes not all they are cracked up to be.

They have many thousands of employees.

My insurance for a small 1.3ltr Yaris is £270 per annum but I only have 1yrs no claims discount when living in PH I had no car back home so my no claims had lapsed, my first year with this car it was £330 as a new driver, Having a Scottish Postcode helps, the company's must realise we are more sensible drivers there? Naming a second driver on your policy reduces the premium as does keeping it on the drive, believe it or not this is better for you than having it in a locked garage.

For most of my driving years I have always had big Volvos in the 80's and 90's these were the safest cars to ferry my children around in, my last car in UK was a Honda Accord, when driving these large cars to get the best fuel economy you have to adopt a light footed approach to acceleration and keep them in as high a gear as possible, on a flat lever road in town I would have them in 5th gear doing 30mph this being Ok as long as you just tickle the accelerator.

This little Yaris is the only car I have ever owned that I have never polished and my did I have some bangers in my time but they were always kept spick and span also well maintained, in the 18 months of having this Yaris I have washed it 3 times and only driven it 1500mls, I hate this Fecking thing and its 6 speed manual gearbox I never know which gear I am in? I will change this out very soon. In my very honest opinion anyone not driving a Japanese car in these present times has got to be ATFH (Aff Thur Fecking Heid)?

My next car which will be sooner rather than later and most likely the last car I will ever buy, will be a Hybrid, having done my research in to what is available, the Prius and its Hybrid drivetrain seems to be the best around they have been on the go the longest since 2005, however this is not my preferred choice as I think they are quite ugly, The Auris also has this same drivetrain this I can live with in the estate version only the cabin is rather bland? I have now discovered this same drivetrain is also used in the entry level Lexus CT200, fortunately this car has been lambasted by all the motoring experts (not in such high demand because of this), these Cupid Stunts are all wannabe Boy Fecking Racers, on reading the owners reviews these tell a completely different story, any of the above three models are Zero RT if registered before April 2017 after that they are £170, all use the same Hybrid traction battery, they were made to last the life of the car, but in the event of a failure a DIY change of this is around £600, insurance for this model is £500, the Auris is 450.

In 45 years of owning cars in UK I never did spend any more than £35K a few of these cars were passed on to my son before the end of their useful life and for his first 15yrs of driving he never had to buy a car, as mentioned before these were mostly quality cars, in 1995 I bought a 4yr old top range Volvo GLT with all the toys, this had 65K on the clock and I paid a quarter of its new price, this I owned for 10yrs, I then changed this out for the most expensive youngest car I ever bought at £10K this was a Volvo Bi-Fuel another great car, my Ex claimed this car when we parted, after that I bought a Honda Accord at 4yrs of age and a quarter of its new price, 19yrs later and my neighbour still has this, I had that 10ytrs before I sold it to him.

My adult Son there in UK is laughing at me, asking me why after being so sensible through all my motoring years, I would want to change out my Yaris which is all the car I will ever need considering the low mileage I drive? to this I replied; well Son you drive a nice Jaguar so why should your Dad not have a nice car? after all this costs me nothing as I am spending your inheritance.

Hoots Mon! 'A' didnae ken that?

Anyone care to advise whether my budget looks ok ?

When I checked a year or so ago, it said the average guy needs a job paying £44k per annum to support a family of four in the UK.

I checked again today and they're (JRF) now saying you need £74k per annum or more for a "comfortable life" in the UK!

That seems a bit OTT to me... anyway, feel free to shoot me down:



Thanks.

Well John, Personally I think you are little a bit off with your calculations not by much only around £10K.
Mortgage/rent sounds about right council and water bill also correct, estimate for energy costs are on the high side, for a 3 bed modest home it will be closer to £2K in the month, of course this would need to have a reasonable EPC Rating.

Your guesstimate of Car costs seem well out to me? 3.5 yrs ago I returned here to UK and I was to buy a small Yaris this was a 2015 with a 1.4 engine and to insure this as a new insurer with no benefit of any NCD, this cost me £360 one year later it was down to £300, ( had I been down south you can add £100 plus to these two figures), at this same time it needed a service and Mot £240 all in, had I been a family man likely I would be driving 500mls a month the fuel cost for this would be inside of £100, adding all these costs together the complete running cost including everything amounts to £1800, Toyota Cars are just so ultra reliable and require very little in maintenance costs other than Tyres, batteries and wiper blades, I changed this out for a small Lexus and in 3.5 years have had no expense in repairs. some cars like my Sons Jag which is a 2016 2ltr economy model come with free RT if registered prior to April 2017 after that date they are £180. With 3yrs NCD my insurance for the Lexus is £270, these figures are all for the full year, in that 3.5 yrs I will not have driven any more than 10K, my repair cost have been nil. Btw the Lexus is actually a Toyota Prius using all the same drive train only it wears a better Suit and Tie.

I no longer have a TV license instead I use that £15 a month on my Amazon Prime this includes a £3 extra to have it add free, for internet I pay £25 a month, I have no other TV subscriptions.

For £800 a month I could easily feed a Family of 4 including all Personal Hygiene and cleaning products for the home, within that budget I would be able to provide lots of treats for the children, massive savings can be had with this, for example Gillette shaving foam £2.50 Aldi own brand 79p and there is no difference between the two, Gillette 5 blade razor heads £2 each, a pack of 10 Bic disposable 2 blades £2 and they do give a really good shave and I get a month out of one blade, I really do have 101 ways on how to save money by shopping smart, I never buy ready made and do everything from scratch which includes making my own Burgers, never buy Bread instead I use a Bread Maker and even bake Cakes with this, a 1kg loaf costs me around £1 and this compares to a Sainsbury's loaf that cost £2.40 and only 600grm, this is sliced and frozen so there is never any waste.

The family allowance for the two children will just about cover the expense of their school clothes, it is no where near as expensive now for this type of garb as it once was with shops like Primark

This link for rightmove will give you a feel for property cost rent/ mortgage they are pretty much nationwide
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/Doncaster.html?index=72

Well I did have a quick look at this and can see John is on the right track with that and it was something that I had agreed he had right. But he had set the Bar rather high with most other things, John and I have had conversations of this very subject on a few occasions, where I was to tell him a better more affordable quality of life is more readily available up here in Scotland.

Added to that it will be likely he will get a good Scotsman as a neighbour and not a Black from a third world country.

Our costs ballpark for Bootle Merseyside
Rent nil ( seerightmove link above)
Gas/ electricity £ 167 per month new supplier Octopus so need to see how accurate it is
House Insurance (Nationwide) £45
Water not metered £55
Poll Tax £128
Tv licence £180
Other TV ( that's a secret)
Food (3 adults) including personnel hygiene, cleaning products £140 at the absolute most never buy ready meals, processed food etc and go to meat wholesalers to bulk buy, ficus on fresh fruit veg. Make our own crisps
Car nissan Quasqui £100 insurance, fuel and amount set aside for car care
thats about it!
This link https://www.google.com/search?ie=UT...rce=android-browser&q=best+part+of+uk+to+live
Opens up to various links on the UK best place to live various drivers such as emp.oyment, culture etc

That house insurance seems high at £45 a month ? I pay around £180 for the whole year with Aviva,,,, Poll tax is that per person? your energy costs seem fine but is this for a 2 or 3 bed property? this would give John a better idea of what to expect? I never mentioned my own energy costs having a fairly modern well insulated property with a solar system it would not be a good example here,,,, my council tax which up in Scotland include the fresh and waste water charges are £2,700 for the year for a 4 bed 2 bath property of 110m2

Poll Tax per address regardless of occupancy unless single then get a 25% reduction, house is 3 bed 2 en-suite, energy costs have many drivers that set the monthly billing costs, its down to the consumer to control them.

Thanks for youor helpful comments, hoping I am a bit over rather than under...

In many people's eyes, I think my wife will probably fall into that category