Minimum take home income to live on your own?

[TedLasso]

One thing people have to consider though; an old car is not always a car that saves you money. Sure you have low or no instalments, but then a 10-year old+ car is going to start requiring running maintenance.

Also piece of mind. My first car was a lump of hot crap and it eventually stressed me out because I was wondering what the next thing to go was. Lots of jobs also demand own, reliable transport, so not a good look when your 20-year old car is overheating on the side of the road.

Rule of thumb; if ongoing maintenance of an older car works out to around the same as an instalment, then you are better off with a new(er) car.

This isn't to say that your 2021 BMW won't breakdown, but generally speaking a newer car should give you less hassles than an older car.

Completely understood . My observation was that it looks like some people's cars are worth more than their house (which could be owned or rented). Why would anyone ever do that? I think it's a uniquely South African thing. When I lived in the UK, i would be astonished to see the relatively mundane cars someone was driving, and not know anything until I visited them at home. The house gave the clue away!

I guess our combined net averages about 80K a month (gross is about 130K i think) and yet my wife tells me i earn too little. Have no debt except for the house and the loan from family member to reduce bond costs. I ask myself how much is too much or too little everytime I pay our domestic. She gets R265 a day (plus food, etc) and I can't phatom how the F does she takes care of herself and daughter. I don't know why I do, but I feel absolutely 'uncomfortable' (guilty?) when the food we buy still has the price tags on it e.g. woolworths clementines box at R80.00 .

My wife is my kryptonite. Married for ever and I still can't get her to stick to a budget!! The only thing I do now is try to squirrel the money way into other savings accounts or investment accounts because there have been months where we spend more than we earn! Absolutely maddening!

 

[Lupus]

Bread is already close to R20, cheese is like R40/50. A person living alone would need what a loaf (16 slices) a week?

Store bread is R11, often can get brown sliced bread for R11.99. Cheese you can get R45 for 400G.

 

[Lupus]

Albany/Blue Ribbon/Sasko is decent bread and costs R11-R12.
Good quality lean mince is around R90/kg. Pap is cheap, as is rice and in-season veg.
Supplement meat with legumes for protein. Buy on sale.

Anyway, I never rented on my own. Neither did my 3 of my 4 housemates, the other one only rented on his own after already owning a place. Back in 2005 ~R8500 after tax, pension and medical was not enough to live on my own. Right now I wouldn't live on my own if I earned less than R15k after deductions. I want to have money to save and to go on holidays, to go to restaurants and have a drink. I hate saying I can't join friends in some activity because I'm broke, or even worse, have them pay for me. If that means I have to live in a commune or a garden cottage, so be it. I want to live in a decent area.

Then again, one of my wife's colleagues probably earns ~R7k, and he decided he had enough of living with others and got his own place.

And non lean mince can be had for R60 a kg.

 

[Lupus]

R1000 pm is R33 pd... I don't know if you can make a meal out of R33.

I think the cost of living has gone up but also in other times people did live simpler.
My great aunts husband was an architect and she met him while he was studying, he ate nothing but oats and wore the same clothes every day. On Sundays he would come to my grannies/great aunts family for lunch and eat every scrap on the table. He basically lived like a hobo until he finished his studies, even after that they lived very simply and ploughed all their money into their business. They both died millionaires with many properties and many kids.

So when people say its impossible to live on R5k PM its more about what your expectation of living is.
I know with our combined income of more than R100k the expectation is too high and its somehow not enough...

Net or gross?

 

[randomcat]

Store bread is R11, often can get brown sliced bread for R11.99. Cheese you can get R45 for 400G.

You can get a loaf of bread for R7 at checkers and R6 at PNP. I was very surprised when I found this out a month ago.

 

[Gozado]

One way to clean up a tight budget - especially within foodstuffs and household cleaning materials - is to rank the items to figure out which one is the most expensive, and decide whether you could do without just that item. You might be able to do this by collecting your cash-slips and rearranging the items by descending price. Or try online shops (not to buy from, just to learn from) and see whether they will let you rank the items by price.

Another way of looking at any saving measure you're following, that feels like a drag, is that you'll do it for just 6 months, and then give yourself a break, or swap this restriction for another.

 

[Yirhu]

Well honestly depends on what you consider 'bare minimum', I get just under 8K after deductions, live within walking distance from work, groceries R1500, internet R300, electricity R350, rent a paltry matchbox for R1200, student debt R1003.5, life insurance R315, hospital plan R480, savings R1200 to1500 depending on my budget, further studies approx. R1500(depends on registered subjects per semester but not every month). You just have to make best of what you have. My groceries has staples of rice, couscous, meali, beans, samp and macaroni. Fresh chicken, ground beef, fish(frozen obviously) can't always afford red meat so I'll pass it most months, peas, lentils and veggies. Always try to make ends meet, live below your means and you'll survive... just yet. I'm a good cook and can make a good meal out of anything in my grocery.

Edit: forgot electricity bill

 

[RonSwanson]

Nope, mine lasts weeks in the fridge once opened

As long as it's not skimmed milk

 

[s0lar]

Back in my bachelor days. Had a friend who worked as a junior manager at Woolies, would get the about to expire foods. Saved a mint and ate like a king.

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

As long as it's not skimmed milk

Do I sound like some homo now?
Full Cow always, I dont do half cow or no cow !!!!

 

[Aghori]

Do I sound like some homo now?
Full Cow always, I dont do half cow or no cow !!!!

I used to visit that fat charou SinghDude on his farm and get freshly boiled cows milk from him once a week. Stuff was thicker than the ANC collective.

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

I used to visit that fat charou SinghDude on his farm and get freshly boiled cows milk from him once a week. Stuff was thicker than the ANC collective.

i prefer my milk homo-ganised and pasturized and whatever all the other geek words are

 

[Aghori]

i prefer my milk homo-ganised and pasturized and whatever all the other geek words are

I prefer my milk the way I prefer my women - creamy white and secured in my basement.

 

[Meister-Man]

I prefer my milk the way I prefer my women - creamy white and secured in my basement.

You forgot, chilled in the fridge.

 

[airborne]

Well honestly depends on what you consider 'bare minimum', I get just under 8K after deductions, live within walking distance from work, groceries R1500, internet R300, electricity R350, rent a paltry matchbox for R1200, student debt R1003.5, life insurance R315, hospital plan R480, savings R1200 to1500 depending on my budget, further studies approx. R1500(depends on registered subjects per semester but not every month). You just have to make best of what you have. My groceries has staples of rice, couscous, meali, beans, samp and macaroni. Fresh chicken, ground beef, fish(frozen obviously) can't always afford red meat so I'll pass it most months, peas, lentils and veggies. Always try to make ends meet, live below your means and you'll survive... just yet. I'm a good cook and can make a good meal out of anything in my grocery.

Edit: forgot electricity bill

Looks like you have your head screwed on properly!

Is the Hospital plan at R480 medical aid or medical insurance?

Make sure it's a medical aid because insurance is useless for the big stuff. You can get some entry level medical aids for close to R1000 last I checked and in SA it is pretty vital.

 

[r4nd0m]

While I agree that things have gotten expensive, I also understand that the difficulties in life come from wanting too much.

I may get a lot of flak for this, but material possessions, relationships and children are demanding to the body, mind and spirit. I am not knocking any of them, but I think we can all agree they take work in many contexts (financial, physical and mental). Also let us not forget about the opportunity cost and freedom.

I'm one of those 100k earners, but my total living costs are just under 20k. This includes rent, utilities, groceries, medical aid, connectivity and insurances. It was a little bit more pre-covid due to traveling costs.

This situation would change DRASTICALLY if I had a demanding, non-contributing s/o, kids, numerous possessions, fancy car, etc...

Unfortunately schools don't teach you about your options in life and where each path may lead or what the requirements are to keep it going. Things like:

- What you study effects your income potential
- Studying costs money and you'll need to pay off tuition
- Children are expensive and require investments of time, money and effort
- Relationship pitfalls, the consequences of divorce, child support costs and emotional turmoil
- The world is bigger than the country you're living in and what that truly means
- The cost of freedom

Now don't get me wrong, I was on track to do all those things, but thankfully something clicked and I skipped all of it. Will I miss out on some things? Sure. Am I constantly stressing about people in my life, bills and finding a place big enough to put my acquired possessions? Nope. Most of my days are peaceful and quiet and you actually grow to like it.

I'm still a "slave to the system" for now, but I don't experience the problems everyone else does. I'm better positioned, though not out of it yet. All I know is living would be more difficult if I had all those things.

Something for you to think about perhaps. For some, too late to think about.

 

[Meister-Man]

I'm one of those 100k earners, but my total living costs are just under 20k.

At this rate, you should be able to retire soon soon.
Then again I'm sure you've done your sums

 

[Lupus]

You can get a loaf of bread for R7 at checkers and R6 at PNP. I was very surprised when I found this out a month ago.

They are half loafs I think or 600g, cause I checked and ours is R8 for the bakery version.

 

[Cius]

Not sure how people do it. I earn a really good salary and it gets stretched thin for a household of 4. We have special dietary needs (celiac) which costs extra but our grocery budget for 4 is R7600 I think currently.

A lot of the budgets shown earlier in the thread miss a lot of budget categories I have like tax, clothing allowance, rainy day savings, pension (you have to start his with your first pay cheque!) etc. I also tend to set aside money monthly cross multiple budget categories for expenses that are infrequent, like a general my car savings fund that I stick R500 in per month that then covers services, new tyres, license fees, etc whenever they come up.

 

[Smokey mcpot]

My wife got retrenched end of January and is still not working. Work since COVID has been slower but still there. Since she stopped working there hasn’t been much of a change in our lifestyle (maybe less random restaurant nights) but life still going on. What this makes me realise is that we were spending a lot of money on crap. Less take a lot, SuperBalist and other nonsense being bought and we’re still going almost unaffected by the loss of salary. She’s still doing her hair and eyelashes, still planned an over the top party for my daughter which happened the weekend and still borrows money to her younger sister.
Leads me to believe that we only spend more because there is more.