The Student Room Group

Realistically how much can you save from a 25k a year salary?

Deduct tax, living cost and general spending, how much would you say vaguely I could save a year from a 25k a year salary. Thanks. Obviously this is very vague, dependent on how much you spend, but generally just living in a normal house and not spending excessive amounts of money.
Reply 1
Well, my boyfriend earns 20k a year and he can put away upwards of £800 a month away, but will probably put £600 or so just so he doesn't have to live extremely tight for the month.

I guess 25k is essentially 25% more, so 25% more of £600 is £750?

That's only basic, basic thought there though, lol.
Original post by Alarae
Well, my boyfriend earns 20k a year and he can put away upwards of £800 a month away, but will probably put £600 or so just so he doesn't have to live extremely tight for the month.

I guess 25k is essentially 25% more, so 25% more of £600 is £750?

That's only basic, basic thought there though, lol.


Where does he live?!

This is the big question - rent in London is likely to be double a lot of places outside of London - but your salary is higher too, usually. Not only rent, but everything is more expensive here - the same food in the same shops can cost pounds and pounds more.
Reply 3
Me and my boyfriend earn about £21,000 between us, we put away £300 per month. But I think we have fairly high living costs (£520 rent per month, £120 council tax, £200 for food per month, then other bills, car costs etc.).
Reply 4
A massive proportion will be based on where you live. At home with parents, house share, flat etc, will take considerable different percentages of your pay packet away, which will influence the amount.
Reply 5
If I'm good about 700, if I'm bad then 0.
On £30k I was able to save about £800 per month without cutting back on anything if I wasn't making any sort of significant purchase/going anywhere in particular in that month - closer to £5-600 in months where I spent considerably on luxury items.

In order to come up with a good estimate of what you can save, though, you should know what rent and bills are going to cost, because those are obviously the biggest single chunk that will be taken out of your earnings.
Reply 7
Original post by CyclopsRock
Where does he live?!

This is the big question - rent in London is likely to be double a lot of places outside of London - but your salary is higher too, usually. Not only rent, but everything is more expensive here - the same food in the same shops can cost pounds and pounds more.


He lives up in Reading. His only expenditures are basically £380 rent (includes all bills, and for some reason, milk and toilet paper), £40 phone bill and food/petrol, which is probably another £100 or so, not much really (doesn't use a lot of petrol due to living close to work).

After that he has about £800/£900 to play with, so he can put away quite a lot of it if he doesn't really go out/have events that month.
depends how thriftily you wish to live i guess, you could happily put away £800 a month if you lived like a miser :rolleyes:
Surely that depends on your outgoings? If you could persuade someone else to pay all your bills and for all your food, you could put away whatever the taxman doesn't take.
Reply 10
Depends whether you live alone or with somebody.

Assuming alone and outside London then you should reasonably expect to be able to save £500-£1000 dependent upon how much your general spending is.
You could save half of it if you wished.
Reply 12
Original post by multiplexing-gamer
Deduct tax, living cost and general spending, how much would you say vaguely I could save a year from a 25k a year salary. Thanks. Obviously this is very vague, dependent on how much you spend, but generally just living in a normal house and not spending excessive amounts of money.


I made £26000 per annum when I moved to UK in 2003. I saved 1/3 of it after taxes. But the job I had then provided a company car and required me to do lots of travelling where I received a lot of extra allowances so it was fairly easy to save 1/3 despite needing to pay rent in London, though I reduced this by half by getting my then gf to move in and contribute half of everything.

Today? Realistically if you're starting out in London at £25k per year, you should easily be able to save around 1/4 of it even if you had a car. Sometimes having a car might turn out to be cheaper than relying on public transport. 1/3 to 1/2 is still possible but you will have to really cut down on a lot of stuff, like instead of having your own place you have a houseshare with several others, instead of having a newish car you drive one that is 5-10 years old and keep your going-outs and socializing expenses down to the barest minimum.... in any case once you start working it's unlikely you'll have as much time as per your student days to go out :biggrin:

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