What is a comfortable salary for a family of 4?

That income is with tax credits and child benefit I don't know your circumstances but i do hope that you are not the type of person to assume that benefits = substantial income because for us that is not the case.

I appreciate it may seem hard for people to realise a family can manage on such a small income but it is possible

They brought the house around 20 years ago and have about 8 years left on the mortgage so most of it has been paid off and mum said the payments aren't that big anymore. But I'm pretty sure it's worth a lot more now, back then it was a 3 bedroom and they got it for like £200k, but they added another bedroom and an ensuite and doing a search for similar properties in my area comes up with like £350k-£420K.

I don't know many people who live in a bigger house than I do but we live about 15 minutes from a very upscale area where there are a ton of mansions. My dad has a childhood friend who lives there and he brought his house for £1.2 million! We were like as he showed us round, 4 double bedrooms, 3 with ensuites and two massive reception rooms.

I'd hate to think of his mortgage!

How is that possible, private school is so expensive!

I think my mum gets working tax credits.

But yeah my parents are huge 'savers.' They only buy those luxuries knowing we can afford them, my mum has never owned a credit card and my dad only uses his for emergencies and only because he knows he can pay it off without gaining the interest. They've never been in debt, before my mum met my dad she worked 2 jobs as a single mother to two kids and went hungry to avoid debt. They make sure they live in their means which means we live quite well.

I understand what you mean though, my sister earns about £500 less than my mum does each month, is living alone and yet has debts of 5-6k. She's considered the 'black sheep' of the family for her poor money management. But that was my orginal point, unless you earn pennies you can save and budget carefully enough on an income such as my own. But growing up I never wanted for anything and that was only on under £30k a year.

Coming out with figures like £250,000 or even £60,000 is a little silly, of course you can live extremely well on them and afford the greatest luxuries, but I was going for telling the OP a more realistic figure for 'comfortable' living.

Me and my partner are looking at starting a family. He earns 26k. We did the maths, our mortgage is less than £200 but council tax, bills, food etc, all meant we could just about get by on his salary, just the two of us. No dog, no holidays, no kids, no new clothes or savings. You don't know what money is really being brought in as you're not head of the house hold. I'm afraid I think you're wrong on what's needed. I wish you weren't.