A woman with lots of money (show off)
Here’s a question: How much money do you need? Loads, obviously, but how much do you really need?
Skrill, an e-commerce business, asked 2,000 people what they needed to survive on, and the average 'desired' take-home income was £1,722 a month – that’s £26,500 a year before tax and NI are deducted. It sounds like a lot, probably because it is - the national average is around £26k while the London living wage is currently £8.30 an hour, around £1 less everywhere else. And, come November, those figures will be reviewed. Possibly for the worse.
So, between now and then, let’s assume these 2,000 people are right. That you can live comfortably, happily, without ‘getting by’ or by eating out exclusively via Groupon vouchers on £1700. How would you spend that £1700? Well, since you ask, like this:
Rent: £700
Bills/council tax: about £150
Travel: £110
When I forget to top up my Oystercard and have to pay in cash en transport: £14
Lunch at work: £100
Actual cost of lunch: £200 (I sometimes need two. Bite me)
Cost of gym: a very cheap £14.99
Money spent being anywhere but the gym: £79
Socialising: £86
Socialising not-just-during-the-week: £186
Clothes: £90
Minus the clothes I have to return after financially crippling myself: - £80
Visiting family: £200
Money accrued while visiting family: -£20
Extras (cigarettes when drunk, taxis when drunk, charitable donations): £66
