How much do you need to earn to live comfortably in 1066 Country?

If it often feels like your hard-earned wages never stretch far enough, you might think it’s because you’re blowing your budget unnecessarily - but it could really be the cost of living in your city or town that’s behind your financial woes. How to find out? A new online tool that reveals how much money Britons should be earning in postcodes across the country to realistically live ‘comfortable’ lives may have the answer. Highlighting the huge difference between the cheapest and most expensive areas, the online tool tells us that the cost of living comfortably in Britain varies dramatically from one postcode to another. For example, Bradford residents can live a ‘comfortable life’ on earnings of just £8,98 per hour, those living in Durham need to be bringing in £9.47 to do likewise, and those living in Sunderland have to make £11.29. Pack your bags and relocate to the big smoke of London, however, and you’d need to be earning £54.54 per hour to live comfortably, while for those residing in Edinburgh, an hourly rate of £21.15 is what’s required. If you key in local postcodes, you’ll find out that residents in the TN34 area of Hastings need to be earning £13.81 an hour and in the TN35 area, £16.65 an hour. For Bexhill, it’s £15.92 for the TN39 postcode and £13.71 an hour for those living in the TN40 area. It’s more expensive in Battle, as residents need to be earning £21.12 an hour in the TN33 postcode, according to the online tool. For Rye and its immediate surroundings, the figure is higher at £24.06 an hour for residents in TN31. The interactive widget, created by the team at www.web-blinds.com, analysed renting data from all 2,650 UK postcodes. Users are asked to input the first half of a postcode or the name of a city and are then taken to a map of their chosen area that features a postcode-by-postcode breakdown of how much money they’d need to earn per hour to realistically live a ‘comfortable’ life, based on the recommendation from Shelter that rent should be no more than 35 per cent of tenant’s income. Spokeswoman for www.web-blinds.com, Kirsty O’Sullivan, said: “The most expensive postcodes and cities make for eye-watering reading, but there are still plenty of affordable gems out there for renters. They just might have to look outside of the capital for them.” The interactive tool can be found at www.web-blinds.com/resources/earnings-vs-postcodes. Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live. Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on. 1) Make our website your homepage 2) Like our Facebook page 3) Follow us on Twitter 4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here. And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out! Always the first with your local news. Be part of it.