How much disposable income?

[tadpole73]

Trying to establish if my expectations are too high.......

After all bills, fuel and food, how much or % of your total income do you have left over each month to spend on holidays, going out, clothes, buying things for home, savings, repairs etc as a family or single parent?

[Keepcalmanddrinkcoffee]

How much do you have left over?

[tadpole73]

As a couple £1800, if a single parent (which I'm contemplating) £500

[MirandaWest]

It depends what "all bills" is.

[twolittleboysonetiredmum]

As a family (3 small children and 2 working adults) we have circa £500. But that's for everything over and above food so clothes/trips/clubs/extra food/haircuts/holidays etc
It's not enough and we are always right at the end of it. Occasionally have saved £100

[OnNaturesCourse]

We are budgeted for 2 adults, 1 newborn and a cat.

After rent and all bills... 710.92.

Food, pet food, and fuel leaves us with 130 or so to actually save (for X'mas, birthdays etc)

All figures are based on monthly budget.

[tadpole73]

MirandaWest - all bills meaning: rent/mortgage, council tax, tv licence, water, gas/electricity, sky, mobiles, household/car/life insurances, any car lease/tax, food, fuel, childcare, boiler service, kids clubs, contact lenses etc. Bills you prob pay by direct debit, bills you HAVE to pay. Bills to run a home, eat and drive a car.

Spare money/disposable income is what you may spend on clothes, holidays, Xmas/birthday gifts, savings, nails/hair/lashes appts, eating/days out, decorating/household purchases, the luxury/nice things you spend money on.

[MirandaWest]

Some things my DC do aren't essential but are things they like doing - but would prioritise other things over them if that makes sense. At the moment we're in a position to be able to let them do them so we do.

Overall we probably have about £1,400 or so spare but that feels quite a lot to us and means we can do things that are nice.

Would your £500 include any maintenance you get from your (potentially) ex?

[tadpole73]

MirandaWest. Yes it includes taking into account my part time salary, CTC I would get for the childcare costs and maintenance. It's what i would have for myself and 9 yr old after those essential bills.

[RedMetamorphosis]

After rent, bills, transport & food, I have about £300 per month. Currently not going out/taking in lunch/no coffees as saving for a wedding.

Only essentials to come out of that £300 are cat food.

[Viserion]

According to sums done recently for a small mortgage extension​, we will have £79.81 left between us as disposable income. I hope this is a wild underestimate or something has gone majorly fucking wrong in our finances as we are both high earners.

[tadpole73]

MirandaWest - Is the £1400 for just you and your child or includes a partner?

[tadpole73]

Viserion - Sounds scary - love the accuracy of your figures though 😁

[MirandaWest]

Thats for me, husband and my two children. We give his DS some money each month to top up his student loan but that's in included within bills for us (goes out by standing order)

[Drywhitewine]

Me personally, £350, this excludes phone and gym. This is mine for hair nails, clothes for me or my daughter, top up shops, make up etc. Husband has about 1k but he saves a lot of this and also pays for our holidays (canaries twice a year). He does the odd top up shop. We do ok but don't feel we live an extravagant life. 3 bed semi.mortgage. I have a four year old car, he a 3 year old van. I work four days a week as support staff in a children's home, he is an electrical engineer. One child - under five, pay extortionate child care bills.

[tadpole73]

Drywhitewine - thanks for your response, very detailed, helps me lots x

[Frazzled74]

If it's £500 after food, I would think this is fine. We currently have around £900 left as disposable income, me, dh and 3 dc.

[Viviene]

€3k -2 adults + a baby
No fucking idea where the money goes though.

[MrTumblesbitch]

Approx £700 (I'm self employed so it varies) I'm a single parent with a 5 year old. Some months it feels enough, but a weekend away or a house repair soon tips me over. I currently have about £140 left for the next 4 weeks which scares me!

[MaryJObliged]

After absolutely everything (mortgage, bills, council tax, doggy day care, commuting, food), we have about £2,400 each month. It's just me and DH, no kids.

[tadpole73]

Vivienne - nice position, but know what you mean, the more you have the more complacent you get. That's why, currently, I ensure I overlay the mortgage to know I'm benefiting somehow. But you get used to a certain amount, so the thought of lot less is scary

[TeacupDrama]

technically the financial definition ofdisposable income is the sum left after you have paid taxes, NI and council tax, as although rent water fuel etc are monthly outgoings there is a degree of choice in how much these are depending on where you live and other things.
a monthly phone bill could be £10 or £40 someone could be choosing to have 4 bed house with £2000 mortgage or a 1 bed flat for £375 so it is not coparing like with like
another family X could have a disposable income of £5000 a month but because of high housing childcare only have £500 left at end of month another family Ywith only £3000 disposable income make different housing etc arrangements and have £800 left each month, you really can't compare both families for who knows whether familyX costs are genuinely comparable to family Y as they are only higher because of location or whether they are making more extrvagant choices and if they made same choices as family Y they would actually have £1500 left.

That is why housing food and many bills are not counted as the commitments are taken on basis of net income and for the higher earner maybe more as they have the ability because of higher earnings to take on higher costs which they would not be able to do on lower earnings, if you are on 30K per year you have to make different housing choices to someone on 80K so the person on 80K may have a much higher rent/ mortgage but this was a choice based on their earning potential if they earnt less they would have to live somewhere cheaper

[CountryLovingGirl]

£1600 left after all bills, food, diesel and our £50 a week 'pocket money' each. Kids get £5 a week (plus extra things we buy them) a week. 2 adults, 2 kids (13 and 9) and one small dog.

[Metalgoddess]

£900 for me, dh and 3dcs.

[nigelsbigface]

400 quid after bills,food and fuel. Single mum, two girls, dog. I've added the dog because of the money spent on the dog walker whilst I work-200 quid the little beast.

It's ok month to month if I am careful about going out etc, but we aren't going on holiday any time soon.

This month am struggling a bit however as I am on emergency tax code at new job so 200 quid short.

[RandomChocolate8]

Absolutely nothing tbh. I'm already at the point where I'm counting pennies when buying food so there's generally nothing left over. Every now and then, I'll have a month where expenses are slightly lower for some reason and I'll have an extra £30 or so but that goes into my credit card.