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Original poster

How much disposable income do you have

113 replies

dylanjt · 24/07/2023 16:03

Nosey question after a discussion with friends! I'm a single mum of two and after rent, other bills and food, I have £300 left a month. To one friend, this was plenty! To my other friend, this was peanuts! I'm pretty thrifty and manage fine on this and we are happy. We eat out as a treat once a month, eat home the rest of the time and take packed lunches out with us whenever possible. I'm always searching for free things to do. I buy all our clothes off Vinted and love finding a bargain. Same with toys. Ebay is good for toys too. Any money that is left from my disposable income at the end of the month goes in to my savings which usually goes towards Christmas. So, how much disposable income do you have and are you ok with that amount?

OP posts:
MrsKeats · 25/07/2023 17:06

About £4500 before savings.

Happyhappyday · 25/07/2023 17:01

Post pensions we have $4000-$6000. Pre pensions about $8000-9000. Aim to save $4k on top of the pension contributions but ends up being less if it’s a month we have to pay tuition in.

crazeekat · 25/07/2023 16:41

i have about £300 to play with.

JeandeServiette · 25/07/2023 16:35

I'm saving like mad to go back to self employment. So none, really.

Hufflepods · 25/07/2023 16:35

Disposable money as in spending money £400 x both of us so £800.
Total money after essential bills about £2000 however that figure includes things like general savings, savings for annual spends like ground rent, car insurance, flights to see family, a monthly amount towards Christmas, holidays etc so it isn’t all ‘disposable’.
It’s high to some and not to others. We have a lot of higher costs like flights to family etc and expensive nursery and housing costs so we need a bigger personal safety net. If one of us lost our job we couldn’t claim housing benefit as we own.

MellieBellie · 25/07/2023 16:34

We don't have a mortgage anymore so we're quite lucky. We have around £2-2.5k left over each month. We go on holiday regularly and save some of it for future home improvements.

AnkleWidget · 25/07/2023 16:27

That’s after saving £200

AnkleWidget · 25/07/2023 16:27

I have about £600 personally, DH is a director/shareholder so only takes out what he needs for tax purposes.

StillPerplexed · 25/07/2023 16:23

Having just checked, I've got about £660 after regular outgoings, mostly due to having cheap accomodation. I save about half of this. I'm on quite a low income at the moment, but I might expect to have more income in a year or two— I'll try not to immediately up my spending in accordance.

SchoolShenanigans · 25/07/2023 16:08

If I'm completely honest, I have no idea. It differs each month as we have certain healthcare and childcare bills that come out every few months. But I'd guess I have about £800 and my partner a similar amount.

But it's often used to pay for one-off items like a car bill, or a holiday, or a new electrical etc. I buy most clothing second hand and am pretty thrifty in some ways.

I only save £300 a month which I'm very grateful to be able to save but should really save more.

In my last job, I had much less disposable income. I've since had two payrises.

Original poster
dylanjt · 25/07/2023 15:47

Thanks for the responses :)

OP posts:
Bananas1350 · 24/07/2023 16:32

After bills , food and petrol we have £1750. This will go down to £1500 when we have to pay a bit more on our mortgage later this year.
This comes out of my wages as his pays for the rest. I separate it out into how many weeks in that and move that amount over weekly so we don’t run out of money by the end of the month.

Mostly though the £500 goes into buying anything new we need or doing something to the house. So normal spending money is about £1000 but the £500 is there if needed.

WedTheBed · 24/07/2023 16:06

£300 after all bills (food and all) has gone out is absolutely fine. Enough to put into savings and enough to do something nice or eat out a couple times a month.

We used to have £10 left over for the entire month after bills. We eventually sold our house for profit, paid off all our debts then brought a bigger house ready for our second baby to come.

Since then we’ve both had pay increases too and now we have about £1200 left over as disposable income.

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