If you could save this amount each month, would you think that was in a decent wealth bracket?

Looking to buy a new house with DP soon and we sat down and worked out affordability. On paper (or Google Sheet) we could save £1k a month, but in practice it just gets spent.

To be honest I didn't think we would have that kind of money "spare" until we looked at it closely.

Then let’s be a little more transparent- not an issue with top ups of any kind it’s just disingenuous to say that your wage is plenty at less than 1k

Lol, what savings?

@OnlyFoolsnMothers With £800 universal credit and child benefit.

We do but only because we’re recently in the very fortunate position to have been able to pay off the mortgage, due to an inheritance situation. We’re late 40s. Saving now for kids uni/future.

Really, you bring in less than £1000 in total, pay all your bills from that and live fine?

DH Is paid £2200 plus £100-300 pm bonus, I bring home 2300pm.
As a general rule of thumb, I can save 1000pm January to June, then once summer holidays/birthdays/ xmas etc come around, it can be anything between 0-500.
So I wouldn't say we're high earners, mortgage is over 1000pm and have childcare to pay for the kids so not low out goings either but it's not huge amounts over the year and one thing that costs thousands ie car, can take a good part of a year to replace the savings it used

Same! I live just fine.

Sounds like loads to me but 1.7k was practically my whole salary. But if I earned £5k/mo like my friend I could easily save that.

It really depends on other situation overall… I have an excellent pension, my husband has a pension but puts 500 in a private pension and we over pay mortgage by at least 500… so there is 1000 we aren’t ‘saving’ but could if we chose differently. We don’t save a set amount as we top up savings from bonuses, but would always choose to put extra each month into mortgage as we still have £500k left to go… so although we have plenty of surplus we aren’t wealthy as we are paying a mortgage! It’s not a huge mansion, just a 4 bed terrace in London of course.

Do you work in the same industry and have similar size houses, car costs, and lifestyles? Otherwise a comparison is pointless. You could consider yourself incredibly "behind" compared to Taylor Swift but that would be a weird comparison.

It depends. She could be scraping by in order to save that amount. My DH and I save £2.5k a month (5.5k take home pay) and we are careful with our money but we're not scrimping by. I'm about to go on maternity leave and we won't be able to save much during it. Swings and roundabouts.

It's certainly more comfortable than the average person but that's because the average British person isn't wealthy at all.

Whatever she's saving for, she now is saving 40% slower so it's going to take almost twice as long to reach that goal. If it's something big like a house deposit, or private savings that will cover maternity leave or let her retire early before her state pension kicks in, that could be years of delaying big life changes.

Psychologically, £1700 to £1000 is also interesting because it takes you from "I max out my ISA every year" to only putting in around half, so it might have reduced some comfort she previously felt about "doing all the right things".

I agree that saving £12k a year vs £3k (£250 a month) is more likely to be wealth building i.e. accumulating year on year to a significant enough amount to allow you to live independently of a salary, although it's more at "mat leave" or "retire at 60 instead of 67" levels.

I don't really save anything each month...

I knew several families in the past though who did.

And they were far too tight to do things like buy a better car they really needed, get a private scan for an ongoing back issue, put the heating on, or buy the odd bit of new clothing, or decent glasses. Mean as anything if you ask me.

It's all relative.

It’s a decent amount far more than the average person in the street. DH and I have always saved our entire ISA allowance each year since they were available as a product. I know we are well off.

It won’t entirely reflect wealth bracket as some are more frugal than others. We enjoy life but for example I have never spent more than £200 on a handbag whereas an ex work colleague would happily drop 2k on one.

However it’s a cut isn’t it and she has had to reduce savings by almost 59% so it's a big change. Her big mistake is informing anyone. You may be her sister but I have never discussed my finances with anyone including my sisters.

saving for us usually around £20-100 per month

It seems a huge amount to me. I save a bit for Christmas and holidays but that's about all we can afford.

"Breezily". What does that even mean? You said you were having a conversation. So did your dsis just mention their savings, rather than "breezily" say?

Hahahahaha!!! My income isn't £1k a month!

I can't put away any amount, so to me yes it's a lot! But I realise everyone has different outgoings.
As long as those people don't think of themselves as poor or struggling.

Depends. DH & I are retired, both have occupational pensions and I get Stare Pension also.
We can easily save over 1k pm - but mortgage paid off, no children.

Before we had kids we easily put away over £1000 a month saving for a house.

Now we earn more, have a house and kids and not a chance of putting that much away.

It’s all relative.

The majority in this country can't save that much. It isn't because you are frugal does it mean you can save a grand but you obviously have more wealth than others. Someone on MW isn't going to go without one Costa coffee a week and be able to save a grand.