To feel like having £2000 in your bank account

Context is everything.

I think I read the OP through my 'thrift-lens', hence my earlier comment, which has caused some PPs to quote me to explain. Of course I understand how, if £2,000 is what appears in one's account on payday, that money disappears. It was the phrasing; to me, £2000 doesn't ever feel like 'having no money' as it literally represents everything -every penny of that figure is accounted for. And the use of the modal verb 'can go' which makes it sound as if it isn't a given that it definitely 'will go', which led me to assume that the OP was talking about some kind of discretionary spending amount, as opposed to the amount of money in her account on payday. I interpreted the OP as if it was written by someone a bit like MoneyMadness who appears to have a greater amount of flex in their personal finances.

Surely it depends on which bank account (and debt elsewhere)

Current account towards the end of the month - happy days
Current account at the start of the month with all bills still to come out - careful budgeting needed
Holiday/ Christmas/ new car/specific event saving account - good, keep going
Saving for house deposit - long way to go
Only saving / investment - precarious but a lot better than nothing.

we both do…we transfer all bill money into our joint account on payday. That was 2k I had in my personal account.

No I didn’t of course I didn’t but I wanted to. I’m ok with it.

Where is this £2000 supposed to come from. I don’t even earn £2000 per month

Well it depends doesnt it, if its the start of the month before bills go out then sure. If it is savings on top of your 'normal' income that then bar an unforseen large expense its an okay cushion.

100% this.

I have just over £2k at the beginning of the month, £1450 goes out almost straight away on the direct debits- mortgage, gas&electric, tv licence and Netflix, boiler cover, council tax, etc........is that what you mean OP or you fritter away £2k easily on clothes and going out (no judgement, I know that can be easily done!)

AI bullshit post. No reply, no discussion just the usual stupid one sentence.

Who pays for the rest of the bills?

You didn't have to spend that much on some of that to be fair.

Pretty easily. All my bills come out the day after I get paid so between rent, council tax and utilities, I am already £1500 down in a day. Hope that helps.

my dh would never let me spend like this and he never even bought me a birthday present. I see now he was financially controlling becasue we had insane amounts of savings

It really is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ statement.

£2k before mortgage, council tax, utilities, insurance, car costs / travel, food, clothing, any subscriptions, house maintenance etc. won’t last that long.

£2k left over money to spend on whatever you want or to save is good.

Definitely if it's payday, it soon goes

This

it depends when you have this amount,
before or after the direct debits
at the end of the month or the beginning.
not everybody earns that much every month.

Needs more context. I am aiming for 2k a month (without mortgage) for retirement. Should be enough for bills and fun.

Exactly. After expenses and food I’ve got £250 to make whoopee on. For the month.

2 weeks ago I had 2k…then I bought my dh 150 worth of birthday gifts, cake 40, brought him away for a night…that was 450, bought myself new jeans 110, bought my dd a few things for her room 50, Had an unexpected bill of 80. (Ooops), donated 110, gave my dd 30 for a school trip, 40 on my prescription, a few lunches, coffee etc and I now have 750 ish 🤣🤣 that’s one way to spend most of it!

This is why they recommend a buffer of 3-6 months living costs. £2k is unlikely to cover most people’s living costs for that period. That said, many people can barely make ends meet, so having something is better than nothing.

On overdrafts, it's the rate that's high, although to be fair Starling for charge half the amount all the other banks do.

But overdrafts are still to be avoided if at all possible, especially as banks see them as a sign of poor financial management and many people could avoid going into overdraft by instead using a credit card for all their normal day to day spending, meaning this money stays in their current account 3 to 7 weeks longer, so you don't go into overdraft. So you don't pay overdraft interest and (as long as you pay your credit card off in full every month) totally free and you might even make a bit of cashback.

But to address the OPs point, well obviously it depends like everyone else says. But also even if this is spare money it depends what you do with it. If you're the type who spends money like water, you're always going to feel like you have no money but if you see having £2k as money you can save for a rainy day, it's a decent amount to get started with and will really help if you need to replace the washing machine or even go a long way towards something like boiler replacement or rental deposit.

If it is £2k extra, it's very nice - any extra money is a lovely bonus, even a couple of hundred. If it is just your money for the month, definitely not so good. Of course, as others have said, it's all relative to what your outgoings are.

It all depends on how much you overdraw. I go up to a couple of thousand overdrawn occasionally then swing to several thousand in credit in the same month. That can cost more than a few quid.