What do you spend your disposable income on?

[booklover164]

Trying to work out a budget and wondered what people spend their disposable income on? All bills accounted for and not sure we could live on the amount we've set aside.

Our list so far comprises DC's clothes and shoes and a paper delivery. What's on your list?

Clothes, make up, skin care and holidays.

Gardening/plants

Alcohol & food at the moment!

In normal times, weekends away.

Clothes
Coffee
Holidays (used to)

Coffee

Very little at the mo beyond essentials for the children. Otherwise it would be:

Holidays
Dinner out
Pubs

Horse. Horse related clothing.

Holidays
Days out (Merlin passes etc.)
Restaurant meals
Theatre

sigh I miss normal life.

Other peoples' Horses.
Other peoples' Horse related clothing.
Other peoples' Horse related activities.

Horses are the governments way of secretly redistributing wealth I think.

When everything is accounted for ( I love a speadsheet): from the roof over our heads to food, charity and savings.

Books, wool and plants.

Maybe start looking at what you are currently spending your money on, or what you were spending it on a year ago.

Ours goes on house stuff, meals out, garden things, I don’t know.

I think this is v vague as 'bills' could include anything.

I spend an absolute fortune on kids extra curricular activities/childcare/holiday clubs etc including the uniforms and equipment etc (in normal times) and some of that could be seen as 'bills' ie music or swimming lessons...

Does mobile phone/tv/magazines me subscriptions ns etc count as bills or discretionary, do takeaways or work lunches count as food or treats? Is petrol necessary when you could walk or cycle?

What people count as essential bills is going to vary massively.

Things I try to spend less on include food in general and as an out of the house thing, books, clothes for me and dc.

Things I save up for include camping items, extra pet/animal items, house items like new duvet covers or cushions and photo frames, birthday parties and presents and Christmas celebrations and holidays and weekends away.

Pre-covid = coffee, eating out and holidays

Since covid, I've had a baby and moved house so every spare penny goes on home improvements and all things baby related.

Singing lessons and choir for me, Stagecoach for DD1, keyboard lessons and parkour classes for DD2.

Decent skincare and make up.Just ordered another estee Lauder advanced night repair serum and urban decay primer

If you're concerned about being able to live on whatever spare money you have, you'd be better analysing your current spending, rather than asking other people what they spend their money on as they have different incomes, priorities and family sizes, so not helpful to you.

You'd probably be best looking a the moneysavingexpert money makeover and get their weekly email to get a better handle on your money and making the most of it.

Clothes, home and garden decor, candles, netflix and similar, gifts, days out, takeouts- including coffee. Obviously this isn't the same every month- some months I'd rather spend a bit more on our food shop and get some nice treats.

Childrens clothes are a necessity so i wouldn't count that.
Eating out, not dinner so much as coffee and breakfast - can't wait until we can do that again. Beauty treatments- facials once a month. I only get my hair cut three times a year, so I don't mind paying for the facials.
We travel to America every other year to visit family, and do a weekend side trip which costs megabucks. And I'm a sucker for candlesticks - I have dozens.
I pay for a personal trainer twice a week, but that's kind of essential too as I know I wouldn't exercise on my own.

In normal times:
Make up
Skin care
Waxing
Books
Coffee
Lunch /dinner /drinks out
Taxis /train fares
Clothes
Jewellery
Weekends away
Feeding carpark machines
The pound here and there dcs need for school and the endless dress up days
Dry cleaning
Birthday cards and gifts
Money in collections at work
Stationery
Special occasion stuff - eg Halloween decorations, Easter eggs, Christmas cards etc

Its hard to remember how I spend money in normal times - but there was always something!

Subscriptions such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Audible, Kindle, Disney+ etc.

Stuff for the DCs usually some clothes, shoes, bits for their bedrooms, home learning materials, art and craft supplies, sports equipment, science kits, magazines, etc.

For myself this year it's been items for the house which we didn't really need (as well as some that we did), some books and magazines in print to give my eyes a screen break, supermarket clothes and some mid range toiletries.

Usually I spend money on day trips and activities and being out basically. I think I've been spending quite a bit more on things at home to keep us busy. Also spent a lot more on groceries. So I haven't actually saved any money being in lockdown. I've also added quite a lot of subscriptions (especially tv ones) which I've now stripped back again, and had to replace all our tech devices

Books, wool and plants.

Sounds like true success to me

£5,000 per year on a nice villa holiday (not last year, just as well as we lost £25,000 last year).

We don't really have disposable income.

Overpay the mortgage? we do that sometimes.

Gym membership
Spa membership
Spa treatments
Clothes
Makeup/skincare
Hair maintenance
Meals/cocktails out
Breaks/holidays
Home decor

Our non bill money is allocated to: Groceries and eating out/ Fuel/ Clothing/ Toiletries/ Holidays/ Gifts and toys/ Home items & Repairs/ Entertainment and days out.

Actually yes, activities with the kids

Cinema trip
Swimming
Visit a museum
Trampolining Park etc

They arent cheap and we'd normally do 2 "things" a half term week if we weren't going away.

Childrens birthday parties.