Done to death but how much is left for the average person!

[procratinationstations]

Following on from last week's huge thread about 100k earners, it got me thinking is what we have left over after bills considers average or fortunate. DH thinks everyone else is better off but I think he'd be shocked.

Family of 5, 3 teens. No school fees, no clubs or hobbies. 2 dogs who are small and cheap
own! An old car that isn't used much and an average house, with average mortgage and costs.

We have £300 after household bills left each to cover anything that isn't food, toiletries or supplies (dog food, prescriptions etc) so that's clothes for all of us, haircuts, takeaways (we never have these though!) going out anywhere for any of us, travel, kids lunch at sch, birthday presents etc.

Is this normal - I'm not moaning - I just want to know where we are in the scheme of things.

I have 800/900 left after bills and food. I don't have kids though.

I hope to go part time and when I do I will have 200 left each month.

£300 to cover holidays, birthdays, Christmas, clothes, days out, anniversaries, furniture/household stuff going wrong, savings etc? I would really struggle on that with 2 young kids never mind 3 teens. There's a useful link tool ays where your household income puts you nationally that may interest you, think it's this https://ifs.org.uk/toolsanddresources/wheredooyoufitt_in

Retired, no mortgage, after bills have about 1000 left for everything else, food, petrol, cat food, anything social and clothes. Most months can put around 300-500 away which goes towards insurances, car service, boiler service etc. Plus anything done in house I.e. decorating, etc.

Maybe £300-400 per month left over here - that’s after mortgage, bills, insurances, kids hobbies, car, 500 into our food account for the month and a little put by for holidays/Xmas. No debt other than mortgage. 2 primary school kids. Some months it is a bit of a stretch especially if unexpected bills arrive etc.

@Latte40

About £3,500 after everything has been paid. We put loads into savings (and we could / should cut back on food and going out as we have slipped into bad habits there)

Why? You can clearly afford to and you only get one life...so if you enjoy food and going out, bloody enjoy it!!

When we were a working family we had about £300 left after everything necessary was accounted for. Now that we're in a disability/carer situation we've nothing left.

Zilch. Absolutely nothing. I am living off savings after divorcing and downsizing.

Zero.

I’m a carer for my son and don’t really have enough to live on.

Absolutely nothing. Disabled single mum to 3, so money is very tight.

I get paid every 4 weeks, 13x a year, so it varies.

One pay packet misses the mortgage date so I put £1000+ in savings.
Then there's the months with no council tax. £100+ into the savings.
Some pay packets miss out the service charges to my flat. £210 into the savings.
Once a year I get 2 pay packets in a month. Anything between £900-£1200 saved.

But out of those savings we've been doing up our flat, we have one big holiday a year, and my DD always needs money for something ie shoes, school trips, school supplies, coats, the list goes on...

Some other months I'm left with nothing. Literally a pound or 2.

After everything is paid, we basically have left about £700-800 a month and that goes in to our savings. Sometimes we can save £900 sometimes it’s £600 but it’s usually somewhere in between.

I used to live in an overdraft with utility debt pilling up around me so I would have literally minus left at the end of the month. For some reason people are STILL shocked at this, like it doesn't happen in thousands of families in the UK. I absolutely feel for anyone on this thread struggling because i've been there too

36k and sole earner here. We now have 300 left after rent, food, bills and kids clubs. It would be 550 if we weren't paying for next years holiday and putting some in savings. This is with heavy monthly budgeting though and I can be pretty strict about it. I cut back on all our subscriptions and have now opted for cheaper internet.

We have over 2k left a month after everything comes out.

Between £300-£400 per month after all bills and food
This is for me DP, 4 children and a dog though so it doesn’t go very far
However there were quite a few years where the money ran out before the month did and we were drowning in overdraft fees and late payment fees from utility bills, so we feel very very fortunate to have anything at all leftover

After all bills we have £1600 a month for fun spends and food, and £1600 goes in the savings so all in - £3,200.

Both work FT and one child no longer in nursery thank god.

.

We put money into the relevant savings areas (don’t know why it helps to split them up but it works for us) and then have around 2.5k a month for ‘fun/extras’ spending. We transfer that from our main shared account into our own personal day to day accounts. We agreed that I would have more than half as I’m the one who does the majority of things for the kids. I always spend everything. Dh usually does too. He’s better at insisting on saving more when we can whereas I’d rather have the extra ‘treat’ money but generally concede that it’s wisest (the most boring) to save it.
It goes on outings, haircuts, new shoes, footballs, clubs, evenings out, tickets for things, travel, takeaways, erm, whatever.
It never seems enough even though I know it’s plenty. I spend what I’ve got.

DH, DD and toddler DD. We usually have less than £100. That’s with a joint take home of almost £4k.
But we have childcare and an expensive elderly equine. When horse is no longer with us and nursery is over we’ll have about £1800 spare. So it’s short term pain here, it has a (sad for me) end.

About £3k after mortgage, bills and food. We have no debts, no kids and only one quite old car. Trying to save a decent chunk each month as there is a lot we would like to do to our house.

Around £600 per month

That's for me,dh and ds7

Nothing.
DH is disabled and ill. I'm his carer full time.
Once food and bills are paid, there's nothing left over

1000 mortgage
800 cars and insurance
1000 food
500 bills including cleaner etc
2000 savings
1200 leftover which we split between us for spending

Nothing.

I found I had nothing at the end of the month until I actually sat down and sorted my yearly Outgoings. They are divided up weekly and leave my account immediately on payday. I looked at what providers I could get better prices or could cut. It's actually amazing how much you throw away and even if it's 2£ you put away that is £2 more than you had yesterday.
For once Instagram was good and some accounts on there are really good budgeting ones. There is an Irish one Mrssmartmoneyhq who really explains simply how to get saving. Simple things like shop your fridge, freezer and cupboards before you go food shopping. I was guilty of flinging things out every week or buying the exact same things I already had at home because it was on my weekly list.