Money left at the end of the month?

[DrHousecuredme]

Hi! Out of curiosity really I have worked out my finances for the coming month and worked out that, on paper, I will have £350 left over. It sounds a lot but I never feel well off so.
If you had £350 left after bills, food, petrol, savings (modest, could be more) and holiday payments but clothes, make-up, hair appointments, presents, going out, things for the house and pets etc are not covered.

What would your money end up getting spent on and would you consider yourself well off?

Id throw it into my savings account.

I always put left over money into a savings account. Unless it's less than £100 left, then it just rolls into next month in the same current account.

Id throw it into my savings account

So you wouldn't spend anything at all on things like clothes, make-up, meals out, birthday presents, cinema trips?

I feel like perhaps I don't get the balance right but I'm not sure I could manage without spending anything on those.

But it sounds like you don’t have £350 left as you haven’t paid for haircuts, presents, pets???? If you pay for what you need from the £350 how much do you actually have left?

@Temporaryname158 what I'm trying to work out is if people had £350 left after the basics needed to live IE food, petrol, bills.

How much would they spend on luxuries eg clothes, things for the house, trips out and how much of it they would save.

Because I feel like I'm "struggling" by the end of the month but in reality I'm probably not.

Do you theoretically have £350 left or actually have £350 left? What I should have at the end of the month if I look at all my outgoings written down is radically different than what I actually have left, because it never includes things like buying a birthday card or a fuck it lets have take out night. If it's only theoretical then you should track your actual spending for a month

I like saving in pots - so every month I put money into an account earmarked for birthday presents, another one for spends I know are coming down the line (insurance renewal for example), etc.

If I do have anything left at the end of the month I chuck it in an easy access savings account so if my budget does go crazy over one month I'm ok.

You don’t have money left as you have things not budgeted for.

Any money left on the day before payday gets put into my savings account. It’s usually £0!

This. No, I definitely wouldn’t consider myself well off if £350 still had things to cover.

But you’re not taking into account that some people class days out and clothes as basics. I think if you can’t cover clothes, pets, days out etc within your budget after saving I wouldn’t say it’s well off.

Yes it's theoretical and yes I'm tracking my spending, thanks

I suppose I'm just curious because I end up tight by the end of the month but I know people on lower salaries than mine manage so I'm just wondering what other people spend on luxuries each month.

This. No, I definitely wouldn’t consider myself well off if £350 still had things to cover

😆 thanks, that's slightly comforting because I do sometimes give myself a bit of a hard time thinking I have plenty of money and should be managing better.

To me these things definitely count of luxuries. I barely spent anything on them during the lockdowns and felt so well off at the end of them.

After bills etc I have about £400 to live on I put half into savings and use the other half as fun money some months I take some back from the savings other months I put extra into the savings usually when I work weekends I don't really do much.

Clothings isn’t a luxury. I have separate savings accounts for presents and my daughters clothe, plus haircuts are account in our essential monthly spend.

We give ourselves £200 keeps back each month, which is for personal spends. I had been frittering mine away on clothes. I already have more than enough to wear so have a clothes rail with the following weeks outfits clearly on display. This is stopping me wasting my money each month and now my £200 is going into savings for when I finally need to buy something.

i tend to just buy what I need (need, not want!), and what’s left goes into my ISA or premium bonds, or stays in my current account if there’s something big coming up in the next month such as car insurance, holiday balance due etc. I wouldn’t necessarily look at my bank balance and think “ooh I must treat myself this month”.

Is this as a household or individually?

Neither is exactly comfortable, but if it just had to cover me then i could probably make it stretch to cover clothes, make-up, hair appointments, presents, going out, etc. But if it has to cover all of those things for the whole family, I'd be very worried.

Thanks for replying everybody, it's interesting to hear what other people do.
@GiltEdges I'm a single parent with one child shared 50/50 between me and his dad.

Not sure what the point of these threads is as obviously different people live differently. I normally have ~£1200 left at the end of the month and don't feel well off at all. I don't think about whether to eat out/get presents/do a fun outing or not though, and just do when I want/need to (I'm naturally frugal so not a lot goes on these) - the £1200 is left over after that. I haven't had a haircut in 3 years as I cut my own hair, spend £35 on make up every 2 years, and rarely buy myself clothes (only when I need something - possibly once a year). Leftover money tends to go either towards family holidays or into the mortgage which I hope to have paid off by the time I turn 35.

Are you budgeting for once a year spending like new tyres or school uniform?

Things like car and school expenses generally go in bills but clothing including uniform comes out of the £350.

It's because you are not budgeting properly (that's not meant as a criticism!)

Have a look at the MSE forums that show you how to do it properly (or get an app).

You need to factor in the one off expenses (car mot, service etc) as well as the regular but not necessarily every month spends like birthday and Christmas presents, haircuts, clothes. All this should be assigned in your monthly budget regardless of whether that's the month you actually pay it.

You can use an app that puts it all into different pots for you once you work this out (someone help me out with the name!)

Then you can work out realistically what you should/can be saving.

@Emilia35 you know you don't have to respond to threads if you don't see the point of them though?
I appreciate your point of view anyway, thank you.

Interesting @Calmdown14 I'll have a look, thanks.

I'd spend it on a couple of nights out or deliveroo or cafe visit or taking the kids for a day out or if kids had parties to go to on (low cost) presents.
It's not a lot to cover everything else imo

@emmathedilemma same here, after essential spending I put everything left into investments. I only buy what I need.

to Answer your question no I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I only had £350 after the essentials. This is because I have a lot more than that left after the essentials at the moment so it would be significantly less.