Disposable income

[Welverine]

Hey,

totally nosey question so please just scroll on if you’re not interested….

after you have paid all of your essential bills/costs, how much disposable income do you have left to spend/save?

I have around 8.5k per month spare. I save 6k of that in pensions and other savings for future school fees.

I have very modest bills as mortgage paid off before I had DS.

DH saves less than that but still enough that we’ll be able to retire early without having to worry about funding school fees while not working.

Rent or mortgage could vary massively and often includes an element of choice.

Many on MN complain about how much their mortgage is but often they've chosen to live in a large property in an expensive area and carry out 'work' that has involved extending or replacing perfectly decent kitchens and bathrooms.

Food is also essential and again often includes 'choice' if people are spending significantly more than the average amount for their family size.

But threads like these are pointless and just generate a list of random numbers between minus £x00 and £5k+ with no context or consistency in definition.

£1,600 a month after paying

mortgage
council tax
water
gas + elec
tv license
broadband
tv package
2 x mobile phones
subscriptions - Netflix, Amazon, ICloud storage
life insurance
critical illness insurance
home & contents insurance
food, toiletries, cleaning products
2 loans
6 credit cards
Petrol

We don’t have any car costs as DH has a company car and I don’t drive

If we didn’t have debt we’d have another £1,000 a month. We are paying this down and haven’t gotten into any more debt in the past 2 years. We also have six months expenses saved so not currently topping that up.

We have a baby on the way and childcare will be £350 a month (they will go at 9 months)

Annual costs that come out of the £1,600 are
Site development fee £100 (we live on a new build estate)
Professional subscription £60
Boiler service £100

We could spend less and clear debts quicker and also downsize - all options we are looking at but we do like to spend on hobbies, days out and holidays as life is short and you never know what is around the corner.

Or not. They might choose to spend the cash overseas on holiday.

About £1000 after essential bills, food, car and holidays

I've been in much less fortunate positions over the years where I didn't have enough to cover bills at all, heavy debt, single mum etc.

Now I'm older, in an established and worked hard for career and now married to a man with a very good job, we are in a much better position.

I'd say we have £3500 spare after the boring stuff has been paid. That said, our mortgage is relatively small and our cars are paid off.

Probably around 2-3k.
We've paid our mortgage off though, which massively helps.

You are clearly a troll 😂

Around £2k a month left after mortgage and bills (including childcare.) But we have standing orders set up to transfer money into various savings accounts every month so we never see most of it. We leave ourselves about £700 a month to cover food shopping, trips out etc as we want to prioritise saving for overpaying the mortgage, the children's future and for our own savings accounts. I appreciate that we are lucky to be able to do that and putting the excess directly into savings means it isn't frittered away.

After we've paid all essential bills and joint savings, we have £800 each approximately for personal money. For me, £500 goes into personal savings and £300 for just for spending on going out, clothes, gym membership etc. We have no kids though.

Around £2000-2200

How naive you are. You see how stretched the state education system is …. Well similarly there is very little margin in private schools also - hence why they are not for profit.

what you will see is bursaries removed as they can’t afford to give free places anymore and many schools will close. The survivors will be the ones who own big estates and so don’t have the cost of rent / mortgage (ie like state schools) and so private schools on average will become much more expensive and an option only for the super rich like the good old days.

my preferred option is actually that instead of growing my disposable income I quit working, or cut right back, and instead increase my time with my children who will be going through transitions which will be difficult for various reasons.

About 100-150 dependent on whether I have any overtime. I’ve made some very poor financial decisions in the past and am paying back approx 400 worth of debt every month which will significantly reduce in 12 months thank goodness.

@Cantthinkofonenow I am truely hurt at the accusation 😢😢😢

2,400 net cash / mo after all bills. Kids take up a lot of that on snacks, days out and coffee. We save maybe 600/mo generally. For context, household income c.105k gross before bonuses.

After everything ‘essential’ we have around £600 on an average month (can be more as I’m in a bonus related role. After Christmas when childcare bills end it will be £1500 🙌. I think we are lucky to have that much left over as we are in expensive childcare stage. I also think we could be much more budget-y with our food shop so could probably get that down. I also include a small mortgage overpayment in the essentials…as if I didn’t it wouldn’t get paid and would just get spent. Jealous of all the people on here who have £2k + left over 😔

I’m left with £100 a month after my essential spending (mortgage and utilities etc.) Each month, I save £50 in my Emergency Fund and the other £50 is my disposable income…

😂😂

Imagine being so out of touch that you think 20k a month spare can feel a little ‘tough’ the poor soul.

@Cantthinkofonenow you're such a meanie.

Some months I can only do one luxury shop and spa weekend.

You have no idea how tough life can be 😢

#bekind

After mortgage and bills, leaves £400 a month for food, clothes, clubs for DD, holidays, savings etc. It’s very tight. Pension savings are a thing of the past. I don’t see it improving unless I experience a radical improvement in health that allows me to go back into full time work. I do earn enough not to be on benefits, and to be able to afford to eat / pay the mortgage, and am usually grateful.

Awww bless you 😢

@Welverine Hope this thread has given you the ego boost, you wanted/needed

Don’t be silly

😂 Poor you, have you thought about taking on a second job?

Yes, this! We put money aside all year round for things like Christmas, birthdays, MoTs, car repairs, boiler services, household maintenance etc. That might be some people's 'disposable' income but to me at least most of it is essential as it has to be paid from somewhere. If it was just talking about bills that are paid every month then that would give us the illusion of having disposable income that we actually don't.