Am I missing something or is this a huge sum of money?

[Twinkletozies]

So I’m out Christmas shopping with my sister. She announced that she ‘has to be careful’ as she’s ‘ only’ got about £1800 of spare spending money this month. Wtf. I had to ask her yo repeat it! She’s got a very good job but I’m shocked that she thinks that she ‘only’ has this amount left! It’s literally money that she can spend on anything. I have about £600 on a good month and I manage ok!!! Is she totally out of touch??

Could it be that this is her savings across the year or past few paycheques rather than this month’s pay?

I really don’t understand the point of posts like yours. It’s not as though she’s put it on Instagram or Facebook. Its an anonymous forum and could literally be about anyone as it’s not identifying. She’s done nothing wrong by posting this despite your weak efforts to suggest she’s in the wrong for doing so. This is also the purpose of Mumsnet and you could say this about anyone’s posts. If you don’t like the nature of the forum why are you a part of it and commenting no less? 🙄

OP mentioned £600 and £1800. I'm quite well off but I'd consider these to be huge sums to be spent aimlessly as 'spending money'. To me, 'spending money' is the same as 'pocket money' - funds for going out, buying a book or exhibition entry, an unavoidable spontaneous shoe purchase...

But you'd budget for stuff like this, so it isn't 'spending money'...

Tbf OP, 600 quid of spare money is a fortune to some people.

If that’s how you organise your finances, yes. That’s how I do it too, everything has a ‘pot’. But not everyone does it in the same way.

She could have that amount after her savings, investments absolutely everything. It could just be for spends. Her mistake was informing you.

Telling everyone what? That somewhere in the UK (I assume) someone has a sister who has £1800 of spare cash this month?

I mean I guess if you happened to know of two sisters who have gone Christmas shopping today you might be able to work out who the OP is and, by extension, who her sister is, but I think the chances are pretty slim.

@Twinkletozies what does that word "spare" mean???? I have no idea!

I don't have anything spare, but I can't think of a circumstance where that would be mentioned. If I was out Christmas shopping I would stick to my means. Where you trying to get her to do something extravagant that made her snap. Afternoon tea, extravagant lunch she hadn't budgeted for etc?

It's not really alot - a nice weekend away and a few meals out would eat into that pretty quickly.

She might have been hoping for more and had the ability to save more, so to her it's less than she wanted. It's insensitive to say that to you, openly knowing you've much less. But I might moan about the cost of a taxi to someone who can only afford the bus. Which obviously would be insensitive but not intended.
It depends on so many factors. The fact is if it's bothering you, you should just politely say, 'please don't talk about your financial issues when I've already got plenty of my own, it's not to be unsupportive but I just don't like discussing money'. Then move the convo on.

Agree, although I didn’t think £600 for a family is crazy money. That would be a dinner out one week, a couple of outfits for the kids one week etc. £150 a week.

£1800 is crazy money if truly ‘spare’ but that’s exactly what the OP is asking,

We don’t really have the concept of “spare” money. We earn more than we spend each month, and in theory we have discretionary money available, but we don’t just fritter that money away with gay abandon. All money is much harder to earn than it is to spend, and I hate to feel that I’m wasting my effort.

As she's your sister I would expect her to be more sensitive to you.

Fat chance!

Where I live we have neighbours having to ‘tighten their belts’ by cancelling their third cruise as ‘money is a bit tight right now’.

Ha ha…

some people are just insensitive and don’t think. My sister mentioned once about moving house (can’t remember the exact point) but she made it clear that if their new mortgage was X amount, they’d still have ‘a few thousand’ each month to spend on lovely days out and holidays etc. Also she’s always asking in the family group chat ‘shall we all go on holiday?’ And putting links to ridiculously expensive trips (for mine and other family members’ budgets anyway). She’s just suggested we go to Disneyworld Florida for a week followed by a 2 week Caribbean cruise ‘while we’re over there’. And she’s the type to put on social media her ‘dilemmas’ - ‘don’t know whether to go to Alaska on a cruise or a Caribbean cruise for the fourth time. Anyone got any advice?’ I don’t begrudge others nice things, I just can’t stand the smugness and trying to make others feel bad

I find it weird this even came up. I have no clue how much my sisters or friends make. Not my business and my finances are not their business either. In any case I just wouldn't care. People have different ideas about spending money and finances. It is all relative to how you spend, what you save and what you put in for pension.

I always think that the phrase being out of touch is odd. Presumably if you have a good job, then you've worked hard and are reaping the rewards. She shouldn't have to acknowledge that others don't earn as much when she is speaking to a family member 1 on 1.

Not necessarily out of touch. Plenty of people on here might think your £600 is a big amount.

All it means is that she's in a different place to you, financially.

You're her sister. She probably assumes she doesn't have to filter conversations about money because you're close enough to not get jealous and/or judge her. If that assumption isn't true, you should let her know.

It's more than I earn. Okay, I'm semi-retired and only work part-time, but even so...