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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how much disposable income you have...

118 replies

idontbelieveanymore · 02/05/2012 12:49

I have been wondering how much others have for disposable income. When I see people put in their threads 'we are comfortable, live comfortably' etc I wonder what that means...

As a family, after all the bills are paid etc we have approx £800 per month for food petrol/ entertainment and clothes etc. I am sure to some people this is pittance and to others a fortune!

Would any of you like to share what your disposable income is??

OP posts:
screamingeels · 02/05/2012 13:52

Interestingly I've just worked this out - We've £1300 after fixed expenses, which we need to budget better as we keep dipping into savings. I guess just over half goes on food the rest on entertainment, clothes, travel, booze (thats an unreasonably large bill in our house). But I am keepoing all receipts for a month to find out and therefore budget better - so in a month I can tell you exactly

KellyElly · 02/05/2012 13:52

None!

Methe · 02/05/2012 13:52

Nothing. Minus nothing this month as I'm on SSP so POOR.

PooPooInMyToes · 02/05/2012 13:56

Fuck all! Probably less then fuck all actually seeing as i slip further into debt each month.

BreconBeBuggered · 02/05/2012 14:06

Edward, I feel like you. By average standards we have a good income, but almost half of it's taken up by mortgage and petrol alone. Add in the other bills and food, and there's only a couple of hundred left, which has to be used for presents, unexpected car repairs and so on. Sod all chance of saving these ays.

TheCunningStunt · 02/05/2012 14:13

Theodorakis do you live on mars to get all that free??? Or should we move?

issey6cats · 02/05/2012 14:15

after basic bills are paid £56 a month left for food and clothes and anything else, luckily dont have a car or kids at home

Fluffy1234 · 02/05/2012 14:20

Around 1k a month after all bills, savings, pension etc. Used on days out , clothes and eating out at the weekend. DH gets an annual bonus around 30k which gies on holidays and home improvements .

feelingdizzy · 02/05/2012 14:33

For the first time ever,I have something spare at the end of the month perhaps 400pm.
After having worried about money for years,having enough is such a relief,this spare money is mostly because I have paid off my mortgage,because I don't have this pressure,I was able to take on slightly riskier consultancy work ,which pays more.
I am a single parent and to have this safety net,is something I am so bloody grateful for.

ChronicToothAche · 02/05/2012 15:59

About 3K/month I think - this is for everything that isn't a DD or SO. We do spend an above average amount of food and drink. Below average amount of fuel. We should be able to save a lot more than what we do but somehow we manage to spend all of this on average (we do save but that is a SO, we leave ourselves we the 3K to spend) and we only have one child and two small dogs Blush. Spend quite a bit on club/activities and we always seem to have a big ticket item come up just when some has built up in the current account (like a massive vet bill not covered by insurance etc/needing a new computer/weekend away (rare)). We have to dip into DH's annual bonus for main holidays (but generally that is spend on home improvements so we don't really take them). I work pt but almost full-time (more in terms of standard full times hours) for the last 8 months or so - I think my extra income pretty much gets wasted as we have a tendancy to throw money at things due to lack of time/being knackered (obviously, woulnd't if it wasn't there). I am going to cut back my hours soon and tbh I don't think we will miss the money at all, simply because I think it will mean we automatically spend less.

theodorakis · 02/05/2012 16:16

Cunning, we live in Qatar. Even our food is subsidised

vonnyh · 02/05/2012 16:19

About £2k

accountantsrule · 02/05/2012 16:27

About £2.5k after all bills (incl utilities, council tax,cars, petrol, mobiles, insurances, sky bill) and food, it will be quite a bit less than that once we start paying full time private school fees though!

We never really seem to have a lot of money left though as we do pay a lot out of that as that pays for all the kids after school clubs, swimming lessons, birthdays, xmas and holidays.

I appreciate we are comfortable but then we both work so I don't consider we are lucky. I have been a SAHM and absolutely loved it and was quite happy to have a lot less money.

Sookeh · 02/05/2012 16:34

Nothing at all buy my kids are healthy and wonderful. I can afford the Internet, the odd present for the kids and the odd curry and I'm not living on the street. I try to be grateful for all the thongs I do have.

Do sort of want to up and move to Qatar though Grin

Sookeh · 02/05/2012 16:35

Things, not thongs! GrinGrin

SofaKing · 02/05/2012 16:37

We have about 1400 left after bills for food and everything else. It is all gone and more by the end if the month and I have no idea where. It is a ridiculously large sum to spend.

I blame the kids, our joint income was about this before we had DC, and we had savings every month. Or maybe now I am a sahm I have more time to spend money and its all my fault Blush

EmptyBotheredPocket · 02/05/2012 16:42

DH gets paid by cheque and he pays it into one of the accounts we have. This account is where the bills go out of & where some savings are and it hardly goes below about 8k.

OneLittleBabyTerror · 02/05/2012 16:48

It's interesting how some of you calculate disposable income before food, others after food. I'd thought food is non-disposable.

PooPooInMyToes · 02/05/2012 16:50

Sofa. You should keep a record of everything you spend. That will soon tell you!

kelly2525 · 02/05/2012 16:50

After all bills, food, petrol etc there should be £500 a month left, but it just seems to evaporate, or I'm being regularly mugged and don't realise Grin

NowThenWreck · 02/05/2012 17:02

Yeah, food is pretty much an essential spend OneLittleBabyTerror!

I have, er, about 15 p in new money. Woo hoo!

minimathsmouse · 02/05/2012 17:05

I always think of disposable income as that which is left over after food, petrol and clothes. It is non negotiable, we can't starve.

I don't know, DH has some left over as do I and we don't talk about it btw us.

AbsofAwesomeness · 02/05/2012 17:13

None. Hopefully I will have in a few months, when I'm free from my student loan.

4goingon14 · 02/05/2012 17:15

Well as both OH and I are self-employed and the money that comes in each month varies a great deals some months we have a decent chunk of disposable income and sometimes we are in the overdraft. It really just depends we never know what is coming it.

What I do know is that everytime we have a nice bit of 'disposable income' at the end of the month something expensive decides to break down. :(

i.e. Last month - Clutch on OH Van £550 (goodbye extra cash)
This month - Dyson Hoover £300 and Large rock hit windscreen of OH's Van and cracked it right before MOT due £350 (again goodbye extra)

So not nearly as much disposable income as we would like....

ChronicToothAche · 02/05/2012 18:33

I put my disposable income as before food/petrol I don't have much of a clue as to what we spend on food. I guess we spend about £75/month on petrol/diesel. I know roughly what gets spent in the supermarket but that includes alcohol, and a fair amount on it. Supermaket spend is prob around £800/month maybe more. DH 'does' the money using quicken I think - he does allocate things to categories (unfortunately he is away and I don't have access to it). The problem with it though is it will tell us how much we spend in the supermaket but no idea how much on cleaning stuff/toiletries/food/alcohol/cash back that ends up elsewhere. I suppose it is better than nothing - I go through phases of trying to get more of a handle on it but end up giving up quite quickly!
All I know is the amount we have that isn't going to come out of the account automatically (for mortgage/savings/some clubs & lessons/charity/ultilities etc). I guess the amount that comes out automatically that we don't have to spend (savings/clubs & lessons/charity) probably about equals the minimum we would have to spend of food/clothes and other essentials to survive though so it is still 'about right'.
I would love to have a more detailed breakdown of where our money goes, maybe I should start attempt #36 and try and find out again - hopefully, that will also change some bad habits and put some more in the savings pot.