To ask how much disposable income you have...

[idontbelieveanymore]

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??

It depends which "bills" you are deducting, plus some people choose to have larger bills than others so I feel your income is more relevent than disposable income. I've always chosen to live in a small cheapish house so have more disposable income than if I'd bought a large house in an expensive area with correspondingly high utility bills and council tax.
If your kid goes to private school is that a "bill? What about those who choose to commute large distances and have large fuel "bills".
How large your food "bill" is is also personal choice.

I am off work sick at the moment and am tormenting myself with how far I can reduce my hours. I have a mental/neurological condition that I disclosed to my employers when they offered me my job, so they should let me reduce my hours from full time to part time under the Disability Discrimination Act. I am the main earner, when I work full time my net pay is £2900.00 and my husbands is £1650.00. We have two boys who are both at state school, 2 cats, a dog, 2 cars and a motorbike. I hate being the main earner and have hated it for the last 11.5 years when my elder son was born. When I am F/T our disposable income is about £1600.00 and we manage to save, pay big bills up front etc. We have a cleaner and a dog walker. If I reduce my hours to 28 my net pay will go down to £2300.00 approx, and after 15 years my DH has the chance of a promotion which will take his money up to about £1900.00. The difference between his pay rise and my reduction of hours doesn't match so we will still be worse off. I will still need the cleaner and dog walker, as I don't want my day off to be a day of house cleaning. I have PHI that will pay 75% of my salary if I stay off sick and the insurance company accept the claim - maybe I should do that until I am truly well and can manage my commitments to my job and my family.

Easy.......zero!

We have a decent amount I suppose. We have around £700 for food, petrol and going out. But we do save a fair bit which I take out when doing the finances so the £700 is what we have left.

We are able to buy things we need in emergency - fridge freezer just broke so have to dip into savings.

That said I get the bus to work so we can save so I do make sacrifices

After bills, food and petrol, I'd say around £1000 left.

after rent,council tax,food bills and petrol,which are the essentials,im guessing about 2000 a month,i dont feellike we are really well off though,although thinking about it we never worry about money and when i go shopping i dont often look at how much stuff costs,(only shop in high street kind of places though)i dont feel lucky though,my husband has worked hard for a long time to get to this position,its nothing to do with luck in our case,all down to hard work and perseverence.

our house is rented but because there are 7 of us its always going to be quite expensive,1500 a month!i dont mind paying that though,we live in a nice area and tbh we couldnt get anything much cheaper without moving somewhere we wouldnt want to.We spend a lot on food,at least 800 a month,too much really but i cant seemto get it down any lower than that without compromising on quality.

Not a lot these days. We've only the one income now which has been cut by 20% plus various increases in costs, taxes etc. Petrol in monthly budget, food and sundries run at about ?200 per week, after that we have maybe 400? left, but has to include medical stuff - gp visit is ?55 a go, even for children, cost of living higher here than in uk. live in Ireland, so have big mortgage from boom years too. We used to have money over for holidays, meals out, emergencies. No longer. Rarely buy clothes for ourselves, or books. Am at how much money some of you have left over!

Enough.

We have 900 a month for food, petrol and entertainment but we do save about 500 every month before that (overpay mortgage, Isa, holiday fund and xmas fund)

So in reality about 1400.

We are comfortable and do live well but still seem to be in the overdraft at the end of every month!

Wow this thread is a year old and a year ago as a family we where £700 to £1000 on disposable income and now I would say it was between £300
and £600, them kids get darn more expensive.

We are retired and have about 1200 a month after bills.We save a bit out of that.

A few thousand, most of which is saved. We both earn well and neither of us has particularly expensive tastes.

TBH, I'd rather have the child I am desperate for to spend it on than watch the number in the savings account in increasing.

BayCityR0llers, your utilities are £60pm? My water is more than that!

After all direct debit bills are paid and food petrol and only the most basic clothing; £400pm.

I find it bloody difficult to tell you the truth. But I'm sure other people would be very grateful.

These sorts of questions are a bit subjective-one person's essential bill is another person's disposable income. I'd include petrol in bills, but we could drive less. We have very little left for clothes and going out but we have chosen to extend our house and so increase our mortgage and allow our children to do two or three activities each a week so we could hardly plead poverty. Dh earns enough that if we felt we'd be kidding ourselves.
I would love to see some of my friends' income and outgoings an be a financial fly on the wall!

Well we live with the in-laws (was due to DH studying and cultural reasons but he has since qualified and we are still with them due to cultural reasons) so the house is mortage free and they pay most of the bills. I don't work but my in-laws give me £800 a month to buy things for myself with (clothes, entertainment, petrol) and DH pays for him and DD, no idea how much DH actually earns but i'd say he has around £3,500 per month for him and DD to spend on clothes, entertainment and petrol. But a lot goes into savings so it's not actually 'disposable'. Tbh I think what one person counts as a lot of money another person will count as not enough, it just depends on your experiences and expectations .

Technically disposable income is household income after tax and pension contributions. I believe what you're actually asking for is discretionary income, which is money left over after all necessities have been paid for (ie how much you have to save/spend on crap each month).

About £200 after bills, rent and food and that's for entertainment, clothes, extra bills like car tax/mot and repairs as well as any emergencies and birthday presents/ Christmas.

Not a lot really but if we have a few good months then I may finally be able to take me, dp and my 4 dc on holiday for the first time :-)