to think £1,000 per month

[winkywinkola]

disposable income after all household bills have been paid, including mortgage, groceries, petrol, is a good amount of money!

Is this your family OP?

Disposable income what's one of those?
I take home just over £1000 a month as does my other half (seasonal work so come October his will halved) . It would be great to have that as extra cash.
I think some people forget how privileged they actually are.

DH and I have around £2,500 left over each month after payment of mortgage, all bills and essentials like petrol, food, commuting costs etc. We aim to save £1,000 a month minimum and fritter the rest away on meals out, socialising, holidays, gadgets and hobbies. I think we have a very high disposable income and are very lucky. We do not have dc yet (currently ttc #1) and I know our lifestyle will change a lot when we do.

Donkir I don't think people do forget how privileged they are. I thank the stars everyday for my situation. I've had just 15 a week to feed my son and I and now I am in a very different financial situation. I haven't forgotten anything. I can understand that for someone 1k a month seems the most amazing luxury and for others 12k a year is the summer holiday sorted but what about the Christmas Caribbean trip?

And roll out the ' i am poorer than you ' brigade!

People are 'privileged' to win the lottery, they are 'privileged' to be left a large sum in an inheritance. They are not 'privileged' to do a job that commands a good salary if they are qualified to do that job.

I have a theory on here that those who claim to feed 6 people for 3 days off 1 chicken, claim to feed all 6 for £30 week and not put the heating on until Xmas eve are actually loaded and it is how they think the poor should live not how they live

To be fair I do know lots of people who live in great big impressive period houses and use private education but who do not put the heating on because of the expense, as they consider it a frivolous luxury unless it's actually snowing, and neither do they always drive flashy cars.

Personally I'd rather have a slightly smaller, much warmer house that I could invite friends into without them needing to keep their coats on.

I disagree Don'tDrink. I think it absolutely is a privilege to have the ability, encouragement and opportunity to gain qualifications and experience and consequently a well paid job. And I count myself and DH among those who are privileged in this way.

Yes, some achieve it from a more or less privileged starting point than others, but that doesn't change the basic point.

We are a family of 5 and after all bills, food and petrol and kids stuff, swimming lessons etc we now have about £300 a month. That is for holidays, Xmas, birthdays, days out, clothes, etc etc. £1000 a month would be amazing. Our holiday this year was £140 camping trip.

Thats a LOT.
I work full time and live with my partner, we half all bills.
I am left with 200 per month and that has to include my diesel for the car :/

DontDrink Pointless? But you still posted!

It's a lot of money. We have about 200 after everything is paid

After all bills and activities? Hell yeh.

I had a 21 year old moaning to me that he couldn't afford driving lessons. Poor lamb only has £600 a month disposable income after paying all his bills/rent to mum. 'But I've got to go oooouttt' he wailed. Jesus. I can't remember when I last had £600 a month to play with.

At 21 I had £400 for everything!
It was 1992, it wasn't loads but it was enough. Research Council grant. I was a PhD student, so no council tax and cheap cinema tickets!

So that is money with literally nowhere to go? no savings account, no mortgage overpayment, no extra repayment of credit card or anything? Just £1000 a month to spend on unnecessaries?

So £12000 a year that has no place to go because absolutely every need is already catered for?

tbh, I would reduce that and put it to good use. A family could easily halve it and still have plenty of fun if it is purely recreation and no other use for it at all.

So yes, I think yanbu, it is plenty.

Is someone moaning that it's not enough?

I dont' think it is that much if it is to cover absolutely everything else, clothes, holidays, presents, toiletries, shoe repairs, dry cleaning, household repair fund, car repair fund, Christmas, socialising charity giving,

We easily spend more than £1k a month on that lot over the course of a year. Our DC are grown up and we are mortgage free

I'm not sure what the OP refers to when she said after all bills etc. It's for a family of 6. But how about saving for the next car? I worked out I needed about £300 to put aside just for that for one car. (We only have one car and I comute over 70 miles a day. DH cycles). How about those large yearly expenses like car services, insurance? And how about holidays? For a family of 6 that will be maybe £5k for the summer? There isn't a lot left over after all of these. It's not tight but it's not swimming in cash either.

Yeah I mean also all the other things like clothes, presents, house repairs etc too.