Should we be this broke with £750 disposable income?

[Lionking1981]

Just this. We have 50 pounds left and it has to last us 9 days. I keep pleading poverty to my family because i find it so hard to make ends meet, my mum gives me the odd tenner to help me out but we have just worked out all our bills and food and we have 750 pounds disposable every month. I don't feel we overspend. I feel a bit ashamed of this. Dh doesn't think it's a lot and it's normal for us to be struggling. We have 2 dc. What do you think?

I didn't include work snacks, clothes, take aways, meals out and kids activities in there. They are part of what I class as disposable.

That's where your disposable income is going then - you're disposing of it on those things.

I didn't include work snacks, clothes, take aways, meals out and kids activities in there. They are part of what I class as disposable.

So this is where you need to cut down. What on earth are "work snacks"??

You may be able to save on the bigger bills by swapping provider/threatening to leave or on food shop by going down a brand and meal planning. However cutting out things like work snacks and cutting down on take aways and meals out is going to be the obvious place save.

Agree with keeping a spending diary to work out where all your "disposable income" is going.

I'm the same OP, it's terrible. We have around £800 after bills and our food budget, but we never stick to our food budget and I really think so much of our money goes on eating out and takeaways. School stuff and unexpected bits for DD always eat into our money too.

We don't have any savings and still live month to month which is so bad so I'm making 2017 the year we become proper grown ups 😁 I won't even watch Eat well For Less bow because I watch it and think oh god they'd tear me to pieces! 🙈 Good luck OP!

I actually prefer tomput everything on the cc so it's easier for me to then fill in my spreadsheet! Then I transfer the cash to the credit card.

Work snacks would be things like a Mars bar from the vending machine at work.

If you are disciplined, this would be another easy way to save as individual chocolate bars, drinks, crisps from small shops, vending machines or even Tesco express cost 2 or 3 times the price of buying multipacks on offer in the supermarket or stuff from the pound shop, but you have to make it last all week, otherwise all you are doing is spending the same amount of money on more food, so not good for health or bank balance.

I think in this case, the OP is talking about disposable income as in luxuries/discretionary purchases after main bills and supermarket food is purchased.

A lot of this is 'nice to have' rather than a need - we all need to eat but obviously a packed lunch or meal cooked at home is substantially cheaper than buying prepared food. Also consider how you do your supermarket shopping. The difference in cost between wandering round Waitrose and filling your trolley with a load of 'that looks nice' items and organic blueberries compared to writing a list of cheaper meals from a less expensive supermarket can be hundreds of pounds a month.

A PP has nailed it in that the OP has a good disposable income and probably more than average, but it's still not enough to spend freely on everything all the time without thinking and as you have found, you appear to have spent hundreds of pounds a month on unidentifiables, which when you do work out what it's all going on, will probably horrify you if it's a lot of stuff that doesn't seem to be worth the cost to you.

I've even managed to train dd to be horrified at the price of a single bar of choc at corner shop! Far cheaper to get multipacks and take with when you leave house.

OP you are borrowing money off other people and still buying takeaways and work snacks??

Yup. If you run out of money before the end of the month, make do. Use up your freezer food and cans - take them to work. Leave everything else till payday… by payday you might find that some of the stuff you thought you needed isn't that essential after all.

Good tip: I use quidco for gifts: mothers day, sisters/nephews birthdays etc. The cashback goes into my paypal not my current account… then next time someone is getting married/having a birthday I use paypal to pay for it (my paypal balance is my cash back) and put that purchase through quidco…. so it's like cashback on cashback… and I always have a bit of cash in my "gift" account from cash back. It works for me because I don't really use paypal for anything else, but I do use quidco for other things like white goods/computers etc so it's regularly topped up.

Just seconding what Barbara said (I keep noticing on here that we have the same approach to budgeting, housing etc!) - for the rest of this month, go without / give yourself £1 a day for snacks. Next month, get yourself to Poundland/Aldi and buy work treats to go in your desk drawer, snacks for the little ones to take in your handbag with a bottle of water so you're not having to stop at Costa or wherever because someone's hungry/thirsty.

I've done the same at times OP, I get it. What works for me is to draw out £100 (or whatever amount) for treats for the month - meals out, new books, tickets to events - and when it's gone, that's it. It's much easier to keep a handle on these things with cash.

Spooky, I have to ask
How do you spend £25 a day in Tesco?!

So you waste 750 a month on shit - snack food, takeaways, meals out, clothes (who buys clothes every month if they are concerned about money???), and kids activities (what???) - then scrounge for money off people?

Cut your cloth accordingly!!

Stop buying snacks and takeaways, stop going out for meals. Only buy clothes if needed - if you're buying every month surely you can do without more new stuff for a bit? The kids activities - is this 100/month or 500/month? 1 is reasonable, 1 is not.

You don't have £750 disposable. You have a £750 black hole in your finances. Do you account for cash? Credit card bills? Food shopping? Kids activities? Ad hoc shopping trips? Lunches? Coffees?

Unfortunately the op hasn't returned to the thread. Op don't take the harsh comments too personally, there's some very good advice here. I hope you can review & improve your spending habits going forward. Best of luck.

Rather than writing down what spend although of course excellent idea, another way round is to decide how much you want to save each month, towards christmas, bdays holidays.

Think about what you need at a weekend, - in week for fun, what you want to save for general savings, what you need for dc expenses then break it all down, literally. That way you know x money is for - expenses, so you don't feel guilty spending it on such, and you know your not taking away from elsewhere to do so.
Then its motivating to cut down on bills and stuff like that as more money to boost your various little pots. Dh and I had been rolling along for years with no real idea what we were spending on, its all tied down now and its great, we feel sooo much better about everything because we know what we spend on XX is allocated to it. We know how many take aways, meals out we can and cant afford.

Roses, I think budgeting is a great idea and i use cash and envelopes for exactly that. The problem I've had for ages is that I was never setting a realistic budget, I set what I wanted to save and then tried to make the rest for, which it never did because the budgets were impossible and then becoming demoralised and demotivated blew the lot lol x I tracked my spending for one month and then set realistic budget and accepted that whilst I could save as much as I wanted to at least I was able to save something x

£750? does that include food shopping?

Thank you. I have had some really great advice here. I am looking a budgeting better and drawing out cash as its easier to spend more using your bank card. Worked out so far that stuff I hadn't originally put in my bill budget is pretty essential. For example I spend around 120 pounds per month on travel expenses and 50 pounds on kids swimming lessons. So that's 170 down from my 'disposable' income straight away.

Years back when money was tighter we had to stop being self indulgent and settle down as mortgage paying parents.
Learn together where that money is going - specifically what activities are costing, what takeaways are costing, what coffees are costing.
Start including more in set budget - regular activities and car costs - and remove notion you have a spare £750. You clearly don't.
Start saving - both outgoings and really start saving.
Set agreed limit on coffees ( one per week or even none). Stop work snacks and take a proper packed lunch. Much better for you.
Restrict takeaways - cook your own rice and bhaji, make your own pizza.
Restrict meals out or do a different version - fish and chips on the beach is way cheaper than a nice little restaurant with a decent Sancerre but way more fun. A walk in the country and single course pub meal feels special but saves two courses. A babysitter is cheaper than paying for children to eat out and better for relationship. Use vouchers for chain restaurants.
Reduce alcohol - don't buy a bottle in a restaurant have a glass and water. Certainly don't smoke and complain about lack of money.
Go to own brand everything to reduce bills. Own brand toiletries, cleaning stuff, tins, juices, cereals, make up, everything apart from perhaps baked beans and ketchup.
Don't take children or husband shopping. Use online or click and collect to stop impulse buying.
Give each partner similar amount of spending money.
Walk or cycle as much as possible.
Activities can be quite cheap if you pick the right ones - go to mother and toddler group not Tumbletots, sports centre swimming and gym not private members health club, beavers and brownies not riding lessons. Use free activities- after school clubs, library story time, the local park. Walks or beach rather than theme parks, home film nights rather than cinema.
Get someone to come to house to do hair of whole family rather than pay expensive salon prices.
Don't buy magazines.
Don't buy clothes unless there is an identified need. New heels are a treat from your personal spending, new school shoes are not.
Restrict amount you are spending on presents. Other children don't care or even remember who gave what. Your own don't need spoiling so use birthdays and Christmas to buy essentials dressed up as presents - new clothes, new bedding, a family trip out, something for an activity. Don't jump on the ridiculous consumer bandwagon of 'needing' to spend hundreds on every birthday or Christmas.
Don't borrow from family. Live within your adequate means.

If you are regularly short of cash at the end of the month you'll have to decrease your spending or increase your income, the bank of Mum, should only be called upon in genuine need and not because you can't be arsed to budget.

There have been a lots of suggestions about ways you can budget and track your spending but you first have to acknowledge that managing the family's finances is your and your partner's responsibility.