To ask how much "disposable income" you have per week / month after bills

[princesspeppax]

(Nosey mumma) Watching a programme "rich house poor house" where family's switch homes and budgets for the week to see wether money really does create happiness (both family's seem to be very happy regardless of financial situation) the richest family's have In the region of thousands disposable per week and the poorest have £200 or less to use for weekly food and dc classes social lifes etc so

AIBU To ask what your disposable income is, and are you happy with it

For me and my df and 2 dc we have around £180 a week after all bills to buy food social outings dance classes birthdays christmas etc

About £46 a month

I would be to twocatsonebaby i have the ultimate fear of catalogues / finance for this reason and would only use it if it was an absolute necessity, but i'm also in Scotland so i don't think they have the same legal rights to enter your home and take etc, not sure though

splendide
We pay dividend tax so if we don’t need the income we don’t take it
We do of course pay corporation tax on profits after expenses.

We are the same position as you were before Reality on good weeks we do well spare money for holidays days out etc but all it takes is a bad thing to happen to make us struggle at christmas time when df car broke and cost is around £400 to fix, we had to make do on a lot less weekly than we do now but thanks to this now i have started trying to save a little each week as a "rainy day fund" so to speak so if any other thing (god forbit) breaks we wouldnt struggle as much to gather the money for it

£1500 a week, but I'm single and don't have kids so probably needlessly screwing up the average.

I try to limit frivolous spending to around £1800 per month each which I find hard but we probably have at least double that - I put the rest into various savings accounts and a holiday fund.

We pay dividend tax so if we don’t need the income we don’t take it
We do of course pay corporation tax on profits after expenses.

But you need to get that profit out eventually is what I mean, presumably you want to benefit from it ultimately . It doesn’t matter of course - didn’t mean to grill you on you’re tax affairs!

*your, sorry

Blimey some of you have loads. I feel like i'd won the lottery if I had thousands left a week.

We have about £100 a week after everything.

£1000-1100 per month but in fairness we paid off our mortgage 10 year so ago and have no intention of moving again. This makes a huge difference! (Along with the fact we live in the North Midlands 😁)

We both took early retirement a few years ago. DH has been claiming state pension for the past year but I have another 4 years to wait. Most of our income is from private and workplace pensions we both have.

Majority of our disposable income is added to our investment portfolio each month. The rest is put into a holiday fund. We have a wonderful albeit not madly affluent lifestyle - certainly wasn't always this way. It is so lovely to go to bed at night not having to worry about either work or money.

Kyrenia i agree, when i started the thread i thought we done fairly well but wow what some other posters have is massive amounts of many, very lucky

Rafflesaway thats fantastic you both got early retirement, thats very lucky that you have such a great life style heres hoping when i reach me and dp reach retirement we be so lucky

splendide it’s ok I don’t mind.
If we need it we would of course take it but in the most tax efficient way as advised by our accountant. As we don’t it can stay where it is

Good thread. I have always been of the opinion that we cut our cloth according to our means, or whatever that saying is. I can live on very little, have had to in the past. Not anymore. I know that I am very lucky. Hats off to all of you still struggling. Hope it gets easier in time.

I wish I could answer. Recently moved, new house but no longer have a mortgage (!) which is an amazing blessing. I am hoping to retire in a couple of years so preparing for a much reduced fixed income.

Buying new furniture and all the million little things you need in a new place - from cup hooks to light fixtures - has meant enormous credit card bills for the last three months. I do pay them off in full each month but still, seeing that many thousands coming out each month is shocking. However, I had put the money aside for it from the proceeds of prior house sale, so it is still within budget.

March will be the first month we see how much our living expenses will be. It is a mystery of the cosmos right now. In theory should be cheaper, but now we have an alarm company bill and lawn care. We also have a bloody Jacuzzi (left by prior owner) so here's to what the electricity bill will look like. First world problems.

Princesspeppax- we were just in the thick of 2 small DC, mortgage etc. DS2 was a poorly baby and tube fed so I couldn’t go back to the job I’d had. Tough times! Then DH got a couple of good promotions, we moved overseas and now in a very fortunate position. But I still remember those hard times and it’s taken a while for us to actually start to spend any of the surplus!!

I'm self-employed so it varies, but we usually have at least £1000 after all bills and food, and sometimes as much as £3000 if I've had a good month. We're TTC at the moment so anything spare is going in savings as I'll only get Maternity Allowance.

£1500 a month after all bills including food, petrol, kids clubs, uniform, haircuts, clothing, footwear, Xmas savings etc. I thought we were very lucky with £1500 a month but some of these numbers are much higher.

2018 wish you luck in your new house, and wow on the jacuzzi part that would be an essential in my dream home

JoandMax thats great, i think when people have been "skint" and then their financial circumstances change it makes them appreciate it that little bit more

Celebelly good luck with ttc sending baby dust your way

OhKnow i would still class you as very lucky, as i would myself compared to some people who have nothing left after bills

At the moment we are paying off about 4K debt on credit cards so we allow £1400 a month between us for food, petrol which is over £60pw, kids clothes, socialising, kids clubs and activities. Everything other than set bills. It sounds a lot but it doesn’t last.

From September we will have no nursery fees and the debt will be paid off so we will be a lot better off and have about £2300 a month after all bills. Unfortunately as we have a house which we rent out in negative equity the spare £900 will be thrown at that house for two years til we can get it down enough to sell it.

After all bills, debt repayments and food shopping, we have about £400 a month or so? To cover all days out, kids clothes, our clothes, toddler groups, day to day spends.) I think we’re fairly average really.

Turquoise you will be glad with the childcare costs nursery is so damn expensive it is also a massive chunk of our weekly income

Sudden i also thought that was about average as are we but from this threat it seems to be very little in comparison

None at the moment because I am out of a job. DH still has job his money pays all bills. 1 dd and one on the way. Rely on family to stretch out food budget currently

That £200 on poor house had to cover gas and electric metres , food, bus fares , school lunches etc. It wasn't disposable income.

Looking at disposable income in this way hides a lot of different spending habits. Someone could have ‘low’ disposable income but be ploughing lots into pension or mortgage overpayments which would put them in a stronger financial position than someone appearing to have more but paying interest only on their mortgage with no pension. Income after food would also be a bit distorted as a lot of food spending would be discretionary.

I don’t know how people on carers allowance manage. It really is a disgrace how low it is given the hard life facing many carers (and the costs they save the state through their caring role).

Fudgiebutt hope your finances are better soon

User147 i am also on carer allowance and my dp works full time i think thats why we maybe dont have as much disposable income as some and i get what you mean with food shop as i know some people spend a fair bit more than others with brands etc

Mydc i knew it had to cover food and i assumed lunches would be included into food but even so it was just a generic income and i honestly really was just being nosey and stating that even though we must be classed as a 'poorer' family we are happy 😃