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

I have about 400 pounds a month left over after all bills, food (if I stay within what I allocate for food in my budget) and petrol (again if I stay in budget). Me and two DD's (and Dogs). It's an ok amount until something major breaks down or one of the Dogs does something dumb and needs to go the vet or whatever. Plus I don't out anything away in savings or pension which is a worry.

Cleo yea i think that is a lot, but i also think if i had that amount of disposable income i to would someone still find something to spend it on

Stretchout Yes it definitely is not money wasted, even though its so expensive

Beetle i agree its never ending there always seems to be something needing renewed or an upcoming event etc

Mrslaura thats great that both you and your dh have such a good amount of disposable income

Cracker i think its fantastic that you are so well prepared for your future

Selftitled thats a fantastic amount to have left over

Nixnjj that is terrible i hope he changes his mind and fixes it, central heating is do damn expensive would the council not help you to get another house it that landlord is making it hard for you to afford etc (sorry if this sounds naive) but im not sure how good your local council is

Goose hope your situation changes really soon i really cant understand how people in this day in age are left with literally nothing its so unfair

Darth it always seems to be the same when theres a busy month with lots of costs another unexpected bill appears

Thanks to everyone replying i think im sort of getting the hang of this mumsnet thing and to the people who are struggling i hope your situations improves soon.

It is the more precious things in life that make us happy our homes, dcs, health

No he won't change his mind, I'm a single mum with mental health issues so get housing benefit so he knows I can't go anywhere and when I ask for things to be fixed it's always my responsibility. Council not interested as I'm considered suitabley housed. I'm at my wits end I have to add £80 a month to housing benefit to cover rent which might no seem a lot but that's I weeks money. I can't reduce food bill any further. I already skip a minimum of 3 meals a week. Sorry rambling on but have been racking my brains to try and budget better but no phone, use freeview for Tv and nothing left to sell

Nixnjj thats horrible i hope your situation improves soon, i just assumed that if you couldnt afford to pay for your house they would serve and eviction notice which you would pass along to the council proving that you do need somewhere to live as you have your dc but i guess that was naive to assume as im not really clued up on how the council work there housing. Have you been to money matters to see if they could perhaps help you with things, or ever help with food bank vouchers etc?

I've had £5 a week disposable income, and £1000, and Lots in between.
I don't think I'm particularly happier now I've got so much more cash; ok my dinner out on a Friday night might now be a Michelin star instead of McDs but both have been with friends, so doesn't really matter.
Mind, my £5 a week was pre dc which I imagine makes a huge difference.
The main benefit for me with more, isn't the nicer food or long haul holidays, it's the reduction in stress and arguments having cash brings.

I couldn't afford to go back to.work after having DC3 as nursery require deposit plus first months fees upfront - just under £1k so it wasn't feasible. This month has been especially crap as cat had an infection so had to pay vet bills, so actually in deficit...Ah well, 18 days til payday.

I think money must definitely be the number one cause of stress and arguments in familys, that said i dont think it necessarily makes people happier

Mo i never even knew some nurserys expected so much upfront and i thought it was hard getting my dd started without having the added stress of trying to find a deposit, hope your cats ok

About 2k a mth after everything, but have only just recently been in a position enough to have that.
3 yrs ago we were skint, and struggled for every penny so we are lucky to have this.
Starting to furiously save as DH is ill again, and I know how shit being ill is.

3k between us. Feel lucky!

Ex DP was on a very high salary though and we had around 6k left! But he was borderline abusive and gas lighty so glad I left!

Susanne thats great you are in a much stronger financial position

Polar well done you for having the courage to get out of a potentially abusive relationship

A lot.
No mortgage, large pension pot I'm about to start drawing down from and savings.
Dh still works.
It's an indescribable feeling not having money worries.

About 3k a month but we are overpaying on our mortgage and putting it into pensions.

As a household, I'd say around £2400 left over after rent, bills.

Individually I have slightly more bills than my partner and earn a tiny bit less so I have about £1,100 left and he has about £1,300.

We save monthly (me around £200-300, him much more), I have more expensive tastes I guess as I go to more events that cost a lot in tickets and travel whereas he doesn't spend loads on himself. We have a joint we use for rent and bills and the majority of our food each month and separate accounts for the rest.

Around £3200 'spare' per month after all bills, food, gardener, window cleaner etc.
We each take £600 a month to spend and then save £2000.

About £950 a month for spends between us.This is divided equally. This is after all bills and food shopping but not clothes or baby activities. We have one DC and I am a SAHM. We save £200 a month for contingencies . DH also gets a bonus of about 1-2k every six months which goes into a savings account for car upgrades and safety net. I think we are doing very well and manage a holiday once a year and day trips.

It can vary but around £500 a month depending. This month we pretty much have zero as dh work messed his pension contributions up so to fix it they doubled his deduction to £1200 this month and we also had a large bill we had to pay this month.

We are not destitute but I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish we had more. Would be lovely not having to worry about paying for car repairs or broken down white goods for example. However that said we do have a good life, kids do activities which although cheap relative to what other similar clubs in the area charge, is still a large layout every month.

I honestly don't know. But we have saved 400k in the past 6 years.

I know we're lucky but we also aren't big spenders (for our income anyway). No takeaways, almost no restaurants, few weekends away, holidays are a self catering cottage in the country we live in. own brand food, no designer clothing. Electronic goods are years old etc.

I don't understand the PP who said they wouldn't know how to spend extra money. We saved and now we are moving to a flat that is 50% bigger than our current one, using savings so we don't have to increase our current mortgage.

I like having this (huge) financial cushion as no one in our families could help us if necessary. We can only rely on ourselves.

That's amazing SnowOnTheSeine, bloody well done!

At the age of thirty I finally have gotten my arse into gear re saving, previously I never saved as for most of my working life I didn't earn enough to cover my living costs let alone any extra, and the part where I finally started to earn okay I wasn't used to it and used to blow it. About a year ago I started putting aside £200 per month and have just today saved my first £2k ☺️

I know it's not much but I've never managed to save more than £700 before and that was for an item I saved up to buy. For the first time in my life I have a bit of a cushion and it feels bloody amazing, far more amazing than all of the stuff I could have blown £200 per month on.

It's in an ISA for a mortgage in the next few years hopefully but knowing it's there and that I did that and I can use it for emergencies if I needed to has brought so much peace of mind and a sense of achievement.

Thanks everyone who's replied on this thread, its does seem that most agree money doesn't create happiness, although it does seem to make life a good bit easier. and well done to everybody who seems to have a good bit saved, hopefully soon i get myself into gear and start saving a good bit to have as a safety net

About £300 per month to absolutely fritter away. It is usually a little more, but I am saving for a holiday.
I put money back each month for replacements, car stuff, Christmas and such like, which isn't factored into the £300 which still doesn't feel enough!
Single mum, 2DCs, no housing costs.

My parents come from extremely poor families. I was brought up in a comfortable-ish household but every penny was accounted for, my parents never relaxed.

DH was brought up in a poor family.

Consequently we both hate spending money unnecessarily. I remember as a student some friends of mine being amazed at how much I was saving from my part time job. But I deliberately chose the tiny studio a long walk from uni in order to create a financial cushion. And I've never gotten rid of that mentality. Oddly, DB is very different to me and spends everything he has and more

lemonviola well done on your first 2k! That's great and the day you need it you will appreciate it loads more than anything you could have' frittered it away on.