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

Its very interesting how much everyones disposable income varys, and very true to the amount of posters that have pointed out how quick circumstances can change so i do count my blessings whatever we have left as there is always someone worse off than us

Fair point DucksOnThePond about the ages i never even gave it a thought but i would guess majority of people that have in the thousands left over are people who are perhaps at the top of their career ladder. we are a young family my dp is 24 i am 23 so we very hopeful that careers will progress in time and we will hopefully be better off in the future but who knows

was about 2.5k per month but not we've moved into a larger house with bigger mortgage and a £600 per month over payment (cos we are scared about mortgage size) and several bands higher in council tax equating to £120 more a month, its much less.

i'm not exactly sure but think its about £1.5k per month /£360 per week after bills and groceries. still able to pay chunks out like £500 without worrying but much less savings than previously as we have house renovations and more maintenance to cover here.

Not getting child benefit to buy ipads or save the Child benefit in isa for kids, we do it all ourselves!

not bitter or suggesting others shouldn't get benefits - glad we can cover it ourselves at the present.

Three years ago I had £50 per month left after bills. Got into a lot of debt trying to survive when I had so little coming in.

Three years on I thank my lucky stars every single month when I pay all of my bills and wind up with £2.4k left in the household. Cos I'll never forget the horrific impact being seriously skint has on your life and mental health.

After all bills we have £25 a week spare money :(

We have £3000 left a month after all direct debit type bills and what must be saved for school fees. I try to save £1000 out of that - some months I do and some months it is less, if there is a birthday or some other additional expense - so it is roughly £500 a week with food and fuel coming out of that too. It would be significantly more if we didn't do private school (3dc), but that's our choice. Holidays and big expenses tend to come out of dh's annual bonus, which is in addition to the above. We are very lucky and we ARE happy, but I don't think it is the money that makes us so.

About 100 pounds a week. That's on a part time salary though so when I work full time from Sept I hope it'll be a bit more!

We have £350 per week for food and funstuff. We live very well on that (2a+2c), with holidays and ponies. Not a big spender on technology and house stuff though.

Eh, my household income is barely £800 a month, and im heavily disabled with a LOT of extra expenses.

I was screwed by ESA being contribution based not income related as i was originally moved over from incapacity benefit, so for the first 365 days i qualified for contribution based, but for the last 5+ years i don't. BUT they keep me on it on a rolling basis as my prognosis is long term. This means i pay for prescriptions, eye tests and glasses, dentist etc, and am not entitled to things like winter fuel payments that i would get if i were on income related, as i SHOULD be. I tried to get it looked in to 2 years ago to be changed over, got completely brushed off and the phone put down on me. So i'm losing out at least £60 a month, if not more in ESA as well as the things i have to pay for that i shouldn't. i'm on at least £60 worth of medications a month i simply cannot afford.
My DLA just switched to PIP, they've taken mobility element (£90 a month) away because my main illness is mental health related, and under scored me for care to have me on standard rate not enhanced like i should be on if my level of care was scored correctly. Mandatory reconsideration they refused to change the decision, and i can't physically leave the house to go to a tribunal so couldn't take it that far and just have to put up with the massive monthly money cut. My dad can only get carers allowance because of my mums pension, even though its only about £1500 a year.

I can't see CAB as i cannot physically get there.

Just got the first quarterly electric bill now im on over £90 a month less, had to go on my credit card at almost 40% APR

AlmostAJillSandwich Get an nhs ppc for £10.40 per month. £50 per month saved instantly.

ducksonapond
Im 26 and my DH is 28, Success has nothing to so with age. We both grew up in poor families so everything we've made is all our own

Im 26 and my DH is 28, Success has nothing to so with age.

Well it does. Most people earn more at 46 than they did at 16.

almostajill, £800 a month -is this after housing benefit is paid or you you not qualify for housing benefit and council tax reduction? Shocking that you are penalised for mental health rather than physical health. both have a huge impact
Not starting a bun fight- just asking.

Single part time working mum, around £50 a week after all bills, groceries etc. Not including my smoking habit, which I count in with my outgoing's, or it would be closer to £80 a week.

WickedLazy I'm not judging the smoking (done it myself) but are you saying you spend almost 50% of your disposable income on cigarettes? As a single parent?

We have quite a lot honestly but in our early 40s we're pretty much at our lifetime peak earnings and have very young kids. I should think we'll be needing to downsize, draw on savings, make cutbacks, etc, long before official retirement age.

I keep or save £20 a week for stuff for ds including new clothes, but again I include that in my budget. Yes I spend about £25 a week on cigarettes, do I feel guilty about it? Do I fuck, I don't drink, and to plenty of pp's here that would be the cost of a new eyeshadow pallete or whatever.

£200 per month (and as I said that's after cigarettes and money saved or spent on new clothes for ds etc), disable income isn't loads, but it's enough for just me and ds. Plus I don't drink or go clubbing anymore, which saves me a fair bit of money.

Disposable*

Sorry in my post at 18.59, that should have said "keep or spend". Damn mobile.

After bills food and fuel/car

Probably have £250 pw spare towards anything needed birthday's Christmas etc

4 dc