to ask how much disposable income you have every month?

[FunnysInLaJardin]

Following on from another thread, yes I know!

We have about £2,800 but save £1,300 which leaves just enough for the month for us to live comfortably. The saving go on long term bills, holidays and all Christmas and birthday gifts for the year.

I know we are fortunate, but every month live until the next pay packet.

I know people have far tighter budgets than us but am interested to know what folk generally live on.

@FunnysInLaJardin that's a hefty mortgage. Ours is only around £900/£1000 but 50% of the property is equity. We live in Scotland so housing maybe cheaper than where you are? 4 bedrooms, kitchen, utility, play room, study, dining room, living room and large garden in a 'naice' area would probably sell for £450k. So not cheap but certainly cheaper than SE England for instance.
We also have minimal childcare costs as I only work PT and both Grans do some childcare.

kaytee we live in the very far far south and so yes housing is much more expensive. We have 3 bedrooms, kitchen, playroom, sitting room and some garden. House is prob worth around £700k. We also have about 50% equity.

I work part time too and have no childcare costs. Without the mortgage we would be much better off obvs, but the mortgage is comparable to rent costs for a similar house, so no real way to cut that back.

Cant wait for it to be paid off tbh, but looking at another 12 years for that!

We have £1,200 disposable income after mortgage, all utility bills, car and horse bills, food and general household shops.

We save virtually all of that. Some is saved saved, and some is saved to then buy bigger things down the line (i.e. new furniture, holiday).

I don't agree that these threads don't have a purpose. Transparency can't be a bad thing.

However I also admit I am nosey so probably why I love these threads. Though who
knows who is telling the truth.

We have a monthly household income of 5.5k. Mortgage, bills & food are 2k so disposable income is 3.5k, of which 2k is saved and 1.5k is spent!

I think a lot of people are being unfair. The poster is asking a question out of curiousity. It sounds like she loves comfortable, but it’s not like she is being insensitive. There are loads that earn a lot more and have loads more to spend each month and there are loads who scrape by and don’t have enough money. She is probably just asking to find out what’s the norm etc. I’m not able to add comment to savings etc. I don’t work. But my husband manages to earn comfortably. We never have thought about budgets etc. We spend what we need to and have savings etc. We don’t spend outrageously. We spend comfortably. I am lucky though, as I don’t have an interest in fashion or experience brands. Otherwise, I might be in trouble. I know some women who have to have the latest bag etc. Which in my opinion is crazy expensive and waste of money unless you earn millions!

Well I managed to save £170 last month out my pay. Then someone put a firework in my window which exploded
I have contents insurance but my excess is £350 so now I have to find the rest
That's why I never have savings, because I always end up paying for someone else's shit (upstairs flat leaked, I had to pay excess. Someone punched my car, I had to pay excess)
So yes I would be jealous of that much disposable income. Not of the OP necessarily but because I try so hard and then end up out of pocket for crap that happens that isn't even my fault/luxury/something I wanted to pay for

After all bills come out, i have roughly £1k. Single parent, 1 child, work full time

We don't really have disposable income.
DP earns a decent enough wage (but probably not by MN standards) and I work two part time jobs. We are saving for a wedding and paying off a great deal of debt so ALL our income goes on that, food, bills and any left over is for activities with DS when I'm at home with him (playgroups, soft plays etc)
We always live paycheck to paycheck. Would love to have £1500 to spend and £1300 to save.

the OP is mixing up disposable with discretionary

disposable is income after taxes, income tax, national insurance and council tax ( ie payments you have to pay and have no influence over the amounts)

discretionary is after housing food utilities as there is some control over how much necessities cost depending on whether you are renting or buying; the size of property; while we all need food the actual amount you spend is up to you, as is how much electric you use , what phone package you chose etc

discretionary includes non necessities Christmas birthdays holidays alcohol cigarettes clothing eating out clubs gym netflix savings school dinners ie anything not crucial to survival and keeping roof over head

After absolutely every single thing is paid , around 1,100 . Partner works full time and we have 4 children . We tend to live quite frugally and alot of our family activities are free or low cost. I feel quite lucky to have this amount , at one point a while ago we were having to account for every last pound and we were barely getting by .So that's probably while I feel like it's more than enough for us :)

I also find these threads interesting.

Our take home is around 4K. Rent £1350, bills around £300, DP is currently paying off some loans. I would say around 1.5k disposable atm.

It varies a lot though. I’m on mat leave and only get statutory so it goes down each month, then each month brings new costs e.g home insurance needs renewing this month, then Christmas, then both car insurances need renewing in Jan.

We’re buying next year with help to buy so housing costs will go down, then I’ll go back to work so in theory we’ll have more, but then childcare will come into it. Plus I don’t think my car will survive much longer... finances change constantly.

And geez. Some people work very hard to get where they are. Not saying the people who don’t earn much money don’t work hard. It’s a combination of working hard and luck. Both my parents came from dirt poor backgrounds. They didn’t have enough good growing up. Their families didn’t have enough money so clothes were old and worn, handed down etc. But my parents and so did half of their siblings manage to break out of this struggle, studied, supported themselves through Uni and got good jobs, worked hard etc. My parents live a very comfortable lifestyle (own 3 houses, good retirement - enough to save each month after paying bills, food etc). But they were once dirt poor and struggling. And I had a comfortable lifestyle growing up thanks to them. Just reading some of these posts from some people who are rude, made me feel like I had to point this out. Just because some people have done well and able to save etc, doesn’t mean you should send hateful or rude comments. Life is not fair and it sucks. Everyone goes through good and bad. Some more then others, but just because some people have done well, no need to write jealous comments.

Nothing. Since my DH got cancer we live on a few benefits and savings. No holidays or extras, or even heating for the house...we have less coming in than going out.

Sometimes life sucks.

fuzzy

Ugh I don't know why I torture myself by reading these threads! My husband and I both work our bollocks off for the NHS but get paid shitty wages which means after mortgage/bills etc we have £400 a month for petrol/food/essentials. Oh and £20 a week for eldest daughter's tutor. So really have £320 a month for everything. Bloody hate being skint all the time.
Oh and some months the NHS treats us to a 5 week month, which means £300 over 5 weeks. Always a fun month

@carr1e1977 I am so upset for you. It is totally awful that people like you who work in a hospital get paid such bad wages. It really is. If I could wave my magic wand I would change that for you as you should be treated with more respect than that❤️

It make my blood boil when stupid footballers get paid the salary they do. So many things wrong in this world.

Aw thanks @dontgiveamonkeys1350 I don't often rant about it as I accepted the wages when I took the job. Its just the cost of living has risen substantially over last few years and this isn't reflected in our wages. We are the poor relations in both my husband and my family. Never have holidays etc. So do occasionally like a pity party for one.

The only saving grace is that most of my friends are in a similar position so we do get to share a moan every now and then

This is the point of anonymous websites, I find it interesting too. To be honest I get annoyed with them being hijacked with tales of woe. For the people posting who somewhow think that posting on here gives access to bank accounts, addresses and passwords, it doesn’t...