To ask how much spare money you have per month?

[littlebee333]

Hi

I am re-budgeting for the new year and some other expenses which will come our way. There is just myself and my husband and a cat. Our children have grown up and left home

After our mortgage, all bills, food, petrol, car payments, plus money we will save for Xmas, birthdays/occasions, holidays, hair cuts, cleaning products, personal care products, Spotify, MOT & servicing, vet clubs and life insurance etc, we will have £350 a month to put aside for home improvements/maintenance and £400 each totally ‘spare’

Do you think this is a reasonable amount? I think my husband would prefer to have more and save less for home improvements. I think it’s enough. I think he feels we should have more as we get paid enough to have more, however, as above, I like to save for all the other expenses in ‘pots’ so there is no need to pull out for this separately

This will be to cover any eating out, cinema, nights out, gym membership, magazine and beauty box subscriptions, gaming, clothes/shoes and any bigger personal care items like make up or aftershave etc.

Is anyone in a similar family dynamic?

How much do you have per month totally spare? Really interested to hear how much others live on. Thanks :)

After all bills and savings we have about £1400 left over. Some months we choose to save more, but others we will spend all the leftovers on trips away, meals out, gigs etc.

Between 600 and 1000 pm spare

Personally for us we’d find it difficult, however we aren’t you, do you think it’s enough for your lifestyle?

Blimey. I probably have about fifty quid a month after bills, food ect.

I normally have about £400 per month spare after everything (mortgage, all bills, insurance, food plus regular £250 per month into savings - DH also contributes £250). This month we had some urgent stuff we needed to buy for the house though, which couldn’t be put off any longer - so I have about £100 spare until the end of November. I’m pregnant though and hardly going out, so I’m not currently spending a lot anyway.

What a depressing thread (for me anyway!). We recently drilled down and have “pots” to save/budget for Christmas, clothes, holiday, kids classes, car etc on top of the money set aside for bills and food. Our food money is pretty generous so we do have a little slack for the odd treat/meal out in that, but otherwise our new budget leaves us with £200 (2 adults 3 kids).

No gigs or weekends away for us.

I usually have around £1200 a month “spare” but it certainly hasn’t always been that way for me. To give some hope to others, this is the case because my DC are grown up, so there’s just me now. However, I would never spend £400 a month on what I’d deem “frivolous” items. Nearly every penny of that goes into savings and then if I want to make a major purchase for the house or go away somewhere, I have the money to do it. If I had a partner and we were both spending £400 a month each on what seemed like pretty meaningless stuff I’d find that a bit of a waste. That’s just under 10k a year. There’s so much else that could be done with that money. So in short I think it’s a very generous allowance and certainly doesn’t need to be higher.

It's just my husband, me and a cat and we have £550 each a month after all bills, food and savings have been paid.

We have zero......we dont have enough to cover all our bills.....but we still live ....one day i think it will work itself out.....im past the stage of caring!!

We have between 900-1100 'spare' a month 2a 2c but it doesn't go far. Savings has to come out of that and we budget 100 a week spends that comes out of that. (although really trying to cut this down. )

About £400 which goes into savings for holidays/Christmas/birthdays/emergencies etc

Much like luxury until this year when we have ended up with a lot of school fees to pay.....................

I have about £400 a month spending money I guess but I'm very frugal and a good cook so save on grocery costs and prefer to buy clothes second hand off so save more that way I guess. Holidays are camping and a couple of weekend trips away, visiting friends usually so low accommodation costs and buy flights in the EasyJet sales a few months in advance.

I might spend a bit on dinners out a couple of times in the month. Bought a few new books this month as a treat where I'd usually use the library. Save about £500 in a pension monthly and £500 tucked away in savings monthly. The savings account has been depleted recently as been paying for some urgent building repairs so trying to build it up again...

I've been broke in the past and I reckon old habits die hard!!!

I would never spend £400 a month on what I’d deem “frivolous” items. Nearly every penny of that goes into savings and then if I want to make a major purchase for the house or go away somewhere, I have the money to do it. If I had a partner and we were both spending £400 a month each on what seemed like pretty meaningless stuff I’d find that a bit of a waste.

I agree with this.
We earn more than we need,. We pool all money.
Spending money on rubbish brings us no joy.
magazine and beauty box subscriptions, gaming, clothes/shoes and any bigger personal care items like make up or aftershave etc.
Not something that appeals.
What we don't spend goes into savings.
That means if we need big house repairs, roof fixing, etc it is not a problem. We save for when we won't be working so much and maybe need the money.
The savings are there to help our children as they embark on adult life.

Wow it is very varied. Really interesting to see how everyone is spending and budgeting. It does make me think about how our money could be better spent but after years of various circumstances struggling/paying debts/moving house/saving for wedding/child rearing etc, we are wanting to have more of a life. It does seem that a lot of our friends are constantly busy/doing things/having fun whilst we sometimes struggle. It’s also really interesting that I’ve lived on barely any money in the past but seemed to get out more and have less money worries...

After bills etc I currently have £600 I could in theory flitter away but I don't I prefer more expensive holidays and nicer hotels instead. Husband has 2k

I don't know how much we have spare each month. I'm a part time and my wages are used mainly for the children's extra curricular activities and presents (xmas, bday etc for friends and family). Anything leftover from that each months just gets put into a savings account. My husband's wages pay our (very low) mortgage and household bills and he saves a lot in various savings accounts too. His wages fluctuate wildly as he has a salary but also gets commission from sales. I think we have about £50,000 in savings between us that is our 'emergency' fund. Sometimes we'll pay a chunk off the mortgage, sometimes we'll need to do house repairs etc. It is very rarely used for anything frivolous as we're both pretty frugal in our spending (which is why we manage to save quite quickly).

Can you pay more into your mortgage each month ? so that you pay it off earlier

Do you both pay into a pension ?

Save some, spend some

The answers will be meaningless because people’s salaries vary so much. I have around £2k free after bills, my husband around £400. What can you do with that information?

A year ago it was nothing. We were struggling to make ends meet. Just now it’s between £3-4K a month. We still live frugally after years of struggle but enjoy eating out once a week now.

On paper we have about £2k per month spare; I aim to put more than half of that away into a savings which requires a few days to get back out and the rest into a regular savings. The rest usually goes on the DC, probably too frivolously.

We don’t have an emergency fund of any size as we had to spend it on a major home repair so I’m trying to build that back up at the moment.

I give myself £400. We aren't married no kids and have separate accounts. With that I meet friends for lunch/meals or with my partner, gigs, pubs or evening out a couple times a month. Clothes shopping if I need anything. Exercise, exhibitions, shows and Birthday presents too. Maybe the odd lunch at work though I mostly make my own meals for work.

I don't see it as frivolous as pp have stated, I see it as living life. I don't have expensive clothes or expensive meals or items etc but I do value time with people and doing interesting things on my time off. I have savings for long term, holidays and enough to cover household emergencies.

I don't earn a big wage but we overpay the mortgage, no other debt and my savings get transferred on pay day ( amounts depending on the months outgoings). (I have insurance and am in the NHS pension scheme too) Whatever is left of my spending money goes into savings at the end of the month.

2.5k a month not that high!! I'm a single mum on less than 1k..so god knows what you think is a good wage

We have about 500 a month between us after bills and food but am getting a car soon so going to nose dive. It's not much but all we can do at the moment whilst the kids are little

Son's just bought first home with girlfriend so hopefully a lot more! Just me and after all bills, food, travel etc I have around £800 - I really need to save more though as I'm a 'fritterer'