To ask how much do you have in your bank account on payday?

[coffeeforone]

And has this position changed since 10 years ago?

10 years ago age 25 - I had an overdraft facility the size of my monthly salary (£1200) that would be maxed out by payday and I would be happy to go back to zero each month. I'd be very excited if I had hundreds on pay day. I didn't care about being overdrawn and would max out my overdraft even to buy things like clothes etc.

Today age 35 - I have money left before payday, i'd panic more if I ever risk going overdrawn, and my bank balance on payday is at least the amount of my pay. (If I think I'm going to go overdrawn I wouldn't buy a new pair of shoes - 10 years ago I wouldn't hesitate)

Have times changed in that people are more likely to not go overdrawn, or is it just my financial position and attitude to money has got better?

On payday, I have 2200 in my bank account. The day after payday my bills go out and I'm left with about 800.
I don't have an overdraft and I don't want one.
I have to live within my means and I do.

Do you mean what will your balance be before you’re paid?

Mine would be £1200-1500 because we build some money up from my partners weekly wages to pay the bills on the 1st and live off the rest. Then my wages come in on the last working day, nearly £1200 there. Then almost all bills come out on the first so we might be left with a few hundred of the original £1200-1500 plus my wages. Then it all disappears in the blink of an eye and I don’t know where to :(

The day before payday usually near 2k, but we've just had some of our house painted and paid my student loan as an annual payment, so I think we'll be lucky with 800.

Pretty much the exact amount of my salary. I always transfer money to savings and pension up front (day after payday) so by the time I reach payday again I’m generally right to the wire. Possibly a couple of hundred less - I have no qualms about using my overdraft, I save more when I save up front, so I’d rather occasionally go into my overdraft than keep the buffer money all month. As a student, I never went overdrawn - because I couldn’t afford to. So I actually use my overdraft more now I’m older, because I feel totally secure about being able to repay it.

Day before payday - usually £20-30 left over (high outgoings that I'm reducing, and debts being paid off). Although I spent years overdrawn due to poor money choices during a mental illness episode so during that time I would be happy to have -£500 in my £1500 overdraft after being paid, never mind before!

On payday itself I have about £1700 in my account, and then the day after it goes down to about £500 after all bills go out. Then that covers food and petrol (very long commute, so maybe £250 of it is petrol, then £150 on food, then £100 left for bits and bobs like toiletries, clothes etc). I am not particularly careful with my money or good at budgeting, hence such high outgoings and still paying debts off, but I aim to get to the point where I have much more left at the end of the month. And I do freelance work where I can to top up/pay off debts faster.

Ten times monthly salary.

My current account is also one of my savings accounts though.

My salary into my bank is approximately £1900.

My balance, on payday, generally sits between 5k and 6k. I generally move chunks into my stocks and shares ISA.

No over draft.

I'm 33.

I have always been very careful with money, largely, I think, because my parents were pretty rubbish with it!

About £22,000 in savings

10 years ago about £220 overdrawn month after month after month

Presuming you mean the amount that you have in your account before your salary goes in (l.e your resting surplus?) rather than your actual pay.

If so, between £500 and £1000. Once it reaches £1000, I scoot £500 over to my savings. £500 is a big enough slush for my personal spends account. Despite having a healthy salary, I only spend a couple of hundred a month on myself,the rest gets whisked away to various savings and investments.

DH's salary goes into a Santander 123, which we keep at just below £20k. All bills and spends come from there, and any excess over the £20k at month end gets put into longer term savings and investments.

We're comfortably in the black though, and probably spend less than 50% of our income annually.

I’ve just realised it said one ‘pay day’ 😳

Roughly £3,200 after pay day but that includes DH wages too

Not much as we have a pretty comprehensive budget and transfer money into savings straight after payday. We have money going into short term savings for yearly expenses like holidays, car services, tv licence etc, then cash savings, then savings into a stocks and shares ISA.

All our 'fun money' is in a separate account. We spend most of that!

Oh I thought that you meant before pay goes in?

Before pay drops in about £50-80 left over from the month. Then my pay £1400 goes in. I work a 40hour week and am a lone parent of one child aged 5. I am lucky I have other money drop in to my account through the month. £80 child benefit and £160 Universal Credit for housing costs.

I also have a small savings account I top up £50 a month.

It's not much, but we get by, and I am very lucky to end up in the black at the end of the month. I know many families do not. So I feel lucky even though I don't have thousands of surplus income.

Before my pay goes in (I assume that's what you mean otherwise you'd have said 'how much do you get paid each month') usually between £150 and £500. I keep a bit of a cushion in there separate to my actual savings that come out on payday. Basically when I'm budgeting I count how much spending money I have left for each week til payday (money in bank minus bills due out divided by the number of days left in month times 7) and I mentally update that every day or two. Then I allocate myself a certain portion of that I can spend guilt free (so say the week's amount was £350 I'd be happy to spend up to £200 of it) and even then I'd try not to. The more of a cushion I already have when I'm paid, the bigger that number is, and the bigger it gets through the month, so I end up being happiest and most able to spend when it's close to payday, and the cushion kind of builds up naturally in the meantime because of the early cautious period each week/month. Sounds like a weird complicated system but it works really well for me!

Loads because I'm in the paid part of my maternity leave & spending almost nothing, so the rolling balance has to stretch to cover a few months when I only get smp.

So something absurd like 5k before payday, and then I get paid, then bills go out, and what's left I try and roll forward to pay next months bills!

I like a cushion in my current account of at least a months' net pay.

I’ve not been overdrawn in 7 years. I currently have a credit card with 24 months interest free which works out better than an overdraft 😂

On payday, £2000-ish usually - £1900 salary plus I like to keep £100-ish buffer money in there throughout the month. £1000 immediately gets transferred out to our joint account for bills etc, and £300 to savings. My credit card gets paid off in full a week or so later, and then any left over gets transferred into the savings as well, after a quick check I don’t have a random annual DD due that month (keeping the £100 buffer).

10 years ago I was still a student so would be well into my overdraft still, and not even ‘payday’ from my 20 hours a week job would bring me back even. I’ve learnt a lot about financial responsibility since my uni days!

(Sorry, just read that back and I didn’t mean to imply that everyone in their overdraft is financially irresponsible; just me and my student spending on nights out and trips away with my Uni club )

Big fat £0 here!

Not enough

I was the same but never use my overdraft now. I usually keep about £800-£1000 in my current account and put anything else into savings.

I always leave a £200 buffer in my account - no idea why, it’s force of habit now. If I have more than £200 left the night before payday I move the extra into savings. If I dip below £200 I take the money from savings (the former is more likely - the latter usually only happens in the run up the Christmas).

I just like to have that buffer there in case of the unexpected. I haven’t been overdrawn since my free overdraft ended about 3 or 4 years after graduation (started off at the maximum overdraft, gradually reduced it over that time.) I graduated 15 years ago

Around £2500 in that account.
Other accounts between £1500-£2000 depending on interest rates.

About £700, and get paid on Friday. But I’m old and get excited about how much I can pay into my pension.