To ask how much disposable income you give yourself each week?

[m1ssB]

Just interested in other responses. At the moment I don't know if I'm giving myself too much/too little to spend on myself each week so want to see what others say..

Please share

See I'm quite careful to separate out these days money that is spent on me vs money that is spent on the kids.

I love buying children's clothes and books and toys for them, so if I have personal spends it's what I tend to spend it on. DH rarely buys those kinds of things and is happy for me to choose the majority of them, I enjoy it. But I've started budgeting separately for them because otherwise I end up with no money just for me.

Likewise when I say coffee with friends etc, really this is an activity for DS because it's where we meet other mums and babies (not so much at the moment, granted). I've sort of roughly halved that because yes it is socialising/fun for me, but also I need to take him out and do stuff with him or he'd be stuck in the house all day.

Other things which tend to get categorised as my "personal" spend when I give myself a pot are my tram/bus tickets and drinks/snacks/small meals that I end up purchasing when we're out because it's been longer than expected or I just didn't bring a snack with me.

I spend DPs money 🙈. There are no limits but I don’t spend much on me. I buy toiletries and shop in charity shops for clothes. I only have my hair done every 12 weeks and it’s super cheap. No other regular beauty treatments although for my birthday I get some filler in my eye troughs.

To go against the norm of the rich that seem to be on MN...currently nothing because covid has left our jobs up the shitter.
Normally £50 pw.

Your all doing quite well threads like this make me wonder where all those people that are using food banks are and the ones waiting for their next universal credit payment to buy a washing machine

I have no limit but im far from rich. I dont spend loads. I spent about £70 today but I went shopping to get paint and other bits. I'm going London for a few days and will spend whatever it costs on dinner and days out. I always know I'll have money in the bank but wouldn't buy a £1000 bag or anything.

My credit card bill is 2-3k per month.

Bills/essentials are separate and paid by direct debit.

@speakout

It's not a concept that I practice.

I don;t give myself money to fritter away. I have a dislike of "stuff" in general, and only buy what I need.

What is frittering away and how do you judge what is need and what is want? Is it frittering money away to live in a house with three or more bedrooms? Is it frittering money away to have books or hobbies or holidays or a wardrobe of clothes? How many shoes are essential and how much money should a pair of shoes cost? Is it more frivolous to have 3 cashmere jumpers that cost £200 each or 12 jumpers that cost £50 quid each? How much can you spend on food before it becomes extravagant?

@poshme

£500 a week on personal spends??!!

What do you spend it on?

We are very comfortable, but I don't spend anywhere near that on personal spending. If I had that much left I'd put it into savings for holidays or for the kids.

Really- those who spend that much- what do you spend it on?

Eating out (including paying for others who can’t afford it, like you’ve said), clothes (work clothes easily cost 1-200 for a dress or separates), treats (Dyson hair dryer, face masks, makeup), shoes, handbags, online courses, hairdresser, books...

I’m left with £300 a week after bills
Try to keep it to about £100 and save the rest

[quote dollypopy]@LongPauseNoReply thanks for answering. You own your own business I assume? good for you. Do you sell a product or a service you provide. Sorry to be nosy! [/quote]
Yes I own my own business. Mix of digital products plus private consultancy.

I’m happy to answer any questions because I want women to know that they can do what I did. I’m not magic, special or lucky. No handouts to get started either!

None currently due to being made redundant 😟

I am not wealthy at all. It's just that I live in a very cheap area so my bills are small. I don't own a car plus my ex is a high earner so I get a lot of child maintenance which is pure luck. My entire income is only about £2k a month which includes the maintenance, but my mortgage, bills and food only come to about £800 in total per month leaving a lot to play with. I put £200-£300 in savings every month.

We have about £1500 left after bills. About 1k goes into savings and the rest is fun money.

Zero. All of my money goes onto essential bills.

We have about £200 per month each- I can usually manage but sometimes have to
Dip into The joint account- especially if there have been lots of social events at work (leaving do’s etc)

Between 400 and 600 per month.. After holiday, Christmas savings, bills, food, petrol. However if I've spent on my credit card this has to come out hense the 600 pm can sometimes be 400pm if I owe about 200 to the credit card. I feel that's lots.. Of course I could always spend more but I have lots of clothes, make up, nights out, trips away etc. It does depend on what you choose to buy massively... My friend buys herself the same amount of treats and we both feel equally like we treat ourselves yet her budget is alot more than mine. Difference is she'd think nothing of spending 200 or 300 on winter boots whereas mine would be from new look.. Im happy with that though!

After all bills and pension, I have around 2.7k. So I save about 1.5 and spend about 1.2k - clothes is usually about £300 and then stuff like haircuts/beauty treatments/products about £200. The rest is going out (including eating out, drinks etc as I don’t include that as essential), gifts, and other stuff.

No set amount but I'm not very "spendy"
Eg I do not really spend on:

• beauty/grooming
• takeaways/convenience food
• magazines or other subscriptions

The stuff I spend for myself (clothes, shoes, books etc) tends to come in waves, I might buy a few new things before a holiday but very little other times.

Averaged through the year it might be about £600-800 a month but tbh I dont track it at all, I have a relatively high income & years of careful budgeting habits mean I now trust myself not to overspend.

Clappingforjoy mumsnet has a distinct lean towards south east based high earning professionals, have you never noticed?

Netmums is a bit more balanced

I have around £450 a month to spend on what I like. I usually get through that very easily.

That’s after bills, food, petrol.

£300 a month
So normally fine but it's a bit touch and go if it's a month with an MOT and something big needs doing.

bertiebotts
^See I'm quite careful to separate out these days money that is spent on me vs money that is spent on the kids.

I love buying children's clothes and books and toys for them, so if I have personal spends it's what I tend to spend it on. DH rarely buys those kinds of things and is happy for me to choose the majority of them, I enjoy it. But I've started budgeting separately for them because otherwise I end up with no money just for me.^

This I totally get, I am aware I do this, I've started putting all childrens things on ths joint account. It had got to the stage where DH was simply blind to the cost of their shoes/coats etc as well as christmas gifts!

All of it, I earned it. It is therefore all mine to spend as I wish.

I choose to spend it on a variety of necessities and non-necessities, but I don't "decide" on an amount of disposable income - it isn't disposable, anyway. I make purchases carefully. I don't just shop randomly and buy tat.

About £25 a week. I get paid monthly so £100 a month split as below

Hair cut £20
Phone bill £25
Contact lenses £15
Clothes/toiletries £20-30
Meal out with a friend/tea and cake £20
Exercise class ×2 £10

A significant amount but I am incredibly frugal due to not having much money in the past. I have a few income streams and seem to be back on the up after taking a hit at the start of Covid. I still cut my own hair and wear clothes from charity shops, drive an older car, meal plan...etc. People wouldn't guess we had money but we both work a lot and have businesses around "normal" jobs.