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

@TheSunIsStillShining ah I'm not actually spending £100 a month on bath stuff/skincare but I feel like I could! I actually avoid Lush because I know I will really want the bath oils if I go in - and they're bloody expensive! I do spend quite a lot on skincare but that tends to be one big splurge every three months or so. If you get into branded skincare you could spend £100s in a year I'm sure.
Likewise I don't wear much make up but I can see how you could ed up spending loooooads on it. The weird thing is I don't consider myself to be a big spender on grooming because I never go to a salon or get my nails done and I get a haircut about twice a year.

@TheSunIsStillShining I spent loads on beauty products this month, because everything seemed to run out at once. I do a bit of freelance work on top of my main job, and had some extra money, and bought:

Pixi glow toner
Botanics facial oil and moisturiser
Emma Hardie cleanser
Diptyque perfume

An Armani lipstick (this wasn’t a replacement)

I also bought a bra, some jeans (Monki) and two cardigans (one from Arket, and the other Other Stories via Depop)

(I usually hang out on Style and Beauty, tbh)

I have no idea, we've never worked it out! But we've always got money left over without dipping into savings unless we're working on a big house project, and don't have any debts. How would you ever work it out, things change from month to month (eg big garage bill, etc)

I think the tricky thing here is that some of us think we spend very little on personal spends because we don't consider certain things as part of our personal spends that others do. Some of this is because it is automatic spending that we don't make a decision about, so it doesn't register.
Eg someone upthread said petrol. Pre lockdown I spend a lot on petrol but most of it was work mileage so although filling the tank was expensive, I was getting it back. And I had to travel a long way to get to work in the first place, but very much an essential bill, I wouldn't ever decide money is a bit tight, I'll not bother going to work today!
On a recent thread the op listed 2x contact lens subscriptions coming to £50 and someone told her she should get them online. Mine is £22 and as someone who has a very complex prescription, I'm happy that this covers all my optical needs. I could get the lenses online but not the eye care. I consider seeing a basic health need (I may resent having to pay for my own contact lenses when I was 13 and they were about £150 a pair - I could get one eye for birthday or Xmas, but had to find the other one. If they ever need it, my kids can have it out of the household budget!)

Pure luxuries - impulse purchases to the kindle. I can't boycott Amazon while they do the best e-reading service!
Massage every 6 weeks (£30) I used to have a subscription to a swimming pool near work (£24 pcm) plus pay £3 to play netball. Plus £7 yoga class. That is down to weekly yoga for £5 if there is no thunderstorm! My pre lockdown exercise expenses were high but I figured they were positive expenses.
We had a night away and day trips - does that count as the kids were there? Would it count if they hadn't have been?
I tend to buy clothes twice a year, then maybe charity shop bits in between. I would 'allow' myself to buy what i need, I just find clothes shopping stressful so avoid it.

Well I used to have unlimited personal spending meaning I earned enough that I could spend thousands a month without thinking about it. We socialised with people who would also spend in a similar way so it was the norm at the time. We had a standing reservation at a sushi restaurant every fortnight for example that would cost nearly £400 a meal for 2. I wouldn’t think about the cost of buying clothes etc. After I had children I didn’t go out as much and spent a lot on things for them. This year my business has really suffered because of Covid and for the first time I have had to really think about personal finances. I had to put my employees first. It’s been eye opening looking at outgoings and reining everything back in, realising most material things are not really necessary. I grew up poor by the way but started earning over 100k a year in dividends about a year after graduating and starting my own business.

@speakout

KilljoysDutch are you eligible for PIP?

Probably but honestly considering one of the issues I get ESA for is GAD I can't bear the idea of going through the utter terror of applying and waiting to hear if they think I'm fucked up enough to be allowed a little extra cash. I know in the long run it would be beneficial but the anxiety the thought of it all - that horrible meeting to be assessed and having to explain all the reasons I can't function like a normal person is awful.

I don't set an amount, I save 1000 a month, pay mortgage, bills etc and anything left over I spend

@AlwaysLatte personally - the reason I know how much I spend on various things is I use Monzo as my main account. And I pretty much never use cash. Monzo automatically categorises spending so I could see easily at the end of the month that I spent £X on eating out, £X on groceries, £X on shopping etc. It’s really interesting! I though I I had a good idea of how much I spent on groceries for example because we just do two online food shops a month, but after a few months of using Monzo I realised how all the in-between shops (for stuff like fresh bread, fruit and veg) adds up and how much I was actually spending on groceries was a lot more than I thought.

I budget £100 a month each for DP and I to cover going to the pub, out to eat, haircuts, clothes, books, cinema etc. Toiletries are budgeted for elsewhere. If I don't use my whole £100 then I put the remainder into our 'house bits' savings account which is basically for me anyway since DP doesn't really notice decor. I used to use more of it before lockdown because I was spending it on coffee at work or buying lunch at pret but now I'm sleeping more and eating lunch at home so I've just been using it to buy a few books or pieces of clothing off ebay. I've never had my nails done, hate going to the hairdresser, not hugely sociable, don't see the point in designer labels, don't wear makeup etc so not much else to spend it on.

About £50 a week

@notthemum I am not sure which magazines you like but my local library allows me to use RBdigital.

150 per month but that is just for me, clothes, books, coffee etc. Bills, food, family meals / days out, holidays etc are budgeted separately.

Are we classing “disposable income” as non-essentials? I buy stuff so rarely that I just pay for it on the family credit card. I bought a skirt last week and that’s the first item of clothing I’ve had since 2017. I can’t afford hairdressers or beauty treatments, I’m not a fan of eating out and I never eat takeaways. I used to spend about £15 a week taking myself and DC out for a coffee or cooked breakfast, but that’s stopped now due to Covid. Other stuff like toiletries, spectacles, dental appointments, etc would come out of family funds because we all need those things.

I wouldn't count children's clothes, toys, work clothes, and some of the other stuff mentioned as extras tbh, so there will be a lot of different responses depending on what people count.

DH and I each give ourselves £200 a month spending money. It's not completely disposable though - mine covers my phone, Amazon Prime, Spotify and gym membership as well as clothes, presents, books, going out, haircuts, plants, dentist etc.The rest goes into savings, though, so if we do need money for something, it's there.

I have £50 per week after bills. That needs to cover food & petrol too so doesn't stretch very far.

My £200 a month is after absolutely everything has been paid, all bills, phone, travel, subscriptions, fuel, car finance etc it is purely fun money.

I don't have a set amount. I probably spend on average £100 a month on myself, mostly on clothes and coffees.

I wouldn't consider gas or the dentist to be part of this, I'd see those as 'essential'

About £50 a month, once everything has come out

OP as you can see you've asked the ultimate 'how long is a piece of string' question.

Personal spending money on non essentials is right at the bottom of the priority list if you're being sensible, so when deciding what is the right amount what you should look at is:

Pay all bills including rent/mortgage and any debt
Pay all essential child costs if you have DC and make sure you've accounted for irregular spends like gifts and uniforms, possibly savings for university if you're likely to have to contribute to their living costs
Make sure you have a pension
Savings for annual and irregular expenses like insurance, broken cars pets or washing machines and holidays and Christmas etc
Put some money aside in case you lose your income, or buy appropriate insurance

Only after all the above has been covered should you think about what is reasonable to spend on non essentials for yourself or other adults in the house. If there's plenty left, you're fine, but if there's little or nothing left, you need to see what costs you can cut to free money up.

Think about everything you spend. Some things are fairly fixed and essential, eg council tax or water others there's a huge variation in what you have to spend and if you're spending a lot more than the minimum there's scope to cut down.

Eg is your grocery shopping £50 pw in Aldi or £200 pw in Waitrose. Is your phone sim only with a £150 Android replaced every 3 or 4 years, or £60 pm for a new iPhone.

Is your car on a PCP that costs hundreds of pounds a month or do you own a second hand car outright? Some people spend £100+ pm on beauty etc, others next to nothing.

How much do you spend on coffees, lunches, eating out, again some people spend hundreds of pounds a month, others far less etc etc etc.

I get paid weekly and when it goes in I skim off anything over a certain amount and move it into a) savings for myself b) savings for my daughter c) investment. If there is something I want to buy extra one week I will just put a bit less into savings. My life’s pretty boring, I rarely spend on myself. Keeping a certain amount in my current account at all times means all the mortgage bills etc are covered with a bit of a buffer for unexpected things, and it makes me save consistently.

We are just doing a budget for moving house. I have allocated myself £25 spending money. That does include hair, beauty stuff, clothes etc.

We also have about £300/month unallocated for unplanned/unexpected spending. Hopefully for trips ir nights out, more likely car and house repairs!

I think this all is quite comfortable, I'm surprised by some of the high figures here.

Honestly? You have said you are interested and to share so here goes.

After everything is paid; Bills, mortgage, insurance, public transport, gym, etc I have £5500 left over a month. £4000 of that goes into savings or mortgage overpayments and the rest is for 'stuff' so about £50 per day or £350 per week. Note I have a DH who buys all the food for the house, we have no children and use public transport, no Sky, we don't decorate regularly and last bought furniture/appliances about 10 years ago so no debt (bar mortgage).

What that 'stuff' is changes all the time and during lockdown has been next to nil. Nearly nothing is spent on 'material items' but more experiences. Probably a couple of dinners/lunches out with friends, ingredients/drinks for a dinner party for 8, drinks with friends in a bar, a weekend trip and overnight hotel stay occasionally, a bottle of interesting spirits or some new gins for the cocktail cabinet, occasionally clothes/make up /toiletries but only when truly needed as I've stopped random buying over the past 6 months as I hate clutter and am focused on using/wearing what I have. Coffees when at work and work lunches take up a bit. Hair, nails, tans occasionally. Sometimes a new piece of art. Maybe a gig, theatre tickets or similar. Birthday gifts for friends.

I certainly don't 'aim' to spend that much and I try to keep disposable to £1000 pm max.

Wow I'm amazed by the spare money and the fact it's all allocated?

We just put everything into a joint account, all the bills cars, house stuff comes out and there isn't much left. I have a haircut booked in September, that's it? I haven't bought any new clothes, gym gear for ages, so id struggle to know how much a week we spend on our own things, I'm not even sure my husband buys himself anything at all?