1,5k disposable income a month is enough

[Myglorioushairdo]

AIBU to think that a disposable income of £1,500 a month is enough for a family of four? That is after all living costs, fixed monthly bills and food/household essentials.
DH and I were a bit unfortunate and made a major life change just before the pandemic, and this is what our household income has now been boiled down to.

DH is majorly stressed out and says its not enough, I say it's OK for now. We are able control all the other costs with careful planning and even save a bit! We don't live in a big city and our kids are still primary school age. What do you think?

I definitely mean to offend anyone with my post

Yup, stealth post and op wants to offend everyone! I hope you understand that your disposable income is more than some families have to feed, clothe and pay bills. Your Freudian slip was quite blatant op. Why do you need to ask anyone else if your income is enough?

also, a £2,500 family budget is not necessarily all that much for a family of 4 - the average UK salary is £35k 2 - thats £70k which is obviously a lot more than £2,5k per month.*

But the average family does not have 2* average salary and the average family have much greater expenditure than OP with mortgage and rent payments. So, not they're not minted but it's not very meaningful to compare them to others this simplistically.

Is this a joke?

2,500 family budget is not necessarily all that much for a family of 4 - the average UK salary is £35k 2 - thats £70k which is obviously a lot more than £2,5k per month

Isn't the average salary under £30k, and the average household income is absolutely not £70,000 it's much less than that, not every house has 2 x full time working adults.

@HerNameWasEliza - what i dont get is why everyone jumped on OP. She wasnt saying I have 10k per month will this be enough.

To everyone else who says well I live on 1k per month - great but that doesnt mean its enough. It means you have to because the UK economic situation/wages are crap. That doesnt make it enough to live on - it just means that people have to live on that because they have no other choice.

Lets not pretend that people working 30hrs per week and having to scrape and save is a good set up. It's not - its not their fault but it is definitely indicative of the poor economic conditions in the UK.

Family of 5 here. Disposable income at the moment of about £100. Which I'll set to lose next paycheck due to fucking covid symptoms making my son have to take a test which isn't available and I can't work to earn the money. Anyway. We survive on that fine. It can be tight, but it's manageable, after all bills paid.

Have a look at the money advice service and fill in their budget planner. ( it’s semi governmental so nothing to sell). You can work out all your outgoings, share with your husband to re assure him?

Tone deaf OP.

I usually love finance threads but this has got to be the daftest most insensitive question ever.

you are spectacularly missing the point

Not really. In the middle of a pandemic and massive recession these repeated "woe is me, I only have 1.5k spending cash per month" threads are crass.

There are thrift and budgeting threads here in Finance for actual relevant experience of budgeting. Nothing wrong with asking about budget options for different items or stating speicific items of expenditure and looking for cheaper options but these generic threads stating "oh gods my big wodge of spare cash is smaller than it used to be"? Really?

If there was a zombie apocalypse, your husband would be one of the first to die.

What??!! That is some people's full income let alone disposable

'If there was a zombie apocalypse, your husband would be one of the first to die.'

Most people don't have £1500 to pay their bills! It's plenty if you have already accounted for bills, good and remember to set aside money for annual expenses like insurance, tax tax etc

@Myglorioushairdo

If you are burning through that amount after bills I suggest you write down what is being spent and see if there's sensible cutbacks, it's a generous amount

To everyone else who says well I live on 1k per month - great but that doesnt mean its enough. It means you have to because the UK economic situation/wages are crap. That doesnt make it enough to live on - it just means that people have to live on that because they have no other choice

OP is on about having that amount left after paying for bills etc, is having that 'left' after paying all of that considered crap pay now?

Eh? Just eh?!

@movingonup20 we are not burning through money! We've only just acquired our combined salary of £2500 after being without income due to covid for four months. Our fixed costs are £1,000 a month.
Besides we have had a few huge costs this summer (car broke down, storm smashed a large window, unexpected plumbing costs..)so as we speak Iactually have less than £10 on my bank account..

Few financial braggy threads recently recession is on us and folks are trying to outdo each other, however as I posted we can all millionaires online.

The mean girls are out in force today OP, and disposable income is a perfectly proper financial term.

When I'm in the mood I try to remind myself that a pound saved is a pound earned

Like a lot of PP I thought this is a lot of disposable income and realised I have only 1k after food and bills but then it dawned on me that I am on my own so that is 1k for a single person as opposed to 1.5 for a family of 4, so I suppose that is 350 each and still a very large amount. When my 3 DC were small we have very little left over after paying our bills and were lucky if we could save for a holiday or trip to the cinema, then I suppose there is Christmas, birthdays etc, and if the boiler goes wrong, car etc it can soon add up. I am spending mine on a new bathroom and decorating the flat. It does depend what your requirements are each month

is that amount after petrol and clothes, holiday savings etc or before?

'Most people don't have £1500 to pay their bills! It's plenty if you have already accounted for bills, good and remember to set aside money for annual expenses like insurance, tax tax etc'

I dont think that 'most' families have less than £1500 a month. A large amount of mortgages are £800-1000 so it would be impossibleto live on. I live SE and a terrace 3 bedroom house is nearly £300k where I live, not even a particularly expensive area.

There may be a lot of people that earn less, yes, but I don't believe it is most, certainly not household income anyway for a family. My DH was working full time in tesco on minimum wage recently due to redundancy (a small shift allowance for some hours) and was taking home nearly £1300 a month.

I think its good. You can save some of it, some for holidays, some for unexpected property/expenses. What else?

‘A large amount of mortgages are £800-1000 so it would be impossibleto live on. I live SE and a terrace 3 bedroom house is nearly £300k where I live, not even a particularly expensive area.‘

It isn’t impossible to live on. It just means you often can’t afford a mortgage, and certainly can’t afford to buy a 3 bed house.

Are people really this blind to how many families live?