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?

@Hopeisnotastrategy I don't even believe everyone is so much worse off than us! We earn £2,500 month combined! That's 30k a year! Combined! The average London wage is what..27k or something?

But yes, we don't have debt, credit or store cards to pay off and spend very little on household and food. I mean we could shop at Waitrose and spend £1,000 of our budget for food every month, but I shop at Lidl and Aldi, grow, pick, preserve and bake.. Something I learned how to do during lockdown and zero income. The one who's moaning about it is DH, as he is used to spending without thinking, plus his industry is so badly affected by covid, that his view on the future is quite pessimistic st the moment..

Is understand where you are coming from OP. Previously you didn’t feel like you needed a budget but after such a drastic change in circumstances you do and it’s all a bit new to you so you can’t gauge if it just enough or plenty. Why not draw up two parallel budgets? A before Covid and a current life version? You might find that the ‘spare’ is the similar by the sounds of it. That might give you some comfort in what you have available. Building up some savings for known costs like car servicing and emergency savings for a boiler breakdown for example will give you a better feeling of how your budget works for you. In an ideal budget all money should be doing a job (which might be long term savings). There shouldn’t be any ‘spare’ because it is all accounted for.

If everything is already covered, what is the 1500/month for?!?! And thus how could it not be enough? Even if you used 500/fun and 1000/savings, that's huge.

Of course we are all different, but 1500/month is what people raise families on. You can certainly cope with 1500/month as leftovers.

@Zurich09

I agree that the OP has been unfairly jumped on. She has admitted that her OP was badly worded - it did make her look much better off than she was and look like she was wondering how to live on more disposable income than most people have though, so I can see why it has rubbed people up the wrong way.

I'm not sure I agree with your definition of scraping by. If it genuinely were £375 a week 'fun money', then that is clearly not scraping by. Joseph Rowntree foundation publish some really interesting data re: minimum income standards and I think they say that, in brief, a family of 4 need around £2223 a week discretionary funding to not be 'scraping by' (including clothing, alcohol, social and leisure and transport, and personal goods and services). If what the OP said was correct, they'd have £600 more than that a month. There are 18.7 million people living on less than the minimum income standard in the UK which is very sobering but also makes it crass to consider having £1500 a month fun money scraping by.

www.jrf.org.uk/report/minimum-income-standard-uk-2020

£223 of course, not £2223!!! That would be an awesome amount of fun money a week!!!

@HerNameWasEliza

£223 of course, not £2223!!! That would be an awesome amount of fun money a week!!!

Hahaha! I read it like wait what? 😂😂😂

I do think people are being harsh here. The OP is talking about her DH, it's not her opinion. Where I live people seem to be doing much better than us in terms of car and the house they can afford and the sort of activities they do. I don't live in an affluent area, a fairly normal one, but I'm baffled how everyone affords it. I must be underpaid, they must be in debt, or that much disposable income isn't that unusual. We do have money left over too (we are saving it as we rent), but we are far from extravagant compared to everyone else, so I just assumed everyone earnt more than us.

It looks as though OP is the frugal one and DH isn't and she has asked everyone to confirm exactly what you are all saying as she thinks the same as you do. I don't think it is a stealth brag (trust me I have seen some blatant ones on MN). I think the original post lacked clarity - a lot of what she buys with it is not essential for survival, but it is an expense that is needed. She can't just throw £1,500 in the bank.

Tell you what - a thread about how you would actually spend £2223 a week fun money would be quite cool! Sure there's plenty of people on mumsnet who can give tips about that!!

@Myglorioushairdo Your fixed monthly costs sound very low to me. That must be a very small mortgage or rent, if it and all your food, council tax, house insurance, fuel for cars/ fares, gas and electric, only come to £1K a month.

Our mortgage was never under £800 a month and both our DCs were paying upwards of £750 a month for rent when they left uni and started work.

Do you live in a very cheap area for housing, and/ or have you a small mortgage?

The average London wage is what..27k or something?

No the average income per person in the UK is around £29K.

You'd be pushed to survive on £29K in London and that is the starting salary for most grad jobs give or take £3k

Average London wage is just under 35k

@HerNameWasEliza - i did not say that 1,500 per month is scraping by - but that PP who say that well I can live on 1,000 per month and it's fine are scraping by.

But this is the reality of a pandemic - it's not just that poor people will get poorer but that personal circumstances can change very quickly regardless of your income. Personally, i am also pretty stressed because my sector has been badly hit. In our case, if we keep both our jobs then we'll be fine, but we'd struggle on one public sector salary plus rent plus childcare in London. So i also dont know whether am supposed to be planning for two salaries or just one salary etc.

The OP is adjusting - its a period of instability and I think it's very unkind of people to jump on them in their hour of need. The need may not be strictly speaking financial - because they will be fine, but emotional because it's pretty scary for people to be losing their jobs/income with two kids etc.

So yes, I think that seeing as we are in a pandemic - people should be a little kinder to each other, especially when people turn to MN when they are clearly a bit destablised etc. Not jump on them with - is this a joke. And if anyone thinks that losing jobs during a pandemic is a joke - they should probably seriously consider why they are so mean

Having now read all your posts, I understand a bit better. My apologies I was a bit shocked. I get it.

I think it's the change in circumstance, your dp concerns etc. I think you will be fine, figure out a budget for that 1500 so you know you have spends and savings. It's good you are being so thorough!

Apologies if I am repeating what others have said, but how about saving most of this? Paying off some mortgage if you have one, pay into pensions, and have a good pot of savings for the future (eg replacing washing machine, children's future, being made redundant etc).
Apparently, we are about to have the worst recession in 300 years so it would be good to have a safety net.

Having read all your posts, yes you will need to tighten your belts and build up savings but yes you have enough money to do that without sacrificing too much.

What we do is give ourselves pocket money for the month. We have 250 each. With that we pay for coffees, lunches out, own clothes and shoes, presents for everyone except our DC, and haircuts etc for ourselves. Plus anything else we want to buy ourselves eg make up, hobbies, nights out.

We then put aside maybe 150-200 a month on eating out or takeaway as a family or couple and days out.

The rest (not that much!) goes into savings, to pay for holiday, stuff we need for house, car repairs etc.

How did you get your living cost so low? Does that include childcare costs?

@Prufrocks

I think a lot of people will wonder how you have high paid jobs, if you really have the low level of critical thinking and empathy that your post indicates.

Precisely.

This with bells on it

@JinglingHellsBells we have no mortgage.. It was a part of our big plan to cut costs and move out of an expensive area in London and survive on less income. So we are. Just didn't see the pandemic coming..

Like I've mentioned we haven't had a holiday in years and have always bought second hand everything (cars, tv's, computers) to achieve this.. But that's another thread altogether..

You need to tell your husband that some people have to live on £1500 a month, ie pay all bills and food etc, certainly not have that much to be able to piss up a wall if you want

@SalterWatcher we don't have high paying jobs Working part-time earning £2,500 combined..

@Prufrocks I would wonder what brings out the worst in people when they're expressing themselves online..

@Chloemol I've tried.. Starting to think it's more about his worries about his future prospects than the actual money.

It was also scary to see our savings go down so quickly when left without income and seriously having to consider taking out a loan to live on before we landed these part-time jobs we now have. I'm feeling somewhat relieved we now have jobs, whereas he's still possibly reeling..

@Zurich09

I agree that 1k a month is potentially scraping by if that covers everything. Interestingly, Joseph Rowntree foundation calculator says £320 a week min income needed for single person with no kids. But that includes £93.82 a week for rent. So if you are a single young person who lives with parents and they're not charging you any rent, then 1k a month is OK. Shows the importance of the detail really rather than quickly jumping on people.

I agree about mumsnetters being kinder. Some of the insulting of others on here is shameful. Covid or not I wish we could all be kinder.

ok i'll bite - most well-paid jobs are just that - well-paid jobs - you don't need to be bright mostly just had rich parents and have done the right thing

but that's not the point here - financial remuneration is not linked to intelligence. mostly in the UK it's just linked to family wealth.

also family circumstances drastically changing due to the pandemic is not just about finances. those that fail to see that point clearly lack empathy.

It's the usual competitive misery on MN.

You do know that some people live in a slum, with no water, no access to health care or education, no food, bombs falling on their head, and risk being tortured or kidnapped to harvest their organs for the rich, don't you OP! How dare you being remotely negative or worried when you are clearly privilege and have unlimited access to that monthly-chicken-for-a-family-of-10!

The funny thing is that none of the bitter hater has any experience of real hardship either, they are just miffed that you might have a bit more.

@HerNameWasEliza the point is that the OP has just gone through losing both jobs, a big move, a lockdown and is feeling at sea.

Why people cant just be nicer is beyond me and maybe just offer some reassurance to say yes that will be fine.