wondering if our monthly expenses/budgets are ok?

[yumyumchocobun]

hi, i know this might be an odd one but just out of curiosity after having a convo about it with someone i'm wondering if our monthly expenses/budgets are decent and if you would consider them tight/normal/comfortable.

we are a small family: husband, me and 1 year old baby.

our mortgage on a 2 bedroom 2 bath flat in london, a 2014 car, internet, phone bills , electricity, water, gas, insurance, service charge etc is all paid for without any budgets.

the (monthly) budgets include:
£450 for groceries including food and cleaning supplies.
£50-£60 gas for the car
£200 for spending (going out as a family, or buying stuff for the house or baby. example: if we need a new jug or pan, or going to the zoo as a family, eat out, or if our baby needs new shoes etc)
£200 for me personally (to spend on clothes, shoes, cosmetics, if i go out with my girlfriends, etc)

We have 1 longer Holiday a year thats not within the budgets and if we decide to go somewhere extra for like a weekend it would either have to be for an event such as birthday or anniversary or we'd have to save for it from the spending budget.

larger items for the house are usually purchased annually with my husbands bonus (for example this year we bought a new ikea tv stand shelving unit for £650 + babys new carseat £200 + outdoor storage unit)

Birhday gifts / family gifts / wedding or graduation gifts for other people are usually also extras not within the budgets unless i'm going alone to my girlfriends party then i'd pay for her gift from my allowance.

we save around £1300 a month on average.

would you consider this life tight, normal or comfortable?

also not sure if this is relevant but i am a stay at home mum so all this is provided by hubby.

also not sure if relevant but im 25 and hubby is 27

Lazy journalism

Honestly this is so why I’ve no desire to live in London. What’s the point of earning so far above average and still struggling to afford a nice house.

For your question we are currently a household of 4 adults and 2 kids and spend about £600/month on shopping and £450/month going out for meals/ad hoc activities and similar. We save a bit more than you if you mean aside from pensions and shedloads more if that includes pensions and savings go towards holidays, home repairs and big one off items like if we need a new car or something. It’s well above average but likely doesn’t feel like it if you are actually in London

Well, you're living in London on one salary and saving £1300 per month.

I don't really know what anybody can say about their own budget to give you any more insight on this?

However: "not really sure what "disposable income" is but he is on around 90k salary a year before tax, aka 4.5k /month after tax"

I wouldn't have thought £4.5k monthly income for a household would get you far in London to be honest, so you're doing well to be living well and saving £1300 per month.

Again, not really sure how that is of anything use to you though.

I have no idea how much we spend as a family. We have savings and investments and money in the bank. If you’re worried about money either spend less or earn more. It really
is that simple!

If that was the answer you were searching for (a summation of financial situations in the UK and how you should feel good about your position) then that’s extremely depressing

let’s be honest OP please for once

You wanted to come on here for an ego boost and enjoy folk saying “that’s a huge amount of money as disposable income to save” etc

I wish OPs would just be honest sometimes instead of this faux “oh i had no idea where to post, I was genuinely wanting to confirm my friends assumption that I had no basis to doubt”.

Oh gosh.. get a life

Guessing you don't pay childcare? Our joint household income is slightly higher than yours and we used to have approx £1,200 to save per month before we started paying for childcare for our 1 year old 😫

You're doing great and well done, also very young to have your life so sorted. Your child is fortunate.

Our rent is really low as we are socially housed in a cheap part of the country. I make around 600/month and that's for me to use for out and about, extra shopping, personal stuff, treats for the child and bits for our home. Husband makes around 40K/annum in two jobs including lots of overtime. He's underpaid at the minute but works a lot.

We are currently paying off debts to be debt free by next year, so all this is spare money in a way but instead of saving we are paying.

Together we are on about 50K/annum which is low by many standards but we are certainly comfortable due to our lifestyles being so cheap. We don't drive. I don't travel much outside the local area, I'm a homebody. We have expensive things from credit that we are using to build our rating.

Depending on circumstance and expectations you can be comfortable on 10K/year and struggling on 100K/year. It's all about what you make it really. I've lived on both ends of the spectrum under different circumstances.

Ultimately it's all about what makes you happy. There's no set amount of money to achieve this as it's specific to everyone.

There's a lot of it about at the moment.

I would consider your intelligence to be below average for this post. Your expenses are fine though.

Well your savings monthly are more than my income, so yes, you're very well off compared to me.

OP you seem to have a poor grasp on reality! How can you possibly think that a salary of £90k is other than exceptionally high?

I have no idea how other people do their finances. The fact you can save over a thousand pounds a month should tell you that you are doing pretty well.

You save my monthly net income… I’m a single mum with 2DDs… get real!

if you're saving £1300 a month on a single salary while getting to stay at home and still have luxuries, days out and an annual holiday... I can not possibly see why you'd post this. You're either thick or completely out of touch with reality

🤡

Read the fucking room

YABU

“don't worry i have a decent paying career and could live well myself , im currently at home for my baby's sake not because i couldnt find a good job :)”

You answered your own question 😂
*
Decent paying career
You could live well yourself

Then of course you know your more than comfortable!*

What a bizarre question. Obviously if you have £400 spends a month, £1300 saved, some hard cash for furniture/appliances and a couple of holidays, this is very comfortable indeed. How can you possibly think otherwise??? The spends and savings alone are about as much as many people earn working full time.