to think the amount of money im left with by the end of the month is ridiculous?

[yellowcheesepie]

I recently went back to work after mat leave and am sat here wondering how on earth this is worth it ?! after paying all my bills of food, rent, electricity, water, internet, netflix, phone, commute and childcare etc i'm only left with £200 a month to save? i'm not a big spender either, all my income goes on the mentioned above plus £100 spending allowance for myself.

I'm not trying to rant, but i'd like to understand how other working mums do it? is this a reasonable amount to save per month or is there something very wrong in my finances? I live with my DH and we split all bills / expenses if anyone is wondering

Read the room OP 😬

Some folk have £200 left over to buy food so you should think yourself lucky

I after a £200 food shop (per month, me & ds) all my bills I have £9 … would love to have £200 op let alone another £100 for myself ! I think you’re in a good position tbh

Cripes!! You have got to be joking!! Think yourself lucky! I have zero..

It isn’t worth it on a month by month basis. I gave up work to be sahm for that reason. Had a few blissful years.

But after 5-10 yrs out of the workplace you discover you’re basically unemployable except for minimum wage jobs.

Stay in work, OP. Build up pension rights and career progression seniority. I know it sucks that you’re making sod all profit. But the alternative is worse, trust me I know!

I was thinking this sounds like a good amount. Fold be happy to be left with that. By about half way thru the month I’m wondering how I’m going to pay for the weeks food shop. I definitely have less than £200 disposable income and I live frugally! I also don’t buy luxuries and I don’t pay for luxuries such as Netflix or satellite tv.

I don't have 200 left over. I pay my bills, buy food and that's it. I can't buy clothes, I cut my own hair. I don't drink alcohol, I don't have takeaways, I haven't been out to eat for about 2 years for a main meal, I would love to have £200 at the end of the month! In fact I often get to about a week from the end and have pence left, and have to eat stored food (which I'm grateful for) and wait and wait...

I feel horrendously guilty about not having a better job. I did at one time.

Missing the point a bit, but why the hell do married couples talk about "splitting the bills", "sharing the cost of X", etc, etc, etc? Surely the point of being married is so that everything is shared? 'All that I have, I give you' and all that malarkey.

@Mollymoostoo I only ever had joint accounts with my ex husband, and he never had to sign anything for me to have access to the money. It's very straightforward to have one signatory only, so people shouldn't be put off in the erroneous belief that having a joint account automatically means they can't have access to their own joint money. It seems particularly mad when in law, everything belongs to both parties equally anyway if you're married.

OP, I don't have £200 to save at the end of the month, or £100 "spending allowance".

Hi, growing up iv send how most middle class people do it. They don't get married. The women has kids. She doesn't know who the father is on purpose so no need to be forced go chasing maintenance. Get brand new new build house from the council or a housing bodie with cheap rent as opposed to paying 1200 per month mortgage. Get all the benefits of a single parents, medical card, payment for children, family income support payment if you worm more than hours per week. practically free child care. Long story short your better off single with kids.

I think a lot of people would love to be able to save 200 a month. A lot are sinking by more than that per month.
If that's money to save assume you have appointed for money to go out and about and maybe buy clothes if needed ? I'd love 200 to save....

Same here. I'm lucky if it's 50 quid tbh🙄

£200 left at the end of the month is shit when you have two income family. I get why your frustrated, I would be!

Well no you'd still pay all those bills except the childcare, how much are you jointly better off? If you weren't earning you'd still be paying everything else from 1 salary. Why do you have separate finances now you have a child?

Mr Micawber said "'Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery. '

What's up with you?

£100 disposable a month is not much tbh, it's less than I had when I went back off maternity, but I didn't save anything, so I think you're doing well and it's great you will save £200!

£100 is not much if you have to pay for all your own clothes, make up, hair cuts, glasses, social life, friends' birthday presents, books etc. Depends what your lifestyle is like really but I would struggle. I cut down on some of these when the kids were tiny but not everything.

You've got tons more disposal income even after saving! You're doing a lot better than most believe me! I have sweet FA left and no savings. You should have married a royal, you'd have millions.

I never understand why people struggle with the maths of having kids SO much.

You take what you have left over before having kids. You deduct your half of the childcare costs. You add back anything like child benefit, tax free childcare. The result is what you will have left after kids.

Childcare is expensive. For most people, it basically consumes all spare money.

People do it because a) their other bills don't magically disappear because they had a child b) no one suddenly hands you a bigger salary because you have a child c) its really hard to try and get back to a decent job if you have a lengthy period not working d) its much easier to negotiate part time/flexible hours in a job you are already in, than to find a part time job to suit; and most importantly e) IT IS TEMPORARY.

The worst bit is before your child is 3, when you get little/no help. Then funded hours kick in and suddenly you are £450 or so better off each month. Then school kicks in, and you are maybe another 2-300 better off, and life feels almost normal again.

You have £200 to save AND £100 spending money for yourself. That’s an awful lot more than most people. If you’d have £20 left over for the month then I’d understand the point of this post.

If you want more money left over then get a job that pays more? It’s a luxury to be able to save £200 each month tbh

Humble-brag! Not surprising OP hasnt come back.

Threads like these should be shown to people considering immigrating here. Everyone is destitute and having 300 quid after bills and not be super made up is distasteful 😂 Net immigration would drop like markets did last few weeks.

Fucking hell, people

£300 sounds good to me. So much better than £300 in the red

That's pretty good going.

is this a reverse?

I can only dream of havingoney leftover by the end of the month. I'm in my overdraft within a week of pay day

@Potat0soup

"God it really is a race to the bottom.

She's renting. Saving towards a house 200 pounds a month will get a deposit in just a short decade or two. If she's extremely lucky."

Firstly, if that's what OP has left we assume DH has similar, and they are saving nearly £5k a year currently. If they've been saving for some time, they may have considerably more already, given that OP has only recently had a drop in disposable income to £300 per month.

Secondly, in a few short years when childcare is no longer such a high spend, they'll be saving considerably more again, as they could have been pre-DC.

Thirdly, we don't know whether they want to buy a property.

Finally, and most importantly, that's how people get stuff, by working and saving; would you suggest other people should pay the bills or buy OP a house instead? 🙄

@Gwenhwyfar "Actually OP didn't say she has a career. Maybe she does and maybe she just has a job."

If OP has £300 left after paying half of all household bills including nursery, then it's a flipping well paying not-career!