How much would you put into savings with this monthly income?

[Booooot]

In a Great position after years of hardship of selling a property which means we will be mortgage free, debt free and have 50k to go straight into savings. Our combined monthly income is going to be 5000, our outgoings around 900.

I’m a “can’t take it with you! Might as well enjoy it!” Kind of person while my husband is a “No we must be sensible and not spend anything and save it all.” Kind of person. I want to meet in the middle somewhere.

what would you do?

We don’t have the 5k income yet, we will do as of next month. I did. say in the op that this was future tense not right now. 20k of that income is bursary and student loan so not taxable income that effects how much we get.

If you build up enough savings/investments, they will pay out enough later for you to be able to choose your care home, live if one of you gets sick or dies, or one of your children is disabled. Or one of you.

It's so much better to have money and not have to rely on benefits if anything happens.

When I qualify the older one won’t need child care anymore and the little one will be in school so we will only be paying for after school club.

We are going to buy another property again but we’ve decided to wait a few years to build up our savings and I come first to get a better mortgage.

We don’t have the 5k income yet, we will do as of next month

so from next month you won't qualify?
but you don't need to budget for any childcare?

Yes we will still qualify as I said in the previous post as student loans and bursary doesn’t count.

OP - Apologies if I've been unfair and you've somehow managed to stretch your student childcare grant to cover this childcare, but really, with all this money, you need to drop your part-time job if you're a full-time student!

If you don't, your children will be strangers to you in their most formative years for the sake of being able to put aside some extra savings - that's some seriously messed up priorities! I get that some people have no choice but you do here.

My children are not strangers to me thanks.

What doesn't make any sense is on one hand you are talking about future income but then talking about current situation eg needing childcare 6am-7pm, having all meals free. How can people give advice when the circumstances aren't clear? i'm following my own advice & off to watch netflix!

I find it hard to believe you would get maximum student finance, including paying for your childcare on apparently your third degree.
Its bordering on not possible.

If your older child has FSM currently I’m assuming they’re in infants. Even if they’re in Y2; how will you no longer need childcare in 2 years? They will be in Y4; they can’t stay alone 6am - 7pm. They won’t be able to feed themselves. You’ll still need to pay for a childminder for your youngest child as you said you pay a childminder from 6am currently.

We have less disposable cash available than you do but I'm going to explain how we do it I case it's helpful.

I am also in the NHS and am 31 but I've been paying into the pension scheme for nearly 9 years. Absolutely join the NHS pension scheme as soon as you can. DH has a work pension that is rubbish but I have a decent NHS job so we accept my pension will be the main income in retirement.

Earnings: £5.3k
Direct Debits for basics: £2k
Variable bills (travel, groceries, pets, childcare): £1.8k

That leaves us with £1.5k. Of that, I send:

£100 to DD's savings (in an account I access so she doesn't just get her hands on the cash when she is 18)
£200 'slush fund' - this is for new tyres on the car, work required at an MOT if it doesn't sail through, work on the house eg. Electrics
£250 for presents - this covers all presents we buy for everyone across a year and means it doesn't blow our monthly budget in December for example
£250 into a holiday fund

Whatever is left we spend on whatever we want. I like moving money into separate savings pots depending on its use so we can keep track more easily. It's important to manage your cashflow well else you can easily fuck your budget, in which case, there is probably no point doing a budget in the first place. I don't go to the extent of budgeting for a hair cut or the specifics of certain things because that comes out of what is left each month and I get a haircut probably twice a year, it isn't significant on our income. But the like if presents do end up being significant, so I do include those. It's scary when you add up Mother's Day, Easter, birthdays, Christmas for everyone and their kids.

Because I’m in on placement 8-5, 5 days a week but my placement is an hour and a half away. There’s also no parking there so I have to use the park and ride which is why I have to leave early with the youngest as his childcare opens earlier. Husband takes the older one to a child minder a bit later. When I’m not on placement I’m in uni full time 3 days a week and work the other two days. We’ve arranged it like as it means we both get weekends off to spend time together as a family. We’ve tried other ways but we saw each other less. We still spend time with the kids every evening.

But you drop them off at 6am and pick them up at 7pm and they're pre-school, but whatever 🤷. But earn your extra money to squirrel away if that's more important to you.

how so?

If you’re going into the nhs and as a qualified MH nurse then your pension contributions Will be 9.3% I think. Will you be a band 6? At 29, and if you plan on continuing your employment in the nhs, you’ll have a good pension out of it. You should definitely get your husband to set up a private pension and Martin Lewis - money saving expert has a good calculator that you can use to work out how much should be put in each month for your age.
www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2017-03/Key%20Notes-2015%20Scheme%20Estimates%20%28web%29-20161122-%28V1%29.pdf
this is another helpful site about your nhs pension, although it may change before you qualify as this is the 2015 scheme.

My older child is in year 6.

How are they on FSM? Does your ex pay any maintenance? Doesn’t his salary get taken into account?

I thought you said you’d quit your part time job as doing it alongside placement was too stressful?

@Booooot I don't really understand why you are getting such a hard time over the £900. That seems reasonable to me.

Excluding mortgage my bills come to less than that and I pay MOT, Christmas presents etc out of the surplus.

In terms of how you manage your husband, would it help to look at it more at what you pay yourselves and the rest is default savings.

So you each get say £1500 a month and save the rest. You should have plenty to spare from that to buy holidays, treats etc. Saving up out with the fixed savings if that makes sense.

I can understand his point of view a little. I struggle to take money out of my set savings for things. But if I have a few grand building up in my current account that feels different.

Perhaps it's the lack of limits he struggles with like you might just blow it all. If he wants to use his surplus for more savings, fine, but you don't have to.

I have separate finances to my husband. I struggle a bit with treats as I analyse exactly how much things cost and what I could have done with it instead. I prefer it if he buys a treat and I don't need to think about it!

Thankyou!

A chef with weekends off? Bloody hell.

So a 1.5 hr commute apparently costs you absolute buttons per month? Where is the petrol and park and ride ticket in your monthly outgoings?

No.

I handed my notice in, which ends next week. I then start nhs professionals working bank shifts as they are flexible and I can work around uni.