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?

Fuel is in our personal spends as I’ve already said and that gets claimed back anyway.

The holes in this story make it look like one of those cartoon blocks of cheese. 🤣

What holes are looking at?

@Calmdown14 *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.*

Because not only is £900 for the running costs of a family of 4 incredibly tight, apparently including everything, food, council tax, insurance, internet, car insurance, electricity, gas… but it doesn’t actually add up as apparently OP gets free food at uni, her part time job and her 8-5 shifts in the NHS. On top of that she has a magic commute which is very long but again somehow free.
Even toast on the weekends ward is off limit for staff so it’s incredibly unlikely she has found a placement in a trust that offers full catering for staff and uni students.

‘Claimed back’ to who?? You say all these things that you quite clearly have no understanding of.
So your husband ‘claims back’ 100% of his commute at his restaurant job? You apparently claim back 100% of your petrol and bus tickets to the nhs?
If you have loads of outgoings from your personal accounts why are you asking how to save your left over £4100 when that isn’t what you have left over?

I claim back fuel money through the nhs. My husband walks to work…

Also the park and ride doesn’t charge nhs workers.

Thanks to people who a Thankyou answered my question but I’m going to leave this now. Having my parenting, IQ and lifestyle attacked for no reason is really shit when all I asked was about how you would split your savings.

@Tuilpmouse massively depends on the quality of state schools in your area, doesn't it? For some people it would be a waste of money; for others, it would be a very sensible investment.

If you’re still wanting a new baby you need to factor in their childcare too.

Have your fuel costs hit yet? Are you on a fixed tariff or the gov price cap? My average 3 bed semi has gone from £88 pcm to approximately £300 this winter.

But you can't claim back the fuel you spend on getting to work...

Your outgoings are above £900, it's just that you are being economical with what counts as "outgoings"

What about clothing, kids clothes/ haircuts/ activities, house insurance, money (to name but a few). Just because you don't pay them monthly, it doesn't mean they don't need to be paid, and if you intend to use savings to pay for these it doesn't make sense for a large portion of your disposable income to be tied up in a pension which is inaccessible.

Those aren’t essential monthly bills which is what I’ve counted as our £900.

Ive said countless times that other stuff comes out of our personal spends. But I get my hair cut maybe twice a year at £15 quid a go so no I don’t really consider that as a thing I need to think about.

So £30 a year, plus your husband's haircuts, and your 2 children's haircuts. It's not an essential bill but would your husband be happy to not get his haircut if there wasn't money to do so? Or your children? This isn't exclusive to haircuts, but any non-monthly expense

I can see why you might have been in debt....

Also how much do you each take as personal monthly spend? Surely that counts in your monthly expenditure

I cut my husbands hair!
and my kids haven’t had haircuts yet.

You have no idea why I have been in debt.

Weve never had enough to have personal spends before. This is why I’m asking, when our income is so and so, and our shared essential bills are so and so, this is what we will have left. What do we do with it as we’ve never been in this situation before!

Why haven’t they had haircuts yet? One is in y6… why are you taking them to Smyths every weekend for toys if you have never once taken an 11yo for a haircut??

Because she doesn’t want her hair cut?

😂 stop making out it’s because you can’t afford it then.

I haven’t… I’ve said I don’t consider haircuts as a thing that needs thinking about. YOU are the one saying I can’t afford it.

“My kids have never had haircuts, you have no idea why I’ve been in debt. We’ve never had enough money to have personal spends before”

all stuff you’ve just said 🙄

My husband is a Chef, works in catering and has every weekend off. He does take a hit on his income but time together is a higher priority.

Not seeing relevance. Also, you’re not actually contributing to the point of the thread so not sure why you are still posting tbh other than to be nasty.

So stop the indignance when posters are saying you can't sustain a family of four on £900 a month and that your actual spending will be far higher.