To ask your monthly household income, and how much you save, on average per month?

[NeverGuessWho]

I am BU to ask, I know.

I am a lone parent, earn a low wage, and am on UC, with three teenagers living at home.

My total household income is £2,740 per month (net).

Currently, saving is sporadic, but I need to change my mindset so that saving is prioritised and can be maximised.

I'm just looking for some inspiration and to gage an idea of what's do-able on my income.

Thanks.

I don't see how hearing about other people's income and savings without knowing their circumstances will help you.

And if you did want advice there's insufficient context or information in your OP.

She gets UC, which will top up her low wage.

Monthly take home about 4k bills are around 1.5k . Food, petrol , child care and general expenses varies from 2-3k . On a good month we save 500 on a bad month we take 500 from savings

Why do these threads instantly turn into 'I work 60 hours a week and only bring home £6.90! OP is unfair!'

£2700 not a lot if she lives in the SE for example. 3-bed houses/flats are now a min of £1800 a month so her UC element would reflect that. Add in utilities, travel, the cost of teenagers etc. Doesnt sound like OP is on the breadline but she probably isnt rolling in it like the 300k pension thread lot are. Her situation will also change when her teenagers leave home.

It’s also part of the reason why the country is broke. It just be really annoying for the middle earners in professions on mumsnet. Often called rich by the people who are being subsided massively to good salary. Often better off than those on 40k ish.

OP could well be on a low wage. Her net may include child benefit, UC and maintenance.

We take home £5k pcm after tax, and don’t save anything at the moment (baby, and housemove!)

The 50:30:20 budget is a good place to start. The idea is that you spend 50% of your net income on needs, 30% on wants, and save 20%.

Needs are things like rent/mortgage, council tax, utilities and other bills, transport, insurance, basic/essential food/toiletries/cleaning products, childcare. Ideally, this should be no more than 50% of your net income.

Wants are things like clothes (although I appreciate clothes are essentials/needs, especially with DC, but keep it in this category for the sake of the model), luxury/branded food, treats and snacks, gifts, entertainment, holidays, gym/club membership and hobbies, subscription services like Netflix etc, pet care. If you are spendng more than 30% of your budget on this, you should try to cut down.

That leaves you 20% to save.

Realistically, if you have an income £2740 and are receiving UC, I would assume that means you are living in an area with high rental costs and a large amount of your UC is the housing element? I doubt you will be able to keep your needs at 50%.

It's a good place to start though. Set your budget out and check to see if you can make any savings on your needs section first eg can you swap branded foods/products for basic versions, move credit card debt to a 0% interest card, get a cheaper car, cycle instead of drive, get a better phone/broadband/insurance/energy deal etc? If you can't get it below 50% (I suspect not if you are on UC), split what is left of your budget as 60% wants and 40% savings eg if your needs can't be cut back to less than 65% of your net income, budget 21% for wants, 14% for savings.

Next, go through your budget for wants and see if there any cutbacks that you can make eg buy secondhand clothes instead of new, cancel subscriptions like Netflix, cut down on treat foods/snacks/fizzy drinks etc, take up running, walking or cycling instead of going to the gym. Try to at least keep this budget below the calculated percentage (if you need to spend more than 50% on needs) and definitely below 30%.

Obviously, once your savings reach a certain point, you will start to lose some UC. However, if it gets to that point, you can use some of the savings allocation to put you in a good financial position when your DC leave home and you are no longer eligible for UC or it reduces eg pay off debt, put extra money in your pension, buy a newer car that will last longer, buy items (eg furniture) that will last a lifetime (so you don't have to replace them when your income drops) or will appreciate in value, put money in a savings account in your DC's name for university (if they might go to university), or even go on holiday (why not, if you've been scrimping to save?). Before anyone shouts "deprivation of assets", no UC will not consider it to be deprivation of assets if OP is putting £25 a month into a university savings account for each of her DC or spends a few grand on upgrading a car or a holiday.

DH and I both work and we have 2 disabled children (I only part time on a low wage due to caring responsibilities). Our joint ncome in less. We don't save. HTH

My big big fear in your position would be the proportion of income that came from benefits/cms due to having 3 under 18s.

I'd focus on increasing your earnings to reduce reliance on benefits, over saving loads (saving a lot will only reduce benefit eligibility without giving you a long term income to replace the lost benefits).

£6k per month in

£900 on mortgage

£1.7k on all other bills including food/diesel/gas/electricity/nails/cleaner/Amazon Prime

We save £3k per month

What is the alternative?

The vast majority of jobs are only ever going to pay min wage. That is not enough of an income to then pay the bills.

How do you have so much monthly income when you say you're on a low wage??????

universal credit

I'm on UC. Can't afford to save anything. Can't even afford to pay bills sometimes.

Redrighthand83

The vast majority of jobs are only ever going to pay min wage.

Im not sure that's true but also its not just about the number of jobs at min wage its the distribution. Min wage is fine for a younger person starting out, who likely doesn't have children to house & feed etc. You'd expect a glut of min wage jobs for people age 18-30. But you'd expect people aged 30 - 45 to have approaching 10 years work experience and to have moved up to better pay. I doubt that the vast majority of people age 30-45 earn min wage for example.

It’s also part of the reason why the country is broke. It just be really annoying for the middle earners in professions on mumsnet. Often called rich by the people who are being subsided massively to good salary. Often better off than those on 40k ish.

people are broke because of wage stagnation & many have high housing costs.

40k today is the equivalent to

30k in 2015
28k in 2010
24k in 2005.

But not everyone can. Not everyone is going to be able to. Not everyone can become a store manager. That is the hard truth no one ever wants to acknowledge.

Working full time in Sainsbury's in SE London pays £11.95 an hour. That is a take home of £1,621.55 a month (inc a 3% pension contribution).

Rents for 2 bed houses/flats are £1700 and up.

I think for savings to work you need to put money aside when you get paid not at the end of the month

this is all built on figures that are guesstimates at very best but the principle stands
so if you get £2740 and your housing, council tax, home insurance utilities ( including phones and broadband and ? netflix come to £1200 food £450 and transport ( whether that is bus/ train passes or fuel ) is £150, you have £940 for everything else at this point you decide what % goes to savings and you direct debit it, I would have two separate savings pots one more long term/ dire emergency only lets say £140 and another for Christmas holidays, days out, cinema, clothes for your kids, school costs ( uniform and trips) car insurance and maintenance you will need tyres brake pads etc home maintenance, kids pocket money, add up what you will spend annually on these things and set aside 1/12 each month so if these add up to £8000 a year you need to set aside £667 a month for this ( if you have done this correctly the balance on 31st december will be £0) this now leaves you with £133 a month which is your personal allowance for clothes takeaway coffees, socialising phone upgrades perfume make up etc

so as soon as you get paid you move the £140 long term savings to a savings account' you move the £133 to your personal account, you move the £1200 for bills to another account all off which are direct debits. this will have a balance of £0 at end of month when it is topped up again
that leaves you with £600 to pay for your grocery shopping including toiletries and transport costs, you also have the £667 for annual expenses so at this point you check are any of these due this month so if you know you have a birthday coming up you have allocated £25 for that and it's also the month your MOT is due so thats £55 you give the 3 kids a total of £80 a month pocket money so thats £160 so you move £507 to the annual expenses account and the £160 joins the £600 for your monthly expenses.
if you need more than the £760 you have to actually decide which savings account you are going to "raid" if you raid the annual expenses account you have to work out how it is going to be repaid or what items in this account can be deleted or you need to take it from your personal account

by removing your savings first they are more likely to stay in savings than if you transfer what is left in your account at the end of the month, because moving it from savings back to current account makes you think a bit more

if your monthly expenditure is more than income you need to cut expenditure as it doesn't appear you have much room to earn more as UC will be reduced

1450 save nothing

I'm on a good income and £700 less than you. I save £300-£500 per month.

This - my income halved overnight

You're getting a lot of stick, OP. Three teenagers = LOTS of money on a weekly food shop, I imagine.

I'd start small - say 10% and work up from there.

Ultimately, it depends on how motivated you are. If you cut out things that aren't necessary (Netflix, takeaways, fizzy drinks, make-up etc) for a whole month you can see exactly how much you could save just living on essentials. What you really cannot live without you can add back on the next month but still cut out the rubbish you don't need and put that money towards savings.

Hold on, OP clearly states she works. Don't perpetuate the myth that everyone who is unemployed on benefits is raking it in. It's really harmful and not true.

If OP didn't work she would get £850 a month in UC plus some money towards rent if she pays it. It's unlikely though that this money would cover her full rent. She also hasn't said if she gets child maintenance which could be a good chunk of that income.

Single parent to one, my income is £3287. After bills go out, I have about £1000 left.
I’m not the best with savings but aim for at least £200 a month.