Is £2250, month, enough to live in post all livings costs are paid for

[Isitenough2250]

I am very aware that I may get slammed, and I am
prepared. DP has had a terrible time at work the past few years, as we have both seen terrible side affects of what stress can do heart attack/ stroke/
severe mental health issues - we thought it best for him to leave the job. Having worked out our budget, post mortgage/ bills/ insurances etc being paid we have £2250 left a month. That is for two adults and a cat. Out of which is food and then life costs, as in choices - gym/ hair cut/ going to the cinema.

Having never had to budget ever, is this enough? Sufficent savings/ investments for emergencies…..it is 2250 that we have come up with for food and miscellaneous spending.

Am prepared to be roasted, also any budgeting tips appreciated.

We think it will be about a year.

Unless you deal in cash only, surely you could sit down and go through your bank statement (usually live on an App you should have). Do a spreadsheet that lists every single transaction and beside it put necessary/optional and another column saying monthly or yearly or whatnot if subscription for example. That will give you a view over a longer period.

Then you add up what would be ‘necessary’ per month, see what you have left over and prioritise ‘optional’ from that.

What you have done is a bit of a lazy path, instead of rolling up the sleeves and getting stuck into the bank statements/transactions, which would easily tell you what you want to know, you have tried to get everyone here to essentially do this for you.

Do you realise it’s about what an experienced teacher / nurse actually earns after tax and pension is taken off?

Same. I thought there was a typo.

I downloaded all last years transacrions from my accountand made a pivot table to see what i was spending on.
Qe realised we wete kver spending massively on food and cafes.
All banks should allow you to do this. If you are earning high amounts but not sure where your money is going then i would say you need to do this.

So you have a job that leaves you with over £2k a month after bills, and you can't work out in your own brain, if this is enough to live off?

Pull the other one 🙄

That’s a huge amount to be left with. Write a list of everything you spend and you’ll find cuts if you need to.

I have £250

That's more than I have per month BEFORE bills! Ok, so I don't have a mortgage any more and only me to feed, but how on earth do you expect to spend about £500 a week on food, going out and haircuts? For budget advice: don't eat out so much, limit takeaways, cook from scratch, don't bother with TV subscriptions like Sky or Netflix, don't join a gym, and track your spending to see where your money goes.

Honestly OP, I can’t believe you are asking this question. I’m with @ColinOfficeTrolley , if you have the capacity to earn that sort of cash you can work this out for yourself.

I suspect that my idea of what's 'optional' and what's 'necessary' wouldn't coincide with the OP's!

Agreed, I’ve just taken a 75% pay cut (I earn a lot). And suddenly seeing that what I spend (extras) is now way higher than what is coming in had been a massive shock.

That’s more than I have before bills and rent so I’m sure you will manage! Just look at your own particular outgoings and cut anything that does eat a big chunk of that.

OP, open your banking app. It tells you exactly what your spending patterns are in each category (e.g. eating out, groceries, travel). You are well able to do this.

We get that you've never had to think about it...but do it now. You are well able to work this out, the faux cluelessness is a bit weird, TBH.

Or look back on banking app.

That’s exactly my net take home pay each month. When my rent, utility, council tax bills, transport, food, phone, internet, professional fees etc come out, I only have £500 left. Of that I try and save £300.

You should be able to live a comfortable life if that’s what you have as discretionary income. If I were you, I’d be saving/investing £1200-1500 of that a month and then the remaining amount can be spent on anything you want between you and your husband and your cats.

Our joint take home is around £6.5k. We set aside £900 a month for groceries and household spending (bits for the garden, washing the car, cleaning supplies, odd stuff like yesterday I had to buy a new washing line, last month we needed some new towels etc) £100 for the cat that's £32 insurance, food, deflea,deworm, cat litter, we have about £600 each disposable income that covers gym memberships, mobiles, Spotify, travel to and from work (we both have very short commutes), going out, haircuts, clothing and things we want (I save a decent amount of this DH less so, but this is a generous amount and could be less). We have separate outgoings for ds he's just had a growth spurt, plus his extracurricular activities and childcare cost a fortune but you won't have those (£450ish for us). We also save jointly and for ds on top of that (around £1000). You will pay a lot less towards holidays etc than we do because you can go in term time (I put aside separately £500 a month for travel).

Yes it's doable and you'll be comfortable you might have to cut back on large purchases or travelling if you're not used to budgeting.

You need to go back over at least 3 months of expenditure and look at the regular spending. You also need to look at your bills and if any can be reduced or are unnecessary.

We have about £1800 when I'm back to work after mat leave, and that's for two adults and two kids who live with us, one step son who is EOW and we're fine, not struggling!

Who knows how people life standards are? You probably will survive on that but that depends on where you live and how much money you spend now that can’t be cut. I can’t for instance cook everyday from scratch and splash on deliveries and organic ready made meals. May be you need to be frugal for a year.

You should go to the money saving expert website and fill in the comprehensive budget spreadsheet, this will list every single expected outgoing and tell you over the course of the year how much you are likely to spend / have left over.

An app like Snoop or YNAB will then log all your outgoings and categorise them so you can see if you are sticking to your budget and where all the money’s going

Of course you will be fine 🙄

Hahahaaaaaaa that’s plenty of “leftover” money some people have less than that to cover everything

The only thing I would say OP is if you’ve been used to a very high income (you said you never had to think about bill etc.) you might now feel out of step with your peers or friends.

If they are still on incomes like you used to have, you’re probably going to have to be careful not to end overspending to keep up with them.

That’s about our total monthly income. So yes, unless you have ridiculous spending habits.

Yep me too , the concept of 'only ' having over £2000 after all the bill are paid is insane.