AIBU to ask HONESTLY…no tall tales!?

[Nobulling]

If you are a family of 4, both working full time…how much do you ACTUALLY save per month? Honestly, cause I save nothing and genuinely can’t see how!

£1,200

But it’s not helpful info for you. We will have totally different incomes and outgoings.

Honestly…on a month with no extra saving it’s 2.5k some months we can save another 200-300. BUT we earn over 7200 per month, and have no childcare bill.

Rarely anything, but really going to start making an effort

We are a family of 6 and we save absolutely nothing!

If anything I am in my overdraft every month. Dh is a high earner, me less so, but we have alot of outgoings with two in uni, two tweens, 3 dogs, dh’s ex wife’s spousal maintenance to be paid, child maintenance and extra demands for the DSS’s, long and expensive commutes….it all adds up.

Retired couple with grown up children, two teachers pensions and no mortgage. We save 500 to 700 a month. Put it in premium bonds

Single parent on about 3k a month take home. I put £400 in a savings account every month but it usually then goes on a car repair, broken appliance or similar every 3/4 months so it doesn't build up to more than about 1k at any one time.

Family of 4, 2 teens. £1700 a month which is about 20% of income (it doesn’t include pensions though), it’s terrible though because that’s “short term” stuff (Christmas, holiday, car maintenance etc). We’re awful for long term savings, I’m very much a live in the now person. We have a mortgage, excellent pensions, good insurance including income protection, and we will get some financial payouts in the next few years through DH’s job. But I find it very hard to motivate myself to save for a cushion when we could go on holiday instead 🤣

People are going to give you numbers between nothing and thousands of pounds and it's all meaningless because people have different incomes, outgoings, priorities and life stages.

Plus people define savings differently. Is the money you put aside for annual and irregular expenses 'savings' or part of budgeted spending?

What about the difference between people who get to the end of the month with £50 left and one person decides to save it but the other decides to get a takeaway? They both have the same ability to save, everything else being equal, they just make different choices.

There's no point comparing yourself with others even if your circumstances may be similar. You just have to try and make the best of your own circumstances.

In the off chance you weren't looking to compare random numbers or have a moan about how shit life is, what is the reason for your question?

£2750 every month.

WTF! Really? Is this including pensions?

@Bjorkdidit yeah it’s not making me feel any better really 😭 but I just had to ask.

Nothing. It’s pretty much gone. But I’m asset rich even if cash poor (own three properties without a mortgage, one with). I also have a reasonably healthy IRA.

No that’s excluding pension. My workplace pays 10% and I pay 8%. Same for dh.

£1300 a month.
Joint income of 85k, 2 kids but no childcare costs, both wfh so no travel costs, mortgage of £900 which we overpay by £150 each month.
Edited to add, this doesn't include pensions

£0. I’ve been in debt since the first week of university.

As a family of 5 with two full time incomes, in the days before the cost of living went through the roof, and with an affordable mortgage taken out in 1996...enough to afford a couple of holidays a year, a good Christmas, house maintenance and a car without credit. In terms of money set aside for the long term, nothing.
I started long term savings for the first time during lock down (nothing to spend on) at the age of 50, and with no dependent children.

5 of us and we save £300 per month but only started doing this around 18 months ago. I have friends who save significantly more and friends who save nothing.

I dread these threads. I’m old and save nothing and have never been able to since I got my first job. I can only imagine it’s down to inherited wealth or sheer puritanical tightness - neither of which apply to me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But you've done the virtual equivalent of going into Waitrose and asking the women with the nicest coats how much spare money they have.

MN is disproportionately affluent and threads like these always attract those keen to tell the world how much money they have and how financially responsible they are.

Which puts off posts by the people in debt, or those who live month to month or even those who earn lots of money but blow it all on fripperies because they know they'd be called irresponsible by those who 'couldn't sleep at night unless they had at least 6 months outgoings in savings and a good pension and certainly wouldn't be buying anything non essential until they were in this position'.

These threads never make the OP feel any better so I don't see the point of them.

Everyone earns differently, everyone spends differently, people live in cheaper or more expensive parts of the country etc.

There are so many variants, it's ridiculous.

nothing most months, occasionally the odd £100.

Agreed.

You cant even compare how much you save without the basic "what's your income?" And how much is your mortgage??

A few hundred per month into a regular saver. I have a workplace pension and DH also pays several hundred into his private pension automatically each month. Surely it totally depends on your income and outgoings.

Nothing. I get a bonus each January which I used to be able to save but now it just gets used for paying off the small amount of debt that we now accumulate during the year, and used for Christmas costs.

Things have been noticeably very much tighter for us over past few years.

so saving nothing, but just trying to be grateful that we can afford the basics and debt isn’t growing.

Something does need to change though because it’s really not a decent way to live.