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!

We do save some money but we also have interest free credit card balances - different people would probably make different decisions.

A couple in their 30s who bought an expensive house and had kids young are going to be in a very different position to a couple in their 40s who had kids later and bought a house a decade earlier. Just specifying a family of 4 is far too wide a criteria.

Ill help you out hun, bloody £0. In loads of debt but hey ho! We had kids young so hopefully will have some money later in life to be able to live a little before all our bones start hurting!

Family of five, 4 adults and and 1 child. 2 Adult children pay £85 each a month they are with us 80% of the month.
total income (of 2 adults/child benefit /board)
£5000
total outgoings (of 2 adults/child inc food/petrol /socialising etc)
Roughly £4200
we put £500 in investments, £150 over pay on mortgage and anything else goes in savings account

As a single parent, I never understand this.
I would be laughing if I had 2 incomes and only had to pay half of the bills.

How much do you both earn?
And what are your outgoings?
Do you live in a very expensive area?

Not much maybe £100 some
months (but we have about £20k in the bank for things that go wrong or we need) i’m a sahm - if i worked full time we’d save most of my income (minus childcare) so would have a lot more so have made that choice to go without for the benefit of being at home and are comfortable with the choice as i could earn & we could save more if need be.

There is too much variance in your demographic.

A younger couple with young dc will likely have a lot less disposable income than an older family with older dc who have experienced a different housing market & childcare days are behind them.

Only feel bad if you are wasting money. If you are not saving anything at all but getting your nails done once a month and a takeaway coffee once a week - well that’s 50 a month you could save. If you are not saving but spending money on swimming lessons for dc - that’s a justifiable expense imo.

At least £500 and overpay the mortgage by a couple of hundred every month too. If we didn’t book holidays would be able to save a lot more but currently paying £400 a month towards them to spread the cost. My partner has his own savings, unsure how much he puts away each month. It works for us

I don't understand why you don't see how people can save. Some people just earn a lot more than you do. Without comparing salaries and outgoings it's a completely pointless question!

It’s a pointless question because we’ll all have different incomes and outgoings.

If you post your income and outgoings, people may be able to suggest where you can make savings.

About £600 each month. Some more, some none depending if annual bills are due. Savings got emptied on my last mat leave, so working to build it back up.

We earn £103k a year combined, in a medium COL area. Childcare, mortgage and groceries eat our wage.

We run out of money half way through every month so no saving here. We are higher earners but still paying nursery fees every month and have a big mortgage which is about to go up (gulp). Our kids are 3 and 6. I’m hoping it eases off when youngest goes to school next September.

It's a pointless question.
2x minimium wages, paying for 2 nursery places is going to leave an awful lot less cash than 2x higher rate tax payers with Grandma doing a required childcare.

If you want to save more, is there anything you can cut back on? If the answer is dropping from 2 takeaways a week to 1, go for it. If the answer is to cut out eating a meal everyday, or turning the heating off, there is nothing to save.