How much disposable income do you have a month (including what you might put aside to save)?

[Greeendsyys]

I’ve been watching this show where people change lives for a week. £1,900 a week disposable income is expressed as extremely rich. Of course I know that’s a LOT of money spare. But surely that’s not really ‘rich’?

What do you have spare a month (before any that goes to savings)? And do you think you’re rich?!

Me, as I know people will ask, around 2.5k a month disposable but I save 1k.

Yikes, band C is more expensive than what I pay for band E! Council tax is done so weirdly.

Mine is £135 for a Band A, so I think it varies substantially by area.

Does food not come before disposable income? I thought disposable income was what you had after food, accommodation, bills etc. Fun money really.

Was this show on Channel 5?

How is having more per week "spare" than some people live on total per month, anything but rich? That's almost £100k a year fun money.

I think when you look at official definitions disposable income tends to be after taxes, I guess because you have no other choice on taxes but you can flex accommodation etc.

Unless OP defines what they mean by disposable these threads are always pointless. That’s why for me £1900 a week isn’t necessarily “rich”, because the official definition of disposable income is pretty lenient, we technically have more than £1900 a week if you’re only removing taxes but definitely not what I’d consider ‘rich’ with our mortgage, but then we’d also need to define rich, which is even more subjective.

With a 25% discount?

‘Disposable’ income is what’s left after you pay your mortgage and tax and bills, so the size of your mortgage is irrelevant.

The measure for this discussion is “Would you consider yourself rich if you had £8000 a month left AFTER all your direct debits have come out?”

I budget for absolutely everything, and record all this on a spreadsheet. After putting the money for food, holidays, everyday spending, hairdressing, make up, pet stuff, gym fees, Christmas and holidays etc.etc.aside and marked up I have £500 left which is totally left over money, so just for fun. DH thinks this is very odd but out two grown up sons do the same. We are retired so don’t have major savings projects.

Nothing

Me personally 1900, dh can be between 2 to 4k depending how well his business does that month.

I've never heard that definition in my life. That's simply your post tax income in my book. It's a meaningless term if there is so much confusion about the definition.

Fuck all
Have two teenagers pending university in a year or so which we are trying to see if we can get them through minimum debt/debt free.

So £60k x 2 over 5 years

It’s our privilege to do this but by god it’s costly.

I'm forever amazed at how folks get to such earning power, with scarily limited reasoning ability 🤦🏾‍♀️.

This makes sense because you can exert some sort of control over other expenses- food, hobbies etc.
Not sure if nursery fees to enable working is flexible enough to count as disposable income

Agreed.

It’s literally the definition the IFS use…

What bills?

It may well be. But when discussing disposable income, I don't think it's what the average person on the street would think that you were referring to.

around 5k between me and dp

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/articles/understandingrealhouseholddisposableincomeperhead/2025-11-07

it’s about purchasing power, this is why I say it’s a pointless discussion unless it’s defined. It’s why people get pissed off when someone says they’re poor on a £10,000 income because they have a £4,000 mortgage and £3,000 school fees. They’ve made choices. Someone on £1,000 a month has less choice.

People keep saying “bills” but a lot of my bills are discretionary; Sky, school tutors, school clubs, a cleaner. What I deem as necessary will be different to yours.

Anything that comes out of the bank regularly each month. Council tax, mortgage or rent, insurance, utilities, school fees, car payments, gym, travel pass, subscriptions etc.

Anything that varies week to week comes out of the ‘disposable’ pot - food, fun, clothes, etc.

About 5k a month.

But how can you possibly compare people with those parameters? Gym memberships, Sky subscriptions and the like are entirely discretionary, they can also be cancelled at any time (well ok you might have to wait a year for the contracts!) so you have more purchasing power than someone who has the same disposable income as you, but has fewer bills.

We have more since we paid off mortgage. We did this end of March so getting used to the extra money has been strange in a good way. We haven't discussed investments but we have good DB pensions and have extra savings pot via self employed work that generates income that we don't spend (except to pay employees and equipment). I have omitted numbers intentionally. Our situation will likely change if DC goes to private secondary. And the family that have £1900 disposable are loaded.