to ask how much money you have after all your bills

[galaxyplease]

left each month, which you consider makes you a middle income family??

that's all insurances Sally

the 'student loan' is dh's remainder of a bank loan for studying so not to the student loan company

Lauriefairycake...is the student loan payment what you CHOOSE to pay or is that what you have to pay?

Ah, that makes more sense (Student loan wise).

But, seriously, do you have a fine art collection?

well I consider us to be well off, ie we have a home, can afford food and occasionally to go out, we have about £100 left aafter all the bills.

Varies as DH is freelance and I've just resigned my job! Good month a couple of grand, bad month 1000. Included in our bills though is life insurance, savings, sky plus, mobile phones. Everything goes out of our bill account.

£450 was various insurances sally incl life ins and CI - could easily add up to that. And student loan could be her and her dp. I pay around £130 student loan and earn around 38k. You can of course opt to pay more than minimum as well.

Sorry laurie - am sure you could have answered that better than me!

And you have !

lol at 'fine art collection'

er.....no

2 cars - £50 ish each
house and contents £60
water/pipe insurance £20
pets £45
professional insurances £35
life £22
critical illness £45

there are more, just can't remember them - I just remember the figure was about £450 when I last counted them up. We had a conversation about how we were spending all this money on insuring things didn't go wrong.

Oh god.

Is that really a usual sum? I suppose I have all this to come.

I don't have life insurance. I assumed it would only be a few quid per month. I don't have kids yet before anyone panics about my irresponsibility.

I don't have life insurance either, buildings insurance built into mortgage and a very depressing £120 insurance for each car (I do or did need a different car for work as financially need one vehicle that will go anywhere and emotionally one that will go a bit faster and is convertible etc)

irresponsibility really not such a very bad thing

would like to save a bit more but then would have to do cooking and cleaning, which might not leave enough energy for work and play and work and play more important for own and children's well being?

don't really understand what 'middle income' means

is this a tax bracket thing? like not paying more than 40%? or borderline eligibility for tax credit?

Sorry I wasn't very clear about what I was after in this thread.

My DP and I are in professional jobs, teaching part time and skilled trade, joint income of £3800 per month.

After everything except petrol we should have around £900 left, that is really after everything BUT we never do!

It just seems to be gone, every month! We should be middle income I guess, but after nursery fees and home costs we still seem to be spending far too much. At the end of the month I look and we are skint! I am starting to think to think you need a massive income to just get by nowadays.

I just worry with 2 children to bring up we should be saving far more and have a buffer, but its all gone. Ah!!!!!!

TBH from personal experience you spend what you have. DH and I have been married for 12 years. When we got together we had joint income of £22k we spent it all but did have a mortgage on a part owned house.
We are now extremely lucky to now earn in excess of £170k (mostly dh to be fair) and we are still touching the overdraft each month.
But we make it a rule that the savings get shunted out on payday so that they are in theory untouchable.
It doesn't always happen that way but by getting rid of the money at the start of the month it means I am less likely to think, oh the money's there I'll spend it,
If you are concerned at all speak to the bank for savings advice, Natwest havce always been brilliant to us and quite impartial too.

Wow there are some well off people here!!

we have about £600 left a month. About £150 f that is spent on socialising/meals out/day trips with DS, the rest is saved partly long term and partly for holidays, Christmas and unexpeted expenditure.

Both mine and DP's cars are paid in full, we had trade in and saving for these.

I only work 18hrs a week so our disposable income would increase by another £800 if I was still full time. I'd rather spent the time with my DS a few days a week than afford more extravagant holidays and DP is okay about it too he can see the benefit to me spending more time with DS.

well have just moved job and country, but this was our situation for the last few years:

Bills (inc tax/car/food/bit of extra) 1270
Savings 700
Personal spending money 250 each (drink/clothes/meals out/toys)
baby stuff we seemed to break even with credits etc.
DH spends money on crap lifes pleasures whilst I'm a hoarder and save up for holidays and bigger expenses.

Plus I did private tuition for A level on the side which helped top us up for treats

Guess were lower middle

After we have paid everything out each month we have 884.00 left over and between 500.00 /400.00 goes into savings.

After i have paid all my bills/bought food i have my child benefit left over. I'm so glad someone invented overdrafts.

hotsprocket me too!! have no idea when I am ever going to pay mine back!

After all bills etc have been paid I have £30 a week (my child benefit) for "extras". If I am lucky and the ex pays his £70 a week maintenance I can afford to buy the kids an odd pair of shoes.

Roll on them going to full time school in 2012 so I can at least up my hours a bit - working 16 hours a week whilst being on my own means scrapping by. But I am lucky it means I can afford to run a car (though god knows how I will get it through the MOT)

am v. jealous of those with more money!!

We bring in £1500 between us and £80 child benefit. We dont get any other benefits other than tax credits just cover my childcare costs with £5 left over a week.

We have a mortgage, sky, internet, gym membership, mobile phone contract and after all that and the normal utility bills and car insurance we have £400 a month for food and disposable income. I live a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget ;)

About £40 per week after petrol, food , bills , rent etc all paid for.

On a normal month we usually have about £500 left over after all bills, household, food, and savings. But DH gets a bonus every third month which the majority of usually goes into savings.

Ours are like Lauries - huge mortgage and car loan, life insurance, utilities, credit card bills, then about 1100 left. Sounds like a fortune, but dh does 500 in petrol for work and we do 400 on food. so, 200 for clothes, days out. We are trying - Excel features large in my life at the moment.

grumppants - go on moneysaving expert as I wrote above we have everything we want and are on quite a low income we have holidays, regular hotel breaks, meals out etc. I get all my advice of moneysavingexpert.com. I love it and it really has changed my life