to ask how much money you have after all your bills

[galaxyplease]

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

Galaxy you sound like a friend of mine. Her family has a similar income to us (though DH currently sort of employed as of the 1st). We were able to save around 1k a month, they always spent theirs but could never quite understand on what.

Her DH's job recently came under threat and he's retraining whilst still working. They wanted to build up savings to see them through the period when he starts up a business.

They did a big overhaul of everything (moneysavingexpert.com helped with this) and now can save 1k a month). She looked slightly sick the other day when she realised if they had done this a few years ago their mortgage would now be gone.

Thank you sunny I find it inconceivable that we are in this mess, there is so much coming in. Will definitely look at the site - we have al;ready saved money just by looking at car insurance costs.

£240 per year on pipes water insurance, laurie that seems a little odd?

We area talking about hosuehold bills not business bills?

Wow. I thought we were middle income. Between us we bring in nearly £2k a month (soon to be £1200 due to my mat leave). We're left with around £500 before food and clothes and car maintenance, and I save £200 of that a month. I am certain we could do better, and although always skint we have a good income. But I've been shocked by the amount some people have to play with each month! I'd feel like a millionaire if we each had £250 to blow every month!

graph

So would £40k per years take home income for the family be middle income? Thats where I would have thought it started any way - so if the family is bringing in less than £3300 it is lower than middle income

I have literally nothing left once my rent & nursery fees have been paid, so I live on my overdraft, unfortunately. I so envy those in this thread that have savings and foreign holidays. sigh

I usually go food shopping on a Friday but my rent, nursery fees & all bills have all come out by DD last week so I'm just over my overdraft limit, which means that not only could I not afford to go food shopping yesterday but the bank will charge me £25 for going over the limit. I get some tax credits on Tuesday but in total for the month I don't have enough coming in to ever be able to pay off my OD. So in the next few months I'm going to be moving DS from 3 full days at nursery to pre-school for his 15 hour entitlement only, to save money. It's not ideal as I work 3 full days, but something has to give. I only get £6.25 a fortnight from his 'dad' so that's neither use nor ornament. I'd say I was low income.

Sorry for the waffle, think I'll go back to sleep now...

if you are changing insurances and utilities, try getting quotes through moneysupermarket then join something like Quidco and check which of the companies with the best quotes have cashback and go through them, the cashback soon adds up.

grumpypants - since I have been on there

• I have booked travelodge breaks costing £18 for 2 nights.

• I do valuedopinions.com surveys and they regularly send me £10 tesco vouchers.

• I go to pizza express, prezzo etc and have a 2 course dinner with a glass of wine for a tenner (they sent vouchers to my email).

• I have put all my car insurance, house, buildings insurance etc through confused.com and saved loads.

• They have boards that tell you all the latest offers and deals everywhere so have bought things we needed for way less.

• I booked our holiday using their voucher codes they have on there and saved 200 quid

I used to be on a combined income of 34k and now am only on 21k combined but actually have a lot more to spend. If you read the debt free boards it makes you think do I really need this? You also get to see people in the same boat. I realise before I was just buying things without thinking and now appreciate things a lot more. I am a lot less wasteful and dont end up throwing food out like I used to. I think the most valuable lesson the site has taught me is to change my way of thinking. My husband and I are only 25 and 26 and I think having a decent wage of 34k when we met at 18 (we met in military training) made us be silly with money. I always used to be moaning I was skint and now I think back and think what was I talking about! I honestly cant recommend it enough

" we should have around £900 left, that is really after everything BUT we never do"

You need to get a proper fix on your income and outgoings to see where it's going. I use the MS Money software that's usually installed on most PCs (but there are other home finance packages like BankTree) and keep it updated. It's a bit of work to set it up but once you've got it running it doesn't take much effort to maintain. It's not until you keep track of every DD, SO, cheque, credit card payment and cash withdrawal that you can really get to grips with it, I think.

The sheer act of keeping a record means you will spend less. And then you can take individual spending categories and see how you can reduce them. An afternoon on the price comparison sites is well worth it and so is an honest look at lifestyle habits. If buying lunch every day costs £15, switching to a packed lunch might save you £10.

Out of my salary I have about £150/month going into long-term savings, same again put aside for holidays, Christmas etc., and I know that if push came to shove I could probably shave another £100 if we ate cheaper and cut out a few non-essentials.

after essential bills, food and non essential bills like sky, phone and internet we have about £80 left from our £1450 a month income, tho i dont think we are poor as we choose to have luxuries like sky/phone/internet but dont really get out socially that much so its a choice. We are a low income but are not poor as we are not entitled to any benefits and pay all our own bills like council tax. TBH the £80 a month spare pays off credit cards so its never seen.

Wow after all our bills including food we usually have -£300 in our account and have to dip into our savings... I am just going back to work part time to bridge the gap and try to build up our savings again as we havent saved a bean since dd was born 3 years ago..

Riven... what a revolutionary way of thinking! I think they should make you a government advisor with insights like that

(Actually it might have been more help if you'd been an advisor to the previous government)

none sometimes less

Indeed. Labour never seemed to grasp the idea that spending means nothing left

After everything is paid for we have -? left over, we're getting more into the overdraft each month. But that's because dh is out of work, he desperately needs to get a job!!

I have nothing left about a week before payday. I have one DD and cycle to work but my rent is £660 per month which is what eats up my wage plus the childcare so I can actually go to my low income job
What sort of jobs do you all do ? Cos I earn less than 17K and would love to be earning so much dosh

cheltenhamgirl - I get £7500 and my husband gets 15k. How come you dont get free childcare?

It rather depends on your idea of 'all the bills'. I can't afford sky, gym membership, babysitters, evenings out, alchol, much in the way of 'new' clothes etc. So comparing how much I have left with someone who pays all that 'extra' stuff is really like comparing apples and oranges.

Agree with gillybean - We dont have money for Sky, or gym membership, or holidays (home or abroad0 very rarely nights out - certainly never to a restaurant or anything expensive.
We are both self-employed, cant even afford childcare now, so the DC have to come to my work after school and in holidays etc.

we never have anything 'left over' - but people probably think we are middle income. Appearances can be deceiving.

cheltenhamgal - I'm SE (an Ofsted Registered childminder) and DH was made redundant in November. He was my assistant for a while but I HAD to sack him unfortunately!

after all bills are paid and the fridge is stocked, we have about £2k but that's going to drop to £1.5k soon as my mat. pay is running out.

That doesn't include car insuance and road tax for 2 cars as we've got in a habit of paying for those in a lump sum (really should change that for next year) and DH bought his yearly rail card with his bonus, so normally we'd need about another £300 a month for that.

Thing is, I know we should count as "well off" with those sort of sums, but it doesn't feel like it. That could be that DH really wants to build up savings so we aren't spending much...