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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to ask how much money you have after all your bills

202 replies

galaxyplease · 02/07/2010 15:04

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

OP posts:
sillybillymummy · 03/07/2010 22:36

Oblomov - you make it all sound simple!

Everyone has their own agenda i.e. what they are working / saving for.
I think people save for 'the rainey day' (in your case every october by the sounds of it! but like you said, thats not really saving, but more budgeting)
If people have spare money leftover at he end of each month, then why wouldn't they save it? You wouldn't spend it for the sake of it, when one day you might need it for something you really want to do / have / achieve etc..
So, we save for:

Childrens education / future needs
A better car
Things we would like to do /places we would like to go. (i would love to take the kids to lapland etc)
I could go on and on, we just work hard to save up as much as possible to improve our future quality of life!

Oblomov · 03/07/2010 22:39

O.k. 14hr. thank you. please tell more. how much to you manage to save per month ? and you save for something specific. you will not 'dip into' this. and is this because you are cutting down/ watching what you spend in order to save ?
I only ask because dh live the life of luxury. we have never saved, our whole married life. but if we want to spend £1000 on a boiler, or £250 on a dress, we can. we eat what we want/ spend what we want on clothes or anything else, when we want.permanently. I guess this is why we don't overspend £300 and save £33k on our mortgage. which beggars the question, why not ? why do we not do this ?

MrsC2010 · 03/07/2010 22:41

We save for:
-Annual expenses (car ins, house ins, car tax etc)

  • Christmas expenses
  • Hols (if spare)
  • Rainy day

We do also have around £8k in savings from various things, soon to be added to. This is held seperately to our 'running cost' savings.

We will also start saving for our soon-to-arrive first child's education etc soon, and however many follow her!

We're planning on selling up in this very expensive area and buggering off elsewhere in the country at some point too.

We have a comparatively small mortgage to most of our friends/age group so despite having a low income due to re-training we can afford to save. I like knowing we have a little going away for unexpected expenses.

pacinofan · 03/07/2010 22:43

We save for holidays, kids going to university should they choose to, bigger house/home improvements, updating cars (I drive an old but reliable banger), and the unexpected, like dh being made redundant. I'd like to say we have enough saved to live for 6 months. We don't, but I suspect we are not alone. Oh, and medical expenses - dh had a dental implant done, it cost in excess of £3000. DD1 needs orthodontal treatment, we are told this will cost around £5,000 and yes, we may have to fund this ourselves, depending on how 'necessary' the orthodontist thinks it is. It all adds up.

ruddynorah · 03/07/2010 22:43

we save for our summer holiday and for a new (2nd hand car) every 3 or so years.

income is about £2500 a month between us. bills are about £750 in direct debits, so not including food or petrol.

we prob have about £1400 left and save £400 of it. i generally reckon on £100 a week to spend on stuff for the children, activities, eating out etc. and dh has the same.

Oblomov · 03/07/2010 22:45

silly, don't people save consciously. they make a decision that they want to save for .... uni fees or whatever, so they subconsciously decide to cut back on sandwiches from the deli, in order to be able to save ?

is that right. why do you think i have not done this then ? what is wrong with me. why is it not important to me. i guess, it should be.

sillybillymummy · 03/07/2010 22:49

because you are happy doing what you have always done?

Oblomov · 03/07/2010 22:52

shit. i can't believe norah saves £400 on a salary of 2.5K. we save nothing. god we are bad. if dh lost his job we could live off credit cards for 9 months. easily. we have loads of credit cards, offering us 15k each, but we have zero balances on any of them. but we have no savings at all. i didn't think that the adverage person could live for more than a month. i thought that people who had 6 months to live off savings, were slim-to-none/ tiny % of the population. maybe i am wrong.

14hourstillbedtime · 03/07/2010 22:52

Ah, Oblomov (brill name, btw!) money, money makes the world go round....

Personally, I love money... I used to work as a fundraiser for children with disabilities and I love what money can do, both for the world and large and for us, personally, as a family!

Our money boils down as follows (all is in US dollars, mind):

DH (sole earner at mo, as I am SAHM to two DC) earns $160K salary. With bonus and stock options that we sell annually, our annual family income ends up at circa $300K p.a. So, as a family, we make a lot of cash.

HOWEVER, we do NOT spend (on day to day expenses, which for us excludes holidays - mostly air fare to UK from US) more than we make. We have a big mortgage that, including property taxes and home owner's insurance, eats up half DH's take home pay a month. On average, though, we still save $500 to $1,000 a month.

Unusually (for our income bracket), we don't spend anything on designer anything/gadgetry or expensive cars. In fact, I don't even own a watch, we always buy second-hand cars, our one TV is DH's from graduate school over a decade ago, blah blah blah. We are seriously saving up to buy a big house (circa £1mil to £1.5 mil) that we plan to afford in ten years.

From our own savings, we know we will be able to retire early, and save enough for the DCs uni education.

From inheritances, we hope to be cash-rich enough to give away $1mil in our lifetimes. This goal, however, is secondary to securing our own financial wellbeing! It remains, however, a serious goal - like most people, we are putting our family's security first, though.

Does this answer your questions?

(So pleased this is only the internet - can never, ever in a million years have this sort of honest conversation in real life - money is so verboten a conversational topic, isn't it?)

Oblomov · 03/07/2010 22:55

silly, its threads like this that make me question it. and makes we wonder whether we are being a bit too 'live the life of reilly now'. i think i know the answer to that one.

sillybillymummy · 03/07/2010 22:56

sorry i didn't see your last entry.
I just mean, if it works for you... and there's nothing you would rather save for - instead of having that dress / eating that deli sandwich etc
Since having kids and giving up my full time wage, I have to justify everything.
I just want so much out of life and i know our future wouldn't be bright if we spent what we earnt every month.

Oblomov · 03/07/2010 23:03

silly, dh and i take a packed lunch to work. no deli for us. i think its a waste, but thats just me.
am intrigued by 14hours view on life/money. impressed more like. having a plan to buy this sized house in 10 years. now that is ambition. planning. interesting.
sorry. am taking over thread. must let this drop.
let others talk on general bills etc.

ruddynorah · 03/07/2010 23:03

oblomov we've only recently been able to do this as a recent inheritence has meant we've only a tiny mortgage now and no debts. prior to that we only saved £100 a month.

WynkenBlynkenandNod · 03/07/2010 23:07

We have 6 months salary put away and I'm flipping glad we have as the funding for DH's job has just stopped. There is a chance it may start again if something he's been working on sells but we definitely can't rely on that. I've over saved on his tax bill which is a huge bonus so we don't at the moment need to touch the emergency fund but might need to in a couple of months.

I really hope he can get something sorted by then. If he does the money will stay where it is and I look at it as being hopefully less to pay off the mortgage in the future.

pacinofan · 03/07/2010 23:10

For us, I think the recent doom and gloom talk from George Osborne & co has made us feel insecure, and now less inclined to spend on things that we were happy to spend on even a year ago; my car is old and needs replacing, but have had it serviced and am keeping it for the time being. Holiday this year is uk, not overseas, and costing us a lot less than our Florida holiday last year. Also looking more at saving on insurance, etc, didn't used to shop around but do so now. Have switched dd to pack lunches instead of school dinners, doesn't save heaps but it all adds up.

sillybillymummy · 03/07/2010 23:11

Maybe sit down with DH and work it all out and make some lists?
I think you're right, i don't think many people save (because i think people are more materialistic/ living for the here and now than they have ever been? and don't have as much money atm).. this thread isn't a true representation of what people do with their money.
Maybe you've never had the shock it needed to make you save for a rainy day?
I can't really say anything, because we don't 'budget' nearly as much as i (being an accountant!) would like too.. but our financial situation is really complicated.. (due to DH business) so its difficult to determine how much/little we really have. ATM i just try and not go overdrawn on our joint/personal account! and thats about it. But i know he invests money before it even gets there...

Angelmich · 03/07/2010 23:21

Was made unemployed at the end of my maternity leave, as they just couldn't afford to pay any hours (was working as a PA for a friend who is a trail building consultant previously - his wife took over parts of my role during maternity, and the business slowed down)and both DP and myself are now unemployed and have to claim jobseekers and housing benefit etc.

Budgeting is key, and we are both actively seeking work, but we get by - just dreaded the tories scrapping child tax credit, or we'd never survive - thankfully though, we're ok. No money left over ever, but we can feed our daughter and keep a roof over our head - she has all the love she could ask for, and no amount of money could buy that xx

Oblomov · 03/07/2010 23:23

silly. i am a part qualified accountant. should be ashamed really. i will give your post some thought.

MiladyDeScorchio · 03/07/2010 23:24

Very interesting reading, this. I also assume that "bills" means gas, electricity, some sort of phone, T.V License, contents insurance, water charges and housing costs.

What else is essential?

IMO the food budget has to fit around these things because I know from experience that it is less awful to be hungry than cold. But generally we eat very well because we don't spend in other areas.

For example, DH and I share one small wardrobe between us for our clothes and shoes and we only ever replace items which have worn out.

DwayneDibbley · 03/07/2010 23:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

14hourstillbedtime · 03/07/2010 23:39

Oblomov I think it depends what you want out of life, and what genuinely gives you pleasure... for DH and I it is our home and our DCs... he has a really high status job but he's seriously not in it for the professional glory, but for us to be able to fullfil our dreams...

I had a fairly traumatic childhood (lots of material possessions, great relationship with my mum but some hardcore other family stuff to resolve) and, actually, this really helped chrystalize what I want out of life. Then I met DH, who is even more Type A than I am and a real planner, and we sat down together pre-DC and talked about what we wanted and how much $ it would take to make that come true... For us, it's worth the 'sacrifice' of cheaper clothes/more homemade food/less expensive presents (relative to our income, mind) because we are living into the future called our Dream Home - for you, it may be something different! I think it's definitely worth a conversation with your DH, though.

MiladyDeScorchio · 03/07/2010 23:47

Oh now DH is disputing that it is less awful to be hungry than cold because food warms and people in cold climates manage.

Maybe it's me not having as big an appetite as a man but I seriously think being cold is more miserable and also less fixable.

Food can be obtained from more sources (friends, family, charity, other ) than heat, especially at night.

Or is that another thread?

I'm probably just basing this on my worst experience which was in a February years ago when my boiler broke but because it was my house (on the market, no takers) and I was on benefits I was advised to put clambering nine-month old dd's cot in front of the open electric oven all night as I didn't qualify for a loan to fix the heating.

BustleInYourHedgerow · 03/07/2010 23:56

We earn E2350 a month. Rent - E700.
Electric - about E80 a month.
Heating (in winter only) - about E30 a month.
Food- about E600.

I try to save about E200 a month.
DP is feckin useless with money and generally saves nothing.

Quattrocento · 03/07/2010 23:58

On Oblomov's question on savings - we save. We don't have a particular material 'thing' in mind, but we are conscious that we have school and university fees to pay, the economy is very uncertain (25% reduction in headcount in my team this year alone) and we plan to retire at 55. All this requires savings ...

daisymiller · 04/07/2010 00:04

We are saving for the following:

  1. to buy a house
  2. to pay dd through university if she should want to go
  3. saving so can afford a second child
  4. saving so eventually I cam stop paid work and volunteer abroad for a year or so.