How much is your disposable income?

[Amee]

How much do you have to spend after bills including food and petrol? We have roughly £1000 a month and we are a family of 4 (dc's are 14 and 10).

A lot. I dunno. More than we need.

£300, also family of 4, docs are 5 and 2

In theory, about £2,000 but we're using it to pay off some debt and save for my maternity leave at the moment so actually don't spend much after bills at all. 2 adults, 1 DC who is 3 and one due next month.

between 500 and 600 1 adult and a 3 year old. Am paying off debt with everything spare after food and petrol tho, we will feel rich when that's all paid off.

I used to gave a lot more divorce..over £1000.
Not now. Maybe £300.
But frugality and happiness are preferable to the alternative.

I think we have about £1500 a month (more if the money we spend on school fees counts as disposable income). There are 4 of us (DC are 11 and 9).

We used to have some disposable income but it has been a while since we had any. The children growing into ravenous teenagers, DH not having a pay rise for 7 years and a new baby being on the way has eaten up all of our disposable income.

Same- about £1000.

Nursery fees for a surprise DD and school fees towards DS1's bursary/scholarship have reduced ours significantly.

About £1200. Family of 4 ds7 and dd2 nearly. Only I work as dh is house husband

Absolutely zilch currently - well, maybe a couple of hundred. Due to change significantly in the next few months though. We are me, DH, DD (2.6yo) and 2 aged mutts.

About £2000 but we have had years of paying off debts so this is just a recent thing. We plan on saving a lot of it and having some fantastic holidays.
There are four of us

At the minute, about 1600 for me, DH and DD (4.). But we are on a four year plan to be debt free apart from mortgage. We were way too spend in our early thirties .... When that's done we will have an extra 700 but we will be using a chunk of that to overpay on mortgage.

We are doing okay but still often bamboozled by friends around us who seem to just nip out and book a 2 grand holiday or buy an expensive designer handbag - we don't have that much disposable! Unless of course they are doing what we did in our early thirties ....

ilove- we are very similar. We have a few K on credit cards which we are hammering at to get paid off (have worked out we should have them cleared by 2018 and then we will only have mortgage debt).

We both got a bit miserable the other day when seeing that friends were booking luxury hols and we were looking at camping again for next year.

I had to point out to DP that in the past 15 years (since DS1 was born) we have been to Florida twice, numerous other holidays etc. Lived quite fruitfully so just clamping down a few years wont harm us.

About £1000ish. Just me and DP, only me bringing in a salary at the minute. I do try and save some of that though.

A lot. But dh spends it well! Although we are also on target to being mortgage free by 2020 so not all bad.

We keep our finances separate. I take home 2.5 grand a month. Mortgage and bills add up to about 900 quid I think. I have no idea what I spend on food. One DS. DP has similar income.

Sorry, my half of mortgage and bills is ca 900 I should have said.

Absolutely nothing

I'm a single parent and a full time student on a course with a 95% employment rate at the end of it

I'm praying I don't fall into the 5%!

About £300. We were stupid in our 20s though and are paying back a lot of debt so it's our own fault. We should be debt free in 3 years then we'll have an extra £1000.

If I can stick to £80 a week for food etc. then we have £100 disposable income each month. This is used for children's shoes, haircuts and all the demands for cash from school. Thankfully we have very little debt, just a very, very small mortgage. We do have outgoings that we could lose if things got desperate ie. The children's music lessons but they are very musical and it would be very hard to deny them when they give so much to it and my gym membership which I only use for swimming but, due to ill health, this is the only exercise I can do and their are few options locally.

We are a family of five.

Tiredemma - that was us too! We had a great time and are paying for it now. It is nice to look ahead though and think that in a few years we can actually afford to do the things we couldn't really afford to do the first time we did them!

Family of 3: me, DH and DD (4).

Not much. However, we're debt free and have a small pot of savings but renting after having to sell to put ourselves back on track after DH lost his job. I'm a freelancer which, fortunately, pays very well in my field. I generally work 3 days per week, mostly term time with the odd bit of writing during holidays.

Due to the fact that we don't ever again want to feel the pressure that debt brings, we view as much income as possible, after all bills, food, travel and petrol has been paid for, as Money To Be Saved. So, no massive holidays etc. But we don't go without treats like wine, fancy handcream (me!), DD's ballet lessons and nights out when we can grab them.

If and when DH returns to work (has been SAHD for past couple of years) then whatever he earns, less travel and wraparound childcare, will be disposable but will be ploughed into savings for a deposit. For now though, we are very lucky to have all that we need without either of us being worked into the ground.

So, after the epic tome I've just penned: a little disposable income but more free time than I've ever had in my career.

So, out of your disposable income, how much of it goes into savings either % or £. For us it's £200 pm.

I'm guessing around 10% but my earnings are variable due to freelancing and, in months I don't work much, I save on travel so it's a bit complex.

That said, I religiously save 20% into an account labeled for each tax year. I currently have a pot for 2014-2015 and one for 2015-2016. The actual amount I'll have to pay after allowances, expenses etc should be lower than what I've saved so, in theory, that will boost our savings too. (Anxiously awaiting for accountant to contact me with my annual return and the amount payable!!)

After bills, food, rent etc? About £40 a month since I lost my job

That usually goes on non-fun stuff anyway so we never get to 'enjoy' it. No holidays, no nights out, no new clothes, no occasional bottle of wine...!

Money doesn't buy cuddles with DS though so its not all bad