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Original poster

How much is your disposable income?

80 replies

Amee · 07/08/2015 20:08

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).

OP posts:
AndNowItsSeven · 08/08/2015 22:17

emochild do you mind if I ask what course?

mrsmeerkat · 08/08/2015 22:19

I probably have 1000 disposable after fuel, running the car, groceries etc. I try and save 600-700

I won't be able to save much once paid maternity finished and I have to pay childcare.

Whatabout · 08/08/2015 22:21

£2k and £1k gets saved. Now down to just mortgage debt, so that's good. Just going on maternity leave with DC2 so going to be broke till bonuses.

FeedYourselfSmiles · 08/08/2015 22:39

About £300, family of 3, only I work, DH is a SAHD. Got £8k in savings too but that's being eaten away by maternity leave.

SpecificOcean · 08/08/2015 23:44

Tiny mortgage, no debts. After bills and savings and overpaying the mortgage we have about £1600 left. We spend loads on going out, days out, nights out, coffees, meals etc. 2 ad 2 Dc.

Emochild · 09/08/2015 08:23

Andnowits7

Primary education

rambunctious · 09/08/2015 09:06

£615, but I squirrel £330 of that away in various accounts, eg emergencies, replacements, Christmas, summer holidays, car stuff etc.
Totally disposable money is £315, which, until I read this thread and compared my circumstances to others I was very happy with!

justjuanmorebeer · 09/08/2015 09:38

Truly disposable about £100 pm. But I consider putting £100 a month into savings part of my expenditure so technically I would have twice that if I didn't. I have to keep our food bill low but it is childcare costs that cripple me.

Single parent with one child. Work 16 hours and full time post grad student too.
It is really hard on such little money but after I finish my qualificarion in a year I hope to be working full time again when dd is at school so just keep telling myself one more year one more year.
My tax credits have already been cut £70 per 4 weeks since the election despite my childcare costs going up. Blah.

bettyberry · 09/08/2015 09:49

right now about £100 a week but more often than not whats left goes on the debts. Once the debts (left over because of the EX) are paid off it'll be about £250 a week. Just me and the boy here. My rent is low, I live as frugally as I did when earning less than £10k a year (too broke then to pay off much of the debts) as I do now earning £20k plus.

My outgoings are incredibly low and I've ditched a lot of those luxury excesses. No TV subs, basic phone/mobile and internet. So what has been saved there is put directly into savings. I still buy treats but If I need something my first port of call is gumtree or charity shops rather than buying new. It saves a small fortune that I put into savings and on to the debts which are not way under 4K. You should see me dance when a final statement comes in to say its cleared Grin

SacredHeart · 09/08/2015 09:55

Before becoming a student £1700, now £150 maybe? I save £100 every month which means if we do want a treat we can.

The funny thing is how much you realise what you don't need when you can't afford it. The things we wasted money on was ridiculous even down to the food shop.

YUDOTHIS · 09/08/2015 17:12

Now, about 4k, I recently qualified in my chosen career and DP has had a promotion. we were on a lot less last year(barely making ends meet) however we're just paying basic bills and we've nearly got our deposit saved, houses around here are about 75-120k for a 2 bed house, you can get a 3 bed house needing about 15-20k of work for 40k (i've seen a few around here, this is south wales and the cheapest homes are in the valleys) so we're saving 30k to put in as a deposit. we're about 2 months off having our deposit saved (6.5k left to go) we've also spent the last 2yrs building up our credit rating so fingers crossed x

RabbitSaysWoof · 09/08/2015 19:44

That's so true SacredHeart my perspective of what is a treat is so different now, I didn't used to think I was treating myself going to the pub for a few hours or out for a £20ish meal I took it for granted, now I feel like having a bottle of wine in the fridge is a treat I actually appreciate more, it takes less to make me happy and I don't miss what I thought was essential, I dont miss anything I've given up ok maybe the hair extensions Last year I added together my cc balances and realised I was really in debt rather than just having a few cc bills the totals overwhelmed me for the first time that was July I have cut back everything paid back thousands that I would have probably frittered and had a BRILLIANT year. I have every intention of keeping all of the changes and saving up when the debt is gone (hopefully by next summer if I stay on course) I love my new life.

AndNowItsSeven · 09/08/2015 21:19

Thanks Emochild - I am sure you won't be the 5% Smile

lilacclery · 10/08/2015 11:16

sage that's a great idea! I do my tax return at end of oct but submit it in August for review and then divide it by number of weeks remaining until payment due and am under pressure to have the money..luckily Sept/Oct are very busy months in my self employed field! Other colleagues saved 30% of their portion of the earnings and have a spending spree with what remains then after paying their tax in oct or a pot of savings for Christmas.

lilacclery · 10/08/2015 11:21

Rabbitsayswoof I did the exact same thing in April 14, and made a plan to repay it quickly, just after working out now that 14 months later my total balance has only come down by just shy of €700, need to cop on!

lilacclery · 10/08/2015 11:25

Have brought my overall outside debt down by €5k + though in the same timeframe so that's ok

SageYourResoluteOracle · 10/08/2015 21:33

Lilac- honestly it's so easy. I bank with lloyds and have a current account and then several instant access accounts (one ISA with another bank). Most online banking sites will let you open an account with a few clicks and then you can name the account. It's so easy to see what you've got and what it's for. And it's reassuring knowing that you will have more than enough to cover your tax bill.

98percentchocolate · 10/08/2015 21:36

About £20-£50 depending on how good we are each month.

lilacclery · 11/08/2015 06:01

sage it's the discipline of putting it away I struggle with!!

MyDoItMyself · 11/08/2015 10:11

£100 pm after essentials: bills, rent, diesel for car and food. Desperately want to save but it's so hard.

SueDunome · 12/08/2015 11:01

£2700. We 'save' 50% of this but it's all earmarked for holidays / university fund / school extras

mumtoaninja · 12/08/2015 11:44

Family of 4 ( 2ad 2 ch) and only DH working currently. We have around £800 'spare' after bills. No idea where most of it goes though Hmm

Saving for Florida next year though so likely to be less for the next 12 months!

Oly4 · 12/08/2015 15:47

About £2,800.
We are ridiculously lucky and used to have far less. I am a spender though so need to save far more than we do for when times are harder

felinewonderful · 13/08/2015 11:11

About £1000 per month between me, dh and 2 dcs.That is after money is put away for holidays and birthday/xmas presents. I work 2 days per week and my dh full time. I am considering giving up work but will reduce disposable income to about £300. Hmm

Chipsahoythere · 13/08/2015 11:20

£120 disposable income and none of it is currently saved