Budgeting for mortgage and disposable income

[Metalgoddess]

Hi, we are looking at moving house and getting a bigger mortgage. Worked out finances last night using new mortgage figures for monthly payments and with all the bills paid for including food, holiday fund, Xmas/ birthday etc we are left with £725 disposable income per mth to use for fun or unexpected events etc. in addition to this we also get £146 per mth child benefit.(2 kids) Is this enough?

I was also thinking of reducing my hours at work to 2 days per week but that would leave 425 per mth plus child benefit. I know people's disposable incomes will vary greatly but wondered if people thought these figures were do-able.

I have your disposable income before house and bills costs. You'll be fine. It's over £200 a week for just stuff. Why are you worrying?

good for you - so don't forget to save or invest a large proportion of that. No-one has a secure job.

Whether it would be enough for anyone else is irrelevant really - is enough for you? How much disposable income do you have now, and do you get through it? I'd suggest having a month or so 'practising' living with the proposed budget, and see how you get on.

Certainly as others have said though, make sure you budget for savings and pensions.

I've always tried to work it out as 1/3 Mortgage, 1/3 household (and car) bills and 1/3 other (shopping and general spending). Anything left gets swept into my savings at the end if the month for emergencies/holidays etc

I like the Moneysavingexpert spreadsheet which helps me divide one off/annual spends, like car tax and birthday presents etc, over the year. (Helps reduce surprises!)

We have factored in pensions and car/home/life insurance. We have approx 6mths salary saved too. I think I could live on it but not sure about the lower figure if I reduce to 2 days a week, probably better staying on 3 although I really wanted to do 2, still can't have everything I guess! Thanks for replies:)

After all the bills, we have £125 each which we use for our own clothes, going out, treats for ourselves and buying eachother presents. On top that that we tend to have on average £250 left over, we don't just spend this, we save it for a rainy day. Luckily we haven't had too many rainy days, so our savings are building up - the main one was when the boiler packed up last winter and we had to get a new one. It was great having funds to dip into without having to worry.

Madmog, is that money you have left per mth? How do you find it? Do you go out much and is it enough to enjoy yourself on??!

After a recalculation, it seems if I drop to 2 days of work per week, we would have £ 550 disposable income per mth. Just wondering if its worth doing this as 2 days of work per week would suit my family much better. It just seems a big drop in money as if I stay on 3 days then we would have £850 left per mth!