what is your disposable income?

[proudmummywife]

Hi all I'm new to this.. my husband and I earn £4500 month but have £2400 going out it's rediculous. Leaves us with £2100 to pay sch dinners petrol food shop bills and general living. I was wondering how much do you have left after household bills are out? I'd like to see how we stand ffinancially as we are about to sign for new mortgage (included in total outgoings above)

I thought disposable income what was you have left after all bills mortgage food and school fees etc?? So to me it's the amount left over each month after all that which is then divided between savings, personal spending fund and holiday fund.

Well I don't even bring in 2100 every month. I earn just under that and get no other benefits.

If that was my disposable income I'd feel rich!

Probably not what you wanted to hear but I don't know if you'll get many people wanting to answer this.

Mortgage and utilities leaves us with 1500. It's plenty for food, petrol, savings and general expenditure

So after all essentials paid for mortgage, insurance, bills, petrol, food, school dinners etc we have enough to pay for karate and swimming lessons which are not essential. Then we have £0 left.

Between me and dp we earn 2300, no benefits. I agree with teacher, I would feel rich with your amount of money.

After my direct debits I have £800 left and that is for food, petrol and everything else.

I realise that compared to some people this is a lot of money but I find this quite difficult. I can get by, but it involves me regularly checking my bank account online.

The main thing I find difficult is that people assume I can afford certain things when I can't actually.

Yes, disposable income is what you are left with when everything has been paid.
For some that is a lot, for others it isn't much.
It doesn't really depend on what you earn either, well not just.
It is just as dependant on your outgoings too.

You can earn very little, have low outgoings and have a higher disposable income than somebody with 5x your income, who has more outgoings

We run two cars so that would be 100 week as we both travel a distance to work.. 110 week on food. It would be 1000 we have dispossible income after all bills. Reason I'm trying to weigh up my options if I can go part time or maybe quit as I want another baby but husband wants to get bills down so I won't have to work . I'd like to have one sooner.. I'm not trying to patronize people.. sorry

After all my bills are paid, food and petrol etc is all done, cash to my eldest etc I clear approx 800 a month for my spending money. I don't really know how that compares to others, tbh.

I call disposable income as the bit you can spend freely, so that would be after all bills, food, necessities and savings. Which will be about £1500.

What on earth are you asking for Proudmummy? I earn more than you, so what? If you can afford to give up work, do it. Why do you need to know what other people earn?

Asking the question of others really isn't going to help you. What you need to know is what you spend your money on and whether you have enough to cover those things with a larger mortgage and reduced hours at work. You'd be better off asking how much people with similar sized families and houses spend on certain things so that you can see whether you are spending too much in any particular area.

Argy

OP hasn't mentioned earnings.

proudmummy

I would look at what you can afford to save, how can you cut back if it is important to you.
Unless your oh is in agreement though it will only cause resentment.
Then if you can afford to stop work, have more dc then go ahead and speak to oh about it armed with the facts.
It doesn't matter what other people do.

After paying bills and food most of the time our disposable income is £0.
All we have left is our child tax and benefit, which we don't consider as disposable income as its our children's money not ours.

Disneymum. The child tax credit & benefit is for you to spend on your children so they are well housed, fed & clothed. Please spend it on them.

2100 is more than I've ever had as take home pay, never mind disposable income

You mean you pay £2400 a month on mortgage, electricity and gas? And maybe council tax?

With your income at £4500 that is a bit high, but depending on the number of children and their ages still comfortable. Unless you live in London/SE.

Generally speaking 30-40% of the income on mortgage is an indicator of affordability.

We have £0 disposable income, because I don't work atm. When I worked it was about £800 a month.

We pay 3800 on council tax, mortgage, utilities, debt, insurances, clubs, food and petrol. Then we have about 200 left.

After all bills, direct debits, food and petrol etx we have about 600 left but included in deficit debits is DHs gym membership, netflix subscription, kids swimming lessons, my cake decorating magazine subscription.
The £600 is to cover clothes, school uniform, xmas and birthdays, days out, holidays, car mot and tyres etc, money needed for school trips etc, others kids activities, etc

Hi OP, if you want to weigh up your options and see if it's possible then I would trial a month. Leave in your account what you would have under the new arrangement (PT) and put the rest in a savings account, and see how it goes. It doesn't matter what others have, it's all relative. Of course you'll notice your drop in income, but the advantage of PT is that you have extra time to meal plan, shop around, switch utilities etc. I worked less when my kids were little (teens now) and things were much tighter, but I was happy to have a few lean years to have that extra time with them.

I am not working currently. After rent and all bills, we have £440.50 a month to cover food, clothing, Christmas and birthday gifts, hair and beauty (I save £100 a month for those three), activities (Scouts and gym), entertainment and miscellaneous. Challenging, but we manage.

We have around £1800 after all bills, kids pocket money and food I usually save £500 for holidays and pay £500 extra on mortgage, so left with around £800 for petrol(not much) days out, meals out, make up, presents and clothes. This is from DH wages, I always spend it.
I run my own business so anything I earn is not included, I just keep it for extra treats ect. DH has no problem with this.

Disney do you really section your money of like that. Surely everything except clothes/ treats for you and your dp is for dc anyway.l

Wow. Feel poor reading all these.

We don't even bring in £2100. We bring in £1700 between us.

After mortgage, bills, nursery, gas etc is paid, we have precisely £90 a week to live on. Which includes buying food for the four of us.

So safe to say, we have zero disposable income.

I hate those threads. I'm not saying how much mine is. Some people will be feeling awful and some others very smug indeed.