£600 per month ‘leftover’

[Heateddebate]

Good morning everyone,

DH and I have been trying to look at our money in a bit more detail. I’ve been looking back over her bank statements for the past six months and it seems most months we are left with about £600 just before payday. This is after we are paid for everything. We have been saving most of this money, or on a couple of occasions we’ve used it to book something as a treat such as a weekend away or to go out for a nice meal.

I think that this makes us fairly fortunate, however dh feels at £600 a month isn’t a great deal to have left. I don’t really understand his concern as This literally is money that is totally spare that we can do whatever we want with. We have a mortgage but no other debt, and we also live fairly simple lives.

would you be content with this?

Have a look at other threads on here and show your husband just how lucky he is. £600 'leftover' is a privelege some will never get. Id be 'content' if I had a tenner left over and I have a good job

Do you also save every month? If this is after money has gone into savings, then this is very good.

Yes that's pretty comfortable in this day. What is he wanting out of his moaning? You guys to be more frugal?

Whether you consider it a lot or not a lot depends entirely on your circumstances. If you net 20k a month and spend 19.4k I’d say it’s not a lot and you are very exposed to potential financial difficulty if your income or expenditure changes slightly. If you net 3k a month and spend 2.4k that obviously sounds a lot more reasonable. You need to think in proportions not in absolute terms. Also are you saving for anything specific? If it’s just to be secure then it’s also relevant how much you have in savings already. If you can afford to live for 6 months without earning that sounds like a good situation, if you’d be broke after 1 month that’s not so good.

Your post really doesn’t contain any of the information required to say whether 600 ‘left over’ a month is good or bad.

It's a good amount of flex to be comfortable - it means if you have a massive car MOT bill or the dishwasher breaks you can just fix it without worrying where to find the money and you have a decent budget for holidays birthdays and treats. Of course if the amount legt was £1000 you could do even more but that will always be true - there's no upper limit to what you could theoretically spend on with more money but the key to happiness is being content with what you have after basic needs are met. You are right and your DH is unreasonable.

I’ve been looking back over her bank statements for the past six months and it seems most months we are left with about £600 just before payday. This is after we are paid for everything

Does 'everything' mean everything. So Christmas, holidays, white goods replacement, car repairs/MOT/insurance, things for the house, clothes, child costs if you have them, etc etc, ie does this money go into savings and not generally get touched or does most of it get withdrawn a few months later as these costs arise?

But in any case, whether it's 'enough' depends. Everyone is different and has different circumstances. You're obviously in a lot better position than a lot of people, but others will save more.

You're not on the breadline, but if you're currently spending nearly all of a high income, don't have good pensions, spend a lot on non essentials or would be plunged into difficulties if one of you lost your job, it could be that you could adjust things and save more.

Personally, no. Assuming you have two incomes. I think a minimum of £1K leftover is the sweet spot for saving, treats including holidays , and investing, but it depends on your priorities, I guess.

It depends - what are your emergency cash savings (tyre blows, new boiler, roof springs a leak, fridge breaks) your medium term savings (holidays, new car or work on the house for example) and long term (pensions and other long term investments). If you are happy that those are all fully funded then £600 spare is great

We have about the same leftover each month. Like you, some months we save it/whack it on the mortgage, some months we spend it on a big ticket item for the house (we recently moved) or a holiday.

Doesn't feel loads to me (something always crops up! Car repairs, annual insurance bill, etc etc) but obviously better than nothing and I realise we're in a fortunate position compared to a lot of people.

I wouldn’t be happy with that if savings have to come out of that too. Do you have DC to save for as well?

This is one of those how long is a piece of string threads.

I think that this makes us fairly fortunate, however dh feels at £600 a month isn’t a great deal to have left

Well if your household income is £25k then you're doing amazingly and £600 is a fantastic amount to have left each month.

If your household income is £125k then that's rather poor and you're probably pissing your money away somewhere.

The liklihood is you're somewhere in between these figures - but it's really impossible to say without more details.

Whats the definition of “ spare” …if you have that left over but very little rainy day savings ( eg. Equivalent to at least 6 moths pay)then no, not great but if you have decent savings then fair enough. What are your joint goals ,do you have income protection insurance, do you both have pensions etc etc. Most people on a fair income would have a lot more at the end of the month as £600 doesn’t even cover most people’s rent for a month never mind other costs but obviously many people don’t earn a good wage to live comfortably so it’s hard to say without knowing your income.

Most people on a fair income would have a lot more than £600 left??

Seriously? I think that £600 is loads spare. I bet most people have nowhere near that!

@Jasperparsnip exactly it is all relative and depends on your income/circumstances….but her DH is saying that it’s not enough and I presume he knows more about their personal situation!

We have about £700 left over each month. £350 goes straight to mortgage overpayments and the other half goes into savings. Ideally would like to add more to savings for holidays etc. but the mortgage is our current priority.

£600 is loads spare! We are not earning enough for what we have to pay nowadays!

It depends what you mean by £600 spare. If that means £600 after you have paid into pensions, long-term/emergency savings, shorter term savings for Christmas/holidays/house maintenance then I can see why you are happy.

If you haven't paid into any of those things and only have £600 to your name at the end of the month then I'd want to look at how to build security as you'd be very precarious.

You have more than £7000 a year than is not immediately accounted for. That's an extremely fortunate position to be in.

https://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/tools-and-guides/50-30-20-rule/

I don’t think it’s a lot if you’re both working full time. It would depend on income though. You should send the £600 to a savings account at the beginning of the month , not the end. How much do you have in savings?

Hi, about 18k

£600 is two thirds of my entire monthly income, I’d be delighted if I had that spare every month.
I’d be putting it towards the mortgage.

If it’s not already in an isa, I’d open one today in Moneybox and transfer the £18 k across. Then I’d set up dd for the £600 to go out when you both get paid. You can also set up your account so that any leftover money is automatically collected once a week. Not exactly sure how this works but would be worth looking at if you think you could save more than £600.
University is expensive and your children may not qualify for the full loan. If you think there’s any chance they may want to go to university then I’d start saving asap. Don’t underestimate the power of compound interest!