Comfortable disposable income

[bettertheangelyouknow]

we live 40 mins outside of London.

Once my husband and I have paid all our bills, bought food and fuel, and saved a small amount, we have around £1,000 left per month. We have two small children. We struggle on this, days out are so expensive and there’s always unforeseen spend that crops up.

What would you say is a comfortable disposable income for a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 small children in the area we live in?

By disposable income do you mean after savings?

Yes, disposable after savings

We used to leave in Surrey have 3 kids and used to have £5000 on disposable income and we found it ok. But wanted more so ended up moving away.
edited to say: if you like being out all the time and eating out for 4 of you I think 2k a month.
edited to say that we wanted to save more - not spend more on disposable income.

How an earth do you struggle on £1,000 after bills & food?
Go through your outgoings with a fine tooth comb your evidently not being careful.

It is so difficult to answer these types of threads because each individual/ family will spend and prioritise money differently.

We have £3k disposable income but we don’t live in or around London. We enjoy holidays both abroad and in the UK, we also prioritise good food and “experiences”. We do mix in beach days/ forest walks which helps lower overall monthly spend.

What types of days out do you enjoy? What are priorities for you?

£1000 after what? You haven’t given enough information to judge anything

I took it after all bills and savings. Just for days out.

I said in the original post £1000 is what is left after all bills, all food, all fuel and all savings….

Read the OP, it’s in there

Do you work? You must be eating out every week and throwing money at activities to be struggling on that. How old are the kids?

£1000 fun money should be loads.

What kind of days out do you have? I agree it’s easy to spend £200 or so if you have say an escape room for 4 and then a meal out. But I wouldn’t do that every week, more like once a month.

Work out where you’re spending it and then think about what’s good value vs a rip off.

I’m the same as OP. Around 1000 a month disposable with 2 young kids and also struggling to make it last. I find the 5 weekend months are worse. But I think a lot of it comes down to food costs!

Take picnics?

How much are you saving?

Go through your bank statements and see where exactly it’s all going. I’m thinking kids activities, expensive phone contracts, multiple subscriptions, clothes, eating out…it all adds up.

£3,465 paid in after pension and PMI payments per month

£900 per month on utility bills, council tax, phone, Sky, Internet, TV licence, Private GP, and car finance

£650 into Savings every month for holidays, and rainy day money

Leaving £1915 a month for food, petrol, going out, clothes, make up, holidays, days out, treats, etc

No kids, no pets, live alone, partner has his own house, car and money.

Do you budget and account for every single penny?
You need to set it out more,this is ours.
Me 3100
DP 4100
CB 280
Total 7480
Housing
Mortgage: 1900.
Insurances(life, house): 150
Total Housing: 2050
Utilities
Electricity 150
Waste collection: 30
Broadband & TV: 70
Mobile phones x3: 60
Total Utilities: 310
Food & Groceries
Groceries & household food: 500
Dining out / takeaways: 200
Total Food: 700
Transportation
Fuel: 250
Car insurance & tax: 150
Maintenance & NCT: 100
Public transport / Parking: 20
Total Transport: 520
Education & Kids
School books, uniforms, fees: 50
Activities, sports, clubs: 50
Pocket money/treats: 60
Total Kids & Education: 160
Entertainment & Lifestyle
Family outings, hobbies, gifts: 200
Subscriptions, books, etc.: 60
Miscellaneous expenses (haircuts,nails): 60
Personal spends: 200 x 2 = 400
Total Entertainment: 730
Savings & Miscellaneous
Emergency fund / Savings: 2,000
Holidays (monthly allocation): 500
Clothing: 200
Miscellaneous buffer: 300
Total Savings & Misc.: 3,000
TOTAL MONTHLY SPENDING: 7,480

So £1,000 per month after all expenses incl food, bills & savings. Basically £1,000 for fun money. That’s £250 per person per month. Sounds reasonable to me. Enough to do 1 expensive activity like a zoo / theme park + 1 dinner + 1 lunch out + every week buy a coffee / ice cream / pop & cake + provide gifts for kids parties and some hobbies for everyone. We live near London and have about the same budget which is fine. Doesn’t cover holidays though, pay that from savings

I manage fine on 1 k a month after mortgage and bills, but not including food, petrol etc 🤷‍♀️. I don’t save anything either

1k after food, and having the luxury of savings, sounds like plenty to me. That’s £250 a week just to blow on “stuff”

Can you give us examples of your typical weekend op?

That sounds like a lot to me, and I consider we have a very good standard of living. Although we do a lot of days out like national trust (have membership), Forest walks, cycling, beach. Probably eat out once a month for full meals (have coffee & cake out maybe weekly)

Exactly like this, keep a list in your phone. I have mine the same & its super helpful. Look back every 3 months and account for all costs in categories and you’ll get great at budgeting

£1000 of fun money is a lot. Yes, a day out for a family of 4 could easily cost £200 with entry tickets to somewhere and food but you wouldn’t do this EVERY weekend. There are so many cheaper days out, get a NT membership, go for a walk and take drinks and snacks, go to a free museum etc if 1K isn’t enough you need to plan much better what you’re doing, how much it is going to cost and budget accordingly. It sounds like you expect to spend whatever you want and are peeved that it isn’t enough.

I think most of the people on this post is misunderstanding what the OP means. The 1k left is after everything has been paid and savings have been accounted for.

Honestly write every purchase you make down. I’ve been doing this the last year and what a difference it makes. I’m just short of your take home, solo though, my fixed outgoings are 1500 pm and I had no idea where the other 2k was going, some into savings fair enough. I now have managed to create the gap as they say of close to 1k and that will go into investments, I was spending it before on crap basically. Once you see it written down and in highlighted pen, it makes you think about making the same spending the following month

Days out can be free or very cheap.

Buy a national trust membership for the year and unlimited free days out, take lunch with you. My mum was queen of the car picnic when I was a kid. Ok so maybe petrol costs but still a cheap day out.

museums are free, parks are free, take up geocaching. Go walking.