Are we crap with money?

[Absolutleynot]

Hoping to settle a difference of opinion between me and DH. We have a joint income of around 4500 per month. Bills are around 1500 inc mortgage then on top of that theres childcare at 200 pm, car finance at 150 and his child maintance to his ex at 150. We run two cars. We have around 5k in savings and i feel we should have more. He thinks we are good with money and there are no issues.

Where does the spare 2,500 per month go?

Well that's what im saying! He does have a small credit card on top of that about £200 pounds that hes paying off but i don't know what happens to the rest of it and he's just not arsed!

We have similar income and are struggling. We don't have car finance but do have another child who does tennis and swimming club which adds around £120 every 7ish weeks. But our bills are higher and food bills are just eaten up with two hungry kids! I don't know where our money goes and we are trying really hard but every month something happens like tyres on car needs replacing or professional insurance is due or MOT. It's hard. We have started doing a spreadsheet to see where it's going and it is helping!

If that’s net income, then yes, you should be saving more, I would have thought. Your mortgage and bills are not that high for that income level - so you should be able to save.

Looked at another way, your savings are not much more than a month’s income. Ideally you would have 3-6 months in reasonably liquid savings and then more in longer term savings (e.g. equity investments / ISA etc.)

You need to write down all your outgoings including money for Christmas, birthdays, holidays, car repairs, home improvements etc and see what you truly have ‘spare’ then agree a set amount to save.

you are probably underestimating your ‘other’ living expenses. Grocery shopping can easily be in excess of £100 a weeks, so that’s extra £400 minimum a month. Fuel for your car, toiletries (if not included in your grocery shop). Plus all the additional children related costs - birthdays, clothes, school stuff. All adds up.

Go though last months bank statements ro work out where it is going.

That's a relatively low income for a family, albeit your bills seem low too. As long as you're both paying into pensions, plus putting something aside into savings each month, then I think you're doing fine.

Record all your spending in a spreadsheet for a few months. You’ll be surprised what you spend on what!

Thanks for your opinions. Agree that food is expensive and for 3 of us plus 2 cats it does vary but can easily be over 100 each week. Plus there does seem to be something each month my car needed a new battery last month. Husbands needed a mot and service this month which was 325 quid! I disagree that we have a low income i thought it was about average x

transfer a set amount into savings on pay day and see if you miss it. With that income you should be able to save a reasonable amount.

You have to track what you're spending the money on. Then you can assess. £100/week is pretty normal for food. It's the other £2000 you need to review!

Is he in charge of the money? I’d start keeping track of everything for the next month. You’ll probably see a pattern of some wastage eg a coffee per day could be 100 per month etc. That’s definitely the first step.

I feel like there is always something needs paying. Football club fees and new school jumper, pop to shops and its parking, lunch, cinema, then next month school trip and trainers, then next month birthday and dinner out with friend, then another birthday and Father’s Day, it just never ends. I look at our disposable income and the start of the month and think we should feel well off but it just goes.

like others say I’d try tracking your budget and see where your money is going. Set a budget for everything and think about weekly, monthly and yearly costs.

Relative to what? It's above the average (not sure if OP has quoted net or gross, but either way it's still not low).

I don’t think it’s the spending or saving that makes you bad with money here - I think it’s the fact the you don’t know where £2,500 a month is going.

You need to get a proper understanding of where your money is going.
Some things it will genuinely vary from month to month (e.g. children needing new clothes) but you can average over the year. Some expenses are irregular but expected (e.g. Christmas, holidays).

MSE have a good budget planner spreadsheet which helps you think about the different outgoings you are likely to have.

You don't know where £30k a year goes?.

Yes, that's crap with money.

It wouldn't mean you've £30k a year to puy in savings but you need to figure out where you are spending it!

I agree with posters who suggest tracking all your spending for a couple of months (using a spreadsheet or an app). I think it's really hard to save money by just 'trying to spend a bit less'. You need to get a clear picture of where the money is going in order to decide if / how you can cut back.

Do you budget @Absolutleynot?do you track and set spending?

Well, its about the same as two people each working 40 hours on minimum wage, so not a high income. It's absolutely enough to manage well on, which it seems they are doing, but they'll have to make sacrifices to save big amounts. I think they're doing fine having a bit of savings behind them on that income.

I was also going to mention the MSE budget planner. Sit down together and work it all out. Be Honest. Get bank statements out etc so you have an accurate list of your expenditure. List everything, even that weekly Starbucks. Work out how you need. to put aside for Christmas, holidays, one-off expenses (car Service, mot, etc) and set up account to put money aside for these each month. It’s a horrible process, but you’ll feel better for going it.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/

Go through your bank statements for the last month or two. Work out where every penny is going. Then decide if your happy with it.

Download and analyse all your transactions from the last year to see where all your money is going.

Question every expense. Reduce the cost where possible. It sounds like you're spending a lot that you don’t realise. If you see it laid out that might be the trigger to change if you see that a tenner a day at work each on a coffee and lunch is £100 pw, over £5k pa, £50k per decade etc

If you really have £2.5k pm spare each month your savings should be building up, which they're not.

Split your money into fractions and move to separate accounts for bills, groceries and daily travel/fuel. Then save some money 'just because' for an emergency fund. Put more money by for annual and irregular expenses.

After this, you have your 'spending money ' which is what you can spend day to day. When it's gone, its gone

£5K in savings is a huge amount.

I'm trying to live a champagne lifestyle on lemonade money. I work in the arts (events) and earn less than £25K and live in London. I'm 59 so in a few years when I retire I shall have to learn to live off less. I hope I can manage and won't have to become one of those women on that Only Fannies site, so I can pay those crooks at Thames Water.

I walk everywhere and try to spend less than £5 per day (batch cook, etc).