After you've paid your mortgage and bills......

[vicdubya]

We're facing some major financial decisions atm due to moving, and our "disposable income" will probably be quite a bit less.

I don;t necessarily want people to say how much they do or don;t live on, as it's really none of my business, but I just want to know, after you've paid your mortgage, your bills, and your supermarket / grocery stuff, how much money do you think you could live on as a minimum, each month?

Personally, or as a family.

I mean the money you spend on clothes, holidays, new stuff for the house, presents, leisure & sports, entertainment, etc.

I don;t want to move into a lovely house & then be miserable / lying awake at night / arguing with dh about money all the time....

to cover new clothes, nice holiday, xmas, car repairs etc etc (ie life before saving any money) I reckon we need 1200 quid a month... 200 a week for food travel and basics and then 400/month for clothes holidays decorating etc.. but can easily be more

quite scary....

after everything, mortgage, food etc £500 a month minimum (have lived on a lot less than that).

Hmm...

Well since I don't decorate every month... or go on holiday every month.... my monthly spend over and above the bills and groceries goes on clothes for us all, days out, eating out, and alcohol!
And one off bills such as road tax.

We have about £300 per month to spend after all that on treats such as hair cuts, new make up for me, birthday presents or anything else that crops up.

i am the skintest of the skint

after all bills, food, etc i allow myself £15 a week 'pocket money'(this is for haircuts, clthes etc} ds gets £4, and i have £20 a week for presents, swimming, toddler group, travel etc etc etc. so i suppose disp income is £160-£170 a month.

i absolutely could not manage on any less and suspect that i will look back at this time and wonder how i managed financially

We are in the same position having left my job to look after kids and having to service a new maortgage.

One thing I have done is to give us more flexibility is to put together a fixed rate mortgage for 5 years, 2/3 of it capital repayment and 1/3 of it interest only. Our intention is to pay off the equilivant of 100% capital repayment each month. We have a set amount for 5 years and if things get a bit tough can reduce our payments slightly to help ease things.

It doesn't answer your question but it does make sense to think about your financial situation and make your finances work for you. For instance I certainly intend to work again when the boys are both at school which will obviously give us more income.

We hardly have any money left each month and often have to ask my dad for some money, which it bad i know. we got into some serious debt and it's taking most of our money each month, what with the mortgage and other bills. Don't think i've brought anything new for me in months!