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Original poster

How much do you have in savings?

217 replies

Lasvegas · 04/04/2006 13:00

Saw thread about spending more than £130 on yourself without consulting partner and it shocked me how much DH & I spend on luxuries compared to the rest of you. Him about £400 a week on betting, clothes, eating out and drinking, cabs, presents for me. Me about £100 a week mainly on dinner out, baby sitters and cabs. We are not particularly wealthy just that we spemd just about everything we earn, but we don't have any debts at all except the mortgage. We have a total of 12k in savings which would cover the mortgage for 6 months. If car needed new engine that would be £6K. So 12K not a massive amount. Maybe we should save more given we have 3 kids to support but DH loves to spend on himself and on me and tbh I'm not that worried as we both have good pensions, life assurance, critical health assurance etc. Also bro in law died aged 38 so we both kinds think enjoy life while you can. Is my attitude different to the rest of you? Do you save a proportion of your spare cash each month?

OP posts:
daisy1999 · 04/04/2006 13:53

OOil - do you cook it in the slowcooker?Grin

oliveoil · 04/04/2006 13:54

if hard, yes

Right! Enough.

DC's fault

DaddyCool · 04/04/2006 13:55

you're best having it 'raw'. just like veggies... more nutrients.

joelalie · 04/04/2006 14:17

Rats droppings !!! You have rats droppings.....some people don't know they're born....

[outraged sniff icon]

Wink
Original poster
Lasvegas · 04/04/2006 14:19

katyp - yes that is what I said on another thread and I stand by it. Using my income alone I couldn't pay the childcare costs for a 2nd child. I would never want anyone other than myself to support my child. If the father left or died I need to know that the child can still be provided for on my salary alone.

Normsnockers - that is very enlightening. Am going to tackle DH tonite and urge him to put £100 a month into a savings account to be used for emergencies.

We don't pool our income by the way we keep everything separate. TBH I don't want to know in detail what DH spends as I may well resent it. But at end of the day it is his cash and he can spend it as he likes.

I am more interested if others have the same live for the day attittude that we do? Both DH and I have been very poor in the past and I spose this spending is a re-action against it. Also we have both been married before and ended up with X spouses that did better out of the financial settlement than we did.

OP posts:
MissChief · 04/04/2006 14:22

well, live for the day in that we have a huge mortgage, no savings Blush... Some no doubt think this is irresponsible, but dh in IT and could easily get contracting if he lost his job..yes, I know he/I could die/get critically ill etc etc but been paying off renovation costs
and not had income to free up for savings (unless we forfeited nights out/holidays)

Tortington · 04/04/2006 14:42

well lasvagas i think you are particularly wealthy. and it really really isn't relative.

MMH · 04/04/2006 14:51

'I don't want to know in detail what DH spends as I may well resent it. But at end of the day it is his cash and he can spend it as he likes'

and

'Also we have both been married before and ended up with X spouses that did better out of the financial settlement than we did'

worry me immensely LV.

Do you ever wonder who would be worse of if this marriage ended?

Is your husband the father of your child?

MMH · 04/04/2006 14:52

worse off

Normsnockers · 04/04/2006 14:59

LasVegas, urge him to put £150 in a savings account each month and be prepared to back down to just £100 as a minimum.

Men often put up a little resistance, that way he may think he has actually won any dispute over savings.

Make sure the savings are in joint names or you could put put it in the childrens accounts so you would feel very guilty trying to take it back later.

Original poster
Lasvegas · 04/04/2006 15:04

MMH DH is not the biological father of DD. The person who would be worse off would be DD as she would loose stabilty of living with 2 parents who love each other.

Why worried?

OP posts:
kama · 04/04/2006 15:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
Lasvegas · 04/04/2006 15:16

Normnockers. Many thanks normsnockers for giving a practical insight and focussing my mind. In a fe weeks time will know whether or not DH has tested positive for skin cancer and as such if it is worthwhile saving.

Think your right savings in kids names wud be best. DD starts school in 18 months time so we should really start planning for the school fees. Do you know if we can withdraw the money if we need to? We cannot have an ISA in joint names and paying 40% of the interest to tax man is not an incentive to have a joint savings account.

We did think about saving - we wanted to move and needed £50K for the stamp duty, but it would have taken years to save it so we just started spending it all and stayed in cramped house.

I never asked people if I was or wasn't wealthy. I was interested in others attitude to saving. Sorry if people have taken offence.

OP posts:
zippitippitoes · 04/04/2006 15:24

Lasvegas..you were planning to move to a £1,250,000 home and you wondered how much other mns saved? I doubt it would be very relevant tbh

Original poster
Lasvegas · 04/04/2006 15:33

zippit - no way ! we wanted a house for £750,000. £50,000 was total we needed for redemption fees on current mortgage, legal fees etc AND stamp duty. I agree it is a fortune but that is going rate for a 4 bed house in South East within walking distance of station and near in parents in law.

I respectfully remind all concerned that I asked in OP what proportion of spare cash do you save each month.

OP posts:
katyp · 04/04/2006 15:35

I might be way out of line here but I'm wondering if subconsciously you ARE bothered by how your dh spends his money. If you haven't been together for very long, I can understand that your finances have been kept separate (and particularly if you have been short of money before). I also completely understand you not wanting to know how he spends his money - I think I am a bit like that...

But I think that can only work in the long term if you both feel that you are each contributing fairly (and I don't necessarily mean equally) to your family expenses. Maybe you feel that he in particular is still living the lifestyle of a single man and should be diverting that money into the family, by way of savings or otherwise.

Sorry in advance if I am totally looking at this from the wrong direction!

You could maybe consider that it is early days yet and if you can afford it, why not spend it for now and look to change things gradually in the future, if you need to. Maybe start by saving a bit each month and increasing it as and when....

Original poster
Lasvegas · 04/04/2006 16:01

katyp. Definately an element of truth in what you say. DH is still living a bachelor lifestyle from a financial perspective. Instead of trying to make him save a bit I have simply copied him. A case of if you can't beat them join them. TBH it is rather fun. Until I saw the thread about spending more than £130 I never worked out how much he spends on non essentials. In fact he will be shocked at how much he gets through. This £400 includes entertaining 3 kids and paying for dinner when we go out (once a month) not like he gambles it all away.

OP posts:
thewasherwomen · 04/04/2006 16:03

No savings with 3 little darlings!

expatinscotland · 04/04/2006 16:05

Nothing.

I cannot afford to save. We're in the red every month just trying to live.

Luxuries? LOL!

CountessDracula · 04/04/2006 16:07

I think it is relative

It is a nice cushion to have enough to survive for a year with no salary, a sensible one to have enough to survive for 6 months.

So it depends on what you earn doesn't it?

Also for those with equity in houses, you can always trade down and release capital if you need it.

speedymama · 04/04/2006 16:19

We were saving nearly £1100 per month Blush. Consequently, we decided to pay £700 extra into mortgage and hopefully will pay a lump sum at the end of each year too. We are looking to pay off mortgage in 5 years.

lizziefromwifeswap · 04/04/2006 16:19

thousands of course

twokids · 04/04/2006 16:22

not enough

jmum6 · 04/04/2006 16:27

£500 spending money a week? I thought you meant a month!(couldn't even manage that)

We stopped saving when I went on maternity leave but when (if) I go back we'll start again.

We have enough at the moment to pay bills, mortgage, food and takeaway once a week. We don't tend to go out very much anymore due to ds. We do go out for days out quite often as dp has company car and can use it for private use so we don't pay for petrol.

Lasvagas if you're happy to spend that then don't worry about it. I would if I could but obviously I can't!!
Tbh I wouldn't know what to buy even if I did have it to spend!

jmum6 · 04/04/2006 16:27

£500 spending money a week? I thought you meant a month!(couldn't even manage that)

We stopped saving when I went on maternity leave but when (if) I go back we'll start again.

We have enough at the moment to pay bills, mortgage, food and takeaway once a week. We don't tend to go out very much anymore due to ds. We do go out for days out quite often as dp has company car and can use it for private use so we don't pay for petrol.

Lasvagas if you're happy to spend that then don't worry about it. I would if I could but obviously I can't!!
Tbh I wouldn't know what to buy even if I did have it to spend!

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