Money, how much comes in each month?

[Rhiannon]

This is a rather touchy subject and I wanted to change my name for it but couldn't work out how to.

The question is, how much money each month comes into your household and out of that how much is your mortgage and other important stuff that has to be paid.

How much are you left with for food, meals, entertaining and clothes?

How much do you save for a rainy day and how much do you save for hoidays?

Brag brag brag
So did I actually

Sorry spendalot....

Extremely interesting thread. Thanks to all who put down details, esp. those who had to be brave to do it! Makes me realize how easy it is to have a limited point of view on money, and that it can be a very flexible thing. For instance, I can feel how I keep myself in a certain bracket - I feel panicky at the thought of less than 18k incoming, but also dismissive at the possibility of more than, say, 25k incoming. I guess that I don't really allow it emotionally because I don't want to be disappointed.
Bozza and susanb - how do you keep your food bills to roughly £50/wk? Also, for all those who pay school fees, are the local schools that bad? Do children really get that much more of a leg up if they go to privately paid schools? I am not criticising, it is a genuine question as my children are not yet school age and I am wondering if I should be saving up!

Oh yeah, that's 18k per annum.

Extremely interesting thread. Thanks to all who put down details, esp. those who had to be brave to do it! Makes me realize how easy it is to have a limited point of view on money, and that it can be a very flexible thing. For instance, I can feel how I keep myself in a certain bracket - I feel panicky at the thought of less than 18k incoming, but also dismissive at the possibility of more than, say, 25k incoming. I guess that I don't really allow it emotionally because I don't want to be disappointed.
Bozza and susanb - how do you keep your food bills to roughly £50/wk? Also, for all those who pay school fees, are the local schools that bad? Do children really get that much more of a leg up if they go to privately paid schools? I am not criticising, it is a genuine question as my children are not yet school age and I am wondering if I should be saving up!

food bills - I am sure these vary massively depending on the number of people in the household, so that might be part of the answer. Me and DH and ds (18 months) can just about do food bills of £50 per week. We do the following:

1. Shop at Morrisons
2. Don't buy fruit and veg at supermarket but at nearby F&V store
3. Keep purchases of 'added value' products (e.g. ready made sauces, soups etc) to a minimum
4. Keep purchases of non-essential items to a minimum (by this I mean alcohol(!), desserts, snacks, cakes and biscuits etc. - our wine bill is about £15 per month!!)
5. Plan meals in advance and write a shopping list just for those items
6. Don't buy meat.

I've no doubt we could spend less (we don't buy value brands for example, and only use olive oil and buy nice cheeses).

This thread is certainly an eye opener. I'm also wondering why Rhiannon started it??

had another thought on the low council tax/high mortgage JanH. Mortgage could be over a shorter term eg 10 years. Pure speculation of course!

Thought of another expense that I didn't list below:
£25-30 per week petrol.

Jennifersofia re the shopping. I remember sometime ago there was a thread on groceries cost and from that and talk to my friends I know that ours is low. I do it like this - internet shopping so no browsing although £4.25 fee included in the £50. I plan all our meals for the week before doing the shopping, cook double quantities to freeze half for my 3 work days, buy supermarket own brand/value brand for most things, don't buy organic, very rarely bother with ready meals, DS eats the same as us, Dh doesn't have a huge appetite, we don't drink that much.

Is your comfortable income zone of £18-25K pa gross or net?

Like Elliott we are not totally strict eg we also use olive oil, I buy real coca-cola (probably biggest unnecessary expense), petits filous yogs for DS, peeled potatoes for shepherd's pie, prepared salad leaves not an iceberg lettuce etc.

Good tip - buy the ingredients for a cake not the cake itself. It will last much longer because there is the time sat in the cupboard until you can make it.

Been havering about adding my bit here - in the interests of harmony I will suppress my more emotional reactions and try and stick to facts...

OK, I consider myself to be fairly frugal and good at managing money. I know that our core, essential expenditure (food, bills, transport costs, mortgage etc) is around £1600 per month for 2 adults and one toddler. If we actually had this little coming in I know we would find it tough (but possible) so I think anyone successfully coping on less than this is a) doing really well and b) having to work pretty hard at it.

Our income is actually considerably higher than this which means we can afford savings for holidays (£150 per month), cleaner (£60 per month), weekends away, meals out and entertainment, toys for ds and ourselves, clothes for ourselves (£150 per month each for clothes and other personal expenditure), savings for the next car (£150 per month), house and garden improvements including new furniture etc (£200 per month) longer term investments and savings (quite a lot), books, newspapers etc etc.

I've always found the problem with budgeting is that when you count up what you think you spend, it seems as though you should have lots left over, when actually you don't (!) - the black hole inevitably being all those little (and not so little) things you forget about (haircuts, sandwiches, chocolate, magazines, presents, car repairs and servicing, etc).

I can't agree that 'we are all in the same boat really'. Sure, everyone has issues about balancing money and time, but there is a world of difference between a monthly income of £800 and one of £8000 (well, £7200 to be exact!). Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge the hot shot city earners - I have plenty of university friends who went down that route and I certainly would not swap their lifestyle for mine. And anyway with a net income which places us comfortably in the top 10% of household income (last time I read the figures anyway), we are most certainly 'rich'.

Pauper,
We were in exactly the same situation until last month, cards, loans etc.. totalling about £32K!!!! We had equity in the house so the mortgage has increased but at least all those debts are paid off. The extra each month goes into a fund to pay a bit of the mortgage now and again. Things are much better!

After much consideration, I've only two words two words to add to this thread: never enough

elliott, I started it because of a 'remark' on another thread about schools. I said we paid for healthcare (self employed DH) and someone replied that they couldn't pay for house insurance let alone health insurance.

I was just interested in what people's budgets are as it's such a taboo subject I thought about changing my username but I'm glad I didn't now. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

Thanks Rhiannon (was genuinely curious why you wanted to know!)

No Rhiannon I think it is interesting. A lot of it does come down to priorities though. Like I say that we cannot afford Sky, but I know that a lot of people on a lower income than us have it.

As you said in your post due to previous bad experience savings are a priority for you.

But I agree with much of what Elliott has written.

Good for you Rhiannon & 8KTOO. Don't be embarassed about how much your monthly income is - you do earn it - it is yours!! We have around £2700 with a £140 mortgage, and £700 covers gas/elec/phone/contents/buildings insurance/water/council tax/car insurance. We have 30K saved in various places and 120K equity in the house. We enjoy spending the rest on holidays, weekends away, the children and eating out. Out motto is 'you can't take it with you' and 'you never know when your time is up' We are 39 & 40 and recenlty many people our aged have been ill or died. My husband has a very stressful job I work part-time. We have more than some, less than others and try to live accordingly. When we have lemonade pockets we drink lemonade. When we have champagne pockets we drink champagne.

Ooh, elliott, the dreaded black hole! Ours expands to accommodate all the "spare" money and usually a bit extra...

Car service tomorrow - £85 tennis club membership for DH and DS's last month - road tax overdue - £44 today for DS2's cello lessons this month - £15 for a month's supply of frozen mice for the snake + £33 to buy a new heatmat and repair the cracked base which had overheated - DD1 is going to be a camp counselor in June and needs a HUGE backpack and a new sleeping bag - somebody up there must spend all their time thinking up new bills for me!

Janh, bet there aren't many people with '£15 for a month's supply of frozen mice for the snake ' as an item of monthly expenditure! Interesting thread.

www, I thought that as I was writing it - and they are so sweet (and so thoroughly dead, poor things) with their little paws drawn up under their little chins....

I do actually go into the pet shop and ask for "20 poor little dead baby mice" - the chap there sneers and the other customers (who may well be there for sweet little live baby mice) draw in their breaths a bit sharpish...

Janh!!!!!! >shock<

I Love the 'poor little dead baby mice' touch at the pet shop! Fabulous!!

A friend of mine used to feed his snake live mice, we once went skiing for a week, went via his house in Geneva and he put a mouse in with the snake. Came back a week later and the poor little mouse was still in there alive

Jennifersofia

£200 is only approximate plus I only have 1 son aged 3.5 who eats very little and my dh. We have takeaways once a week (which although is obviously food, it comes out of our 'spending' money. Actually we buy all our meat at the local butcher as its so much nicer and often works out cheaper than good stuff at the supermarket. Plus we're fortunate, we normally get invited out every Sunday for dinner(!) and in the week plan meals ahead. My dp also works 2 evenings a week (leaving the house at 5 pm) so obviously eats at work on those nights.

Plus I buy in bulk if something is on offer and have actually found that buying the economy stuff is a waste of time, because it either tastes crap and you don't eat it anyway or you get far less for your money!!

Janh, sitting here giggling at your poor little dead baby mice comment!

I'm still hyperventillating at the thought of someone having a monthly income roughly half of what I earn each year.

However, we survive quite happily on a monthly income of (round about) £1300. (Dh's income is erratic as he works occasionally.) Having said that I think I should point out that we have paid off the mortgage, so can afford to live on one income. We have a car but rarely use it, I cycle to work and DH has a travel card he bought before he quit work. Despite the sluglet's ravenous appetite, the supermarket bill is below £300 per month. We spend freely on wine and the temptations of Borough Market, justifying it by reminding ourselves that we don't go out very much any more. I rarely buy clothes because I'm rarther large, so there isn't much avaliable for me in the shops, and I'm a teacher so no one expects us to look neat anyway . The sluglet's clothes are mostly bought or made by her adoring grandparents, or bought on sale.

It's weird isn't it how we view money? Compared to the type on income I've had in the past, a teacher's salary is riches beyond compare to me. I honestly think I'm well off.