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?

slug, it must feel great not to have a mortgage, very safe. One day....

It's amazing how, even though it wasn't THAT munch per month, it just sort of frees you up. We watch that Alvin Hall programme with smug grins.

Rhiannon

Including all the money DW makes we get about £1625 a month.

After all the bills and food and misc expenses DW gets £20 a week and I get any money that is left over, usually a lot less than £20 a week unless I do some extra hours at my 2nd job.

Dh has one of those scary budgeting programs for the computer which accounts for (almost) our every penny. We've only really ever had one income (about £1500/mth) cos I worked for a local charity- never enough for tax or NI. We've never had an overdraught and I only had a credit card briefly to collect Boots points! Savings are good - £200/m or more. Dh has company car and also came into rather nice trust fund at 25 which bought my car/house deposit/new kitchen/2 holidays/ house full of furniture yada yada yada. We know we are very very lucky, but we are also very very careful.

bobsmum

go on go on go on...live a little ...jut a £100 od to make me feel normal, pleeeasse

Honestly northernlass- never an overdraught! Washing nappies and bf also saving money.
Just seem to be jammy. eg: summer hol free this year at parents' holiday flat W coast Scotland.
Just bought next stage car seat meant to be £135 (argh!!) changed our minds about thhe colour at the checkout and were offered a different colour from the stockroom - went thru the till at £60- assistants couldn't understand it but had to give us it!!
Once needed boiler fixing - £96. Didn't have £96 that month so we were a bit stuck. Told no-one. 2 days later - anonymous envelope with £100 posted thru door - I kid you not - freaky or what???

bobsmum

you remind me of a mate of mine, they even saved out of their uni grants (back when you got them!!)they are now married and onto their 2nd stage or whatever it is, tessa's which they started from they student grants.

Come on just go out to boots stock up on fancy makeup where you are only paying for the packaging and then buy it all on your overdraft - it's easy - They should be an Alvin Hall sytle program for you - you've defnitely got a major spending problem I can sort out for you.

Bozza, our household income is around 20k gross per annum. Thanks for tips re:food shop. Will have to try and plan things in advance.

jenifersofia they weren't really meant to be tips - just what works for us. The only real tip was the cake one and tbh I really class that as a weight control rather than money saving tip

Northernlass - I do know how to spend - am just bargain queen!!
btw I knew loads of people at uni who got a student loan and poured the whole thing into a Tessa - probably now rather well off.
I do most of my shopping online and hover about on sites waiting for the "internet exclusive" sales.
Major vice at the moment is nice nappy wraps and grobags (now have 5 in various patterns - oh dear). also have rather horrific CD collection - several several hundred.

Bobsmum wow!! are they any houses for sale on your street? sounds like a good place to live if people keep posting money though your letter box!!

After careful consideration have decided not to join in with the money side of things on this thread. An interesting read though, especially how much peoples mortgages are.

bobsmum - I'm with you. Buying bargains is my hobby. I just do not buy full price clothes for DS or me except occasionally from H&M.

Bozza - I absolutely agree re: buying children's clothes - I would never, ever consider buying DS anything new (except shoes) and it constantly amazes me how much people spend on their children's clothes - I am always being handed down stuff from friends, also I trawl through the charity shops etc my son is beautifully turned out, but at virtually no cost - am I mean or just lucky? I could afford to buy new, but prefer not to - and also shop for myself at charity shops, it's a great hobby!

Lindy... are you ready for your party?

Lindy - my ds is another one who gets dressed for virtually "nowt" - I'm vying with bayleaf for the title of queen of the boot sale bargains! Mind you as it's so cheap I buy him far too much, and I'll confess to sometimes wondering if it's worth the effort of washing and ironing things which only cost 20p in the first place!

Actually its quite easy for DS because he needs so little - many clothes bought as presents. I always make sure I buy him a winter coat in the previous year's sale. Its more of a challenge for DH and me.

Scary, but here goes:

net in per month - £6800
mortgage - £1200
utilities - £100
sky - £40
childcare - £2200
insurance - £40
gym - £120
car & diesel - £150
other bills - £100
food - £500+
savings - £70
council tax - £160

I feel quite humbled by some of the stories here and embarassed by our inability to budget sensibly.

well if it makes you feel any better, your huuuge mortgage and childcare costs by themselves pretty much account for the gap between your income and ours.
Who'd live in London, eh?

but on the other hand, I don't believe your insurance costs are that low. We pay £60 per month each for car and house insurance (that's just the one car), then I have income protection and some term insurance for the mortgage. We should have proper life insurance but haven't got around to it yet....

elliott I included my mortgage insurance with the mortgage. But agree that kaz33's figure seems low. But we currently have a new car which came with a year's free insurance and so that £40 sounds about right for us (ie for our house and contents insurance).

My home and contents insurance is only £17 per month!! I must not have anything worth insuring.

Car insurance is about £45 per month, house insurance is £27 per month and life insurance for mortgage is £38 per month - now you mention it.

To make it even worse our mortgage is interest only and we have no saving plan to pay it off.

Our childcare costs have decimated us - we decided to pay for the best childcare that we could afford as our DS is the most important thing to us. Also there are no childminders or half decent nurseries in our area so our choice was very limited. We haven't coped very well with having our take home income cut so substantially and still think that we can act on impulse when it comes to spending - DP especially.

The other problem we have is that we earn roughly the same amount so if I give up my job ( which I do not enjoy ) that will slash our monthly income to about £3300. Am seriously considering leaving my job after DS2 is born but at the moment totally petrified about what it will do to our standard of living..

Oh yes, service charge is £333 per month - we live in a portered mansion flat...

Think we need to move !

Car insurance is about £45 per month, house insurance is £27 per month and life insurance for mortgage is £38 per month - now you mention it.

To make it even worse our mortgage is interest only and we have no saving plan to pay it off.

Our childcare costs have decimated us - we decided to pay for the best childcare that we could afford as our DS is the most important thing to us. Also there are no childminders or half decent nurseries in our area so our choice was very limited. We haven't coped very well with having our take home income cut so substantially and still think that we can act on impulse when it comes to spending - DP especially.

The other problem we have is that we earn roughly the same amount so if I give up my job ( which I do not enjoy ) that will slash our monthly income to about £3300. Am seriously considering leaving my job after DS2 is born but at the moment totally petrified about what it will do to our standard of living..

well at least you won't have the childcare costs so the drop won't be too big
I sympathise as I earn substantially more than DH and giving up work is not an option (I shudder to think how we would cope on his salary).

Envious about everyone's insurance though. I have shopped around - guess we just live in a high risk area. The annoying thing is we NEVER claim on the b*** things either!!