How much spare cash?

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rich81
rich81 Posts: 15 Forumite
in Debt-free wannabe
How much money do you have left after all of your bills and essential spending?
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  • lazer-zxr
    lazer-zxr Posts: 446 Forumite
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    edited 10 October 2016 at 8:29AM
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    So is this before debt repayments? And before putting money away for annual expenses?
    Might be easier to show:
    Income: £4530
    Monthly Expenses: £1820
    Annual Expenses: £219
    Available for Debt payments: £2491
    Spare cash = £0 (as a proper budget should show)
  • EssexHebridean
    EssexHebridean Posts: 21,372 Forumite
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    There's no "right" answer to this one you realise? Better to be honest would be for you to elaborate on why you're asking - but there is no point in comparing your situation with others, whose income & outgoings may be completely different. Even "essential" varies from one household to the next - we have no debt repayments so savings, for us, are essential, but if we were still repaying debt, beyond an emergency fund, that would not be the case. I have a mobile phone (iPhone, in fact), on contract, and we have satellite TV at a basic level - again though, if we had debts, neither of these things would be essential...
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  • Ilona
    Ilona Posts: 2,449 Forumite
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    How much? Lots. I don't have many bills and I have very little essential spending. My emergency fund rises month by month.
    Ilona
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  • MERFE
    MERFE Posts: 2,133 Forumite
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    More than I used to have, not as much as I am going to have in a year or two
  • determined_new_ms
    determined_new_ms Posts: 7,825 Forumite
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    edited 10 October 2016 at 10:04AM
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    After all expense, money to savings & debt I have £120pm to spend on anything I want. I also usually have a float of about £50 in my account in case of any overspends/unexpected expenses (this month I had the dentist and needed some repairs on my bike) and then put that into savings/towards debt if it hasn't been spent just before payday.

    I have to say though my expenditure is very low I think. I have for the last 4 months embarked on a challenge not to buy anything new for a year and am spending what I consider to be very low spends. This mainly goes on days out/trips/treat with our little one, a couple of pints (me & oh) and a soft drink after a walk at the weekends, any toiletries I want other than basics (which come from joint acc), catching up with friends for either a couple of glasses of wine or a coffee. This month I am going out for a meal with friends for one of their birthday's, going to a spa with another friend and meeting up a few times with friends for a drink so it's been a bit more social & than most months.

    I consider I spend next to nothing on a day to day basis but know that people have a lot less than this (and loads of ppl who have more money and spend a lot more!) I wonder how they do it? The decision not to buy anything new really has made having a low income a lot easier
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  • Helvetica_Van_Buren
    Helvetica_Van_Buren Posts: 270 Forumite
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    lazer-zxr wrote: »
    Spare cash = £0 (as a proper budget should show)

    I don't agree with this.
  • -taff
    -taff Posts: 14,507 Forumite
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    I expect they mean that all their cash is in a pot from which they can draw, so essentially, there is no spare cash, it's in emergency funds, or going to other spends in their budget.
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  • EssexHebridean
    EssexHebridean Posts: 21,372 Forumite
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    Helvetica_Van_Buren wrote: »
    I don't agree with this.

    It's usually helpful to explain why you don;t agree, rather than simply making what can come across as rather an inflammatory statement and then walking away.

    In theory the poster who stated that a "proper" budget should show a zero at the end of it is correct - in the business of making every penny work for you, anything that would otherwise come under the heading of "spare" should be deployed to savings, where it will earn interest and build. The exception to this is if you have an interest paying current account, in which case it may be sensible to leave a cushion of savings in there. In theory though that still leaves every penny accounted for. Remember "accounted for" and "Spent" are two different things.
    🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
    Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00
    Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
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  • lazer-zxr
    lazer-zxr Posts: 446 Forumite
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    Helvetica_Van_Buren wrote: »
    I don't agree with this.

    Can you please ellaborate.
    All of my money is put to use, 100% of it. Be that monthly expenses, annual expenses, debt repayment or savings. Everything is accounted for, and so zero is left over. A job for every penny.
  • rich81
    rich81 Posts: 15 Forumite
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    When I posted this thread I was just trying to gauge the amount of money that people had left over after bills and essential spending. I suppose that I consider any cash that goes into savings as 'spare' as this is money that could be used elsewhere. I am not sure if I was unclear in my initial post or whether people just like to split hairs??
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