How much DISPOSABLE income do you have each month?

immoral_angeluk

On a good month we normally have around £200 pure disposable income after everything. Out of that as much as we can humanly afford goes towards debts.

Sammz

Have to admit to having over £500 so no excuse for me to still have this debt.

earwig

my god i thought we was skint but after paying rent bill petrol and food we have 150 per week to buy clothes pre school (10 per week) fags (15 per week) birthdays and christmas but we have quite a bit left each week and i could cut out stuff like sky plus and bring my food bill down from 90 per week to 60 per week i dont know where it gose what are we doing with it all

mizmir

earwig wrote:

my god i thought we was skint but after paying rent bill petrol and food we have 150 per week to buy clothes pre school (10 per week) fags (15 per week) birthdays and christmas but we have quite a bit left each week and i could cut out stuff like sky plus and bring my food bill down from 90 per week to 60 per week i dont know where it gose what are we doing with it all

Two words - spending diary. The most terrifying and enlightening thing I have done all year! We should have about £500 left before food etc. So far this month we have spent over £1000!! :eek: I know it is Christmas but.....

Give it a go - it should clear up where the money goes!

Red_Fraggle_3

I have savings as a line in my monthly outgoings spreadsheet - along with savings for xmas (that starts again in Jan :-) car etc) those aren't disposable I now think of them as bills which are paid before I have anything left - just started new job having worked out an estimate on the figures think we will just break even each month - I hope

took an easier job as other to stressful and too many hours but money now reflects that :-( - can't have everything

sandralovescats

dinkylou wrote:

Oh my goodness.

Just worked it out! Not including petrol, food, car bills, socialising in the 'essential bills' I have £561 per month 'disposable' .

Makes it sound like alot but it doesnt seem as though I have that much 'spare' per month.

I have only £320 Incapacity Benefit and Income Support combined to start with!

And I haven't had one penny for nearly four weeks, since the DSS lost my last sick note and are making me wait another two weeks for any money - which takes me to this coming Friday. Between now and then I have 50p in my purse.

rog2

I have, currently, no income, and have had no income for the last year - I hope that this situation is temporary, and am trying very hard to change it. I am registered as unemployed, but was refused JSA. At the moment, the only breadwinner is my wife, who, on a good month, earns £900 after taxes. She has to pay all household bills, plus support our daughter at uni - yet she STILL manages to give me £20 a week - I consider myself lucky as there are many who have less than me.

pollyanna24

I tend to work things out differently to most people.

I pay bf and me £400 each a month out of our joint wages and that is ours to do what the hell we want with.

He gives me all his wages and I stick all mine into the joint account. Once all ours bills are paid (and debts at the mo), there is usually about £200 left in the joint account which we are just using to bulk up our joint as we have no savings.

Out of our £400 that we give ourselves, we both seem to try and save £100 in order to buy personal gifts for each other or to buy something big for ourselves.

So I guess, including the £400 each and £200 in joint, that's £1,000 disposable together, so £500 each. Blimey, sounds a lot!

Think it's down to me being savvy and workign really hard to work out our budget (as this is on top of our £1,000 mortgage and we don't get paid mega wages!). Bf is crap, doesn't understand bills, he just likes having his £400 to blow!

TepidWater

Ha ha PollyAnna. Sounds like our relationship.

funky-footprints

we normally have approx £450 left over from dh's salary, this used to get topped up by approx another £450 from a house we were renting out, however since beginning of September this has been on the market (tenants moved out at end of september) so paying that mortage leaves us in negative figures at the moment, but savings are topping up every month.

That money pays for fuel and food, which isnt pre-budgetted for, and also any treats !

I deliberatly havnt been doing our finance spreadsheet since september as we knew we were going to have a 'few' red months, while selling house !!!! having just checked ..... im now freaking out, we have accepted an offer on the house, its just whether it goes through, last offer fell though on contract day.

thankfully no debts, but savings wont last forever !