How much money do you have left in your bank account, at the end of the month?

ani_26

Well. I keep reading all these threads on food, and i have become somewhat obssessed with food, coupled with the state of my bank account.

You read all these posts. People with huge debts they are struggling to reduce, people saying they are skint, but who then say they have been out, spent this or that on socialising, bought this or that from wherever, and it makes you realise theres a difference between saying you are skint and really being skint. Of course, this is an individuals perception, of their skintness.

It makes me wonder about the unspeakable. I know i have work colleagues in a similar pay situation, to me, but when it comes to real life, how much do ordinary people have left in their bank account, the day before they are paid? Do they also have saving accounts, they can fall back on? Access to credit, even ? All those people i've watched going to the cash machine, thinking, they can put their card in the machine, and withdraw cash. Or can they?



I guess most people have an end of the week, or an end of the month, before they are paid. How desperate do they get? or paranoid, as the case may be :rotfl:



Every pay cheque is the end of the month for me, as i live from one, to the next, in their unpredictability. But theres a diverse range of mse ness, here, and it makes you pause for thought.

caledonian_princess

This may sound like a frivolous answer but in my case it's as much as possible! I earn enough to live on, pay the bills and make the minimum repayments so really I'm in the situation where I'm spending as little as possible in order to clear the debts faster rather than because I absolutely have to. Whatever surplus is left in my bank account on the day before pay day gets thrown at a debt. When I was in my late teens/early 20s I was what I would think of as genuinely skint, having to walk to work, eating cornflakes for the week before pay day but this was my own fault because there was always too much month left at the end of the money. I've never been in a situation where I genuinely haven't known where the next meal is coming from, if nothing else I could borrow money from my Mum which would come with a free lecture (how very MSE).

shezam

Great post!

In the 5/6 years i've been on monthly pay I have always lived payday to payday, ususally having nothing left in my account by 15/16th of the month. This is defo my problem and not really much to do with debt (I only have a £300 overdraft which is getting paid off monthly)

Its to do with the fact I can't stop going out, I feel like if there is something on and all my friends are going, i'm missing out if I don't go, this just happens to be everyweekend. I'll go out on a Friday, spend money on food, booze, taxi's, club entry, more booze, taxi's home etc.

This month I have tried my very hardest to not go out and it has been good, I still have a healthy amount in my bank account and although we're only on the 12th, I think I should still have about 50/60 left by payday. Got quite a few goodies I want to buy for the house though (this is my new addiction since not going out, buying lovely household items)

I've only been doing the NSD challenge for April and although I have only clocked up 1 NSD so far, I think this is really helping me curb my spending.

Anyways, i'm rambling now. Looking forward to hearing everyone elses stories! xxx

Odette

I am DF and have a chunk of savings now but I still only have somewhere between £50 to - -£30 at the end of a month.

tanith

I usually have half my income left roughly and I then put half of that into my ISA.. I'm retired with a small pension and my State Pension don't have any debts apart from my mortgage which will finish in 3/4yrs .

Gordon_Hose

I have 8 days to wait until pay day, and I have just over £300 in my bank account. I'll probably save this.

Nottoobadyet

I take what I want to save out of my account at the start of the month then spend the rest down according to my budget.

Interesting that you call this kind of skint-ness the unspeakable - I think poor until payday is the most socially acceptable kind of skintness!

Back when I was a working student with no access to credit, I would be down to my last fiver in the days before payday.

kavics17

I have about £70 left at the end of the month. We're overpaying our loans by every penny, the £70 is for emergency really if we need something to buy or have some unexpected direct debits going out. Before taking out the loans, I always made sure that I had about £250 on my account,the rest was always on saving accounts.

IHaveNoMoney.com

Well all these post put me to shame but i am always overdrawn by middle of the month and so is hubby, however it works out better for us to both be overdrawn by around £400 and clear money of debts as some of our credit cards aprs are mega high

Also starting as of 4th May we will have £80 going into savings every 4 weeks

orangesmartie

I have very little left in my working bank accounts at the end of each month but this is by design. I work out all of my outgoings, bills, minimum payments, likely spend on food/fuel etc and a bit on top just in case. I then immediately transfer out the difference. Half goes straight to paying off my credit card, the other half goes in a savings account. It stays there until the next payday (in case of emergencies or something i really need/want). By the end of the month in my current account there can be between £4 and £100 left (depending on my frugality). Anything left gets transferred to savings the day before pay day.

When the next pay goes in the amount in savings goes to credit card and I start the cycle all over again.

It might seem a bit of a faff but i know that when i look at my bank account online that money is all I have for day to living, treats etc and that I can't waste it on silly things. But i also feel reassured that if my car broke or I had vet fees to pay it wouldn't be a struggle and I wouldn't need to get out my credit card.

Gordon_Hose

I used to be £1000 in my overdraft every month, but as I had an existing loan with the bank I'm with I added the overdraft to the loan and pay slightly more every month to clear it in the same time as it would have anyway. This way the overdraft is gone and I can see exactly what's in my account without forgetting about overdraft charges etc, and I get a better interest rate on the loan.