Budgets and Disposable Income

village_life

my wife and i have been married since September, and living together in our house (mortgaged) since april.

we run two bank accounts - one of which is where we pay all our bills from etc- and that gets pretty much all of my salary each month. And we also have a second account where we run our disposable income from...

Based on our budget we should have approx £200 per week in this area, but we've just bought a new kitchen and overhangs from our wedding means our credit card is about £3500. To tackle this we've made plans to use only £100 each week for our daily expenses, and pay off the remainder to the credit card.

at this rate we reckon we'll be paying off the visa card till Approx August next year.... which isnt too bad I dont think.

from the sound of it though, I am just curious whether to other people's experiences, we are in a good position or not!? - of the £100 we will get each week, I need about £20 per week for my work lunches (I work away) and the rest just goes on weekend stuff etc.... it always seems go go though one way or the other!

our bills budget works really well and we've got everything planned in (even dog food etc!) and never have a problem there.

at the moment though just feeling a bit down over this whole credit card thing, and the "constraint" its putting us under in the short term - we do have a repayment plan, unfortunately not as fast as I'd like but i was just after other people's opinions and experiences, and some motivation to continue.....

Thanks

new_leaf_6

£100 a week divided by 2 = £50 a week each. Unless you smoke that seems a reasonable amount to spend. Your plan seems good. Everyone needs a little "play" money if possible.

village_life

thanks - it soon goes though and it seems like we're always rolling waiting for the next "pay day" - we dont earn bad salaries, I earn £40k and my wife is doing a PHD so gets £12k per annum (tax and ni free!) - our monthly "Bills" are £1980 including mortgage etc.....

i know we're probably in a really privaledged position, but it just feels so futile each week when all the money goes and we cant do all the stuff we might like (again harping back to being on good money!)