FTB question about disposable income

altitude2k

Paully232000 wrote: »

I would personally be happy with £800/month in disposable income as you would be able to save a small amount of that and still live quite comfortably and have money for unexpected events which happen in life.
Plus you have the option of not overpaying on certain months, for instance if one of you becomes unemployed or whatever.

We, when we move in a month or so, have worked out that we will have £1400 a month spare which we plan on saving some of it just for those very reasons.

That value of £800 includes absolutely everything that we expect to come out on a regular basis. For example, we are currently on SIM-only plans, but I've put an extra in there cost for new phones. Food shopping (both our regular trips to the local s/market and Costco). Income protection is another thing. Even stupid little things like Graze, LoveFilm, lottery which we could easily live without.

Even with those in reality it's more like £1150. My wife leases a car, but I own mine outright and have accounted for a £350 PCM cost in a lease car for myself.

altitude2k

princeofpounds wrote: »

I see you also have a 200pcm overpayment which can serve as a buffer. OK thanks for taking the prodding in a dignified manner

No...absolutely appreciated. If I can take a pragmatic opinion and be confident about why it's ok, then it makes me a bit happier.

buzzyzoe

That sounds like loads to me! After my mortgage, all bills, insurances and necessary expenses (mobile, sky, travel, holiday fund etc) I have £600 per month to cover food and entertainment, but I put £300 of that into a savings account at the beginning of each month.

I don't drink or smoke, so save a lot there, and don't have any children, but I find that £300 is enough for food and entertainment for one person

maurice28

I think you would probably be OK with that level of 'spare cash', but I would definitely urge you to save every month to cover unexpected bills etc. It's probably also worth (if you haven't already) doing a worst case scenario of how you would cope if one of you lost your jobs - would you still be able to meet the bills?

I assume you have furniture and everything you will need in your new home, but if not it's worth working out how much you might need to pay to get some new stuff in the early months of when you've moved in - it quickly mounts up as I'm sure you know!

altitude2k

We will have roughly a year before we get the keys to save up, so I'm hoping that things like furniture, white goods, paint could all be paid for out of that, as well as having a nice pot of cash untouched, in reserve.

Ideally we would like to put £500 per month into savings, but £350 a month on entertainment? Bit low - although it might be worth the sacrifice for the first few months, just so see how we get on. £400 PCM to get roughly £5k a year savings is probably what we will target.

We'll both have income protection (good cover) to cover us if we lose our jobs. Quite honestly if either of us had no income then we'd probably not be able to afford it - do couples really limit their mortgage expenditure in that way??

altitude2k

Well collectively I mean holidays (although for a few years holidays = weekend breaks!), take aways, cinema, buying ourselves bits like DVDs, games, clothes, birthdays/Christmas - those sorts of things.

Errata

You seem to have factored everything in except the flying finger of fate appearing in the guise of a very unexpected baby.

altitude2k

Errata wrote: »

You seem to have factored everything in except the flying finger of fate appearing in the guise of a very unexpected baby.

Ah, but I did!

altitude2k

EmmaBridgewater wrote: »

Fair enough!! Honestly we spend about £50 on entertainment (obv not near Xmas!) would love to spend more though!

Maybe if you get your new job!

Jazzyjeff_2

We are in a similar position to you but are really struggling to find a suitable house. There just really are no houses coming onto the market in the decent areas where we are looking!!

A key factor that we are considering is that my partner is full time but likely to go part-time when we have kids so we are taking her part-time salary into account otherwise we would suddenly have a big shortfall just when we need the money the most!!

If we took both our full time salaries we could get a mortgage for a silly amount that we just wouldn't be able to afford in a few years time.