How much disposable income are you happy with?

poppy1010

chelseablue wrote: »

3k, wow that's amazing!


What do you do with it? Im intrigued (and slightly jealous!)


Overpay mortgage? Invest? or spend, spend, spend?

Save and spend is the answer I suppose. We buy big stuff on 0% cards, then pay things off. Saving for other big life events. But both of us love spending too.

It's all relative though I suppose as our mortgage is a lot higher than average I suppose, so we pay more out on that and bills. You always spend what you have I guess, how ever much you earn.

x

poppy1010

chelseablue wrote: »

3k, wow that's amazing!


What do you do with it? Im intrigued (and slightly jealous!)


Overpay mortgage? Invest? or spend, spend, spend?

Also, my partner is an Accountant......so we have spreadsheets for EVERYTHING!!! :rotfl:

chelseablue

I love a good spreadsheet! I track everything we spend, my partner things Im mad! Especially when I can tell him what we spent on food shopping 14 months ago :rotfl:


I bet your mortgage isn't as big as mine

poppy1010

chelseablue wrote: »

I love a good spreadsheet! I track everything we spend, my partner things Im mad! Especially when I can tell him what we spent on food shopping 14 months ago :rotfl:


I bet your mortgage isn't as big as mine

Haha yep same. My partner has graphs linked and often recites dreadful stats I don't want to hear :rotfl:

I have my own spreadsheet for my own spending, in a far more simplified version Lol.

regprentice

Hi


As said before you need a full budget. Do it for a full 12 months and refer to the last years bank statements. Google 'family budget year spreadsheet'


£300 a month spare is quite doable, but it depends how realistic you've been. Depending on which month it is we have anywhere between £800 a month and -£50 a month clear for a family of 4, but this is after all expected shopping and we know for the year where all the big bills are likely to come in. On average we have £450 clear a month.


In June its the start of the Scottish school holidays, as England start their 2 weeks later we try and go on holiday then as flights and hotels are substantially cheaper. We also have two tax discs, car insurance and House insurance coming off in June. That's where -£50 comes from. If we let all of that catch us by surprise the kids would never get a holiday (and that's before unexpected costs). Think about these kinds of bottlenecks.


An old house in good condition might not cost anything. mine is a 60's built ex council semi. the majority of costs have been voluntary (New Kitchen, Decorating)but we knew quickly we needed a new boiler (3k) and there is always something small happening. last month we needed to buy new hinges for the fridge at £35 quid. Things tend not to just suddenly need doing, but the longer you leave them the more expensive they get to rectify. Bad things that suddenly happen (smashed windows, storm damage to your roof) should be covered by your insurance unless you have set your excess ridiculously high.


Consider having a 0% card ready to help smooth those spikes in spending over your budget. But don't apply for one til after you have moved in or it might affect your mortgage affordability.!


As far as comments about putting aside £3k a month I would ignore these. I earn £50K a year and only clear £2.4K a month after Tax, NI, Student Loans and my employers Pension deduction. My wife used to bring in £30K however when we had our second child that didn't even cover the nursery costs so she had to quit and now earns nothing. I haven't seen a tax credit or benefits payment in almost 20 years.


Have a think about what might happen for you over the next ten years, are things realistically going to get better for your salary? how might you manage kids? could you afford to remortgage at 5% if rates rise? All things to think about.

Bonfire_Bride

We are trying to buy a new build (2015), so it will only be cosmetic decorating. We have 1500 a month left over a month for a family of 4 and sometimes that is stretched, other times we put 1000 into savings.


300 would make me nervous to be honest.


What happens if interest rates start to rise?

Grenage

£300 is very tight.

If you take everything you need to run your life (everything from white goods and boilers to the cars), figure their life span in months, and divide the cost by the lifespan. Factor in an extra 10-30% for higher-than-average failures, and include this in your outgoings.

So many people people push their finances to the limits, and fail to take into account that these things don't last forever.

ManicRower

£300 seems tight to me. I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where after mortgage/bills I have about £2000 a month left over, but I remember a few years ago when I had around £400 left over for fun or emergencies.


Not much of the £400 was ever spent on 'fun', as there was always something that needed doing, be it some essential repairs, DIY, the washing machine going kaput, etc.


You don't say where you live (and that will make a difference), but £400 was not a great amount for me to live off in London. For a short while I ended up resenting living in such an expensive city with so much to see and do....only for me to feel like I couldn't actually see or do much of what it has to offer, I felt like I was treading water as opposed to living. The only silver lining is that the things that needed doing happened to me 1 by 1, the boiler didn't go bang at the same time as a rate rise for example, so I didn't rack up any debt.....but that was luck and I wouldn't like to be in that position again.


In your position, I'd look for something that leaves me with more disposable income.

chrislee2810

I guess it all depends on your lifestyle, but it does not leave much in case of emergencies. After all bills have come out we are left between 3-6k pcm, this depends on my commission. I earn 64k a year and my wife now earns 50k per year. We tend to have about 3 holidays a year and have 3 bank accounts. One account is for bills where we both allocate a % of our pay to, the other account we use for holidays and the last account is for spending on the house. We also both hold isa that we transfer into each month. What I have learnt is the unexpected always happens.

SpekySquarehead

I think YNAB would give a good indication if that'll work out for you on £300.

If you're able to put some toward an emergency fund, holiday, Xmas, new car then you probably won't have much left.