How much do you earn?

TheEffect

I have £2230 a month left after tax/NI/student loans. Live at home, so rent is only £350.

I do have £5k on a 0% credit card that I'm paying off at £500/month. The rest I just leave in my account.

LHW99

Our highest household income was around 20 years ago when I and my OH were both employed, although neither of us have ever been in the higher rate band.
We took a 50% cut in incomes when I left that job, and a further cut a few years later. We now manage on a total income of around 50% the level that would get us into higher rate tax.
Initially things were hard as we had a mortgage and two kids to support, but we also had built up savings over the years so we coped by juggling money around and judicious use of CC's. Never had much in the way of benefits except child benefit, and child tax credit (never again please - but that's another very long story)
Now we are looking at retiring in a few years with a pension income at a similar or slightly higher level.
We've never run expensive cars, rarely buy new and don't choose expensive holidays. Mobiles are "not smart" and on low cost tariffs (I spent £20 on mobile charges last year). We run a number of computers, most of which are several years old but well maintained.
Undoubtedly we are unfashionable, but we manage and enjoy life.
Possibly we were both lucky that our respective parents lived similar lifestyles and what you learn when young tends to stay with you.

lippy1923

We earn around £53k between us. Mid 20s, 1 kid and 2 cats. Mortgaged house. 1 new car and 1 old car 10 years old. No debts/ student loans apart from £2430 on 0% cc.

I'm working on increasing my income and lucky enough to have an employer willing to pay my tuition/ course/ exam fees to help me do this and gain my degree.

I have a spreadsheet with all my outgoings jotted down. This includes mortgage OP and savings/shares. My rule is to always pay myself first, along with bills.
Anything left over is play money.... this is sometimes 0. Sometimes I will feel skint as I never see the money in my spending back account, I sweep it the day I am paid straight into dedicated accounts. Its nice to feel skint but still knowing I have hidden money if an emergency occurred.

We have never deprived ourselves, iphones/ipads and me with my designer handbags etc but when we do splash out on that sort of stuff we make it last.

GarthThomas

michaels wrote: »

Apologies to the op for going slightly off topic but do couples mostly have 'household money' or individual money? I guess following my parents we only have household money, everything is in one pot from which all spending comes. Savings are held in dw's name for tax purposes but it is all joint money, neither of us has 'our own money'.

Is this normal or unusual?

We have a joint account into which we each put enough for the mortgages, bills, and general household spending, and then also have our own accounts. My wife wants us to each contribute 50:50 to the joint account, but not to oool our resources, as she doesn't want to have to ask me if she buys a new outfit and I don't want to have to ask her if I buy a ridiculous car.

keithmac

michaels wrote: »

Apologies to the op for going slightly off topic but do couples mostly have 'household money' or individual money? I guess following my parents we only have household money, everything is in one pot from which all spending comes. Savings are held in dw's name for tax purposes but it is all joint money, neither of us has 'our own money'.

Is this normal or unusual?

We have a "Joint" account for bills and food that I pay for and my wife pays the mortgage, works out even over the year..

Never argue about money and most of it goes towards the family as a whole..

Last year I bought the new (to us) family car, but again my wife bought our caravan so all works out in the end.

If you're married I think all money is "family" money, it is for us anyway..

Makkusu

We earn around £60-65k between us pre-tax, mid 20's with a mortgage, no loans, no children, 1 doggy, 1 car. Household bills, mortgage etc. totals around £1,300 which we pay pay 50:50. A standing order moves it into our 'main' account each month which we tend to then forget about, all the bills are paid from there.

After that my partner keeps her money for spending since she only works part-time and earns a lot less. I split mine over Savings, S&S, Pension & other general investments.

We ensure there is a good few hundred in our account for 'play money' each month (unless saving hard for something) and whilst we live very frugal lives I like quality goods when I do buy something so often we'll dip into the savings for a holidays or one-off purchases i.e. a new work suit. With this in mind the savings go up for most of the year then take a slight hit once or twice for a holiday as an example, we don't factor in how expensive a holiday is, if we want to go somewhere we go, the life lessons we've gained from our travels are priceless and very enriching.

For a while we maxed 0% CC's knowing we had the cash building to cover it which made spending easier - one card each. Now we tend to use our own accounts for our own spending, sort of. I'm thinking of getting a CC just for grocery shops then setup a DD for 50% each month for ease of paying/splitting the costs.

katejo

elephantrosie wrote: »

have a discipline of no debts. you can get CC without interests for a whole year or longer now, but make it a life rule to say no to these. i would much rather pay the interest rate to keep me on my toes than to have free loan.

What's the point of doing that? i am disciplined with money and only very occasionally use an interest free CC but that it only because i prefer to save the money first. However, if i do need to make a larger purchase, there is no point in paying interest when it isn't required. Just be organised and make sure that you make the final payment before any interest is charged.

Carl31

michaels wrote: »

Apologies to the op for going slightly off topic but do couples mostly have 'household money' or individual money? I guess following my parents we only have household money, everything is in one pot from which all spending comes. Savings are held in dw's name for tax purposes but it is all joint money, neither of us has 'our own money'.

Is this normal or unusual?

we have this arrangement, works great for us. No arguments over who pays what, it mainly came about as my wife worked part time when our daughter was little, as we didn't want to use child care.

I constantly hear from friends that they paid for x, but their wife didnt pay for y, and its not fair that they pay more for bills, but their wife spends more on shoes etc.. My opinion is its a team effort in marriage, hence all money is 'our' money, its just weird with presents, as you basically by yourself birthday presents etc..

Snozzle

We have one joint account where all our money goes into - everything is paid from that. We have a couple of accounts in my name for savings as DH not interested in money and is happy as long as he knows there is money in the account.

We did try years ago giving ourselves 'virtual' pocket money but it got stopped after a few months when my DH realised I had saved all my pocket money and he had spent his.

Now with 3 children we don't have time to get to the shops for treats but the children want for nothing and we do spend our money on 'experiences' that we will hopefully remember in years to come.

gdgirly

Me and my husband earn around £21000 pa between us after tax,NI,pensions. (Him around £12500, me £10300) No mortgage(we rent) CC or loans. Never been abroad together in 9yrs.
I wrote out a more detailed reply but it disappeared and now I can't be bothered to write it all out again at this time of night haha 😜 Any q's though just ask : )