Disposable income 23 October 2022 at 7:45PM in Debt-free wannabe 5 replies 751 views

BRB881

Good evening everyone,

this is a bit of a nosey question…..

after all essential bills and minimum debt repayments, how much do you have left. 

After years of financial management I am just getting to grips with budgeting! 

enthusiasticsaver

When working out budgeting it is not only disposable income you need to think about but also saving for things you know you will need to pay for like car costs, holidays, christmas and house maintenance. 

Our income is £3k per month divided between pensions and our essential bills are £700 per month and then £250 food and £150 fuel.  We don't have debt though. We tend to save £1k per month for cars, holidays and gifts and house and keep £900 as disposable income.  £300 each for my husband and I and the remaining £300 as joint spends. 

I am not sure how that will help you though but happy to share.  The figures have changed over the years but the principles are the same.  One third of our income to cover essentials, one third to save and one third to be spent. 

CreditCardJunkie

No longer have debt repayments but we allow ourselves £200 each per month for spending (to include any birthday presents, clothes, haircuts, takeaways, days out etc.). Everything else after bills is saved.

Some months we don't use all our spending money and anything extra goes into savings.

madaboutspots

We have pocket money each month. It’s varied over the years depending on various factors. Currently £250 each for myself and hubby. Remainder is bills and savings.

Savings are split into expected spends (insurance, car repairs, holidays etc) then the mortgage freedom account. Hoping and planning for end ‘23 for mortgage freedom. After that we might get a little more pocket money…. But we’ll see. 

I save most of my pocket money. Not for anything specific - it just needs to be something worthwhile for me to spend it and it’s not often I find something. 🤣

MovingForwards

In my last job I had about £700pm after bills, food, petrol and that was split between paying extra off my mortgage, a lot into savings and some into my SIPP.

In my new job, dropped to part-time, I've got about £100pm and the bulk of it will go into savings.

EssexHebridean

The problem is - this question means differing things to different people. I consider "essential spending" to include budgeting for all the "big one offs" like insurances, holidays etc, as well as the amounts we send off to our regular savers each month. When we still had the mortgage, we viewed the "inflated" monthly DD which also took into account our standard overpayment to simply be the amount the mortgage cost us each month - when in fact the real figure of the contractual payment would have been several hundred pounds lower. we do have personal spends -and again I choose to save chunks of mine each month against future planned fun stuff, clothing, christmas and birthday presents for MrEH, friends etc as well as just general "rainy day" savings. I allocate myself £150 a month which transfers to my "personal spends" account and covers most incidentals. 

Our situation is massively different to many on here though - we have no debt and now, no mortgage either. Comparing our disposable income with someone who is still dealing with mortgage payments and clearing debt is really not of any relevance.