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Free money per month?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hi Guys,

I'm actually pretty certain i've seen a thread around here on this before but for the life of me i can't find it so i'm going to ask you nice people for some help. How much free money a month do you think is reasonable? By 'free money' i mean money to do what you would like, including buying clothes, going out etc. Not including food unless its eating out in restaurants which i would include in the 'going out' category :)

So after bills (mortgage, rent, phone, tax, electricity & gas etc etc) how much money do you or would you like to have left? I'm moving out of my parents soon (i lived with a partner before but i think thats different to being on your own money wise), i have some savings for a rainy day which i will keep and i have worked out that i will have around £450 left a month.

Any opinions would be great, thanks :)
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Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Once my rent, travel costs, savings/pension, food costs, and bills go out, I am left with about £600 a month.

    I do have very cheap rent though and not that many bills to pay.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    .
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks for your replies, so does my budgeting seem realistic then for a single person?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I would budget if I was single to try and get some decent savings amassed.

    We currently have about 0 left for leisure too lol, although we do actually treat ourselves to like a take away or something once a month

    The rest of it is going off debts before the 2nd baby gets here
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Normally have about £300 a month after bills, savings and pension have been taken out to spend on what I "want".
    Half of it goes on petrol and the other half just seems to disappear on miscellaneous sundries (ie i've got no freakin idea what happens to it).

    We do go out a fair bit, we've set up a third account that we put £40 a month into, that pays for odd meals out e.t.c.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I probably have around £400-£500 free after all the bills have gone. I spend most of it on trying to pay off my debts.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    About £400 after food, petrol and bills have gone out. Tend to allow myself no more than £50 a week though of that to spend and thats if I'm sociallising most nights.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The proper term is 'disposable income,' as for mine, the student loan overdraft is the limit. :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    After mortgage, household bills and travel and monthly payments for furniture bought on credit (grrr dfs) - left with around 800 a month.

    am single

    we can't tell you if your budget is correct or not - as it's YOURS and we do not have a list of your expenses / habits / lifestyle

    as for how much I'd like to have left - £1000! that will do!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    about 200 left at the moment, but am moving to cheaper accommodation and hopefully getting a better paid job so it should rise to about 400
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    At the moment I have £12.50 a week. Don't think I even really need to say that's not enough. I'd be happy with about £50 a week.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    kaffrin wrote: »
    I'd be happy with about £50 a week.

    Yeah £50 a week £200 a month is for the both of us. Depends how much my boyfriend earns as thats different every week. I would love love £450 a month spare, that would be well luxurious!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    BritJamez wrote: »
    After mortgage, household bills and travel and monthly payments for furniture bought on credit (grrr dfs) - left with around 800 a month.

    am single

    we can't tell you if your budget is correct or not - as it's YOURS and we do not have a list of your expenses / habits / lifestyle

    as for how much I'd like to have left - £1000! that will do!

    I know you can't tell me whats enough for me, i was just looking for opinions and stuff, suppose i need reassurance!

    Thanks for everyones posts :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i have about 200 left per month, however that depends on how many extra hours i have worked or if have gone over on my phone bill. I think that is about enough, as I try to limit myself to around £30 a week so I can save some more money. (doesnt usually happen that way though). I usually spend all my disposible income within the first two week and am skint then till pay day.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I shamefully don't really know, despite having just looked at our bank account. Probably if I got paid the same each month it'd be possible to tell. We are probably spending too much.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    sBugger all :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Living at home and paying minimal rent I have about £750 a month spare after bills. £100-£200 on my credit card, another £200 on daily stuff like food and train fares to work and about £250-£300 a month goes into my savings roughly. Some months its lower and some months (like this one becasue I'm spending bugger all money) its a lot more.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well currently we have zero money left for leisure. But every spare penny we have is paying towards an LPC at the moment.

    Little Penis Compensator?

    I generally don't measure in terms of free money, but days left with no money.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Per month, income £4.5k expenditure £4.5k, savings zero!

    Income: £4.5k (£3.5k work, £1k from the missus, I then pay for her for everything)

    Mortgage: £2k (£1k redemption, £1k interest)
    Household bills: £250 (inc £120/mth council tax!)
    Food: £500 (including restaurants)
    Going out: £1,500 (bars and nightclubs)
    Transport: £100 (taxis mainly)
    Clothes & gadgets: £150 on average
    Savings: Zero, zilch, nada.

    If one month I take an exotic holiday (every 3-4 months) or buy a good gift then I don't pay the mortgage redemption / so much on going out.

    What is absolutely killing me is the cost of social life - normally twice a week it's a friend's birthday, and it's always the same fucking thing - go to a fancy restaurant ending up at £40 a head, and then onto a nice nightclub where we book a table and get bottle service all night, £150-200 vodka bottles each time, then at the end the cost is split between all the guys, the girls never pay - including taxis etc each such night easily costs £150-200. :banghead:

    Fine for now, income and expenditure match up. I know it's ages but I'm just worried how much kids are going to cost!! My boss has 6 kids and spends £120k a year on their education. Having gone to an apparantly "good" comprehensive school and found it to be hell on earth, I want my kids to go to top private schools where they didn't have the problems I had (ie a school packed with chavs who don't care about education slowing you down), that's gonna be a huge cost.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    In your kind of job the pay increase will be proportional to the time youre in the industry, and if you have kids you def won't be going out to nightclubs and restaurants twice a week :p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    In your kind of job the pay increase will be proportional to the time youre in the industry, and if you have kids you def won't be going out to nightclubs and restaurants twice a week :p
    True, but with what I do my salary will quickly be capped at about £100k, whereas the real money comes once a year annual bonus, which in a downturn like this year could be zero!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Only answer is cut back on social life/taxis/restaurants and save up a bit.

    You don't have to accept every invitation to go somewhere, and unless the girls in your group literally can't afford to/pay their own way then why should all the guys pick up the tab?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You don't have to accept every invitation to go somewhere, and unless the girls in your group literally can't afford to/pay their own way then why should all the guys pick up the tab?
    We all have jobs, it just seems to be a standard thing that you get a table, the guys pay, the girls don't, even if it's an equal group of friends. Fuckng ridiculous - this isn't the case at restaurants, single girls have to pay for themselves. But at clubs when we get tables the bill always gets split equally between all the guys (including Muslim guys who don't drink), I'd look cheap / silly if I kicked up a fuss! Anyway, ridiculous.. but you're right I'm just gonna stop going to every invite!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I have about £35 a week left once paid everything.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Need2Vent, no matter how much you earnt, you'd have no money left. You're just the type of person who feels the need to spend everything you've got - it's be the same if you were earning £20,000 or £500,000.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    drachir wrote: »
    Need2Vent, no matter how much you earnt, you'd have no money left. You're just the type of person who feels the need to spend everything you've got - it's be the same if you were earning £20,000 or £500,000.
    Would rather stick it all in paying off a mortgage than have it sitting there in a bank, so if you consider a mortgage as spending then yeah you're right.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If I saved nothing it would work out about *quick mental sums, averaged over a year assuming I am working in the summer which I can't guaruntee*

    £50-£60 a week very roughly. But I do tend to put this in savings. That seems a lot more than I thought actually. :chin: I might have missed something out in my calculations.

    £200 a month... so that's £600 a term in my savings / paying off student overdraft - that's about right actually.

    Of course, if I don't work this summer I'll be much worse off for the year - using the same numbers as before I'd end up with £15-£20 a week on average.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Erm, about £500.

    I don't save anything though, but I'm gonna start.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Bri-namite wrote: »
    Erm, about £500.

    I don't save anything though, but I'm gonna start.
    I wish I had that much :(
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    After absolutely everything has been taken out (including petrol, credit cards etc) our disposable income used to be about £850 - however we took the decision at Christmas to buy ourselves a nice car so that has gone down to about £500 a month.

    Well worth it though ;)
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