How much left at end of month?

How much left at end of month?

Author
Discussion

lampchair

4,226 posts

185 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
BoRED S2upid said:
lampchair said:
Just tables? Pah!

Donut chart is where its at.

% of total bills

Is that single person or double income?

It needs more colours I though your eye bills were massive at first!
Double income, it’s % of total bill though not % of income - otherwise we’d be fked!

We do have the same for % of income too.


xx99xx

1,892 posts

72 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
Short answer = nothing.

In a household taking home about £5.5k a month. £1400 on mortgage. 1 toddler (requires childcare 3 days a week). 1 week UK based holiday a year. 2 cars leased through work. The rest on usual expenses and bills.

In fact, I could revise my above answer to less than nothing because my credit card grows each month as I use it when my cash runs out.

So it is possible to live an extremely boring, uneventful life with no luxury purchases, 1 cheap holiday a year, 1 night out a month and still accumulate debt, despite earning an above average salary.

hman

7,487 posts

193 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
You need a man maths spreadsheet - which includes ALL expenditure.

Then you can work out what you can afford, What you can save, and when you need a better paying job to move to the next stage in life or afford the next vehicle

Jimmy Recard

17,540 posts

178 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
xx99xx said:
Short answer = nothing.

In a household taking home about £5.5k a month. £1400 on mortgage. 1 toddler (requires childcare 3 days a week). 1 week UK based holiday a year. 2 cars leased through work. The rest on usual expenses and bills.

In fact, I could revise my above answer to less than nothing because my credit card grows each month as I use it when my cash runs out.

So it is possible to live an extremely boring, uneventful life with no luxury purchases, 1 cheap holiday a year, 1 night out a month and still accumulate debt, despite earning an above average salary.
Where is all that money going then?

BoRED S2upid

19,644 posts

239 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
lampchair said:
BoRED S2upid said:
lampchair said:
Just tables? Pah!

Donut chart is where its at.

% of total bills

Is that single person or double income?

It needs more colours I though your eye bills were massive at first!
Double income, it’s % of total bill though not % of income - otherwise we’d be fked!

We do have the same for % of income too.
Ah right. Yes I thought 35% of joint salary is indeed fu@@ed or some massive mansion.

romeogolf

2,056 posts

118 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
JulianPH said:
romeogolf said:
I track this in a spreadsheet so easy to get figures. For two of us together, no kids;

Income: £4,120/month.

Regular Expenses/Direct Debits - Listed only in the order they leave the account:

Mortgage £980.34
Council Tax £146.99
Water £46.23
Vision Express (Contact Lenses) £15.23
Electricity & Gas £103.71
Car Loan 1 £173.48
Phone Bill 1 £12.99
Car Loan 2 £262.42
TV Licence £12.94
iPhone upgrade plan £63.95
Phone Bill 2 £12.78
Sofa Loan - 48 month 0% £27.12
Internet £44.12
Carpet Loan - 48 month 0% £76.65
Renault Zoe Battery Hire £79.00
Renault Zoe PCP £24.68
Gym Membership 1 £19.99
Gym Membership 2 £19.99
Polar Subscription + Charges £9.78
Total Average: £2,132.39

Of the ~ £2k leftover about £200 gets saved and the rest is spent on general life stuff. Food, clothes, social lives etc. Probably £60-70/week at the supermarket, £150/month in diesel, eat out once or twice a week, one of them might be a take-away instead. Not big drinkers out the house, but always have stuff at home, included in supermarket shop. We also have two cats and probably spend £50/month on food/litter. fk knows where the rest goes, but we're always down to a tenner the day before "pay day".

(All costs go on credit card, paid off in full. We run our budget from the credit card cut-off day, not the actual pay date.)
Please don't take this the wrong way, but you should perhaps consider tracking the remaining £2,000 a month in as much detail.

Taking into account what you wrote after the list the is a missing c. £1,000 a month. Also putting 5% of your income into savings is not going to make for a great retirement unless you have some other serious workplace pension arrangement.

Not trying to be judgemental at all, just highlighting this in case you hadn't considered it. smile
No judgement taken.

The £2k goes on a whole range of things - I did track it for a year in 2018 which drove my other half up the wall ("This £5, what was that on? Where did that £12.50 go? What's [random name on statement]?") - Turns out we spent about £650/month on food including eating out on average which was the big shocker.

Other big stuff is things like car insurance (£500 for him, £700ish for me), and a lot of home improvement stuff. We bought a place mid-2017 and have been piecemeal working through it; Removing sheds, new fences, extending the driveway etc which all seems to come out of that extra money - Hence the 0% on home stuff.

We both have workplace pensions - I put in 5% of my basic which my employer matches, and I also put in 10% of my monthly commission to make sure it keeps track with my true earnings. Beyond that I have two BTL flats, one of which is on a repayment mortgage, and the plan is to sell it at somepoint when required (I'm 30).

FWIW, I like to talk about this because it encourages people such as yourself to offer advice - And as long as it's well-meaning, that's always welcomed.


cossy400

3,153 posts

183 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
xx99xx said:
Short answer = nothing.

In a household taking home about £5.5k a month. £1400 on mortgage. 1 toddler (requires childcare 3 days a week). 1 week UK based holiday a year. 2 cars leased through work. The rest on usual expenses and bills.

In fact, I could revise my above answer to less than nothing because my credit card grows each month as I use it when my cash runs out.

So it is possible to live an extremely boring, uneventful life with no luxury purchases, 1 cheap holiday a year, 1 night out a month and still accumulate debt, despite earning an above average salary.
you need to read the pibby thread. 5.5 grand.

MitchT

15,789 posts

208 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
designforlife said:
If i've got over £100 left then it's been a good month, usually £10 or £20...that said it's been a long time since i've dipped into my overdraft.

Should probably just hand in my PH card already.
I've had a good month if I haven't had to dip into my savings! frown

cossy400

3,153 posts

183 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
£3.500 combined a month going in.

no mortgage on our house but a little £125 a month on a shared property with my brother.

save £300 a month.
IsaS are maxed out.

the bills I know of are..
Phones both of us £60
car insurance combined again is £650 a year but we pay it off in a lump.

one car bought out right.
other ones £180 a month.

Gas,electric, internet I have no clue.

we go out every sat night £80 - £100 easily.

Shopping over £100 a,week there's only 2 of us and I'm away most of the week, puzzles me greatly.

What ever is left does get left in the bank as we been renovating our house and paid cash for everything.

I check the bank at the end of the month as it tells me what went in against what went out etc.

it varies greatly due to spending on the house but it's anything from £1000 right down to zero or less.

Saving for a kitchen now soon as thats done we will have to sit down and 're evaluate the saving side I think

WonkeyDonkey

2,333 posts

102 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
Very little at the moment.

We have just less than £2k come in per month.

Mortgage at £570, council tax £130, gas/electricity £80. 2 car insurance £880pa.

Had to do without subscription tv for the past 2 years which isn't so bad with netflix. Other half can go back into work once the little one can get the government vouchers for childcare. Mind you that will probably be at minimum wage.

I envy those who struggle on 6k pm! If I could better myself I would but honestly I've never had a clue what to do in life which means I've got to 30 with no real skills!

brickwall

5,192 posts

209 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
I use a spreadsheet, which essentially forecasts out my position over the next 3 months.

I put in known income (salary etc.) and expenditure (regular bills, plus any one-offs I know coming down the line), and add allowances for the small/day-to-day stuff. I can then see what my position should be at the start/end of each month. Obviously the forecasts are less accurate further out.

The forecasts are normally +/- £100 one month out, and I'm rarely off by more than £1k against the 3-month forecast.

It started when I was buying and renovating my first flat, so needed to manage cashflow quite carefully. Since then it's just stuck.

I don't track every last penny, but I do track progress towards a set of targets, and when I'm off vs. those targets I always know why, and generally make it back in subsequent months.
(Though the flip side is when I'm ahead of target, I do get a temptation to loosen the spending belt slightly...)

Benbay001

5,794 posts

156 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
As a percentage... a huge amount.

Im just about to finish a 4 year apprenticeship but have kept my outgoings low.

Assuming i dont suffer serious budget creep, i should have a smidge under 50% of my take home left at the end of the month.

It feels quite surreal.

The first year of my apprenticeship i earnt £13k, living in a shared house and every month was a complete struggle.

Its going to be genuinely challenging learning to spend again.

djc206

12,249 posts

124 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
Benbay001 said:
As a percentage... a huge amount.

Im just about to finish a 4 year apprenticeship but have kept my outgoings low.

Assuming i dont suffer serious budget creep, i should have a smidge under 50% of my take home left at the end of the month.

It feels quite surreal.

The first year of my apprenticeship i earnt £13k, living in a shared house and every month was a complete struggle.

Its going to be genuinely challenging learning to spend again.
I went through a similar process. It took me a few days to learn to spend and I’ve not lost that skill yet. It’s more liberating than challenging. Knowing the value of money is wonderful but knowing as I did (in my mid 20’s single and with no kids or mortgage) that I didn’t need to worry about it within reason was an incredible feeling. Enjoy it!

Benbay001

5,794 posts

156 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
djc206 said:
I went through a similar process. It took me a few days to learn to spend and I’ve not lost that skill yet. It’s more liberating than challenging. Knowing the value of money is wonderful but knowing as I did (in my mid 20’s single and with no kids or mortgage) that I didn’t need to worry about it within reason was an incredible feeling. Enjoy it!
smile Good to know.

For as long as the classifieds exist, i know i wont struggle too much. biggrin

mcg_

1,445 posts

91 months

Wednesday 7th August 2019
quotequote all
F all

Renovating a house and it's haemorrhaging money for fun

trowelhead

1,867 posts

120 months

Thursday 8th August 2019
quotequote all
Integroo said:
We save between 3 and 6 grand a month between us. Young DINKs. Don't yet own a home though - but in no rush.
That's awesome well done thumbup

untakenname said:
Can anyone recommend a decent spending tracking app?
I seem to be wasting around £1k a month or so after the essentials (rent,food,bills etc...) and having a look at my bank statements at the end of the month there's not really many big ticket items on there, last month I've had to shell out the annual £830 for car tax but I still seemed to have spent around the same monthly total as usual.
"You need a budget" - i've tried spreadsheets and other means but this has stuck for me, because you can easily just add in stuff as you spend and see the amount in the category go down and how much you have left etc...

I also use a monzo card. Load it with £1000 at start of the month and that deals with petrol, food etc etc day to day stuff. Their app tracks everything you spend into categories (this was what started me off on budgeting as i was shocked at how much i was spending on food/takeaways/eating out etc!)

JulianPH said:
Please don't take this the wrong way, but you should perhaps consider tracking the remaining £2,000 a month in as much detail.
This! The extra £2000 you're spending is probably where the easy wins can be made to free up £500 or so. Aldi vs M&S etc etc

trowelhead

1,867 posts

120 months

Thursday 8th August 2019
quotequote all
toon10 said:
Monkeylegend said:
All these spread sheets, wow, you guys really take it seriously.

I check my bank statement at the end of the month, works for me without all this palaver of writing everything down in intimate detail and constantly checking my bank balance.
It's a very easy way to end the man maths debate. Every time I convince myself I can just about afford an M car, I look at my sheet to see where I can cut some corners, realise I can't then go back to reality without signing up for a new car. Saved me many a relationship and meeting with my bank manager biggrin
Ha ha before budgeting, i ran a C63 for 15000 miles a year at c. 17mpg.

My budget would be in tatters if i tried to enter that fuel spend now. Sometimes ignorance is bliss biggrin

trowelhead

1,867 posts

120 months

Thursday 8th August 2019
quotequote all
lampchair said:
Just tables? Pah!

Donut chart is where its at.

% of total bills

Nice. Tickles my pickle, that.


Integroo

11,574 posts

84 months

Thursday 8th August 2019
quotequote all
trowelhead said:
Integroo said:
We save between 3 and 6 grand a month between us. Young DINKs. Don't yet own a home though - but in no rush.
That's awesome well done thumbup
Thanks, but doesn't really deserve a well done - we don't budget and spend freely, but when two of you are well paid with no dependents it's pretty easy.

mandos_01

628 posts

100 months

Thursday 8th August 2019
quotequote all
Can I jump on to this and ask a question?

Those of you who use a credit card for the vast majority of your outgoings, what method do you use to keep track? I stick everything I can onto an Amex for the rewards, but find that it limits my control on keeping track of what's actually being spent.

Its never a problem as I've always cleared the balance in full at the end of the month, but means I save anything from £0 in a month to £1000, would be good to get a bit more structure behind it