Disposable income

[anti-pacer]

What would you class as a good amount upwards per month for a single person to have left over as spending money?

For example is £865 pcm enough in your opinion?

 

[najaB]

Enough to buy a long piece of string.

 

[GB]

Enough to buy a long piece of string.

Indeed.

 

[LiftFan]

Enough to buy train tickets for a day out, or a gift for yourself on the internet, or a couple of takeaways (Like 2x Domino's)

 

[deltic1989]

, or a couple of takeaways (Like 2x Domino's)

I doubt even Bill Gates has that much disposable income.

 

[DaleCooper]

Enough to buy a long piece of string.

So true.

 

[najaB]

For example is £865 pcm enough in your opinion?

Some people would say yes, other people collect Faberge eggs.

 

[fowler9]

What would you class as a good amount upwards per month for a single person to have left over as spending money?

For example is £865 pcm enough in your opinion?

I have about £800 pcm which is enough for me, that said more would be nicer. That said given my wage £800 pcm is pretty damn good.

 

[Merseysider]

Generally speaking, £100-£200 does me fine. For me, it's enough to afford a gig or holiday at a day's notice.

Or 4 Marilyn Manson shows in December

 

[EM2]

What would you class as a good amount upwards per month for a single person to have left over as spending money?

For example is £865 pcm enough in your opinion?

Are we talking what's left after *everything* is paid for (rent/mortgage, food, bills, other commitments), that you can spend on *anything* you like?
If that's the case, I'd say £865 is a fortune!

 

[najaB]

That's only because of what you're used to. If your previous job left you £2,000 a month, and now you only have £865, then you'll feel like a pauper.

 

[Iskra]

Are we talking what's left after *everything* is paid for (rent/mortgage, food, bills, other commitments), that you can spend on *anything* you like?
If that's the case, I'd say £865 is a fortune!

Agreed that is a lot of money spare, obviously not too many commitments going on there IMO.

I have £200-300pcm disposable after mortgage and bills but I have some optional deductions from my wage including private healthcare, enhanced pension contributions and share save scheme.

It Pays for holidays, beer money, takeaways/meals out, booze and the odd football match and train trip, which does me just fine.

 

[richw]

I have 3-400 left after all my essential expenses but have kids (and a wife). It's more than enough if managed well.
I get a few days out by rail a month, a couple of holidays a year, a second car (non essential).
What's good is all dependent on your activities hobbies and lifestyle. I could sit home and watch tv all day and £50 would be more than enough, I could go out every day and eat out etc and £500 wouldn't be enough.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

What would you class as a good amount upwards per month for a single person to have left over as spending money?

For example is £865 pcm enough in your opinion?

I don't understand. Why would you need spending money when you have RailForumsUK? The site is after all free, is it not? Maybe occasionally, if your computer breaks, you'd need to buy another one so you can get back onto RailForumsUK, but that's only going to be occasionally, no?

 

[radamfi]

No one has mentioned saving yet. If you save and invest a high proportion of money left over after "essentials" then the concept of "disposable income" is rather moot.

 

[greatkingrat]

It is still disposable income, whether you choose to spend it now, or save it and spend it at some unspecified time in the future.

 

[anti-pacer]

Are we talking what's left after *everything* is paid for (rent/mortgage, food, bills, other commitments), that you can spend on *anything* you like?
If that's the case, I'd say £865 is a fortune!

This is after everything.

 

[anti-pacer]

I have about £800 pcm which is enough for me, that said more would be nicer. That said given my wage £800 pcm is pretty damn good.

Do you live by yourself and have many outgoings?

 

[anti-pacer]

Agreed that is a lot of money spare, obviously not too many commitments going on there IMO.

I have £200-300pcm disposable after mortgage and bills but I have some optional deductions from my wage including private healthcare, enhanced pension contributions and share save scheme.

It Pays for holidays, beer money, takeaways/meals out, booze and the odd football match and train trip, which does me just fine.

I do have a fair amount of commitments. Rent, bills, travel to work, food.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Generally speaking, £100-£200 does me fine. For me, it's enough to afford a gig or holiday at a day's notice.

You must live in an area where the day hire cost of a gig as a mode of horse-drawn light transport are exceedingly cheaper than in my area.

However, for more comfort with double the seating capacity, the barouche is far more acceptable, albeit far more costly....

 

[Iskra]

I do have a fair amount of commitments. Rent, bills, travel to work, food.

Fair enough, but what I don't understand is that why with such a generous disposable income you choose to rent rather than get on the property ladder? To me at least renting is thowing money down the drain (albeit a necessary evil sometimes).

 

[Busaholic]

A tale, maybe salutary.
In the early 1970s I was in my early 20s, married with mortgage, commuting quite long distance because I couldn't afford a house any nearer to London. My disposable income was very limited, and I had no savings. Every Friday lunchtime I went out for drinks with two colleagues, and one would always be last to buy a round, and then always halves despite the fact he had been bought a pint. He was single, lived with his parents near to the office and was on the same salary as me and the other guy. On being challenged on this one day, his excuse was that he had less disposable income than the other two of us: on further challenge, he explained that he saved 90% of his salary each month, and therefore, in his perverse logic, this was not disposable income. That was the last occasion on which he joined us for drinks.

 

[fowler9]

Do you live by yourself and have many outgoings?

At the age of 42 I find myself back in the family home, I have no debts, no kids and the house is paid for sadly by life assurance following the death of my mother. Actually I have £700 ish, I forgot my monthly Trio ticket and my mobile phone. To be even more honest the house needs a fair bit of work doing on it as do my teeth but I guess that comes out of my spare cash.

 

[yorkie]

I think £800 after all bills, essential expenditure and food costs etc have been paid should be plenty for most people, and this would surely be higher than average I would have thought.

As for the matter of savings, yes this comes out of disposable income and anyone with £800+ disposable income really should be looking to put some of that in a savings account (or overpaying on their mortgage, in order to reduce the amount of interest you pay).

It helps if you have cheap hobbies, and of course not owning a car helps too (it also helps me to keep fit, as well as reducing costs, as I know I would be too tempted to be lazy otherwise).

 

[anti-pacer]

Fair enough, but what I don't understand is that why with such a generous disposable income you choose to rent rather than get on the property ladder? To me at least renting is thowing money down the drain (albeit a necessary evil sometimes).

This is a new job. I've been out of work for the last few months.

 

[johntea]

I'm 29, earn roughly £1600 after everything then have £425 rent, £100 - £200 for 'essential' shopping throughout the month (trying to cut this down a bit recently by going supermarket brand rather than expensive brand more and more where I can, sadly the Aldi here is a right trek away so I'm forced to use either Morrisons or Asda) then just other bits and pieces like £20 SIM plan, £8 Netflix etc.

Single and no kids or anyone to provide for so yes plenty of disposable income generally but I learnt when I was a lot younger that I couldn't be trusted with it at all (credit cards, loans and the like certainly proved that!) but got myself in gear and my parents actually manage most of my incomings so a lot of that disposable income goes into savings and the like fairly rapidly! I've been putting some money in that Help To Buy scheme each month although probably not of much use in Harrogate, might get me a cardboard box somewhere

My new job also has the benefit of being on call every 6 weeks or so which is essentially an extra £180ish just for carrying round a phone for 7 days then extra payments if you get called for something, having said that the downside came very sharply this morning when a problem decided to emerge at 4:30AM in the morning!!!

 

[PeterY]

I'm self employed. Most of my work is March to October. I always put aside for the winter mouths and enjoy myself. I don't have great expectations and try to do things as cheap as possible, especially train travel. Network card and travel after 10. I live within my means and if I can't afford something, basically I don't buy it.

 

[broadgage]

IMHO, it depends a lot on where one lives.
My disposable income was halved when I moved from London to Somerset, but I do not feel much worse off.

In London, eating out and drinking was expensive due to the need for taxi fares as I felt public transport was unsafe in the evening.
Here I have pubs and restaurants in walking distance.

In London I spent a lot on fares to visit my elderly mother, an expense that I no longer face since I now live with mother. I do rather miss my Pullman meals on the trains between here and London though.

 

[jonathan01n]

Which city in UK? Living cost in London, Sheffield and Belfast (examples) are quite different. Belfast living costs is quite different to cities in England in my opinion.

 

[Iskra]

This is a new job. I've been out of work for the last few months.

Fair enough and congratulations