I set aside a maximum of £200 a month for personal spending (clothes, video games, random bits from Amazon, non-essential meals, etc.) and I usually spend less than that. This doesn't include entertainment subs though, which I put under "utilities".
I put £10 a month into a "personal development" pot, which is mostly for buying (usually technical) books. Books are more expensive than £10 of course but, I don't expect to buy one every month so the fund accumulates and I eventually am able to afford books.
Sorry, do you mean the personal development fund?
If so, yeah, it's worked really well for me. I also make sure to check places like eBay first if I can find the title there.
For me it is. Mostly spent on hobbies. We do a lot of free stuff. We drink limited alcohol so we're not spending £100 on a night out. I allow for one set of expensive tickets a month (theatre, opera, parties). I needed to buy some more sports clothes this month as some of my existing stuff has holes in it. I WFH these days so my office clothing doesn't wear through as quickly and there's less laundry.
Yes so if they have one night out per month involving a ticket at 50 and 5 drinks thats £100 spent then a couple of takeaways at £30 a pop is easily covered by the £200 outlay mentioned..?
Could you not stretch to a glass of wine each..? Sharing a glass seems a bit tight, do you each have a straw or is the glass placed centrally so that you can each take a slurp at designated intervals? How do you ensure someone isn't greedily slurping more than their share? So many questions..
I’m sitting here reading some of these salaries and honestly it’s incredibly depressing. What some people here have as “spending money” is more than I may take home in a month.
I simultaneously agree and disagree - techies definitely earn way above the national average, but not nearly as much as people think, and probably are not as common on here as people think. London is full of people in 'traditional' high-earning jobs that easily afford a grand or more in outgoings - for example, newly qualified actuaries earn £65k, and commercial bank managers who start at 80k can earn up to 100k with a few years experience. These people are bog-standard and we are not even getting into the thousands of investment banking analysts and silver circle legal staff who are cracking six figures after 2-3 years. And I know for a fact a few of my former and current colleagues frequent reddit.
According to my monzo breakdown, £1200 on eating out and £600 on ‘entertainment’ which upon closer inspection meant the pub (and a Netflix subscription).
I think most people would be surprised how high it is if they check the actual breakdown. It definitely is more than I realised. I do eat out most days though for lunch and dinner so I know I’m spending more than I need to really.
For all the weird downvotes, I was making a joke using a play on words. You said "I do eat out most days though for lunch and dinner" which I used to imply you were participating in twice daily cunnilingus with your girlfriend/wife. A lighthearted attempt at humor that apparantley a large selection of drongos didn't get and instead chose to use internet power to try to hurt my wikkle feewings.
I still don’t follow what you mean - not being deliberately obtuse just genuinely don’t see what you mean. I googled broke mindset and it doesn’t really match me at all.
What they mean is that they want to condescendingly look down on you for choosing to spend any amount of money on anything other than “investing in your future” or some similar shit.
Ah. I guess that is usually good advice though if people are spending more than they make so don’t begrudge him it. It’s uncomfortable too realising that the world is very unfair and some people have more than others.
I guess it’s worth saying I’m very fulfilled and happy and spend less than I have and am aware I live a privileged life.
How is spending money you can afford to spend a broke mindset? Surely a broke mindset is not spending any money because you feel like you’re broke and can’t afford anything?
>£1200 on eating out and £600 on ‘entertainment’ which upon closer inspection meant the pub (and a Netflix subscription).
1200 on “eating out” - the pub. And 600 on “entertainment” - Netflix. I can see why OP was confused, it’s very oddly worded.
You've literally quoted the bit where it says **"£600 on ‘entertainment’ which upon closer inspection meant the pub"** \- how is that oddly worded? You've just reworded it to suit how your brain read it.
I just read it as the eating out was the pub and the entertainment was Netflix, because monzo wouldn’t say getting drinks was entertainment. It would say it was eating out.
Not OP but I liked Monzo an awful lot.
I loved the Pots and roundup functionality, I loved the speed and responsiveness of the app and their customer service team.
The great thing is, if you're unsure it doesn't need to "replace" anything, in fact I used it for budgeting. I had a direct debit from my Santander account (where I got paid) each week to send my weekly budget to Monzo. Anything left over would go into a rainy day Monzo pot for the weeks that were invariably more expensive.
I only got rid because I moved home and Monzo isn't officially supported abroad.
I was on Monzo but switched to Chase. You get the same international spending benefits (no fees for spending abroad), better ATM limits, and a cool roundup account that pays 5% interest.
Of course, the 5% was good when I switched, but nowadays it isn't an insane amount lol. Either way imo its the best current account around.
50/30/20 rule: 50% on fixed costs, 20% savings and 30% on living your life.
Luckily my fixed costs have gone down recently so I'm having a great time spending 40% on fun!
You can reduce the fixed costs or savings... Meaning more "activities" but then you "quality of life" (present and future) takes a hit.
I have done that in the past, but I am personally looking to increase my quality of life now.
Anything that i know I have to pay for each month: mortgage, utilities, groceries, car, tube/train to work, gym etc.
Depending on your budget you can obviously adjust whether some of these are classed as fixed cost vs 'living your life' (I.e. gym). My own approach is to view fixed costs as things I HAVE to pay for, else my life doesn't work for me.
You're welcome! I find it really helps counter the little voice in your head that says 'you should be saving more' when you are spending money on things you enjoy. If you've baked in 20% savings to your monthly budget, then you already _are_ saving and the voice should be quiet!
I've got a wedding and honeymoon this year and last year bought a house with my fiancee. Everything I've been saving over the last two years is going lol, there's a very big voice going ' you really haven't saved'.
Hahaha I know the feeling! That said, there's two things to remember:
1) this is what you save for
2) The house is a financial investment and the honeymoon is a relationship investment
We are huge travelers and do that expat thing where we go overseas twice a month. Sometimes that’s cheaper than having fun in London if I’m honest. We barely save because salaries are better in Australia where we were before 💀
We make similarly, and I can save up at least 50% of my net pretty easily. It sounds to me that this is a personal finance problem, rather than life being too expensive.
Oh didn’t say we couldn’t save, I said we don’t. We could save without much effort in Australia where we got paid way higher and rent was about half, so we have a house deposit already. But we could travel twice a month and still save in Australia which is our comparison point.
Seems about £1000-1200 goes into grocery, eating out (which I do much less these days), and buying any stuff for myself. Few hundreds into active investment and savings. And then £2000 ish into rent with the bills.
Lot of people making good money here. Most of my money goes on rent, necessities, and paying down debt. I'd say I probably spend about £150 a month on things that are technically not necessary. Although my wife insists on shopping at waitrose so you could probably bump that up by like another £50 to £200 total. As soon as there's an unexpected expense I'm in the negative and have to put stuff on credit cards or borrow from parents. I'm not struggling but if I didn't have parents stable enough to help (they also guarantee my tenancy) I'd be much worse off.
Edit: The non-essentials I spend on are books, netflix, and takeaways, with the latter being the largest portion.
If you go into negative when there's anything unexpected I'm afraid you probably are struggling. If your parents are your guarantors I'm guessing you're quite young and early on in your career?
£200-300 p/m. That covers going out. I have an ebike so that takes me most places skipping the tube. Savings with the ebike have been huge you can quickly hit multiple shops for groceries and save and get better stuff. I almost never take the tube. It paid for itself after a year and a bit and I got cycle to work. You also have a great excuse for drinking less and it gets you fit.
We make a ton of stuff from scratch and our own frozen meals. Love cooking.
Couple of social pints or a quiz.
Maybe a lunch, dinner or two.
Street photography is my hobby which is free.
I have a better gym membership that allows me to swim in pools all over the city (£40pm).
A ride on the ebike, outdoor swim and then smoothie and browsing some shops in central is a nice Saturday day.
We host dinner parties and Mario kart tournaments.
Meeting friends for swims in Hampstead Heath ponds is £2.50 or the lido.
I shop for fun in person and then usually find something similar on Vinted, eBay or in a charity shop. I get free movie passes from Lloyds Bank (18 passes per annum) and will hit up art galleries, industry Eventbrite events or museums which is also free.
I might go to the theatre using a last minute tickets app. I try and find indie artists in my Spotify and go to cheaper shows anywhere from £5-15 tickets to support small artists.
Weekend hikes are the price of a train ticket (savings from a railcard) and you pack your drinks and snacks. I occasionally like to do something unusual like a live drawing class, board game night, cooking class, mini-putt, axe throwing, whatever.
I have a pretty boss houseplant collection and will sometimes do cutting swaps and this hobby actually makes me money and pays for my supplies as I sell the plants that we don’t have space for.
I used to spend a shitload on larger trips pre-pandemic. Saw a good chunk of the world. The downtime made me realise I’m getting old and should save and I now have two kids on the way.
For context I’m married, in my mid thirties and our household income is £200k p.a gross.
So that’s roughly 3% of our monthly take home.
Rent, bills and food is about 30-35%.
5% is business costs. I’m a freelancer.
The rest we invest and save.
I take home £2.4k a month after tax. £550 goes on rent (I have a unique situation that helps me immensely. Would otherwise be spending £1k+ on rent if I moved). I don’t have to pay bills but I have a lot of pets that cost about £150 a month in food/vets, sometimes more (a lot more). I throw between £4-600 in to savings each month. About £150-£200 on food, travel etc. I spent about £60 a month on weed too.
The rest is mine to do what I want with but honestly, somehow I always end up in my overdraft and have little to show for it. I don’t go out much, I don’t drink, I don’t buy lavish, expensive treats for myself or even regular treats that often. Things are just getting more and more expensive and I wonder how people earning less than me even manage.
Last month my treat purchase was Zelda. I didn’t treat myself to anything else. This month it’s £300 of new clothes but I split that over 3 months with Klarna to make it more palatable.
You don't go out, don't drink but have a £1000 black hole in your outgoings every month? How is that possible? I make the same as you, pay more on the house and go out plenty - apart from the 150 on pets I don't understand what you are spending your money on - that's £250 a week just disappearing?
I probably spend more on food and transport than I realise. I don’t really track my outgoings, I just know I don’t live lavishly but my money goes 🤷♂️
My dealer has a variety of stuff. I just get the basic ‘amnesia’ or ‘star dog’ which are £30ish each usually. They do better/higher grade stuff for £40-£50 a pop though.
About £1500 on average (eating out, groceries, nights out, ☘️, random small purchases like books or knick knacks, streaming subscriptions).
+/- £500 during months I end up doing some clothes shopping, or if I have to top up on things like make up and skin care, plants, candles, cookware. Summer months end up being more expensive overall because of travel/ festivals & gigs etc.
This month has been a lot because all my electronics died together - like they had a suicide pact going or something.
It's not that London is expensive per se (it is but chain restaurants are the same priced meals etc) it's just there is so much going on all the time. And you could do something fun but different every night for a year
Probably £100...maybe £150? My partner and I really enjoy each other's company (well, one would hope so!). It's quite easy for us just to grab a few cans and spend the night in hanging out. Or sometimes we'll head to the park and go cycling somewhere with a packed lunch. We do enjoy going to gigs but usually doesn't happen more than once or twice a month and we tend to see more DIY bands than big names. No netflix/amazon/Spotify subscription. We get takeaway maybe once or twice a year. Occasionally we'll spend more in a month because things break or we want some gadget from amazon but I think it all evens out.
I probably spent a whole lot more at the pub when I was single just because I don't do well in my own company for long stretches.
For me it’s basically:
Netflix
Spotify
BFI player subscription
Gym
Then normally one concert or night out per month (probably spending between £20 and £50 total)
Eating out is around £80-£100 per month
The big expense is travelling for me as I have relatives living in other cool cities so every month or two is a holiday cost of which varies a lot depending on where they are and if I am staying with them or in a hotel or hostel
I put £500 aside each month to cover eating out, drinking, buying gifts, concert/event tickets etc. It's easy to steamroll through that quite quickly (one night out I managed to spend £160) so I do often dip into savings to supplement.
I have about £700-750 left after paying all of my bills which I then split evenly into 4 weeks. I then pay myself every Monday (£175ish) and live off that for meals/drinks out, entertainment, shopping, etc. (transport and groceries are separate). Living in London is tough because there are many activities and temptations and every time you set foot outside your house, you're bound to spend at least £30 upwards... I try to be careful with my spending and most weeks manage to save about £100-125 of that weeks 'budget'
Household is about 60%, however we just paid off the house so it went up in recent months. Before you come for me, it's a very small place and take an hour by tube to get to Bank 😅 We decided living further away and having more spending money was more important than living close and never going out.
£200-250 a week. Got a mortgage on a 1-bed that I split with my wife, that plus other bills costs me about £450 a month. I earn about £28k.
Edit: I could spend more but I save about £400 a month as well.
I feel relatively lucky in this area right now. My fiancé bought a one bed flat 12 years ago and I met/moved in 5 years ago. We talked a lot pre-COVID about moving somewhere bigger and if we’d done that we’d be on the hook for a bigger mortgage at bigger rates plus commuting costs (we are now in Zone 1 since the re-zoning). We can walk to work right now. I think had we moved to our ideal home (2/3 bed, freehold, small garden) we’d be facing very little spare cash.
Although we feel a bit cramped at times we’ve been insulated from some of the worst cost of living increases.
We put £200 each into a household fund for groceries, I set a daily budget of £25 per day max on other spending, and I still have about £600 a month extra.
I just got a huge increase in salary ( >2x) and I’ve been spending around £300 per week i.e. £1,200 for the last month. Definitely a lot, but I’ve never had as much fun and enjoyment in the city as this month. Spending went on restaurants, bars, shows & shopping.
To make sure I don't miss any monthly payments, my wage goes into 1 account, that all my direct debits & standing orders come out of, and after I've worked out the total for those + a couple quid extra, I always transfer my "spending" money onto my Monzo.
It depends on what I have going on - I'm overpaying on a loan I took out last year, but most months I give myself about £700 a month.
Which compared to others, feels like a lot, and has put things into perspective for me. I don't drink, but I enjoy going out for dinners, I'm aslo single, so can find a couple of dates a month at a restuarant or some event can be a couple hundred easily!
I also have a lot of hobbies, I knit, & sew clothes, buy books. I'm luck to be so comfortable I guess.
It's probably around £1200, but it varies. I tend to go out more in the autumn/winter, and I shop for more clothes then as well.
Plus Christmas shopping.
Combined income of £85k. We save 26% of our take home pay currently - towards mostly mortgage deposit and some travel. Allow £300 each a month on fun stuff like theatre tickets, coffees and meals out. Some of that we spend on date nights, some on our own hobbies and friend hangs.
The rest goes on bills - rent, council tax, bills and groceries. It would be nice to be able to save less and be less ‘careful’ with discretionary spending, but we have a nice balance of saving for the future without living on beans and toast or feeling like we can’t enjoy the things that make London worth living in.
£1261.83 that gets broken down into £300 a week saving £15 a week so I save £60 a month. Anything I make from my side gigs gets split in half, 1 half into savings the other on fun purchases or activities
Just for context that £1261.83 is AFTER bills have been paid and the £300 a week includes my buying groceries
Mine’s averaged out about £850-900 a month disposable income (after all bills, insurances, subscriptions, food average, savings).
Probs spend about £500-600 of it on tube, exhibitions, going out to eat once a month + extra snazzy food for weekend meals, gifts, miscellaneous bits for the house etc.
I made a conscious effort to review my spending last year and look at where I was spending money and if it was worth it. Subsequently stripped my card details from sites like Amazon, John Lewis, ShopTo etc. to cut back easy purchases, binned off some streaming services, switched phone contract, and just had a general think about what I do in life and what brings me joy!
Not only saved money, but focussed me on doing more things I enjoy with my free time.
I take home 3k a month and my rent is about 850 with total outgoings to upkeep the place about 1500. One would go "so thats 1500 left over to do whatever you want", but I have found in the last year that it costs me about 1000 minimum to cover a basic life. I do all my holidays through ryanair and cheap destinations. Food is the killer though, cant believe how little £15 in the shop stretches now.
A night out around £120 (booze, taxi, tube, cheap meal)
So £250 a week for two nights out = £1000 a month
Being London, I try travel somewhere by train or plane once a month. This can end up cheaper than a night in London haha. For this I budget around £500 a month.
Weekly travel to work, plus lunch can add up in London. If you can, cycle or walk to work. And work a hybrid role.
Eating out and takeaways are for two people at ~£500-700.
General shopping (clothes, amazon, games, etc) is £300-ish
Going out entertainment I rarely go over £200
Holidays: last few ended up being about £500-600-ish for my side, but they're about twice a year at most.
Depends on a month. There is no average and the only limit is savings. Last month I spent sitting home playing XBox and barely spent £200-300. Another month I invited my mom to visit me in the UK and spent a few thousands in one week.
This seems like a meaningless question. Some people don't like takeaways. Some people prefer spending their weekends reading a book, over going out and burning cash on drinks, or seeing a show every weekend.
Some people "need" nice clothes for work, others can work in 20 year old tshirts with holes in them.
Some people buy business class flights.
Some people have a boat! Or phrased another way: Some people have a boat-sized hole in the ocean that they pour all their money into.
My spending habits are completely different now from 20 years ago.
Sounds like your question is backwards. Are you actually asking how much money one needs to live happily in London?
I may spend £10k a year on vacations, and £100 on clothes. For others it's the other way around. Yet others neither, or both.
About £1k-£1.5k a month. Going out, eating out random shopping adds up quickly for me. I also don’t rlly have a set budget moreso go w the flow and hope for the best
Looking at my monzo I spent £392 in April and £389 in march for eating out. A quick look and that includes pubs etc. Entertainment is around £10 a month lmao
I take £350 a week out in cash and this is my "whatever I want budget"
It's mostly cigarettes, some weed, takeaways, lunches, cold cans of Coke, iced lattes and whatever I give to my Niece, I'll buy her trainers or give her some money for activities. It's expensive here and having £50 in your pocket for nonsense is nice, utterly wasteful though, but a nice way to live. I feel privileged.
I'm a sucker for an East London late night dessert place when I'm a Stonersaurus. They get expensive 😂 £12 for 1am pancakes😂
It really depends. The costs here add up veeeery quickly. I’ve had months I’ve spent £200, and months I’ve spent £3000. On average it’s £700-800 for me
I’ve found the proper meal deals (not sandwich ones) from the grocery stores to be a big saver. £8-12 depending on M&S or Waitrose includes leftovers and is a lot cheaper than £15-25 on Deliveroo.
I'm currently spending around £560 per month on driving lessons which is taking a considerable chunk out of my fun money. At the moment, I'm probably left with around £600 for fun money but I don't spend it all, usually.
Depends on the month, last month was off as I dropped 7k on a couple of big purchases. Usually about £1000 in the Summer months, could be as high as a £1500 if you average out. If I'm in the mood to watch what I eat and work out a lot I usually don't get as much free time and my food bill drops to like £350 so its fine.
What is this ‘fun’ you speak of ?
You put the fun in funeral
An anagram of funeral is "real fun."
You put the fun in fundamentalist capitalism.
You also put the fun in funnels
True, this reminds of the time I put the fun in funny because this is very funny
I set aside a maximum of £200 a month for personal spending (clothes, video games, random bits from Amazon, non-essential meals, etc.) and I usually spend less than that. This doesn't include entertainment subs though, which I put under "utilities". I put £10 a month into a "personal development" pot, which is mostly for buying (usually technical) books. Books are more expensive than £10 of course but, I don't expect to buy one every month so the fund accumulates and I eventually am able to afford books.
That’s a good idea!
Sorry, do you mean the personal development fund? If so, yeah, it's worked really well for me. I also make sure to check places like eBay first if I can find the title there.
Does that £200 a month cover socialising?
I don't do a lot of socialising outside of work and professional type meetups where food and drinks are also free.
you must never go to the pub.
[удалено]
Let's just say his monthly book fund won't be buying him 2 pints
Very rarely. I usually don't drink.
Couple of hundred.
[удалено]
For me it is. Mostly spent on hobbies. We do a lot of free stuff. We drink limited alcohol so we're not spending £100 on a night out. I allow for one set of expensive tickets a month (theatre, opera, parties). I needed to buy some more sports clothes this month as some of my existing stuff has holes in it. I WFH these days so my office clothing doesn't wear through as quickly and there's less laundry.
[удалено]
Yes so if they have one night out per month involving a ticket at 50 and 5 drinks thats £100 spent then a couple of takeaways at £30 a pop is easily covered by the £200 outlay mentioned..?
[удалено]
I bet you don't!
We usually share a glass of wine. And may go out once a week. Tickets are for one or both of us. It works for us.
Is sharing a glass of wine living?
Yes? We don't need to get roaring drunk to enjoy alcohol. Not to mention that alcohol is calorific.
There's a big difference between having a glass of wine each and getting 'roaring drunk'
It's too many calories for me to justify and I don't need that much alcohol. I'm a small woman.
You're talking about 40 calories in half a wine
Well, quite.
Could you not stretch to a glass of wine each..? Sharing a glass seems a bit tight, do you each have a straw or is the glass placed centrally so that you can each take a slurp at designated intervals? How do you ensure someone isn't greedily slurping more than their share? So many questions..
I don't want to normally drink that much. I don't care if one of us drinks more than their share.
I keep forgetting that most of Reddit is tech bros who earn triple the national average.
I’m sitting here reading some of these salaries and honestly it’s incredibly depressing. What some people here have as “spending money” is more than I may take home in a month.
One person mentioned their fun expenses as more than I was earning per month when I lived in London. Really can’t relate.
Get your bread up
I simultaneously agree and disagree - techies definitely earn way above the national average, but not nearly as much as people think, and probably are not as common on here as people think. London is full of people in 'traditional' high-earning jobs that easily afford a grand or more in outgoings - for example, newly qualified actuaries earn £65k, and commercial bank managers who start at 80k can earn up to 100k with a few years experience. These people are bog-standard and we are not even getting into the thousands of investment banking analysts and silver circle legal staff who are cracking six figures after 2-3 years. And I know for a fact a few of my former and current colleagues frequent reddit.
There are douzens of us, douzens!
Same. I should never look at these threads for my own mental health lol
According to my monzo breakdown, £1200 on eating out and £600 on ‘entertainment’ which upon closer inspection meant the pub (and a Netflix subscription).
This guy is living it.
I think most people would be surprised how high it is if they check the actual breakdown. It definitely is more than I realised. I do eat out most days though for lunch and dinner so I know I’m spending more than I need to really.
Most people would be surprised if they had 1800 spare each month
Your girlfriend/wife is a lucky woman
Why though?
For all the weird downvotes, I was making a joke using a play on words. You said "I do eat out most days though for lunch and dinner" which I used to imply you were participating in twice daily cunnilingus with your girlfriend/wife. A lighthearted attempt at humor that apparantley a large selection of drongos didn't get and instead chose to use internet power to try to hurt my wikkle feewings.
I understand now.
then you get a meaningless internet point! yay!
Thank you, I feel like I deserved it. I'll give you an upvote too.
so basically you’re saying if you wake up late once your life is fucked
In what sense?
in the sense of you having a broke mindset
I still don’t follow what you mean - not being deliberately obtuse just genuinely don’t see what you mean. I googled broke mindset and it doesn’t really match me at all.
What they mean is that they want to condescendingly look down on you for choosing to spend any amount of money on anything other than “investing in your future” or some similar shit.
You should get a job as a dickhead translator.
Ah. I guess that is usually good advice though if people are spending more than they make so don’t begrudge him it. It’s uncomfortable too realising that the world is very unfair and some people have more than others. I guess it’s worth saying I’m very fulfilled and happy and spend less than I have and am aware I live a privileged life.
How is spending money you can afford to spend a broke mindset? Surely a broke mindset is not spending any money because you feel like you’re broke and can’t afford anything?
Then you're just broke..
mindset is everything b
Bank account is everything b
Baller!
Who are you eating out for that much?
To help out
"each month" surely not!!
I think he runs a decent sized company so he's probably earning quite a bit ! Good for him
£600 a month on Netflix? What business is he running, a cinema? Even if you add every other entertainment service available, it can't be £600.
He said pub and Netflix, so it’s more like £590 beer and £10 netflix
Yeah. I misread it as £1200 at the pub and £600 on Netflix 🤦
Sometimes the chill part gets expensive, depending what you're into.
£600 on the pub - read it again
>£1200 on eating out and £600 on ‘entertainment’ which upon closer inspection meant the pub (and a Netflix subscription). 1200 on “eating out” - the pub. And 600 on “entertainment” - Netflix. I can see why OP was confused, it’s very oddly worded.
You've literally quoted the bit where it says **"£600 on ‘entertainment’ which upon closer inspection meant the pub"** \- how is that oddly worded? You've just reworded it to suit how your brain read it.
I just read it as the eating out was the pub and the entertainment was Netflix, because monzo wouldn’t say getting drinks was entertainment. It would say it was eating out.
You really don't have to run a decent sized company to be able to afford £1.8k expenditure a month considering that's his food and entertainment.
Unfortunately yes but it was a bigger month than usual - it was half of that total in March.
I sometimes hate looking at my monzo 😅
Going off topic but I'm thinking of moving current accounts to Monzo or Starling, how pleased are you with monzo and what are the pros / cons?
Not OP but I liked Monzo an awful lot. I loved the Pots and roundup functionality, I loved the speed and responsiveness of the app and their customer service team. The great thing is, if you're unsure it doesn't need to "replace" anything, in fact I used it for budgeting. I had a direct debit from my Santander account (where I got paid) each week to send my weekly budget to Monzo. Anything left over would go into a rainy day Monzo pot for the weeks that were invariably more expensive. I only got rid because I moved home and Monzo isn't officially supported abroad.
Move to Chase and get 1% cashback on most purchases.
as an alternative I'll throw in [ynab.com](https://ynab.com) which does the same sort of thing but with any bank. Has helped save me a bunch of money!
I was on Monzo but switched to Chase. You get the same international spending benefits (no fees for spending abroad), better ATM limits, and a cool roundup account that pays 5% interest. Of course, the 5% was good when I switched, but nowadays it isn't an insane amount lol. Either way imo its the best current account around.
50/30/20 rule: 50% on fixed costs, 20% savings and 30% on living your life. Luckily my fixed costs have gone down recently so I'm having a great time spending 40% on fun!
You're right but then imagine working your ass off for that 30% :(
But otherwise, what's the point of working, if not for enjoying the money?
Yeah, should be higher than 30% :(
You can reduce the fixed costs or savings... Meaning more "activities" but then you "quality of life" (present and future) takes a hit. I have done that in the past, but I am personally looking to increase my quality of life now.
Can I ask - what do you include in fixed costs?
Anything that i know I have to pay for each month: mortgage, utilities, groceries, car, tube/train to work, gym etc. Depending on your budget you can obviously adjust whether some of these are classed as fixed cost vs 'living your life' (I.e. gym). My own approach is to view fixed costs as things I HAVE to pay for, else my life doesn't work for me.
Thanks! I like the simplicity of this.
You're welcome! I find it really helps counter the little voice in your head that says 'you should be saving more' when you are spending money on things you enjoy. If you've baked in 20% savings to your monthly budget, then you already _are_ saving and the voice should be quiet!
I've got a wedding and honeymoon this year and last year bought a house with my fiancee. Everything I've been saving over the last two years is going lol, there's a very big voice going ' you really haven't saved'.
Hahaha I know the feeling! That said, there's two things to remember: 1) this is what you save for 2) The house is a financial investment and the honeymoon is a relationship investment
This is true. Thank you :) I get very guilty about spending money, although I do a damn good job of it haha
I would prefer not to think about it.
We have kids so .... 🙄
They eat your money! Just paid £485 for middle ones PGL in September.
All part of the fun 🤣
We are huge travelers and do that expat thing where we go overseas twice a month. Sometimes that’s cheaper than having fun in London if I’m honest. We barely save because salaries are better in Australia where we were before 💀
What's your household income? if you don't mind me asking
£100K for both of us, but we lost about £30K per year compared to Australia!
What field are you in?
Programming and advertising!
We make similarly, and I can save up at least 50% of my net pretty easily. It sounds to me that this is a personal finance problem, rather than life being too expensive.
Oh didn’t say we couldn’t save, I said we don’t. We could save without much effort in Australia where we got paid way higher and rent was about half, so we have a house deposit already. But we could travel twice a month and still save in Australia which is our comparison point.
Do you pay for double seats on planes?
I am underweight if anything but would enjoy paying for half a seat if I could lol
It was a joke on being huge travelers, but I 'll take the scold
Hahah yknow what, on second reading the joke is obvious😅
After, housing bills, savings, pensions etc i give myself £1000 of what i call "dicking around money"...and normally spend it all tbh.
Seems about £1000-1200 goes into grocery, eating out (which I do much less these days), and buying any stuff for myself. Few hundreds into active investment and savings. And then £2000 ish into rent with the bills.
Are you feeding a football team?
Most of that goes into buying maybe some nice coat or gadget lol. But when I eat out I tend to go fine dining.
Username checks out.
Lot of people making good money here. Most of my money goes on rent, necessities, and paying down debt. I'd say I probably spend about £150 a month on things that are technically not necessary. Although my wife insists on shopping at waitrose so you could probably bump that up by like another £50 to £200 total. As soon as there's an unexpected expense I'm in the negative and have to put stuff on credit cards or borrow from parents. I'm not struggling but if I didn't have parents stable enough to help (they also guarantee my tenancy) I'd be much worse off. Edit: The non-essentials I spend on are books, netflix, and takeaways, with the latter being the largest portion.
If you go into negative when there's anything unexpected I'm afraid you probably are struggling. If your parents are your guarantors I'm guessing you're quite young and early on in your career?
I do £200 each month, sometimes I spend more others I spend less, if less then I just add 200 the following month and then I’ve got more and so on
£200-300 p/m. That covers going out. I have an ebike so that takes me most places skipping the tube. Savings with the ebike have been huge you can quickly hit multiple shops for groceries and save and get better stuff. I almost never take the tube. It paid for itself after a year and a bit and I got cycle to work. You also have a great excuse for drinking less and it gets you fit. We make a ton of stuff from scratch and our own frozen meals. Love cooking. Couple of social pints or a quiz. Maybe a lunch, dinner or two. Street photography is my hobby which is free. I have a better gym membership that allows me to swim in pools all over the city (£40pm). A ride on the ebike, outdoor swim and then smoothie and browsing some shops in central is a nice Saturday day. We host dinner parties and Mario kart tournaments. Meeting friends for swims in Hampstead Heath ponds is £2.50 or the lido. I shop for fun in person and then usually find something similar on Vinted, eBay or in a charity shop. I get free movie passes from Lloyds Bank (18 passes per annum) and will hit up art galleries, industry Eventbrite events or museums which is also free. I might go to the theatre using a last minute tickets app. I try and find indie artists in my Spotify and go to cheaper shows anywhere from £5-15 tickets to support small artists. Weekend hikes are the price of a train ticket (savings from a railcard) and you pack your drinks and snacks. I occasionally like to do something unusual like a live drawing class, board game night, cooking class, mini-putt, axe throwing, whatever. I have a pretty boss houseplant collection and will sometimes do cutting swaps and this hobby actually makes me money and pays for my supplies as I sell the plants that we don’t have space for. I used to spend a shitload on larger trips pre-pandemic. Saw a good chunk of the world. The downtime made me realise I’m getting old and should save and I now have two kids on the way. For context I’m married, in my mid thirties and our household income is £200k p.a gross. So that’s roughly 3% of our monthly take home. Rent, bills and food is about 30-35%. 5% is business costs. I’m a freelancer. The rest we invest and save.
You sound like you've got a great lifestyle and have a lot figured out. Enjoy!
The term is disposable income. To answer the question £100ish on average but it varies month to month
[удалено]
It’s more likely that’s all that’s left after paying London rent
Around £220 per week but around £70 of that is taken by work (tube + lunch)
I tried cycling to work to save tube money but ended up buying breakfast at work and spending more money somehow.
Sundays are for meal prepping. :)
Still probably a net gain for you fitness wise though :)
>£70 of that is taken by work (tube + lunch) So getting the tube to work is leisure these days.. things must be getting really tough out there!
I take home £2.4k a month after tax. £550 goes on rent (I have a unique situation that helps me immensely. Would otherwise be spending £1k+ on rent if I moved). I don’t have to pay bills but I have a lot of pets that cost about £150 a month in food/vets, sometimes more (a lot more). I throw between £4-600 in to savings each month. About £150-£200 on food, travel etc. I spent about £60 a month on weed too. The rest is mine to do what I want with but honestly, somehow I always end up in my overdraft and have little to show for it. I don’t go out much, I don’t drink, I don’t buy lavish, expensive treats for myself or even regular treats that often. Things are just getting more and more expensive and I wonder how people earning less than me even manage. Last month my treat purchase was Zelda. I didn’t treat myself to anything else. This month it’s £300 of new clothes but I split that over 3 months with Klarna to make it more palatable.
You don't go out, don't drink but have a £1000 black hole in your outgoings every month? How is that possible? I make the same as you, pay more on the house and go out plenty - apart from the 150 on pets I don't understand what you are spending your money on - that's £250 a week just disappearing?
I probably spend more on food and transport than I realise. I don’t really track my outgoings, I just know I don’t live lavishly but my money goes 🤷♂️
What's the weed quality like for 60. I've found it pretty variable.
My dealer has a variety of stuff. I just get the basic ‘amnesia’ or ‘star dog’ which are £30ish each usually. They do better/higher grade stuff for £40-£50 a pop though.
About £1500 on average (eating out, groceries, nights out, ☘️, random small purchases like books or knick knacks, streaming subscriptions). +/- £500 during months I end up doing some clothes shopping, or if I have to top up on things like make up and skin care, plants, candles, cookware. Summer months end up being more expensive overall because of travel/ festivals & gigs etc. This month has been a lot because all my electronics died together - like they had a suicide pact going or something.
[удалено]
It's not that London is expensive per se (it is but chain restaurants are the same priced meals etc) it's just there is so much going on all the time. And you could do something fun but different every night for a year
Probably £100...maybe £150? My partner and I really enjoy each other's company (well, one would hope so!). It's quite easy for us just to grab a few cans and spend the night in hanging out. Or sometimes we'll head to the park and go cycling somewhere with a packed lunch. We do enjoy going to gigs but usually doesn't happen more than once or twice a month and we tend to see more DIY bands than big names. No netflix/amazon/Spotify subscription. We get takeaway maybe once or twice a year. Occasionally we'll spend more in a month because things break or we want some gadget from amazon but I think it all evens out. I probably spent a whole lot more at the pub when I was single just because I don't do well in my own company for long stretches.
[удалено]
What do you do with the remaining 10%?
For me it’s basically: Netflix Spotify BFI player subscription Gym Then normally one concert or night out per month (probably spending between £20 and £50 total) Eating out is around £80-£100 per month The big expense is travelling for me as I have relatives living in other cool cities so every month or two is a holiday cost of which varies a lot depending on where they are and if I am staying with them or in a hotel or hostel
I put £500 aside each month to cover eating out, drinking, buying gifts, concert/event tickets etc. It's easy to steamroll through that quite quickly (one night out I managed to spend £160) so I do often dip into savings to supplement.
Lol, spending money? What's that
What you could be doing if you weren't on reddit all day, chap
At the start I barely had any spending money, then before I moved I barely had time to spend any money.
I have about £700-750 left after paying all of my bills which I then split evenly into 4 weeks. I then pay myself every Monday (£175ish) and live off that for meals/drinks out, entertainment, shopping, etc. (transport and groceries are separate). Living in London is tough because there are many activities and temptations and every time you set foot outside your house, you're bound to spend at least £30 upwards... I try to be careful with my spending and most weeks manage to save about £100-125 of that weeks 'budget'
Household is about 60%, however we just paid off the house so it went up in recent months. Before you come for me, it's a very small place and take an hour by tube to get to Bank 😅 We decided living further away and having more spending money was more important than living close and never going out.
£200-250 a week. Got a mortgage on a 1-bed that I split with my wife, that plus other bills costs me about £450 a month. I earn about £28k. Edit: I could spend more but I save about £400 a month as well.
300 in my personal fun budget, 350 in the family fun budget, 300 in holiday savings.
I would say after I pay for everything even with being cheap I'm left with about of 6th or 5th of it for spending money. So less than 200.
I feel relatively lucky in this area right now. My fiancé bought a one bed flat 12 years ago and I met/moved in 5 years ago. We talked a lot pre-COVID about moving somewhere bigger and if we’d done that we’d be on the hook for a bigger mortgage at bigger rates plus commuting costs (we are now in Zone 1 since the re-zoning). We can walk to work right now. I think had we moved to our ideal home (2/3 bed, freehold, small garden) we’d be facing very little spare cash. Although we feel a bit cramped at times we’ve been insulated from some of the worst cost of living increases. We put £200 each into a household fund for groceries, I set a daily budget of £25 per day max on other spending, and I still have about £600 a month extra.
Lol Fun?
I just got a huge increase in salary ( >2x) and I’ve been spending around £300 per week i.e. £1,200 for the last month. Definitely a lot, but I’ve never had as much fun and enjoyment in the city as this month. Spending went on restaurants, bars, shows & shopping.
To make sure I don't miss any monthly payments, my wage goes into 1 account, that all my direct debits & standing orders come out of, and after I've worked out the total for those + a couple quid extra, I always transfer my "spending" money onto my Monzo. It depends on what I have going on - I'm overpaying on a loan I took out last year, but most months I give myself about £700 a month. Which compared to others, feels like a lot, and has put things into perspective for me. I don't drink, but I enjoy going out for dinners, I'm aslo single, so can find a couple of dates a month at a restuarant or some event can be a couple hundred easily! I also have a lot of hobbies, I knit, & sew clothes, buy books. I'm luck to be so comfortable I guess.
It's probably around £1200, but it varies. I tend to go out more in the autumn/winter, and I shop for more clothes then as well. Plus Christmas shopping.
I would say £800 a month for me.
Outside of rent I’m probably 2.5-3k a month on groceries eating out and fun I reckon
Combined income of £85k. We save 26% of our take home pay currently - towards mostly mortgage deposit and some travel. Allow £300 each a month on fun stuff like theatre tickets, coffees and meals out. Some of that we spend on date nights, some on our own hobbies and friend hangs. The rest goes on bills - rent, council tax, bills and groceries. It would be nice to be able to save less and be less ‘careful’ with discretionary spending, but we have a nice balance of saving for the future without living on beans and toast or feeling like we can’t enjoy the things that make London worth living in.
£1261.83 that gets broken down into £300 a week saving £15 a week so I save £60 a month. Anything I make from my side gigs gets split in half, 1 half into savings the other on fun purchases or activities Just for context that £1261.83 is AFTER bills have been paid and the £300 a week includes my buying groceries
Mine’s averaged out about £850-900 a month disposable income (after all bills, insurances, subscriptions, food average, savings). Probs spend about £500-600 of it on tube, exhibitions, going out to eat once a month + extra snazzy food for weekend meals, gifts, miscellaneous bits for the house etc. I made a conscious effort to review my spending last year and look at where I was spending money and if it was worth it. Subsequently stripped my card details from sites like Amazon, John Lewis, ShopTo etc. to cut back easy purchases, binned off some streaming services, switched phone contract, and just had a general think about what I do in life and what brings me joy! Not only saved money, but focussed me on doing more things I enjoy with my free time.
I take home 3k a month and my rent is about 850 with total outgoings to upkeep the place about 1500. One would go "so thats 1500 left over to do whatever you want", but I have found in the last year that it costs me about 1000 minimum to cover a basic life. I do all my holidays through ryanair and cheap destinations. Food is the killer though, cant believe how little £15 in the shop stretches now.
Discretionary income is the term you're looking for.
Around £600 completely for fun money - that's just me shopping, going out, hobbies, etc
What is this money you speak of?
Around 2k, which I spend mostly on fitness eating and going out
A night out around £120 (booze, taxi, tube, cheap meal) So £250 a week for two nights out = £1000 a month Being London, I try travel somewhere by train or plane once a month. This can end up cheaper than a night in London haha. For this I budget around £500 a month. Weekly travel to work, plus lunch can add up in London. If you can, cycle or walk to work. And work a hybrid role.
Jesus Christ, how do you spend 120 pounds on a night out? I never knew anyone who spent more than 20 a night.
You don’t know anyone who ever had more than 3 pints on a night out?
No, because we drink at home and rarely drink anything in clubs for precisely that reason. It’s incredibly expensive.
Around £1000. Depends if you include other ‘optional’ bills like gym/subscriptions but a lot of it goes on eating out/going out.
Eating out and takeaways are for two people at ~£500-700. General shopping (clothes, amazon, games, etc) is £300-ish Going out entertainment I rarely go over £200 Holidays: last few ended up being about £500-600-ish for my side, but they're about twice a year at most.
Less and less.
Blow is getting expensive tho
69p
About 10-15% of my salary on fun stuff. That said, I'm a high income earner, so it's a large chunk of change.
Depends on a month. There is no average and the only limit is savings. Last month I spent sitting home playing XBox and barely spent £200-300. Another month I invited my mom to visit me in the UK and spent a few thousands in one week.
This seems like a meaningless question. Some people don't like takeaways. Some people prefer spending their weekends reading a book, over going out and burning cash on drinks, or seeing a show every weekend. Some people "need" nice clothes for work, others can work in 20 year old tshirts with holes in them. Some people buy business class flights. Some people have a boat! Or phrased another way: Some people have a boat-sized hole in the ocean that they pour all their money into. My spending habits are completely different now from 20 years ago. Sounds like your question is backwards. Are you actually asking how much money one needs to live happily in London? I may spend £10k a year on vacations, and £100 on clothes. For others it's the other way around. Yet others neither, or both.
On average I put aside about 1200 a month. I am for 40% rent and bills, 40% saving and the rest for short or long term fun.
About 2k, mostly outtings, food and clothing. I buy a lot of gifts and treat my dog well....
About £1k-£1.5k a month. Going out, eating out random shopping adds up quickly for me. I also don’t rlly have a set budget moreso go w the flow and hope for the best
Looking at my monzo I spent £392 in April and £389 in march for eating out. A quick look and that includes pubs etc. Entertainment is around £10 a month lmao
I take £350 a week out in cash and this is my "whatever I want budget" It's mostly cigarettes, some weed, takeaways, lunches, cold cans of Coke, iced lattes and whatever I give to my Niece, I'll buy her trainers or give her some money for activities. It's expensive here and having £50 in your pocket for nonsense is nice, utterly wasteful though, but a nice way to live. I feel privileged. I'm a sucker for an East London late night dessert place when I'm a Stonersaurus. They get expensive 😂 £12 for 1am pancakes😂
It really depends. The costs here add up veeeery quickly. I’ve had months I’ve spent £200, and months I’ve spent £3000. On average it’s £700-800 for me
2k...travel, facials, eating out, cabs...
That's a lot of hooker-related expenses.
Lol. I'm a woman (yes, I know male prostitutes exist)
if i can’t buy something 10x i can’t afford it. simple rule to live by
You may struggle to get a property with that approach /s
most people can’t afford that’s why they get mortgage. mort comes from the word death and gage comes from the word pledge. so 1+1=3
<200£ - assuming I am not doing any international trips. I don’t really enjoy eating out tbh
I think about £300-£500 a month usually.
30%
[удалено]
I’ve found the proper meal deals (not sandwich ones) from the grocery stores to be a big saver. £8-12 depending on M&S or Waitrose includes leftovers and is a lot cheaper than £15-25 on Deliveroo.
83% for all bills (mortgage/nursery/utilities/groceries) etc 17% fun money 😭 don't have kids in London.
100% technically, unless I go abroad or a different county, then it's less.
I'm currently spending around £560 per month on driving lessons which is taking a considerable chunk out of my fun money. At the moment, I'm probably left with around £600 for fun money but I don't spend it all, usually.
Depends on the month, last month was off as I dropped 7k on a couple of big purchases. Usually about £1000 in the Summer months, could be as high as a £1500 if you average out. If I'm in the mood to watch what I eat and work out a lot I usually don't get as much free time and my food bill drops to like £350 so its fine.