I have been trying to find a reliable source for the UK money supply over the past couple of decades, but it seems that in each different place I look I get completely different looking answers. Now I am aware that there are different measures of the money supply (M1, M2 etc) and I am also aware that these are defined differently in different countries, I am also aware that these definitions change from time to time.
What I would really like is the sum of instantly spendable British money that is currently possessed by all individuals and businesses. So I think this is the sum of notes&coins held outside banks plus the sum total of all sterling denominated demand deposits.
Certainly notes&coins on their own is not what I'm after because there is much more spendable money than that. This measure would be too small.
Also certainly I do not want to include the value of bonds or shares owned by people because that has to be sold (taking money from someone else) in order to convert their value into money. This measure would be too large.
I suspect that the data is probably available on this page on the Bank of England website, but there are so many choices and so much jargon that I am not at all confident of choosing the right data. Can anyone give me any pointers?