There is only one way to find the answer to how much you can take in dividends from your limited company and that is from your accounting records.
Dividends can be paid at any time if there are retained profits available in the business, after allowing for corporation tax.
Just because there is money in the business bank account doesn’t mean that a dividend could be taken.
Taking dividends when there are not sufficient retained profits to do so (known as an illegal dividend) could cause tax and various other problems such as issues with obtaining a mortgage or finance. So illegal dividends should be avoided at all costs.
Remember that the money in the company bank account does not belong to you. It can be extracted from the company and paid over to you if the formalities are followed.
The formalities require that the board of directors meet, consider the financial position of the company and declare a dividend payment to the shareholders registered on the agreed date. These formalities are supported by a Board minute and dividend vouchers.
Of course this all sounds like nonsense if you are the sole director and shareholder of the company.
However if you are in partnership with someone whose dividends are not being paid into the same household you should always strictly follow the formalities. In addition if you have more than one shareholder, dividends should be paid separately to each shareholder on the same date in proportion to their shareholding even if the only other shareholder is your spouse.
The dividends should be paid directly to the shareholder preferably into their own bank account.
While you may need to pay dividends at least monthly for practical reasons, the more infrequently you can pay them the better and certainly avoid paying dividends more often than once per month.
The key is to make sure that you properly account for the dividends in the accounting records, have the correct paperwork to support dividends and not to take any illegal dividends (taking amounts when there are no retained profits available for distribution).