If you were absolutely flat broke in this situation, how would you make money?

The £300 is completely plucked from thin air by a poster. Its not even close to £300.

I'd look at anything you can earn from home such as surveys etc online - it's not loads but if I relly focus I can earn veteran £50 and £100 extra a month.

I also make sure that I'm always making my money go as far as possible - I use blue light card for all purchases possible, cashback credit card, and quidco cashback sites for all purchases such as insurance etc. Again, it won't make loads but I put all petrol and food shops on my cash back card and get another £100ish per year from that, another £500ish on cashback sites, and that's my christmas money pretty much sorted.

£300 for subscriptions per month us a huge amount !
Can you cut this down ?

Ive been looking at mopeds. I have seen some that are around £1500-1700 new. Insurance is around £35 a month. Im not sure on tax and fuel, but im guessing thats still alot less than the taxis. There are routes i can take to work that avoid the "fast" A roads but still roads that would be gritted in winter. I have a gated area at my home i can lock the gate on. And the area motorbikes and mopeds get parked in at work have CCTV. I feel my parents would loan me the £1500, i may have to put a littlle bit towards it, which would be doable if i got it pay day as i wouldnt have the coming months taxis to fund. Helmet would need to be new of course, but i will look for second hand protective clothing.

After some research its definitely the most feesible option, that allows me to keep my job.

I agree. But they have done it for years. My middle child 3 years, my youngest 2 years. They both put their names down very early and pick up extras through choice. They both have bikes, that are kept up with safety checks, have lights, high vis clothing, and helmets, they do them in the local area which is very safe. I have trackers for them both on my phone, it notifies me when they leave and when they return home. They enjoy them. They get home usually for 07.30, Have their breakfast and get changed. My daughter doesnt need to leave for school until 8.40 as we can see her school from home so i see her before she leaves. My son in college starts at 9.30 most days he is in, so leaves after i get home too. I dont think doing papers is a "normal" these days. But i did one for years as a teenager and left even earlier than 6, but back in the 90's it was more normalised.

Buy a bike for the travel. There are quite a few brand new mountain bikes from around £85. Or second hand.

Some context - single mum of 3 teenagers. Qualfied as a nurse a year ago, so on the lowest increment for band 5 pay. i work all night plus extra bank shifts to maximise my income with enhancements. Moving up pay scales/banding is impossible at the minute. The extra shifts means my UC entitlement is 0 most months. I get CB for 2/3 of the children. Eldest has autism and whilst he works, he doesnt earn enough to be contributing anything substantial to the household. Ex gave up working and claims benefits, i get the standard £29 a month deduction from his benefits via CMS, he hasnt seen the children in over a decade so doesnt contribute anything further. I dont drive and theres no public transport running at a time that i can get to work, so i have to pay for taxis which are expensive but i have no other options. Its a 2 hour walk before/after 13 hours shifts and i usually do 4 or 5 in a week, im so exhausted i cant do this walk on top of my very busy active shift. We live in a rented house, which is a reasonable rent for the area, but still expensive. 1 child in school who can walk, 1 child in college who cant walk as its too far so i have to ay transport costs for them. I have some "unnecessary" outgoings, gaming subscriptions and streaming services, however my children are home alone 4 or 5 nights a week so they need something to keep them occupied as i dislike them going out and about whilst im at work, as i work in a very busy A&E department, im not easily contactable and like to know they are safe. I have some small debts im paying off from when i was a student and really struggled to get by.

Every month i run i out of money, its just impossible. I cant work more, i cant see where i can reduce out goings. I cant get a third job (my substantial and bank are two different contracts). I cant afford christmas, which i know isnt the be all and end all. But, when i was a student i promised my children a better future when i was stressed writing assignments doing placements and missing important events. But its not gotten better. Infact im worse off each month now than i was when studying. The recent NHS payrise left me worse off, as it bumped me into the next pension bracket, so the little i got backdated last pay, i now owe in pension arrears from April when the pay rise was back dated to. This amount is more than i received in back pay last month.

Life is just impossible. I cant give my children any standard of living, despite working my arse off to improve my career and do as many shifts a week as i am physically able to do.

What would you do? Genuinely? My only potential plan at the minute is the WFH pip assessor roles, its the same money im on now, but no travel costs. Keep my bank job to pick up an extra weeked shift each week. But its a job role i struggle with morally, and i would lose the patient contact element of my job for the most part. And A&E was my dream job, i love it, and the experience is vital for my future career aspirations.

For those concerned. My kids are 19, about to be 17 and about to be 16.

The 19 year old is autistic, as i said he struggles with anxiety, reading comprehension and communicating. He struggles these days with understanding things like setting up a direct debit for his phone bill and setting up a savings account. He also went to mainstream highschool, passed all his exams, and has a very active social life with an outdoor hobby and a girl friend of 3 years.

My nearly 17 year old is in college, and my nearly 16 year old is in the final year of secondry school.

I have every single friday night off. We, though generally not the eldest these days, have family time every friday night, frozen pizzas and movies, or a tv show, sometimes games though they not that keen on them any more. I usually work a saturday night. But saturday day we will do food shopping and set the meal plans for the week, they get a lot of say over what we are having, but often they will also see their friends and not want to actually come shopping these days. Sunday i will sleep until 1 ish, then we will go visit my parents. my youngest and i sometimes go for a walk through the woods to starbucks, but we generally spend that time together.

Nights means im home to make sure they get to schol and college on time, im home every night for dinner as i leave at 18.30. I have my first break between 21.00-22.00 and speak to them every time. My daughter has an hour on her own with me 3 nights a week when my middle son is in college and oldest at work. I take most of my annual leave school holiday time to ensure i spend it with them.

The concern without knowing the full circumstance, i can see it. However my children are safe, loved, happy, understand i need to work, sensible, have plenty of time to connect emotionally, and we spend alot of time together. They are also incredible closed, especially my younger 2, they share the same hobbies, they share a job for goodness sake, they confide in each other, they have the same group of friends and hang out together by choice often too on a saturday. The concern is misplaced in our situation.

Day shift - I would leave whilst they were doing their papers so not see them before school, and get home at 20.30, which is far to late for them to be having dinner so they would have to feed them selves, and honestly days are even more exhausting, on a day shift i usually dont even bother eating i come home shower and sleep, so dont see them at all.

Hi, I'm sorry you are going through a tough time financially atm. I just wanted to raise a concern I had about your children. You say they are on their own 4/5 nights a week and you are not easily contactable. How old is the child in school?
I'm concerned they don't have a parent around in the evenings. Emotionally to see and talk to for any issues or just spend time with and also physically.
I see this alot where the parent works so much to earn a good living however unintentionally neglects their children.
Please think about the impact this has

The subscriptions are ludicrus. I have netflix - my daughter is stranger thing obsessed and rewatches it regularly. Prime you get with, well prime, which i use for subscriptions of household item such as loo roll and washing tablets as its cheaper and takes some of the mental load off me having to remember to buy them. Now TV i only have the basic package. We dont even have a tv aerial so subscriptions and streaming services are somewhat essential. Then i have the psn (£7 a month) and gamer pass (£10 a month) for my children to access games, chat to their friends, and its something they enjoy doing together. £17 a month is not ludicrus.

Who would she tutor?
Other student nurses?
She's only been qualified for a year herself.

@lateatwork

Are there any cleaning or babysitting jobs you could pick up? Even 1 shift of babysitting can be around £60. A cleaning job could be around the same. Just 1 shift of this would be an extra £240 per month and could help towards the moped etc

Do you honestly think OP has the energy to pick up work cleaning? After 12 hour night shifts in A&E? I doubt she has time to clean her own house thoroughly!

All the suggestions about extra jobs aren't really realistic.

It's ridiculous that OP is in this situation. Hopefully you will go up to the next band soon. It sounds really hard.