Massive increase in cost for lessons, is this normal?

I wouldn’t pay building insurance on the vicarage, as you don’t own it. Obviously contents insurance, but I wouldn’t pay that on the flat as I assume you don’t have contents in it. So you should still be only paying one houses worth of insurance, just maybe one of each type for each property

Raising the cost of lessons by 25% is unreasonable. Is it an hour? I pay £24 for my daughter's half hour singing lessons.

It's also very obvious that your husband cannot afford to support 3 children and a wife on his current salary, and if his role means that you are not able to work, he needs to get another job, either one that enables you to work or that pays more.

I can believe the food cost thing. When money is tight for me, I cook veggie for a week or two and with me and two kids, I can feed us well for about £30.

How old are all your kids?
Why can’t you get a job and use childminders and after school care like everyone else with kids? Plenty of people have spouses who are on call, but it doesn’t matter as the kids are in school and childcare during their working hours.

Get a job?

OP your whole post makes no sense.
I appreciate you are a 1 income household of £1997 but with no rent or mortgage I cannot see how you are left with £85 per week after bills, nor how you are feeding (even a vegetarian) family of 5 on £50ish a week.

Even with your gas/electric bill at £550 a month- where is there other £1400 going?!

I also categorically cannot believe you are feeding a full, balanced diet to 5 people for £50 unless you are topping up with food banks etc. We are a family of 4 and I spend £8.25 on milk per week (20 pints per week)- that's almost 1/5th of your budget on milk ALONE.

Something isnt adding up here.

A few thoughts:

1. How long are her lessons? If you also have a newborn, I'm guessing she's not that old, and a 20/30 minute lesson would be appropriate. If she's having longer, ask about shorter.
2. Musicians Union recommends £44/hour, as a comparison. If a teacher hasn't put up their rates for a while, so it ends up being a big jump, they sometimes phase it in, charging the new rate for new pupils, and increasing it more gradually for existing pupils. It would be very reasonable to explain to the teacher that you don't think you can afford that big an increase. He may be willing to cut the lesson length or frequency, or to keep the price a bit lower for his friend's child.
3. Apply to the Rustat Trust (https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/chapel-and-choir/about-chapel/clergy-family-grants). It's worth checking out what else is available for clergy families - another one is at www.clergysupport.org.uk. I'm from a clergy family, and both those two charities were very supportive.

Some local councils do free group music lessons, ours does

So you pay £550 for heating, where is the rest of the money going

Many of these old vicarages have been sold off though as they're unreasonably luxurious and too big and old like you say. Lots of 4 or 5 bed new build vicarages round my way.
And agree that vicars don't typically pay council tax and in my diocese also don't pay water rates, buildings insurance or broadband. They get a proportion of their electric/heating bill paid too. It varies across dioceses but I'd be surprised if any diocese charges for ALL normal household bills.

£2000 income, plus a little extra from your 1bed, no mortgage and only £350 a month spending money?

Wheres it all going OP? Your bills are over £1500/mo without mortgage or rent?

Music lessons have become more expensive for those in State Education because of VAT.

Teachers make more money via private schools & now offer at least 20% discount there so adding vat doesn’t change the price. So many are charging more to those in state education (or reducing services) to try and make up costs — for example, hiking fees, charging more for instrument hire, not including books or 1 exam attempt as standard any more. If you don’t like it then they’ll find someone else quickly enough as there’s a massive shortage of qualified instrument teachers.

The same thing has happened to a lot of other enrichment activities. The government was warned about this when they implemented the vat charge for private education.

I dont think Vicars pay council tax, water rates, buildings insurance or broadband when they live in the rent free clergy house.

Usually they are only responsible for heating costs.

Music lessons are expensive, they always have been really.

Is the £85 a week a self imposed strict budget rather than nothing left over as there does seem a chunk of money going rogue. Do you save the Child Benefit for something else? Have you prioritised savings instead of a bigger house keeping budget?

Not sure but friends who have become accidental landlords did so at a loss.

Have you ever heated a vicarage? Good friend of mine was a vicar's daughter and their family lived on a tight budget. Beautiful, draughty Victorian house. Solid fuel boiler in the cellar. They shut down half the house every winter. Parents bedroom became sitting room, spare bedrooms shut off, drawing room (yes, I know but back then vicarage often used for parish stuff) shut off. Simply couldn't afford to heat it.

surely an £8 increase is nothing in the scheme of things - if you were funding the £32 ok then use £8 of her child benefit to fund the shortfall?

another one who's puzzled as to what you're doing with the £1700 of the monthly stiped that you claim is used by bills? Maybe have another look at that?

Avoiding the rent question tbh - pays for itself. So a cheaper rent than average or....?

If the flat is so tiny then it's no good being kept as a potential family home.

Lots of vicars do keep a house for when they retire but they rent it out for enough to easily cover the costs.

How old are the children? You're also avoiding the idea of you working anywhere

£40 - for how long? If thats for a 30 minute lesson its extremely high. I pay £30 in a very expensive area near London.

Unless you think this teacher is so in demand that you can't push back.

I wonder this as I was under the impression vicarages where one of the homes exempt from council tax, so that leaves water, gas, electric and Internet, car and insurances

TBH I think you'd be better off selling the one bed flat and then living on the capital, you could get 4% in an interest account and use that towards the extras

when you retire your fast will prevent you obtaining social housing, which is easier to obtain once over 60

No names named, but somebody on here asked 'Is that £40 a week or a monthly fee? How long are the flute lessons?'

No surprises then that ours is not a music nation and all the success our musicians achieve on the world stage is in spite of, rather than because of.

If the £1997 is to cover costs outside of housing costs (as that is provided) what are you spending the rest on to have such a small budget for food.

I never said you had to work FOR them???

I said you could do any other job ...

Also, vicars definitely set their own hours to a degree. Outside of set services (and even then they can some times get cover etc) they chose when to work

It is so hard being self employed. My costs have gone up massively and I haven’t passed them all on because it’s so hard to do. Whenever I increase fees, it causes someone to leave.
You might find there is a concessionary rate available, or a shorter lesson, and also that a term’s notice is required to quit. That is quite standard. Where I live, there is a charity that offers free music lessons for those on low incomes.
Also btw shocked at the low income. My local vicar and bishop are often to be seen in Waitrose, so I assumed that the income wasn’t as low as I thought, until I read this.