Thoughts on my budget please

[rudehealth]

Recent divorce to high earning ex (£150k plus £65k bonus).

I won’t bore with detail re reached agreement ie I got the house (lots of equity) but don’t touch his pension etc)

My question is - what do you think of this..

Income £28,200 maintenance from my ex
Child benefit £1668
Child tax credit £5748
Total income £35,616
Monthly £2968

Mortgage £802 per month
Gas and electricity £80
Groceries £30 (not a typo. Aunt pays)
Holidays £5000 annual so £416 a month
Petrol £80
Insurances £220 (car home life health)
Council tax £18 (subsidised)

I can’t put a figure for clothing because it varies. One month nothing, the next £400 (winter coats and boots for example). Over the year I estimate £3500

Miscellaneous?? Stuff for house (off bit furniture / twice yearly carpet clean etc. Really no idea - £2000??

Entertainment: £1000??

After school activities (£1250)

Anything else?

2 children (5 and 8) plus one adult

Only on Mumsnet would you get someone struggling to budget when having a £5k holiday.
It must be such a struggle for you.

i do think they need to take some maintenance into account it really is taking the mickey on large sums

how about for an example first £75 per child per week disregard anything above counts as income

thats a good amount and deals with the goverment not paying out when its clearly not needed as such

Who subsidies your council tax so you’re only paying £18 a month? Even with a single person discount it should be a lot more than that.

Why don’t you give some money to charity or do a bit of volunteering - you could help out in day centre to help elderly people seen as your Aunt is paying for your groceries for some strange reason

@misspops

DH earns 8 x my salary. He pays the mortgage, council tax and most bills.
I pay for food, the pets, window cleaner, etc etc. If we go out, he normally pays for dinner but I will pay for lunch if we go out during the day.

I read this post from yourself today. I remembered it because I recalled you randomly from a thread a couple of weeks ago. You said that you worked from home part time and yournpro tats salary was £14k which means your husband is on a very healthy salary. And you are working part time.

Do you volunteer with the aged at your local day centre?

Genuine thanks to the early useful suggestions.

I’m feeling like I have a much clearer idea now. Immediately following the divorce, money was being spent without thought on legal fees and just life. It can’t go on and seeing it in black and white has helped.

Thanks again and I’ll sign off now

I do volunteer. Horse sanctuary 1 day a week, community centre at a local church 1 afternoon a week for lonely peoples Lunch .
Enjoy your 5k holiday and multiple benefits OP

It’s not just entitlement though it’s ethnics. Legally Amazon are paying what tax they are required to pay, still pisses me off though!

I’m not sure she can afford to give to charity. She is a single parent of two children after all.

And who am I to disbelieve you?!

I think you need to consider weather morally you should be claiming benefits when your child maintenance alone is more than some families total income

I dont normally get riled by threads but this has really irritated me. I am paying towards a benefits system for people like you who have more money than most, even with your divorce.

How absolutely disgusting you should be ashamed of yourself for applying in the first place. So many times you see threads bashing people who actually need benefits and someone of your ilk who really doesnt is blatantly posting about how much money you have but thats ok as its not as much money as you used to have.

I hope karma bites you so hard on the arse.

I don’t get the impression that the op cares one jot or can even empathise with families who really struggle.

Child maintenance payments can stop anytime the ex decides to jack in his job and go 'self employed'. Mine did.

I would suggest budgeting on your income and view anything from the ex as a bonus, not something to be relied on.

There are loads of tips on money saving expert site.

I am lone parent, 2 kids, in an expensive area. C.15k income inc tax credits. I threw as much as possible of chlld maintenance at the mortgage to reduce it quicker so i could be mortgage free when tax credits stop.

Just dont live beyond your means and you'll be fine.

You could save your £30 food budget and put it towards a goat Sky T.V, by visiting the food bank for your grocery 'tops ups'

This has to be a wind up and is exactly why child maintenance above a certain amount should be counted as income for benefit purposes. How on earth does someone get tax credits in this situation is totally beyond me.

Didn't you do a full statement of your living costs for your Form E, if you have finances agreed? I smell bullshit...

@ doodleygirl. My sentiments exactly. Karma is a wonderful thing and often takes its time but it does come. I very rarely post but this is definitely somebody trying to wind people up. She says she will go back to work pro rata 27k. Well full time no pro rata she’s not worth the money if she can’t do some basic budgeting ha ha. I’ve run my own business for many many years and wouldn’t employ someone without basic maths skills let alone someone wanting pay of 45k pro rata for part time work when they are unable to do a monthly spreadsheet of household expenditure.

I think OP ment £2,800 maintenance
a year.

i dont think she did

I’m pretty sure she meant 28200 a year which is over 500 a week, no tax to pay on top, plus a nice bit of food shopping money at 75 a week (almost double what I can afford), plus the house in her name of which she seems to pay the mortgage and a very tiny amount of council tax (still can’t figure that one out), plus she’s been out of work for 8 years but will go into a fairly well paid job after all that time out. I think the food bank suggestion was a great idea, could save more towards pony lessons or something.

Yes I giggled at the been out of work for 8 years but is going to have the excellent part time salary. As you say the 18 quid on council tax for a house with loads of equity but still over 800 quid mortgage ..... will all help for the pony lessons in la la land.