If you had a spare/surprise £500...

[Ffsffsffsffsffs]

I've had a text to say I'm eligible for the £500 tax credit bonus this month.

We live reasonably frugally (I do get some of the working tax credit element and have worked throughout covid) but not as strugglesome as we were 5 years ago due to job changes etc. I'm a single parent, kids see dad incredibly rarely. We have a monthly budget that I always stick to which includes putting money away for things like Xmas, birthdays, car expenses, even holiday/emergency fund. We don't aspire to fancy gadgets, I drive a sensible & reliable car, albeit a bit old and battered, kids recognise that we can't stretch to fancy trainers/brand clothing. I have a mortgage that doesn't scare me any more, and is comfortable in our budget. We do occasionally have treats - takeaways, meals out, cheapo weekends away just the 3 of us, budget self-catering holidays when we're able.

So this £500 is a real bonus. I've got nothing that needs replacing, I'm very OK with getting clothing bargains online and I hate physical shopping for the sake of it. Do I stick it in the holiday piggy bank? Make a payment on my mortgage? Treat for me or the kids? Blow it all on sex, drugs and rock and roll?

If you had an unexpected £500 (that was surplus to your monthly budget), what would you spend it on?

If this £500 is an advance and they plan to reduce your money in future, they really need to tell people this, as otherwise, people might spend the money when they'd be better saving some or all of it if they're going to need it for essentials later.

@BarbaraofSeville

If this £500 is an advance and they plan to reduce your money in future, they really need to tell people this, as otherwise, people might spend the money when they'd be better saving some or all of it if they're going to need it for essentials later.

They have told people. It's to replace the £20 extra per week that was introduced at the start of the pandemic. It is very clear.

I’d save it but if you ever got the urge for a treat I’d use some for that, but I’d wait until I really wanted something not just think up something.

@punkingscissors hate to break it to you too but lots of different people are on benefits. Some are even receiving the same benefits they process.

£500 is hardly an excess. Indeed the capital limit for benefits is £16000. CTC and WTC don’t have a capital threshold.

Now do be a dear and take your benefit shaming and fuck off.

MyDc ah, ok - hoppy Easter

OP do a bit of research and find a good savings account - they're quite rare now as interest rates are on the floor - this link might help though:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-save/

[quote Tana433]@punkingscissors It wouldnt benefit my children at all. My children are both in their 20s now so obviously i dont receive any WTC for them. My answer was about what i would spend an unexpected windfall on and Molton Brown products are it.[/quote]
Come on @Tana433 just because your kids are grown up doesn't mean you get nice things 🤣🤣

Whilst it’s nice to think about wait until it’s in your bank. The MAY/MIGHT be eligible to review should be a concern not to spend before you get it

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@punkingscissors hate to break it to you, but the government set up "Help to Save" accounts specifically for people on WTC, to help them save money. So they do expect people on WTC to have some excess.[/quote]
Enough to be paying for a new kitchen or have spent £1500 on British airways flights?

[quote CornishTiger]@punkingscissors hate to break it to you too but lots of different people are on benefits. Some are even receiving the same benefits they process.

£500 is hardly an excess. Indeed the capital limit for benefits is £16000. CTC and WTC don’t have a capital threshold.

Now do be a dear and take your benefit shaming and fuck off.[/quote]
It's hardly benefit shaming to think people don't need it if they are buying new kitchens or spending £1500 on a holiday.

@punkingscissors as I said I saved £100 per month for 15 months. That's £25 per week. Hardly rolling about in 20's in my Rolex and Gucci. I work as well, why shouldn't we get a holiday? Give me one good reason?
And have you nothing to say about the biggest benefit 'spongers' that are pensioners? Do you hope they go with only the very basics too?

Wait hang on @punkingscissors - you spend your tax credits on food?! Absolutely disgraceful - I hope it's only bread and gruel you buy, if you can buy anything more luxurious you should not be on benefits at all

I get about 6 quid a week tax credits 😂 went up during the Covid increase thing though and so maybe il get this 500 bonus

And I will be putting it toward my new kitchen If so . Bite me .

I’d treat my daughter most definitely, treat myself then save the rest x

[quote JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows]@punkingscissors as I said I saved £100 per month for 15 months. That's £25 per week. Hardly rolling about in 20's in my Rolex and Gucci. I work as well, why shouldn't we get a holiday? Give me one good reason?
And have you nothing to say about the biggest benefit 'spongers' that are pensioners? Do you hope they go with only the very basics too?[/quote]
being able to save £100 a month for a holiday is a luxury.

You sound really sensible with your money. I would pop it in savings for now but would earmark some for a memorable day out or short trip in the summer.

lbeing able to save £100 a month for a holiday is a luxury

Depends on your definition of luxury. Yours seems to be "anything that isn't poverty". Like I say I work as a teacher - do you think I shouldn't Have holidays because I also get a small amount of tax credits?

Do you expect me to pay it back to HMRC, or give it to less fortunate people? Is that what you want - for me to give it to you? Well unfortunately for you I couldn't give a flying fuck how people think about how I spend my money. And I'll enjoy every last bit of my trips and holidays, guilt free.

I'd love to know your views on pensioners - do they not deserve £100 a month to spend on themselves either,

@JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows

lbeing able to save £100 a month for a holiday is a luxury

Depends on your definition of luxury. Yours seems to be "anything that isn't poverty". Like I say I work as a teacher - do you think I shouldn't Have holidays because I also get a small amount of tax credits?

Do you expect me to pay it back to HMRC, or give it to less fortunate people? Is that what you want - for me to give it to you? Well unfortunately for you I couldn't give a flying fuck how people think about how I spend my money. And I'll enjoy every last bit of my trips and holidays, guilt free.

I'd love to know your views on pensioners - do they not deserve £100 a month to spend on themselves either,

Given that we live in poverty of course it is.

@punkingscissors I'm going to use my help to save money to buy a new car... the new kitchen I'm putting in my HA flat will be paid for using my salary because am I fuck having a shiny new Smeg cooker in the current shithole they think is acceptable

I won't qualify for tax credits in a few months when DD turns 20 but like me most people in receipt of tax credits are working - some of us even full time - it's not our fault the government don't make the NMW a decent amount so they have to top up full time wages & offer incentives to save so people can afford to live & have a few luxuries... fuck me life has been shit enough for the past year without something to look forward to!

@punkingscissors just because it's a luxury for you to save £25 a week it doesn't mean it is for other people. And just because you can't save that it doesn't mean others shouldn't.

No opinion on all the elderley people you seemingly want to be deprived of luxuries?

@punkingscissors ODFOD

I pay £50 a month into a help to save account - I have this 'to spare' after saving £50 per month for the previous seven years to buy a new kitchen.

I don't smoke, or drink and I drive a 15 year old car, the scrimping £50 a month for years has meant I can pay for improvements to my home - whilst not burdening the state with social housing costs, rent payments etc because I work as well.

I'm fortunate to have been able to drag myself and my kids out of debt and poverty over the last 10 years, and I have been in receipt of various benefits over this time. Something like 80% of all UK households claim some sort of benefits - there are way more than WTC and CTC. I expect that eventually my wages will exceed the limit for claiming these, and I am extremely grateful for the support that my little family has received from the state.

Why should someone on benefits not go on a £1500 holiday? If I saved the same £50 a month, that's a holiday every 3 years - hardly a jet-set lifestyle courtesy of the taxpayer - oh wait, I'm earning a wage and paying tax as well?!?

Well said, @Ffsffsffsffsffs.

The govt actively encourage those of us on tax credits to save up to £50/month through Help To Save. I save that plus the amount I was already putting aside before HtS existed, in a holiday/emergency bill's fund. I can do that not because I'm rolling in money - if I was they wouldn't be giving me tax credits - but because I literally spend nothing on myself - don't smoke, drink, go out ever, buy takeaways, pay for nails or any beauty treatments - nothing.

If I wanted, I could keep on saving, ditch any holidays, and eventually I'd have enough to upgrade my falling-apart kitchen. Its depressing to discover there are people who think I'm somehow not entitled to do that with what little money I have.

Boring but, I’d stick it aside. Our youngest turns 21 next year and I’d like to send him on the holiday he’s been wanting.

I think I am getting it to. I have savings so we will be using this for a weekend away with our dds. We were planning it anyway but this helps

I think premium bonds for the majority of it is a good idea. It's where a lot of people keep their 3-6 month emergency fund.

@punkingscissors I get WTC and I spend about £6k a year on holidays in non Covid times.

Whether I need WTC or not, I receive them as I'm on minumum wage. Not sure what you expect me to do - give them back? Not claim them? Yeah right.

I give to 6 different charities and buy stuff for the food bank whenever I go shopping and that's enough for me.

I can't help the fact that my ex is a high earner and so I'm entitled to a lot in child maintenance. That's just luck of the draw.