How much do you earn and are you struggling?

[AG1210]

touchy subject I know.

we have a monthly income of just under £3000. We have 2 kids.

DH earns just under £2000 a month.

ds gets DLA, I get carers allowance, child benefit, small amount of tax credits and £30 PW maintenance off ds's dad (he probs should be paying more but I haven't got the energy to sort this!) brings us to just under £3000 a month.

but we are always skint!!

house is mortgaged and it's currently £350pcm which is cheap. If we were renting we'd be on our knees. But we've had a lot of necessary house repairs in the last year which hasn't helped - boiler and heating repairs etc.

we don't spend about our means.

like anyone, bills have shot up but we have been struggling for a while, so even more so now. Always over drawn by the end of the month.

we don't spend above our means. Don't go out to eat, drink alcohol or smoke.

we also run 2 cars. we took out a loan for our newer family car (not brand new!) which we are still paying back. The other was bought outright 15 years ago before dh met me. . 2 cars is a necessity where we live as there is little public transport and dh works unsociable hours. But if dh car goes wrong (it's not looking good atm) we are screwed as can't afford another. This is a big chunk of our income gone.

we have some credit card debt - about 2 grands worth buy could be worse I guess.

we've cancelled Netflix and other subscriptions.

not had a holiday in 7 years.

we have recently spent our on annual passes to a local theme park which cost nearly £200 but thankfully they are valid for a year and it's only a few miles away so will give us something to do with the kids at the weekends - hopefully they don't get bored of it.

made cut backs with food. Food has gone up but I'm buying less to compensate.

how do you get by each month?

we shouldn't be struggling so much should we?! Is this just life for everyone now?

I totally appreciate that there are families much less off than us and I can fully sympathise.

I am just at a loss on what to do.

there's just always something extra we have to pay out for too!!

any money saving tips??

No, we aren’t just guessing - a) the OP does indeed mention the extra costs related to DS’s additional needs in her post at 8.41am today, and b) the vast, vast majority of families with disabled children have some form of extra costs (as evidenced by Scope’s reports) as that is the nature of disability, moreso for severely disabled DC.

We are struggling but our mortgage is £1300 - we could only get a 19 year term because of DH age (both divorced so only bought last year) so it’s really expensive even though the interest rate is actually ok.
Thankfully we have no childcare payments or we’d actually be in negative salary!
No credit cards but I have a bank loan I pay off £270 a month which I took out for IVF treatment which was sadly unsuccessful. I’m definitely going to be very glad to have that money back in my pocket when the lob is gone. I also have student loans repayments deducted from my salary which will be over soon, sometime in 2023. When both the bank loan and student loans are done I think we will be in position to save.

We have income about the same as yours, only one child and we manage ok. Only have one car which we own outright so that helps, childcare costs will go down a lot when DD starts school in September

We've made various decisions and sacrifices over the years to keep our outgoings low as we enjoy the financial freedom.
Our combined outgoings, including our weekly food shops, is £1,400 a month.
We earn about £5k between us a month, after tax.

Take home roughly £2k a month, plus £200 child benefit and £160 tax credits and DH ESA is about £300.
3 teenage DCs.
Rent is £825. Two vehicles needed as we're rural. Gas and electricity currently fixed so only £143 but will more than double soon.
Yes, we definitely struggle! But I budget well, so no debt.
It is hopefully only temporary.

Income about £11k a month

mortgage £500
gas and electricity £450
water £100
insurance inc pet insurance £450
council tax £350
private health cover £350
credit cards £1k
food £1200
evenings out £800
cleaner £300
kids allowances £100
Petrol £100
personal trainer £200

we save the rest
i realise we are very lucky

We are struggling big time, we get around £3k a month but rent is £1200, we’d be fine if we only had to pay £350 for our home! We had to move recently after several years of no rent increases, we were shocked when we saw how much it all is now! So we really have to budget in order to pay all the bills and buy food. We have £13 in the bank to last until payday!

AbigailMartinet what a helpful post 😄

havent read all but cant understand bringing home 3l low mortgage and struggling

me £1.5k me and my teen son

no mortgage or rent im mortgage free
we manage pretty well and dont struggle
manage nice clothes,days out and a great christmas etc

i dont drive and have a free bus pass

but our holiday this year is a cruise 7 day my mum paid,i paid £200 health insurance/travel £140 and spends £4-500

i know im lucky but i dont get money etc/bought things which i know a few do but honestly we can afford extra's and maintane a home and im more than happy with the holiday,but general we manage very well

meant to add no debt at all and use the envelope method and am wekk covered for gome insurance/water etc

I don't understand why you wouldn't just clear that 1k on credit card 😂

We bring home £4500-£5000 between us (depending on overtime).

All our bills, food shopping, fuel and nursery fees are about £3000.

We should have a good amount of spare money but I don’t know where it all goes and we really need to budget better. We have been decorating the house (new build) and buying items so this is probably where most of it’s going.

Trying to spend less on eating out/ takeaways now and less when we take DD out unless it’s somewhere special. I took her to the soft play recently (just myself and DD) and ended up spending about £25 and I just feel it’s such a waste for soft play.

whatsthestory
You have no mortgage and live on £1.5k with a family of two. OP has a mortgage albeit a low one and lives on £3k with a family of 4.

You mention your mum paid for your holiday so you did not have to reduce your income for the last year to fund this.

Your circumstances are not similar at all, yet you write as though they are.

My income including CB, maintenance and salary is £3600. I have 2 teenagers. Mortgage is £250 pm; have one car to run and house. I'm constantly trying to save money - it's always easier at the beginning of the year.

I've recently committed to cycling more often which has really helped. I try to have 3 car free days. I'm trying to be stricter with myself about going to the shops though. I have a rule that I buy what I need for the week every Monday - then I know what I have for the rest of the week. My weekly budget is £750. Anything left over goes into my household/holiday account.

Around 5k combined after tax.
We live in an expensive area and pay 1.2k mortgage pcm but we don't struggle.
I budget carefully know and am finding it increasingly difficult to get the groceries in under budget.

Do you pay for childcare?

£4k per month income, roughly. 4 kids. £1300 rent.

We are absolutely on our knees.

@mewkins

It's sensible to keep a small low amount of credit, no credit at all also makes your credit score low.

Probably 6-7k combined, no kids.

Not struggling, but still adjusting in order to keep saving at the same rate.

Perhaps they spend on them throughout the month and pay them off in full each month. That’s what we do for the rewards and added protection of using a credit card over a debit card.

How the hell are you claiming to be struggling?

Our mortgage is over £1000 and our income has just dropped to about £600 a month thanks to knock on effects of covid. Yes. It is still having an impact on places.

That's struggling.

Your post is just taking the piss.

In places. Not on places. Typo.

no i did not and just gave general details
i also in no way did i say im struggling
the op asked How much do you earn and are you struggling?

my ex pays £60 a month for his son but he is a self employed trade so go figure

but i will admit that those earning thousands a month and cant manage must have expensive houses etc and i live a simple life but also live on the South coast where things can be expensive in general

We've also got 2 children, 2 cars and own home. DH and I have a combined income of around £2200 a month as we job share as a means of childcare. So lower income but no nursery fees as both dc are under school age. We don't have a mortgage thankfully and we really try to look after the pennies.
Boot sales, charity shops, Freebay, swaps with friends are all good ways to save money on things you need. I rarely buy anything new. Have as few subscriptions as possible, I think that always helps.

It isn’t a race to the bottom.

Do you also have a severely disabled child for which you have extra costs?

With income of only £600 and at least one child you will also be in receipt of UC.