To think there should be some form of financial support for single people?

[ButWhyIsTheGinGone]

It's the last week before pay day and yet again I am almost penniless. I am in the early stages of a decent career - I earn 25k at the mo, soon to go up to 27k. Due to deductions (pension, student loan, NI, tax, etc) I only take home £1450/month. Not terrible.

I just can't believe how little my pay stretches. I live in a small one bed house, don't have any expensive hobbies, children or drug habits. Yet most months I seem to have to borrow £30 or so from my mum to get through the last week. I appreciate this so much, but it's kind of shameful at the age of 26 to go cap in hand to your mum...

It seems that people with children get at least some kind of support for their lifestyle choices, and I'm certainly not saying they don't deserve it, but I genuinely think people who live alone get overlooked when it comes to this kind of help.

If I had a partner who lived with me, I could instantly halve rent, CT, utilities... I would be rolling in it! But the fact I choose to be alone means I have to struggle. I am probably BU, but sometimes it feels like so much help is available for parents - I have a friend who works about a third of the hours I do and earns significantly less... but does to her tax credits, child benefit, etc she's better off than me. It's just a bit depressing some times.

I know I obviously don't have the massive expenses that having children incurs.... oh and I hope I'm not offending anyone. Although I don't have or want kids I'm not trying to sound "childfree so I'm superior to you" kind of thing. Just feeling a bit morose.

If you've successfully struggled through my ramblings, thank you!

If I took home 1450/month after deductions, and didn't have kids/husband I wouldn't be bloody complaining.

Have applied for housing benefit although to be honest you have plenty to live on, what do you do with it all?

I used to pay £450 a month and took home £950 on a £16k salary and managed. You have £1k a month for bills and expenses - are you a complete spendthrift? Do you have a designer handbag addiction? Do you have massive debts?

Your answer by the way is YABU. I assumed you lived in london and paid £900 pcm rent as some of my friends have done in the past.

rent - 450
council tax - 80
water - 40
gas/electric - 80
TV license - 15
car insurance - 50
internet - 30
food and fuel - 250

= around £1k. So £450 to save, service debts or spend on fripperies. Sounds lovely.

I think you might not be.
I wondered this when i heard about the new hb and how it only applies to 25 or over for a one bed flat. What the fuckity fuck has being 25 got to do with it ? What is different about being 24 ?
I can understand if you are just out of uni or maybe under 21 it might be more acceptable to flat share but why 25 ? surley its either everone shares or none do ?
Am i being unreasonale also ?
It ca be quite hard to cover all bill etc and rent in a one bed or even a studio is much higher than renting a 2 bed apartment (brand new) where i live !

And peppa where on earth did you live to flat share for £200 a month ?! i paid nearly £300 a month for an utter shit hole last year. Mouldy walls , the lot. Yeuch.

However that said the OP has done very well to find a house to rent for £450 a month. Ive seen studios go for that here. Im in the North of England btw.

Pixie the new HB restriction applies to under 35s - it has gone up from under 25s as it used to be.

I agree with you by the way, when I was in my little flat on £16k I was 24 and very pissed off that I couldn't get a HB top up - which I could have done if I was a year older. By the time I was 25 I was earning £21k and could afford it. £1300pcm was untold riches to me then :)

However the reason they have put this in place is to encourage singles to houseshare and free up shitty studio flats to be rented to families of 5 under the council's private letting scheme. And to cut HB bills. And to line the pockets of BTL landlords, and to encourage people to get married (probably, it is a tory policy after all)

It's not very dignified, but then our entire housing set up in this country is fucked.

I sincerely hope the OP will not be tempted to leave her union to save a few pounds a month.

Oh. so it has Eric. From 2012 i think ? Im 25 next year as well. So much for that.

YABU and you need to have a good look at where your money is going. Your bills or your car expenses must be very high for your fixed monthly expenses to be £550, and your general spending must be very high for you not to be able to manage with £450 per month disposable income.

I am in a relationship with a child but DP pays the mortgage and bills (higher earner than me) and his personal expenses out of his salary and I pay the childcare and all my personal expenses out of my mine. Each of our disposable incomes are less than yours and we manage just fine because we live within our means. My salary varies a little as I am supposed to be part-time now but do extra days quite a lot of the time - if I knew I would always have £450 per month I would be pretty chuffed.

When I was single and first living in London my salary was £15k and my rent was £550. Things were massively tight but I still got by - just about.

You can dicker around the edges of your budget all you like, but really you'll be better off if you can get rid of your car and TV.

A car is a massive money suck.
You obviously have and need internet, you can watch loads of TV shows online these days.
For food and clothes, it won't matter so much if you buy the cheapest if you buy a lot of them -- try to just buy the bare minimum of what you need.

Until not that long ago, I was living in London on about 800 £ a month (that's for everything, rent, bills, food, etc.) It really wasn't that bad. So yes, I think YABU, try to downsize your life a lot for the rest of this year and then ease up a bit next year when you have some debts paid off. It's not forever!

I couldnt get to work without my car....no accesable by public transport. For a good reason.

*not

YABU for saying having children is a lifestyle choice, Its a basic instinct of all living things to procreate , so choosing not to have children for me would be a a lifestyle choice! Incidently our children are the reason you have a job. YABU to feel you are being hard done by in terms of taxes you pay and lack of befits you seem to receive. When I was your age I was in exactly the same position re: finances and never had money by the end of the month despite a frugal lifestyle so I decided to either flatshare or live at home to try to avoid going into debt A few years down the line and a couple of promotions later I was financially much better off and could afford to buy a house , run a car and go on a couple of holidays a year. It's always financially hard at the start of any career but it does get better

youve got a job so stop moaning and feel lucky some people just want more and more .......greed.......it really pisses me off

Feel free to have a moan.
If you do have children though, you will look back and be astonished that you felt hard done by on what I consider a very good salary for a single person.
Anyway do something to cheer yourself up, but make sure it doesn't mean spending a lot of cash :)

Can I recommend excel for setting up a budget. We get very slightly more than you but of course we get ctc too. Our rent is over twice yours though and we do have 4 children. I can understand it may seem tight but I suspect in both cases its living to our means (and in yours slightly over).

Hope you manage to find a way to make the books balance as it should be possible with your figures

YABU, you have a very good salary which is only going to get better. Lots of people live on a lot lot less.

Yes it's not nice not having money to spend on extras, but everyone has had to learn to live within their means. Benefits are for those who really need them not for people to have a bit more spare cash.

Child Benefit is to try and help keep children out of poverty, and from next year only those who need it will get it.

Children are a lifestyle choice. All be it one that feels natural. I would love to have had lots of children and every hormone in my body screamed at me to have more during my early thirties. However I recognised it was a choice I could not make.

We work 70 hours and run a mortagage have 1 child and 1 on the way and between us earn 1500. We get no other help except 80 quid cb and a small moun towards childcare we top up. We get no other help. This is also down South and I dont think if you make that amount of money you should get extra help. I think we earn too much to get help and you earn more as one person than we do for nearly 4.

Your on that high wage as well and your rent is only 450 a month? You must live in a very cheap area to get a house for that

8 years ago I paid 600 to rent a studio flat, 600 saved, 600 all bills, food and literally everything else.

I know prices have gone up in last 8 years but not by that much surely and though you earn less you are not paying as much rent or saving.

I do admit it was a shock to realise the high life I dreamed of post graduation - was that a dream.

Keep track of all spending for few months - literally everything especially cash machine withdrawals, try paying in cash and planning and saving up for stuff that needs getting or replacing - look for money saving tips and try and pick up extra work - tutoring or marking maybe and think about flat shares.

Most benefits for DC are designed to keep DC out of poverty as growing up in poverty has lifelong impacts on health and education prospects - which ultimately cost more.

Well you are living in a one bedroom house. If you flatshared with a friend many of your costs would half. Maybe you just can't afford to live alone? I flat shared before I got married.

But aside I think you are being very unreasonable, because having children is very expensive - as an aside I joke that despite having a good career job, my nanny takes more home money than I do (ie she gets more than half of my salary) with no qualifications. Even if I used a nursery for DS2 and after school childminder for DD and DS1 the costs would be similar.

We get no help due to our lifestyle choices as DH is a higher rate taxpayer - will soon be loosing child benefit too.