To not understand how other people manage whilst renting?

[mrscostello000]

We have rented for years, never could save enough whilst renting for any form of deposit.
Have had to move 9 times in the 11 years of renting due to rent going up / landlord selling / re letting to friends and family which is hard enough but how do people afford this crazy private rent??
In Surrey where we are, we are paying £1150 for a 2 bedroomed house ( 2 children so share a room and will be for foreseeable future which is not ideal as 1 boy / 1 girl and eldest is approaching 5 )
My husband earns £2300 a month so too much to claim anything and I'm a stay at home parent caring for my baby and pre schooler. How do people do it when bills / food takes up a good £800 a month which leaves us about with £400 a month for everything including petrol for the pre school run 2 miles each way 5 times a week so a good £200 a month goes in the car to get us around and we are then left with hardly anything.
Is everyone in the same boat or am I missing something?

You seem to spend a lot on 'activities' cam you not take little one home and bake cakes? Or the park? Or mother and baby groups? Soft play and cinema are costly luxuries. One offs or once every few weeks - but 5 daY's a week will swiftly add up. Pre school if paid for - is it necessary full time If you're not working?

That rent is shocking! I know it's expensive where you live but is there anything cheaper you can move to?
I live in a 2up 2down terrace and it costs £445 pcm. I have to rent because i don't earn enough to get a mortgage. You could get a 4 bed detached round here for the amount you pay in rent.

Rents are high because people are willing to pay that much. I really don't get the attitude of "I can't afford that much so it must be too high"... someone can afford it otherwise it wouldn't be so high.

If you are moving so often, try asking for a longer contract. Our rental is on a 30month contract with RPI increase, most landlords would prefer the security of a longer let.

I'd love to buy... but I don't expect to be gifted a house. It may take 10 years before we can afford a deposit, but in the meantime I don't see what I lose by renting.

For us in southwest London to get our mortgage on the same property we rent for lower than the rent we would need a 100,000 deposit, and that's before the lost return on the 100,000 is added (not much of course) or the costs of insurance (not that much either really) nor any repairs that would now need to be included (probably quite a lot on the current property, but not necessarily so on others) It's a perfectly average private rental 3bed property.

With less of a deposit there would as well as being higher repayments in simple terms, there would also be higher interest rates and higher repayments. So I can certainly believe there's other people even more extreme in terms of renting costs vs buying.

You still really haven't explained how you spend 350quid a month on the car, or why you need it, especially as you also seem to be spending another few hundred on train travel? You should be able to save a lot of money here really quite easily if these numbers are real.

Hmm... now it has been brought up by some one else....

2300 per month just happens to be almost exactly the median wage....

I smell a smelly political researcher .........

Could you do some work? Babysitting, ironing which you can do In Your own home, weekend job in a pub or shop. If you could bring in £50 per week it would make a difference. I do think relocating is worth considering. When both kids are at school you will be able to earn more.
Good luck

Bit different for us £800 on rent for a 4 bed but we have £240 a month on LPG and electric, £40 for phones, £60 a week for food, £40 a month for school lunch, £400 a month for the car which we pay of this year and £240 on council tax.

4 kids aged 8, 6, 4 and 2 no childcare options here so I don't work and dh is oil and gas so if it's a low month we earn £1500 and a high month and if we are very lucky we might get £3000.

I sympathise it sucks, we are only ever just about ok and will never have enough for a deposit.

For me it's council tax its crappy, half of our street lighting is broken, the sinks are blocked on the sides of the road, the grit boxes are broken, we are waiting for sen at school they're over subscribed, we have a shortage of hvs and physios, the storm damage from the winter hasn't been fixed we still have trees down and damage to the road and to top it off its an hour and 45 minutes in an ambulance to get to a hospital so why am I paying so much crappy council tax!

That's a high rent a 3 bed here is between £650 and £750.

I probably haven't rtft properly,but is there any reason why you couldn't take your dh off the car insurance completely?
Could you go out and do a bit of work when dh is home?(shelf stacking/barwork/cleaning)

I think pp who say pre school isn't necessary are right if you look at it coldly -but in reality it can leave children at a disadvantage to not go to pre school especially if it's the one future schoolmates are attending.

Could you see if there is a school bus that goes near you,for when he starts school? Sometimes you can pay for spare seats.

I would definitely put your income into the housing benefit calculator on your local councils website. You definitely won't get all the rent paid, but if it's an 'average' rent in that area you should get a fair amount of it in housing benefit..nothing ventured etc...let us know how you get on.

There are two bedroom properties for rent in Surrey for under £900 on Rightmove, and some are under £800.

So I suppose I would move. That's a lot of rent you're paying.

And like lots of people I know, I don't run a car. I can currently manage this because I deliberately live within walking or cycling distance of the places we need to be. Grim on rainy days, of course... but it kind of works.

Hi again, oh believe me already tried. The housing allowance for 2 beds around here is £950 a month ( would love to know where these are as have never seen one for less than £1100 and that was a short term let ) so that's what they work our allowance on, not actual rent so because of that we are entitled to nothing.
£350 a month on the car is £150 a month to have us both on the insurance, he needs to be on it as particulary Saturdays he used the car for word he runs the business so has to do training and spot checks and things that aren't always accessible by train otherwise 100% I would have taken him off.
My son goes to pre school 3 times a week not 5 and this is costing about £80 a month in petrol but as I said that's also usually taking my daughter to parks / soft play centres so that's where it's adding up a bit. On his 2 days off we go to parks, bake like another poster said and go to children's centres groups or groups run in church halls for a couple of pound.
The extra £120 petrol I've accounted for is for when my husband takes the car to work and also for the once a month to the seaside to see his parents or the odd days I take them both somehere further afield or to visit my mother if she's at my sisters that weekend instead of her London home as my sister is nowhere near transport.
Unfortunately the house is measured in a straight line which is 2.7 miles so under the 3 mile rule.
I could have returned to work, if I wanted the kids in a day nursery 5 days a week as they refused me part time hours, of which over half would be used to pay the nursery so I opted not to.

I thought it was a 2 mile rule for younger children.

You would have been better off taking the ft work option despite losing so much to childcare.
When I went back to work we paid more than I earned in childcare (complicated situation....)

Don't think I'm not sympathetic,op.I am.
Sooner rent caps come back,the better.
Just trying to suggest practical solutions.

You can't moan about being left with hardly anything when giving up a salary that easily covered childcare costs and using the one wage to fund a lot of luxuries.

The car insurance at £150 a month alone is daft, a 1 litre car would be so much cheaper and just as good.

ok, if your youngest is at pre-school as well, then you are now at the entitled to 15 hours free stage, can you start lookign for work? most day nurseries will let you claim the hours there, so you can massively reduce the childcare costs compared to looking straight after Mat Leave. I'm holding out for DC2 to be entitled to 15 hours because at that point, most the jobs I could do will start showing a profit, while at the moment it would be a loss once I factor in wrap around for DC1 and train fair. (then hold out another year and feel rich when DC2 goes to school and I "only" have to pay wrap around! This is of course all based on the assumption I can get a job...)

With 2 of you working, even if it's not much of a profit now, it'll help bump up the luxuries budget, or you could just straight out save your post childcare wage if you don't need it for bills now.

Firstly, it is unreasonable that rent should behalf your income. However, can I point out that being a single mum doesn't actually give you a higher priority with the council. Nor does being unemployed. Being homeless does, that's all.
I walked ds to school 4 miles at 4 yrs. It took 40 mins there, 1 hour back (uphill). It wasn't easy though, especially in snow and ice.

We didn't use a car for the first few years - got dd a good scooter once she was too big for a buggy. I worked evenings/weekends in a care home.

I think the baby/toddler stage is the hardest financially. It was the not being able to work much, without losing the wages to childcare, that really hit us. Gradually it's got easier.

I'd say it sounds unfortunately normal to me. I'd think about moving - I'd think about cycling (great fun with small kids - invest in a cargo bike for school runs etc, save money overall on car) - I'd expect to be visited, not go visiting lots of people - meal plan, advance shop online etc. you're managing on just one income and you're managing, so don't berate yourself you're doing well although it seems everything you get vanishes immediately, it will get better - stick with it and make little adjustments here and there.

Probably not that helpful but... A friend of mine (living in Dorset) has a partner that is also a scaffolder. All week he stays in London to save on commuting.
Any chance in your situation?

Why are you spending £100 a month on train tickets when you're hard up? Look into railcards and advance tickets.

I'm currently pregnant. Plan is that I will be a SAHM. i am currently unemployed. We also live in Surrey, pay £1,200 p/m for a 2 bed flat. DP earns £2,400 plus we'll have £80 child benefit in the future. Rent is actually cheaper than what a monthly repayment mortgage would be for a similar flat as it is worth £380-400k so we will rent for the timebeing (plus lik you, saving for a deposit for a property of that price is almost impossible).

Your 'spare' income is roughly what we will have, give or take (we also have a £100 a month loan to service). My plan is to be much more frugal with food shopping. It is certainly something we spend far too much on and we waste too much food.

In general I buy a lot of clothing second hand (charity shops/ebay) or via supermarkets/primark. I sell a lot on Ebay too. I stock up on items we regulalry use when on offer (for example, we like Thai curry and currently have 12 tins of coconut milk in the cupboard as they were on offer for 30p a tin). I bulk buy toiletries and cat food when on offer. I actually use the gift sets people buy me at xmas! Little things like these do free up cash.

I also can't drive so it is only my DP's commute which is sucking up petrol. I walk a lot but agree a 2 mile walk may be a bit much for you with your childrens ages.

Only half of your earnings would have gone on nursery fees!!

Wtf! So many women would have given their right arm to have been in such a fortunate position. You could have gone back to work and had a fair whack of money left over!

What a bad decision.

You've made a lifestyle choice.

Sympathy lost I'm afraid.

Why does it take you so long to walk that journey, is there a reason?

If you are funding cinema, soft play trips etc, plus your phones and that amount of money on running a car, on one wage - you can't expect to be rolling in it! If you returned to work, half your wage would be spent on childcare (although see this as a household expense rather than just yours), but you would still have half an additional wage for disposable income?

I agree rents in a lot of places are ridiculous, but you have plenty of room to cut your budget, you are just choosing not to. If there are no health problems, there is no reason why the walk to pre school isn't doable, it's not even every day!

I had this exact conversation with my friend today as we are in the same situation

But then I read your thread and I think you need to consider an area move. We pay 850 for a huge four bed in a beautiful market town.

We've sold up and moved into temporary rented accommodation. The lady who ran the removal company said it's easier to buy a house than find rented accommodation these days. Decent rentable houses are very hard to find.

Our rent is £1,500 pcm for a 3.5 house in a crap end of Cambridgeshire - the bathroom and kitchen date from 1972, there is no insulation so the house is f freezing, there is never enough hot water as the water tanks are uninsulated in the uninsulated loft so the hot water cools down as soon as you stop heating it, the letting agent is a patronising evil cow who talks down to me - even though both DH and myself are senior managers.... and she deliberately won't remimburse me the cost of the emergency locksmith who had to come out and fix and exterior door which had fallen off its hinges even though there have been 2 burglaries two doors down from us.... The house is full of that black toxic mould which causes breathing problems, the list goes on.

I do sympathise with you OP, everything is so expensive and it's fine for people to say "cut back on this" which is no help at all when you've stripped down the budget. I don't know what else to say, really....