To ask if you can live on £500 a month?

[calliiee]

No housing costs but council tax, electricity and gas and insurance, phone, Internet and groceries. Is it doable?

Where are you? That can also have an impact. If you in a place that has easy transport connections and you don't need to drive that's a huge cost cut.

My gas and electricity is only £46 per month for 2 of us.

You could eat at a push for £100 per month. Is baby breastfed? Would you be entitled to the healthy start vouchers? (not sure exactly what they are called).

You could live without home broadband if you had a large data sim only phone contract and a smart phone.

I'd have to sell my car, I don't think I could afford the insurance and running costs.

After rent and bills I had £200 this month. Worked out a doable plan but this has been thrown by scraping someone's car this morning in a car park

How is your gas & electric £46 per month? I honestly don't know how it can be so cheap?

If the alternative is staying in a bad relationship, then yes, it's doable. Preferable even.

If you are a pensioner on a basic pension that would be your lot.

It massively depends. I did £600 easily for five years.

No sky/Internet/New clothes for me/landline/haircuts etc

If you left, how would you make it so that you had no housing costs? Would your current partner rent you somewhere?

Mine is similar Nancy, maybe £15 more. Relatively large 2 bed. Is that not normal?

I'm in Scotland too!

Long story manic

Nancy we live in a 2 bedroom flat, heating is on for 2hours per day. Only wash two loads per week as there is only 2 of us. We both shower daily, use the dishwasher on average 5x per week.

Lights are all energy efficient, turn them off when we leave a room. Tvs, laptops etc turned off at the wall when not in use.

By I'm in Scotland, I mean it's certainly not warm here. So heating is used in every month other than June.

it's only doable short term.. you can manage the regular expenses on that much, but it falls apart long term because of irregular/unexpected expenses, things like dental work that's not covered by NHS, broken essentials, travel to an important funeral.. £500 a month doesn't allow for any rainy day funds and rainy days happen

Me and dp live in a 2 bed flat. Taking out rent, our bills are £250 a month (minus water as it's included in rent), that includes a fortnightly veg box too. I have about another £60-95 per month for my bills (such as mobile phone, charities etc). It's doable, I lived on that amount for a while but back to ft wage now - you end up just living within your means. It wasn't great but I was very happy as had time to devote to other things, couldn't have done it long term though.

Am worried about being very lonely to be honest.

Have you posted before? If you are who I think, I'm glad that you are seriously considering leaving and I'm sure that you will be happier in the future even if you have a tough few years financially. If you haven't posted before, the same thoughts apply and I'm sure you can make your life better!

no

It depends what you are leaving? If it's abuse, a lean few years will be worth it. Where will the £558 come from and who will pay your housing costs.

If you need to leave an abusive relationship I am very happy for the state/society to cushion you and wish it would. xx

Sorry Calliee I posted before reading your other posts.
Is £500 your income? Have you researched if you would be able to claim anything else as a lone parent?
Short term you could probably just about do it and TBH if the alternative is a bad relationship then i'ts always worth it.

I really can't get into the specifics because it's quite identifying but that's what I'd be entitled to. Possibly CT benefit didn't think of that. Still tight. And lonely. He's not abusive not very nice sometimes but not abusive.

Viques , not comparable a pension on basic income would have a minimum income guarantee of £674
Gas/electric £80 ( after fuel payment)
Water £30
Tv free
Food £120
Travel free
Phone £15
Total £245
Leaves £429 for everything else not a whole lot lest thenthe op total income for herself and her child.

Yes, you can do it, caliiee.
Have a look on moneysavingexpert.com for cheapest phone, internet , energy deals. If you need any more help you can post a statement of affairs and people will go through it penny by penny.
I've often lived on very small amounts and for some reason I don't find it grim at all. You do have to be organised and resourceful, and I enjoy that.
And liletsthepink is right. Better to be safe and free than in a bad relationship. Good luck

I don't know. Just have to see.

Things are tight here, not that tight and my child is nearly 4 and what I am finding is that you can go so long on what you already own but 4 years of watching my pennies means things like my underwear is hideous, I have ill fitting underwear and my jeans having given up the ghost which (and I appreciate that it's trivial and people are in far worse situations like can't afford to eat) but it's those things that generally make life feel a bit rubbish.

So as others have said short term probably yes but long term it would hurt
Xx

It sounds as though it would be manageable for you although little left over for treats/luxuries. As pp has said it's preferable to being in a bad relationship! You can get by if you budget carefully and do remember that it won't be forever - your baby will get older so less reliant, you would hopefully be in a position down the line to increase your earning capacity.

Re being lonely be sure to join groups if possible, even just a bit of chit chat with others will help. Do you have family or friends who would be supportive?