To wonder if it’s normal to have nothing left after twelve days into the month

[Daisy9010]

This is the position I find myself in every month.

It drives me mad.

Is anyone the same?

Make sure you are shopping at the discount food stores i.e. Aldi/Lidl.

How much is your rent at the weekend? Can't you use an airbnb instead? Or a room in a house. Lots of people like to rent out for a couple of days

I don’t rent at the weekend. It’s possible but I wouldn’t save much. Plus, Im unable to use laundry facilities during the week, so I’d need to use a laundrette and that and an air bnb would cancel out any savings I made in travel costs.

Running 2 homes is crazy if it's causing financial problems. If it's jointly owned and needs money spent on it, the cost of what needs doing should be split between the 2 of you.

The savings made by investing the £2.5k and either selling it and buying near work or renting it out and using the income to rent near work would soon be recouped.

Alternatively, if you could get a job nearer home, even if it was a bit less money, you might still be better off overall.

That’s what I’m trying to do. But in any event we don’t have the money to sort the other place out and even if we did, I’d need somewhere to stay at weekends.

We've got 2 bank current accounts, one for all direct debit/standing order bills and 1 for everyday living.

When we get paid (into the everyday account) we transfer our month's worth of bills money into the bills account and divide what's left by 4. 1/4th is withdrawn in cash every Saturday and needs to last the week and covers all week by week stuff (food shop, petrol etc) that way we're never rolling in it but we've got money to last all month and if we do spend too much its max 5/6 days to the next withdrawal.

Don't think we'd manage to make the same pot of money last for 4 weeks if it was all available in one go on the 1st of the month.

I am not surprised you have nothing left! Monday to Friday lets aren't that economical- you would be able to rent full time in a shared house or flat for the same price as your room, if you look slightly further out and you then would not have the travel costs of going back home. I would offer the other owner to buy you out or say that you want to put it on the market and sell because you cannot afford to keep it. As an alternative, could you ask the co-owner to part-fund the work that needs doing in order to rent it out? Gas and electric is a couple of hundred. Unless you have a giant hole in the wall or something, you should be able to find tenants even if it's not high-spec. Where in the country is it?

Presumably if you sell the flat (and can persuade the other owner to do so) you’d have some equity to put towards a deposit. You don’t have to live in central London because you work there, you could look at help to buy properties in zone 3/4 or on the outskirts of London or shared ownership and get a lodger. You could do help to buy on your salary with probably a £40k-ish deposit if you’d get that from the flat sale.

Can you commute instead of living away Monday-Friday? Does your work do a season ticket loan? Otherwise you need to get a job closer to where you live

Make sure you are shopping at the discount food stores i.e. Aldi/Lidl.

^I tried this for a few weeks and can honestly say my shopping bill was not any cheaper than when I shopped at Sainsburys and Morrisons

That's a system I often recommend to clients who have trouble budgetting, Droning. I usually recommend doing it the other way round though, have all the money paid into the "bills" account, work out how much is left to spend per week and transfer it to the "everyday" account.

It can be really hard, especially for people who are on various benefits that are all paid at different intervals, none of which are monthly. You can have a week where you get a lot coming in, then a week when you have nothing but child benefit.

One of my clients found that doing that, and putting the money left from the "everyday" account into a savings account at the end of the month, actually enabled her to save quite a bit. She's using it to learn to drive, so that her employment prospects will be better.

I understand OP. I'm a single parent and on payday was still in my overdraft

How far from London is the place you own?

How far out of london is your flat?

Okay, so I should sleep in my car for the weekend? confused

No, but maybe you have friends in London you could stay with for a few weekends etc.

work elsewhere one evening, get weekly paid for that job.

Always, always run out before the end of the month!
I’m keeping a spending diary which is great as I can keep track of where I am going wrong. Each month I can make a small change and see how much it helps.

How about a Monday-Friday lodger in your flat? If this suits the area.

The thing is this

SOMETHING has to change otherwise NOTHING will.

If nothing changes, and you're not running up debt, then that is a choice you have chosen to make. You have chosen this lifestyle so you have to get on with being poor.

Your situation is not normal. I think most people would look for different solutions. People are asking the sensible questions that I would expect you to be asking If you genuinely wanted change.

But you dont.

You want people to tell you that life sucks and it's normal.

It's really not.

Most people wouldn't even consider running two homes unless they had the income to afford it. Without answering the questions nobody can offer up clever solutions.

Take a bit a of breath and work out what you want.

You're in the situation you're in because you're running two homes. Surely if you stopped renting Mon-Fri and just paid travel costs, you'd be better off automatically?

I sympathise..I'm in the same boat.
I earn a lot a month but have outgoing for pretty much what I earn earning I have hardly any spare cash. Can't cut back on any of it, it's quite depressing.

Can you give up the Mon-Fri place and accept a long commute ? - regard it as a 2nd job
or would a season ticket be more ?

Currently, you're far under-utilising the place you own

You could air bnb your flat. That way, according to something I read recently anyway, you don't need to do the same checks as you do if you have someone staying permanently. I would advise you check that yourself though.

Alternatively you could seek your half to the other owner.

Or you could force the sale of the flat via the court.

You could look for somewhere to rent in London that is affordable 7 days a week and has a washing machine, and cut down on your travel costs.

You have options. I get that you don't like them, but you say there is nothing you can do - but there are options you have.

Airbnb your London flat Mon - Fri?

Sell you half..