Aibu to ask how anyone has money left?

[sprinklecupcakes]

How on earth does anyone have any money left at the end of the month. I have totalled up all the bills we need to pay and they total more than the income. I just don't understand?! How can you work full time and still be left with not enough 😭please give me tips on reducing costs and making money last. I have gone to bed crying I cannot live like this. I got paid today and once I pay everything tomorrow I will have £3..😭

And couldn’t your partner change from 4 nights on 4 nights off to 4 nights on 2/3 nights off. Again just as a short term measure for maybe a year or so until things get easier and when all ur excessive phone contracts expire he could go back to 4 on 4 off…

Are you sure that the redundancy was legal. I would take some legal advice on that, it seems very convenient to make the pregnant woman redundant.

This might help:

[https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/redundancy-during-pregnancy-and-maternity-leave/]

@FrappuccinoLight I'm guessing not as that is a set shift pattern...there will be someone already covering the opposite shift already.

I hate how it's the working poor that seem to be worst off in society.

Definitely look into your entitlement to SMP/MA.

Good luck.

You should be eligible for maternity allowance so I would sort that out immediately as it can sometimes take a while to get your first payment. You need to send I think 3 months worth of payslips and I needed my employer to sign something so you’ll need to print off the forms for them to sign.
Next I’d apply for universally credit as I think you should be eligible for that too.
I’d forger about getting a job for the time being you’ve just had a baby! Would look at getting one in the future though once your all settled as obviously that will help massively.

Good luck

@Adelais

You should be eligible for maternity allowance so I would sort that out immediately as it can sometimes take a while to get your first payment. You need to send I think 3 months worth of payslips and I needed my employer to sign something so you’ll need to print off the forms for them to sign. Next I’d apply for universally credit as I think you should be eligible for that too. I’d forger about getting a job for the time being you’ve just had a baby! Would look at getting one in the future though once your all settled as obviously that will help massively.

Good luck

Maternity allowance would be deducted pound for pound from Universal credit so op would not get both. She would need a calculation to see which works out best for her. She can claim them both but they are overlapping benefits.

Op it is because you are living on one wage for two and a baby. If you can try to survive a few months until you can get may be work from home. This way you will be home with your child. Even now may be getting some hours working from home it could help. Every bit helps. Look for the blog making sense of cents. They have some people who paid back debt and work as self employed and doing well.

Nothing to add except it shocks me people pay this much for their phones, can you not go sim only yet?

Yikes OP, I think the big mistake you made - and which people get into a mess over all the time - is having debts but still buying expensive/impressive items on contract/hire purchase/the never never. Please in future always, always pay off your debts as your first priority and get the cheapest of everything else until that is done.

Can you sell the phones as they are quite new and then use the money to buy yourselves out of the contracts? That's what I would do as you are basically paying off the cost of a ridiculously expensive phone that will probably be playing up due to planned obsolescence by the time you've actually paid it off anyway.

Why would you take on home contracts in the middle of a pandemic though?

We're 2 adults and 2 teenagers.

Broadband is £22/month with PlusNet and mobiles are bought outright on ebay (usually paying £100-£200 a phone which lasts 2 to 3 years) and each has a £6/month sim from PlusNet with unlimited minutes and texts and 6GB data. Streaming TV is free services plus Now TV cinema and entertainment (1 month contracts) with deals for going on the site and saying 'this costs too much'

Those phone costs are eye watering! I have an iPhone 11 and it’s £26 a month with unlimited calls and texts.

You can't work from home and look after a baby! Not unless you are massively taking the piss.

My broadband with bt is £20 a month (I think it’s £18-something but I have it budgeted at £20) and my phone is on giffgaff at£10 a month it’s an iPhone 6 and perfectly adequate. I do not understand paying as much as you are for phones and broadband.

Definitely claim maternity allowance

And look at other benefits, I'm sure you will get UC with your partner earning a lower wage.

You should have got / be getting:

Redundancy pay and remaining holiday pay from your job

Maternity allowance

Child benefit

Poss universal credit

Tax credits

Also look into carer's allowance and DLA depending on your child's extra needs

Call up BT and ask to switch to Home Essentials once you have UC sorted

www.bt.com/exp/broadband/home-essentials

Actually I think you should get statutory maternity PAY from your employer, as you still worked there at 27 weeks? Read this:

maternityaction.org.uk/advice/redundancy-during-pregnancy-and-maternity-leave/

Haven't read all the replies so apologies if I'm repeating. Should the IVA repayments not be flexible based on income and expenditure? I'm in Scotland so may be different but our equivalent the repayments can change based on what you're actually able to repay. If you are spending more than you're earning that repayment isn't sustainable

@thecatsthecats

In the future, when you're financially secure again, please think about how you define "afford".

Firstly, you can't NOT afford a savings buffer. So you service that every month.

Then, you change your definition of "afford" not to mean "I can manage the monthly payments" to "I can pay for this outright".

Unless it's a monthly service, or an essential like a mortgage, do NOT fall into the trap of thinking you can afford expensive trash like iPhones because you can afford the monthly amount. You have a seven week old baby and you are fretting about massive, massive phone and Internet bill.

And yes, what you can afford when you only pay for what you can buy outright is not as flash. I bought a reconditioned phone two years ago for the cost of two months of one phone of your current contract, plus a monthly Giff Gaff sim.

I second this.

If you can't afford the full amount, you can't afford it.

Different for a house- no one can afford a house outright. But literally everything else, if you can't afford to pay for it IN CASH then you can't afford it.

@FleetwoodRaincoat

Check out the "earn £10 a day " thread in here. Doing online surveys and testing earns me about 50 a month, and I don't do much. It might help in the short term.

Can you link to this thread please?

Not much they can do now @Wigglefish123 - can’t exactly send the baby back.

If he is paying off his debts, not accruing further debt, living within their means AND following the advice on this thread, then they deserve support.

If they don’t bother, get into more debt & even potentially bring another child into the situation in a couple of years (like I regularly see on here or SM) then your comments are valid.

Wait are you not splitting bills/combining income? You’ve just had a baby you need to pool all money. If you say he’s awful with money then maybe that’s where all his income is going? On things he doesn’t need to spend on?

Can you link to this thread please?

Last I looked at it, it was spending hours online doing surveys.

I once got 50 quid from surveys but it took forever.