To ask this about your finances?

[CPHB2021]

I am ONLY asking people with one parent working PART TIME. How much disposable do you have a month, after bills, food, fuel? I'm considering going PT until our daughter starts school ( 2024 ) as it's just unbelievably stressful trying to work/juggle childcare/the house etc. but our disposable income will over half, around £500 left per month 😩 I just can't imagine only having this to spend. Essentially, £100 per weekend. Is this just realistic for this time in our lives?

Oh and of course I understand that we are lucky to have disposable in the current economic state but it's a huge jump from what we are used to and we don't love particularly lavish lives at present.

I don't fit your required respondents, however that is what I have a month left over after fixed outgoings. Shan't lie, it's very tight and if I have a crisis or something expensive comes up, it can be impossible. As a single parent I have no choice but to juggle it all, but I certainly wouldn't put myself in that position willingly.

Does the outgoing include savings or do you have some. Like if your boiler broke or something.

or will savings becoming out of the £500?

Good Grief. Yes, there are people who are going without meals to feed their kids and you want to know if £500 'fun money' a month is enough. Seriously?

you're living your life. You know what things cost. You just need to decide if the sacrifices spending wise are worth the gains.

do you want to go part time or coukd you outsource the housework & pay for less stressful childcare options? A flexible nanny instead of childcare where you have to drop/collect.

£500 money to just spend on what you like? Yes of course that’s enough.

Thank you! It just doesn't seem enough to keep up with our children's current lifestyles ( both do weekend clubs, we usually do a soft play or day out every weekend ) but equally, it's killing me juggling all the balls 😩

Depends where your priorities lie! We have plenty enough left over each month by our standards (1fte and 0.4fte) but overpay the mortgage with it, so effectively we end up with hardly any fun money. But we are naturally quite frugal, anyway so it isn't a bother.

We do splash out on things and at times that are important to us, which will be different for every person, but not £100 every weekend.

What's a comfortable excess for one might be a squeeze for another.

Is this for real?

It isn't on 'what we like'. Almost 0% of it will be spent on us. We have 2DC who have clubs and things they are used to doing at the weekends. £100 a weekend doesn't really get you very far, especially now everything has risen in price. I'm wondering whether the compromise of less hours will actually leave me more stressed. Xx

Is this for real?

Was wondering the same thing!

We currently have about 1 months salary in savings, we put money into savings per month now but could no longer afford to if I go PT.

What does the £500 cover?

It's only my partner working at the moment and we have £700 p/m spending money but this includes the food shop for myself, my partner and our toddler

It's not a lot when you break it down weekly with the cost of food increasing but it is doable and I'd rather have the time with my LB than waste it on food every week

We still go to a few baby groups a week, have a takeaway and go out for lunch so I don't think it's too bad really

If the £500 doesn't include food that's more than enough IMO

It's a very normal budget, probably much more than many other people.

What has to come out of this £500? Clothes? Activities? Days out? Holidays? Petrol? Shoes? Uniform? Hair cuts? Birthday presents? Christmas? It all depends on what you class disposable income as.

All of the above.

Food has a separate budget but this would be for clothes, days out, hair cuts, dental treatment, school shoes/uniform, birthdays and Christmas presents.

I work 26 hours, DH FT.

it varies as we’re currently paying off a car.

Without those payments we’d have something like £1400 a month after bills and food.

currently it’s more like £750 but some months it’s £500.

It is a good position of course but all it takes is kids needing new shoes/clothes etc for it to feel tight.

But it’s broadly fine and we’re extremely fortunate and not struggling.

Personally I think it's too tight .

Doesn't sound like much imo. Would you be able to afford the dentist for yourself or your DC for example ? Even if it's just a one off check up appointment every 6 months or so ? A check up alone can be upwards of £60 and that's not including any work (I.e a filling) needed. Assuming you can't get an NHS appointment for example as lists are full all over the country. It won't buy you a family trip out either. Tickets for a family day out can be at least £20, if you multiply that by 3x people that's £60 just on tickets. What about needing an MOT for the car or new tires ? Two new tires is £200... these are just examples but would all of this have to come out of the £500 left for the month ? It seems like a big stretch.

Yes. Plenty. I only get £500 a month to cover everything and have zero disposable income.

I suggest you save as much of that as you can.

Then if I’m honest, for me that would nowhere near be enough. It all depends on your lifestyle and what you want it to be though. I aim to have around £500 for fun money pm but it includes clothes for the dc (not us), days out, meals out, takeaways, activities and random bits. It sounds like a lot but we don’t live extravagantly and we spend it all each month. We have separate money for holidays, birthdays, Christmas, uniform, shoes etc. If we had to pay for those out of the £500, there would be no money left for activities or days out. Going part time would be no fun if you couldn’t actually do much with the dc, which is the main reason for wanting to actually be part time.

Maybe keep the clubs but stop the soft play/day out every weekend? Depending on your situation, I always found kids don't need days out every weekend. Play in the garden, walk to the park, movie afternoon, craft stuff at home, play date with friends are all fun, often more relaxing and much less expensive than proper days out.

It wouldn’t be enough for me, especially if you've only got one months savings. I would stay full time until you r got at least 3 months saved up.

I work part time and we have around £800 each, after basic savings and not including petrol. We have around a years joint income in savings. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable going part time if we had much less.

I work 22 hours a week DH is FT. Depending on if DH works overtime we have between £400 and £1000 disposable income. Whilst it’s not easy on the lower months I see it as a temporary issue until the kids get older and it’s enough for us to get by now.

You need to budget how much you need for clothes, haircuts, birthday and xmas savings and classify that in bill money.