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?

Im the part time person in our relationship.
DH does car related stuff and the big food shop.
I pay the other bills.
If it's a month with an electricity or gas bill, I don't have much to spare. Just enough for bus fares and incidentals. There's always food in the house though so that's OK.
Other months I have perhaps £300 or £400. Enough to buy clothes and shoes if the kids need it and put something aside for holidays and Christmas.

A lot of people find their outgoings increase to match their income. The reverse is also true. As long as your family's basic needs are met you will find cheaper alternatives for the fun stuff.
Like you, my kids also do a lot of out of school activities. But I've looked out free or very cheap options.
Don't underestimate the value of being time rich. You will save money on the kind of "convenience" spending that is tempting to the time poor. For example buying drinks and snacks out and about versus bringing a packed lunch.

£100 doesn’t sound too bad but have you factored in the rising costs of bills/ groceries?

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

No it's not enough. This isn't €500 'left over'. Most of these items are essential so need to be budgeted for.

Your 'left over' amount will be significantly reduced then, unfortunately.

Also, it doesn't sound like things like car repair/replacement, likewise for household goods has been considered so would need to come out of your existing savings, that you can't afford to top up?

So you'd only need a boiler replacement, big car bill or have to replace a car sooner than anticipated and that could be all your savings gone.

Would you be better off if you worked full time, had a big declutter and then bought in help with cleaning and gardening so you didn't have to spend time on these at the weekend? Perhaps also develop a meal plan of quick and easy meals or buy more good quality prepared food?

Maybe split the difference between your earnings for 20 h pw and 40 h pw and earmark half of it for cleaning/gardening and easy food and half of it on family/lifestyle/savings? See what that looks like? This way also has the added advantage of not impacting your pension by working part time.

We are in your scenario so I just had a look at how much is left over after all bills, including all insurances, budget for food and a couple of memberships and kids swimming lessons, but not things like brownies. We've got more than £1000 left to spend or save. I would say we are extremely comfortable now. We have had much less before when we were repaying debts, so based on that I think £500 sounds tight. However depending on ages of dc if it's a case of dropping his for a few years then I absolutely would. I would save like mad for a few months first though so you've got a safety net. Debt is miserable.

I work part time so that I can be around for school pick ups and drop offs as dps job it is impossible to get back from if a child is sick ect between me and dp we earn 34k

Per month we have about £20 that could be a take away or school shoes or needs to be saved for an emergency but this is only because of my amazing MIL
Regularly we are in our overdrafts by the end of the month

My MIL pays for my eldests School dinners as she's in ks2 and dd2 is free in Yr
MIL also pays for the majority of their school uniform and if I was to mention that dd1 needed shoes she would buy them in an instant.
She also pays for their clubs which I wouldn't have signed up for knowing we couldn't afford it.
We pay 20-50 into our pensions respectively

You should be fine but from my own experience I would make sure there was a good savings pot if your able to just incase.

You need to build up your savings as you can at the moment, look to six months. I know many people can’t but you obviously can currently.

The money and working is obviously the actual question but the coffee, cinema etc are they things you actually enjoy? Everyone is different and maybe my love of hiking and board games is your idea of an awful time. But really focus on what you really want to do with any disposable cash.

Does that £500 include the activities? What about things like MOT?
After food and petrol, I think that's ok. I'd put £200 away every month to cover things like dental, uniform and replacing broken items.
That gives you £300 a month for fun.
If you've got young children, you can have fun days out for just the extra petrol money. Now we've got better weather, parks and beaches with things like tennis rackets, balls and frisbees and picnics will be fine.
Save on fun as much as you can by doing mostly free stuff, then that leaves you with money to do something more expensive every now and then.
Sometimes you need to prioritise your mental wellbeing.