to think the amount of money im left with by the end of the month is ridiculous?

[yellowcheesepie]

I recently went back to work after mat leave and am sat here wondering how on earth this is worth it ?! after paying all my bills of food, rent, electricity, water, internet, netflix, phone, commute and childcare etc i'm only left with £200 a month to save? i'm not a big spender either, all my income goes on the mentioned above plus £100 spending allowance for myself.

I'm not trying to rant, but i'd like to understand how other working mums do it? is this a reasonable amount to save per month or is there something very wrong in my finances? I live with my DH and we split all bills / expenses if anyone is wondering

People work in order to house, feed and clothe themselves and their children.

You do that and are able to save a little bit too.

That's good.

oooh yeah, it will free up a whole tenner!

What she said. Fucking hell. I am old enough to remember when you were allowed to have a good standard of living and save for basic things like buying a house or a car. Now we have to be grateful for having anything at all? Threads like these make me despair. In 08 bankers fucked the country, and the media went all out to make sure people turn on each other, fight like rats for scraps and vote Tory, while pretending it’s about empathy for the poor. I have sweet fuck all at the end of the month and it’s shit, but £200 is not much either.

I agree completely. People chastising her for flaunting her £200. Gimme a break.

No, OP, YANBU, it can be very dispiriting to work full time and not be left with a whole lot once all the basics are covered.

“No, OP, YANBU, it can be very dispiriting to work full time and not be left with a whole lot once all the basics are covered.”

Childcare isn’t the basics though.
It’s a relatively short term cost dependent on a lifestyle choice.
I mean, it’s still huge and it sucks to take up so much income! But it’s not basics.

Childcare isn’t the basics though.

Disagree.

Childcare isn’t the basics though. It’s a relatively short term cost dependent on a lifestyle choice. I mean, it’s still huge and it sucks to take up so much income! But it’s not basics.

What a silly comment, of course it is. Childcare comes at a cost for most families one way or another unless you have genuinely free childcare like a grandparent. For most people, you're either paying for outsourced care, or you're taking a drop in income reducing your workable hours to do the NECESSARY task of looking after the child- either "lifestyle choice" you makes comes at a cost.

This.

When I was a single girl in my 20s that was more than I had, even relatively speaking spare I mean seriously ?

Exactly this is why most people budget and plan and save to have children It can’t have come as a surprise surely that you have to swap the jimmy choo’s for a nursery ?

How much are your childcare costs??

This was me teaching part time and DC’s in nursery part time, sometimes. By the time is paid all cost including fuel I had £30.00 per week left.

Long term though, it maintained my permanent contract, upped my contract to full time again once the DC’s we're a little older and means I've never been out of work.

No surprise OP hasn’t come back. The helpful and non-judgemental comments on here will make her day I'm sure. FFS

Yes it’s hard financially when you’ve got little ones & you’re paying £££‘s out for childcare each month. It can feel like a bark. But as @woff45 said, when you’re in this stage of life you must try & look at the long game. Staying in work helps you build up your professional identity & pay into a pension. You’re managing to keep your head above water & your hard work will pay off. Make sure you treat yourself at this stage of mummy hood with some of your disposable income. It is hard work. But it won’t last for too long

It is crap. Parents are royally screwed with childcare payments. I don't think anyway wants to "race to poverty"; I certainly don't and am much better off these days than I was during 18 years of paying for childcare!!

I don't remember being able to save for anything. We bought our first house with a 100% mortgage. We put the deposit on the site with money we'd got when we were married. The profit on that first house got us into our current home - back in the days when there was no such thing as turnkey and you had to wait to do whatever you could when you could.

As for cars, they were always on the 'never never'.

None of this is new. We nearly bought a flat in London at one point and thank god we didn't because it was not long after that when mortgage rates went up to 15%!

The mere idea of easing the tax burden for the better off is so reprehensible, I can't believe the Tories ever had the gall to suggest it - at a time when people with less means are having to choose between heating and eating and worse!! Plus.... where is this Brexit bounce we were supposed to be benefitting from?!

Childcare is a basic @Testina! Unless for those fortunate enough to benefit from free childcare provided by family. Neither is it a short-term cost either. We had 18 years of it. You could say a mortgage is a lifestyle cost too!!

One of my friends worked out that every month she had left over
96p

£200 extra a month is a lot to some people

Be happy you are actually left with some money

Very strange.

Every month every penny is assigned somewhere so to a holiday fund and Xmas as well as savings etc.

For myself if I get £20 I'm lucky.

And when are childcare costs not a basic? 🙄

YANBU, it's shit. Literally just working to survive, £200 to spend on yourself is better than most, but it's still shit.

I don’t think £200 is much to have left over really, we’d spend that on a nice meal out! Doesn’t give you much wiggle room for Christmas, unexpected bills etc.

Once you get the funded hours OP it should get easier, now we get the 30hrs funding I have about £1250 left after all bills and outgoings are accounted for.

OP, when I go back to work I won't have any money spare as I'm purely going back to pay my side of the bills. It is shit but 200 is good in my opinion.

You are considerably better off than I was when my child was young. Crikey! Money for yourself AND saving. Wow!

And I wasn't even paying childcare costs. This was when my child was at school.

We can't really save at the moment but I've never been out of work and by the time my child doesn't need wrap around care anymore, in about 3 years, we'll be able to save a lot. You have to play the long game. I've received my raises and I'm on quite a high salary band now. Staying in work is common sense. Who else is going to pay for you?

That's pretty good going, £200 a month to save is pretty decent straight out of maternity leave. But to answer your question as to what other working mums do, you just live on less until the kids are in school and you're paying less for childcare. I didn't have anything to save when we were paying nursery fees.