Cost of living. I'm having a meltdown tonight.

[TwentyTwenty20]

I put my heating on for an hour or so this morning because I forgot to dry my son's school uniform, and my landlord won't let me install a tumble dryer. It cost me an extra £2. I didn't put my heating on until January last year. We lived under the duvet until then. I got my son changed under the covers. I used to just get in the bath and stay there in the evening to keep warm. I'm a lone parent, I take home £2100 a month and get £140 UC, £96 child benefit. My rent is £1000 a month. Council tax £150 with SP discount. Electric, gas, petrol, car insurance, Internet, school uniform, food, life insurance, water bills, £130 on before and after school clubs so I can work, then there's failed MOT which I had to put on a credit card which I'm paying off, tv license, phone bill etc. Then there's life and scraping by so my son can continue his gymnastics hes been doing since he was 2. Council is awful and you can't apply for any of the cost of living stuff unless they have 'identified you'. I've done income and expenditure with a professional and they've said I've pretty much cut back as far as I can. They fine tooth combed my bank statements. How is the amount I make not enough? I have applied for 6 cheaper houses in the last month and none will rent to me. I'm 400 and something on the list for council housing. 10 years ago I was on 18k a year and comfortable and saving.

Will this ever get better? That's a genuine question because I can do all the cutting back I can but if I keep getting knocked back for cheaper housing and higher paid jobs I just don't know how I will go on. It is no life and I don't enjoy getting out of bed in the morning anymore.

hi @TwentyTwenty20 sorry to hear your struggle. Just an idea re drying clothes without putting expensive heating on.. I have a heated clothes dryer from Lakeland and can dry a load of washing overnight and it costs about 5p per hour to run... expensive outlay but so worth it

I agree OP.

Saying your Victorian terrace has small room sizes isn't really justification. It's going to be costly to heat because it's an older property as well. You don't need a cute Victorian house with a separate dining room. What are flats renting for?

I would rather not say because I've mentioned some personal details in my post however a lot of people pay simular rates.

I understand. I hope I didn’t cause any offence as I did not realise the severity of his mental health or that he doesn’t work - you’re absolutely right that’s not sensible for a 4 year old to be exposed to.

Considered a side hustle? I hear there’s weirdos out there who like to buy used ..ahem… clothing items ahaha … desperate times right?

Did you not read the part where I said I had applied for 6 cheaper properties in the last month, out of 8 that were advertised and within my budget and not miles away from my son's school? I could afford it when I moved in and it was £300 cheaper. I'm trying but nobody will rent to a lone parent when there are hundreds and hundreds of people looking for houses. One house had over 100 people email about it in the first day it was advertised.

A lot of people also don't realise that UC is one payment for all, not 'half her rent' and then the £140 the OP mentioned.
It's absolutely awful for rent prices, I don't think there are many cheap areas. It's very easy to say move somewhere cheaper but actually a move is absolutely hell for the whole family unless it's wanted and it can create or increase mental health issues.

Thank you. I would absolutely take suggestions for a side hustle. I've sold lots of things and considered uber eats driving. Equally, I start work at 8, son starts breakfast club at 7:30, I pick him up at 3:15, sort him out, spend time with him, then make my hours up to 40 in the evenings. I feel like I don't stop. My mind wandered to sex work until I snapped out of that batshit idea but the fact that my mind went there is beyond belief.

I appreciate it's not much of a saving, but you can shave a little more off your breakdown cover. I've been an autoaid customer for years. They're brilliant, only difference is they work like an insurance company.

If you break down, you pay the bill to the local company they call out for you, then you receive a cheque for the full amount within a fortnight.

secure.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/join

@TwentyTwenty20 have you spoken to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau - they can work out if you’d be better off working less days and you’d still get more UC.

I get that . I hope things get better for you soon

https://capuk.org/

I used to feel hopeful when all this started that it would be short lived. I find it really hard to understand things like inflation and economics. I wish I could feel hopeful that things will get better.

I don't think UC works like that. I was told that you'll always be better off for working more hours. Plus I can't go part time in my job and unlikely to get anything else that pays that much.

This is pretty fucking rude, no?

It does get better, OP. Six years ago I was on £25k with £500 a month debt repayments because an abusive man tried to sue me. Now I’m debt free and earning £60k, and have a mortgage.

(I know a mortgage is a debt btw, I mean secured / unsecured)

It's not extortionate! We rented a two bed terrace for £1400 before COVID. I won't tell you how much it is now.

All these saying about the rent being expensive- clearly you don't live in certain parts of the country because around here that place would be £1400 or so - and that's not London.

Yes, we live somewhere considered very nice but 8 miles up the road in places not considered as nice it would still be around £1200

And as others have said the allowance is often more like £850 on private rented in many 'nice' areas (and there are no properties at that level- not even grim 1 bedders)

Genuinely really happy for you. I love a success story. Good for you

It will happen for you too ❤

I'm often amazed by how many terrible landlords we hear about on MN. I know there are issues with many, but in my 30 years of renting I must have been lucky?

What I am struggling to understand is why you would have to ask a landlord to install an appliance? Most of us surely go about that ourselves if we wish to? It isn't like ripping the floorboards up and having the windows changed.

how did it change @oscarmike ? Did you retrain?

@Afterschoolrun This really bugs me. First post by OP clearly states:

£140 UC, so we know she gets £140 universal credit a month, and the first thing you ask is "Do you get UC?" If you can't be bothered to read the post don't reply to it...

I hear you and empathise OP x

So many people are doing their best working full time yet needing state assistance to survive and barely scraping by.

What baffles me though is the weird “Blitz spirit” we seem to have to adopt about it. I understand that the advice given is well-naming, but why the feck are we not taking to the streets? It’s a global issue I know, but it’s getting worse and worse - we’re all boiling frogs a whisker away from destitution and yet we soldier on, trimming our budgets, forgoing “luxuries” - which have been fairly standard for most working families for the last few decades such as a once a year holiday or the odd meal out - and banking on a change of government to improve things….

I’m 54 so I’ve seen changes of government yet diddly squat seems to improve or change. We have plenty of evidence of government corruption and we know that the biggest wealth transfer to the “1 %” occurred during the pandemic as those placed to do so took royal advantage of “disaster capitalism”.

I bang on about it a lot but the speed of technological advancement is skewing the employment market ….. in the future maybe the generation currently in education might be able to reap the benefits, but in the meantime there are people caught in no man’s land who can’t just “retrain in IT” for a myriad of structural and circumstantial reasons.

I get that running around screaming “the sky is falling” isn’t helpful nor “resilient” (a word I’m beginning to loathe) however, I sometimes wonder what would happen if we did all just down tools and demand some coherent answers as to how TPTB see this panning out?

Money is an artificial construct designed to facilitate the easy trading of widgets. Now it’s just numbers in a machine and the stock market is essentially state sanctioned gambling that can tip a whole country into crisis. When they say “there’s no money - tighten your belts” it is technically true - but it means that our very survival is based on an essentially manufactured construct.

I wonder if we are heading for times when accruing any sort of financial stability will be impossible for a huge number of people. It’s always been hard, but now we’re just middle men, working for money and paying it back into a system that can demand more and more cos “the market”, and those who control the market just trouser it all and laugh at our plight.

It feels like utter madness to me.

Is the life insurance really worth having? I don't have it, although I lack children. Unless the payout would make DS's life noticeably better after your death, scrap it.

I have a Co-wheels account at £5/month instead of breakdown cover. It lets me hire a car by the hour if mine is undriveable. I had breakdown cover and when I actually needed it, the time estimate for the patrol to arrive was so long that I ended up walking to a local garage and asking them to come to my car with me. I might as well have hired the nearest Co-wheels car from my phone and taken a bus to where it was to resume my day.