To wonder what’s the point when I’m left with this after bills?

[ReLOa]

In a stressful job and single parent to nursery age child. I have 570 left after all bills and childcare and petrol, excluding food. What is the actual point in this?! We can’t do much at weekends and holidays are out of the question. I’m supposedly in a highly paid job (earn 70k) and I feel like giving up. Just been paid and looking ahead at the month I’ve already had to turn down some things like an adventure park day with friends as it was 28 pounds entry and a 35 mile round trip. I feel like I’m failing yet not sure what more I can possibly do?!

Exactly

And I said that I don't disagree but I don't feel guilty about it as there's nothing I can do about it.

It’s the nuance in your posts which happens on many high earner ops. We call it inference.

Right, so as I said, you're making stuff up based on what you believe I'm thinking.

Inference - a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning.

There's zero evidence from my posts.

There is. Straight in to tell the op to stop buying luxuries and you “cope” on much less with 1k disposable. The inference is all there.

I didn't say anywhere that I "cope" on much less. I literally said in my first post on here that I have more disposable income than OP. I said that childcare was temporary, which it is.

The bubble bath thing was because OP was talking about spending £40 a week on that and cleaning products. Just pointing out that there are ways she could reduce that if she wanted to.

We do need unskilled workers, we don’t need people to be unskilled workers their entire lives.

There is nothing stopping you becoming skilled. In fact it’s actually laid out on a plate for you.

You have been improving your prospects recently, but as you state… it’s because your son will reach 18 in 2 years time so you will have no choice anyway so you are preparing for this.

Where was the drive for the 16 years prior to this point ? Why didn’t you reduce your credits years ago? Why only now ?

When you go to other countries where there isn’t a nanny state, there is a real hunger for success. You see it in the UK with immigrant families, many of who are taking all opportunities to better themselves and their kids, really valuing education and hard work.

Btw, I don’t think you are personally doing anything wrong. It’s just that the system is not encouraging success/growth/career progression. It just doesn’t pay to work.

We need to reward skilled workers more

Being a lone parent is the honest answer. I was 18 when I had DS, didn't do great at school and had no practical parenting support from anyone, my ex was not involved and my mum worked full time so she couldn't help. I had no other family support.

I also couldn't afford to learn to drive which limited me. Developing a career in that scenario would have been difficult. Not impossible of course, but I took the easier route of "jobs" that fit around DS rather than a career as I had no one else to rely on. Obviously, as he got older it was easier to work around him but at 34 with no qualifications to my name I'm still at the bottom of the ladder. Especially after being made redundant last year. I'm doing well where I am though so have my fingers crossed.

@ReLOa I've read all of your posts but not all responses so apologies if this has already been said, are you using your government childcare account? They top up anything you pay in by 20% you can only use it to pay for Ofsted registered childcare provision, but if you're not it might be just a little bit extra.
I think you're getting a really hard time, 570 a month for food , clothes, toiletries, cleaning products any other incidentals like hair cuts or dentist, or someone's birthday etc really isn't a lot because it doesn't give a buffet for anything going wrong, or much ability to save.