Have £245 until the 27th Feb, does this sound ok?

[Cantwaitforaholiday33]

This is what's left over, all bills etc. Are paid, This is for food, toiletries, transport and anything else, for me and an adult cat, I live alone.
Not intending to buy anything else like clothes, make up etc.
Supposed to be meeting up with a group of friends next week but worried I'll have to cancel. I don't drive and the place they want to meet at will cost me around £25 return on the train, and it's a high end restaurant. Wish we could just have a coffee or something but I know they're all high earners.

I've got the credit card as a last resort but really don't want to use it. I'm sure people would manage on less but grateful for any suggestions.

It probably depends on what the money has to cover. But if it’s just food for one person and a cat and entertainment costs then yes it’s definitely doable.

Whether this is a one off or happening regularly also makes a difference too

Quite do able - mushrooms on toast , lentil and tomato soup , spaghetti bolognaise , save half the mince mixture to do a chilli , jacket potatoes. Have you looked at the menu for the restaurant so you could work out how much you would spend if you went ?

Can any of your friends give you a lift? Or are they all meeting up local to them but a distance away from you?

They don't sound like very good friends to you tbh.

Yeah, I've been to it before as one of the friends had a party there. Even a plate of chips is almost £10. I might bite the bullet and ask them to come round, but I doubt they will..

We all live about an hour away from each other. All in different places, but the most anyone would need to travel in either direction is about an hour. I'm also trying to save for driving lessons atm and that's not cheap!

It does annoy me as I've travelled on public transport to see them where they live, I've been to all of them at least once this year.

Cancel the meet up. In your position it's too risky to spend money before you have it unless it's life or death. If you budget that should be plenty. Make sure you meal plan and go with a list, get enough cat food. I once had to give my dogs Weetabix for dinner. A lot of us have been there but believe me things will get better.

It doesn’t really sound like they’re good friends. They haven’t been round to yours in a year and they don’t take into consideration that you have less disposable money. In my circle we work to the smallest budget, it’d that means a free activity or round someone’s house then that’s what we do. Occasionally we’ll break into smaller groups and do more expensive things but we make sure we regularly do cheap things so everyone can go.

I tried to give my cat a less expensive cat food but it gave her diarrhea 😬 so ill stick to the one I know she eats.
I shop at Farmfoods, Heron foods etc. And my diet is fairly basic luckily.
Thank you, once the card is fully paid it'll start to get better!

Also because of the dates I moved in I've had to pay higher council tax. But next month I dont have to pay anything which is great as they miscalculated. Then April onwards ill have the single person discount luckily

This is about standard for Mr. All my bills gobout by 5th of the months and then its like thus until payday end of the month.
Batch cooking and freezing helps. Porridge is a cheap healthy fillet.
Walk not use car whenever possible.

Yes this amount sounds possible, I would be really careful with the budget though and ring fence money so you know how it will be spent e.g. bus is £2, but I assume that's one way so £4 a day, £20 a week (assuming you work 5 days) so £60 til end of month. Then you will know what cat food your cat eats and the cost of this and can work out from that how much of the budget the cat would take.
Meal wise I would look at batch cooking, curry, spaghetti bol etc where you can separate into portions. As an example a 500g pack of mince as a family of 4 makes two meals, so for one person could be 8 portions.

The friends don't sound like very good friends. Why do you have to travel so far to meet them? Why can't they come to you? You said you had to cancel last month because of similar reasons.
With my friend we sometimes go to a nicer place for a drink, other times if I say I have no money it is wetherspoons. If your friends are genuine they would be happy to come over to yours and have a supermarket pizza in the oven.

This might sound daft but if you are in need of a treat and a bit of booze to cheer you up I've just looked at Waitrose's Valentines offer and it's actually stonkingly good value! You get loads for your £20 including a choice of booze, might make it feel a bit less bleak?

Oh my friends wouldn't be seen dead in a Wetherspoons 😂 i personally go and have nothing against it, but they just don't do anything like that.

I would go to the meet up but say days before that you won't be drinking alcohol and will pay for your food choices as you've had a boiler repair bill this month. No bill splitting!

This and tell your cat to mew at some old dears door for a few free meals heehee

Re Council tax, if you have been living there alone u are entitled to the single person discount you csn claim this immediately before April.

Yeah very true, I don't drink at all luckily and I always pay for my own food unless we've all had something similar, tbh it's more the transport costs.

I’d cancel the meet up since they’re not making the effort to come to yours especially if they’re the type to order expensive meals and bottles of wine and then expect to split the bill!

If you really want to go, I think it’ll have to go on your credit card but warn them in advance that things are tight you’ll be paying for your own meal. If they’re real friends, they’ll understand and if not then you have your answer as to whether to go or not!

I think this is why they cancelled my £189 bill for March, well I'm assuming, as they'd forgotten to add the discount but fortunately next month I dont owe them anything !

Oh crossed post sorry!

Thanks for all your suggestions :) hopefully I'll win this court case and have the money from that too

Your friends will be vaguely aware that your job, flat and single status mean you have less money. There is no harm in making it explicit.

Tell them that you really want to attend, but will be skipping starter and not drinking, so would it be OK to pay just your share of the bill?

and do not use the credit card.