I just don't have enough money

[36912aceg]

Me and my husband are really struggling with money at the moment for the first time in our whole lives.

We have been together pretty much all of our adult lives.
We were on one income for nearly 10 years while I was a sahm, in all that time we never once had any worry about paying our bills and even managed to save 15k for a house deposit (first in our whole family to buy a house, took years of hard saving to try to get us out of renting)

Now I have had a job for the past 2 years so our money should have increased but its felt even tighter due to prices of everything increasing, of course our children are getting older too so we are feeding them more and other expenses such as bus fair etc is cropping up.

I started taking in ironing and cleaning as new way of making a bit of money on the side as things are getting tight. I made £85 this month on the side and this is the first time in our entire lives that we have struggled to pay the mortgage.
Thankfully we have always had a couple of hundred in savings which we dipped into for this months mortgage payment.

we shop second hand and cook from scratch, I follow all the tips and tricks to save money (batch cooking, paying in cash etc ) I follow martin Lewis and save save save every penny and its just not enough.

I had to decline 2 party invitations for my children this month because I couldn't justify the cost of 2 cards, 2 sets of bus fair. didn't even think about the fiver to put in the card.

I just don't get it, we both work. I even made some money on the side this month and I had to say no to a child's birthday party for 2 of my children.

we don't even drive so I couldn't even save money that way.

I don't know why I'm posting a moany little rant but I'm so stressed, our savings have been depleted by bills despite us living even more modestly than when we were on 1 income. I just don't fucking get how I can get more money.

What does your dh’s contract say about hours? Does he have a guaranteed minimum? What are you doing today? Can you visit the local care homes? Pick up some night shifts?

he's not really part time though for the
is short period he is I suppose. 5 years ago he was on 60hrs and it's a good job with good wage progression. However he's regressed due to his role simply not existing anymore. he's gone from £18ph to £16 which is a jump down but add on no fucking hours it's a massive jump

How likely is it that this will change? Is it a temporary thing you need to get through or likely to stay this way?

If temporary, he needs to find other work to make up the shortfall. If permanent, he needs to quit this line of work and do something else.

he's not really part time though for the
is short period he is I suppose. 5 years ago he was on 60hrs and it's a good job with good wage progression. However he's regressed due to his role simply not existing anymore. he's gone from £18ph to £16 which is a jump down but add on no fucking hours it's a massive jump

He is part time though, it doesn’t matter what hours he used to do or what he used to earn, the fact is he is now doing around 30 hours on £16 an hour. With you working part time too that’s just not enough. If both of you worked full time you’d be fine, even with you working minimum wage, as your outgoing are low.

This doesn’t make sense.

Your husband is on 1600 a month - a take home of approximately £1,445. Your outgoings (less his travel and food) are £1,230 a month. That’s £215 from his take home pay to cover food or his travel.

Your pay won’t be taxed. That’s £800 a month for food and everything else.

Between you you take home £2,245 a month. Your fixed outgoings are £1,230. That’s a surplus of £1,015 for his travel and food. You must be spending quite a lot on other things for money to be this tight?

Budget on the lowest expected income (ie £1200 from your DH work)

It looks as though, on average, you are £200 short a month - some suggestions here as to how sound good.

Drop your contracts right down - you can get pay monthly sims for £5 and drop the streaming services - as someone else mentioned if you choose a better contract (not what I’ve suggested) you can access certain streaming services for free trials.

Have you worked out what UC you would get if you didn’t hit the threshold to miss it?

this actually does help and I will look into it
thank you

You can get universal credit etc even while.owning...yes perhaps not as much but you can. Plus child benefit for 2 kids. I ran a miscellaneous postcode, your incomes and 2 kids (how many do you have?) and got the attached.

At present your fixed outgoings are £1230 p/m.

Your income is £2400. So over £1k for food etc.

And that is without child benefit etc which I'm sure you claim .

Apologies I’ve just calculated his monthly pay and the £1,600 looks to be after tax? If so, you’re not being 100% truthful about what you’re spending.

You seem to be very careful with your money- the issue is you are not on high wages and your husband going from working full time to part time plus inflation has squeezed everyone. Can he take a 2nd job if this is a temporary issue? If it's ongoing he needs to look for something else.
Is your mortgage due for renewal? Gone through your bills eg gas/electric, insurances to make sure you are on competitive deals? Martin Lewis website has lots of hints and tips for this

How many hours a week do you work? You both need to be working 40 hours a week in full-time positions in order to make it work. For what it’s worth I do 39 hours a week I make approximately 3K a month but my rent is 1400 so that eats up pretty much half my wage. With careful budgeting, I can still manage to save each month.

I was also going to suggest bar work etc to boost incomes. I work with a temp agency and things comes up (ranging from seasonal retail on Saturdays, bar work, evening receptionist work in hotels etc). I did that the last few years I worked full time in a professional role because I simply was not earning enough to meet our needs. The last year I did it i made roughly an extra £4 K and about half of that was able to go into savings. One of the TAs at DS's school told me this week she now does 2 nights a week in her local pub to make ends meet.

I work 27 hours a week on very close to the minimum wage and take home more than you do. It sounds like you are working fewer than 20 hours. Between your husband, you are working less than 50 hours per week when it should be nearer 75- this extra money would all be disposable income.

So if you're not eligible for anything, your income must be higher than you said.

As lots of people have said you need more income. But that's easier said than done. First thing is don't panic. It will make you feel worse and not get you anywhere. Starting a side hustle is brilliant, can you grow it? Teenager could help with the fetching and carrying, husband too if he's not working. If you made enough to pay for teenagers bus fairs that would make a big impact. Carry on applying, are you using Chat GPT to help with CV and covering letters, can be useful as a starting point. Would you be able to ask bank or building society for a repayment holiday to give you a breathing space or can you remortgage and ask for a longer term? Would lower monthly repayments and it's not for ever, you can chuck money at it when things pick up.

I can relate. We barely have any money. My partner works 50 hours a week but only slightly above min wage. I work 15 hours due to childcare and health reasons. I make extra money with a couple of hobbies, but not much really.

With the bank switch, if you’re concerned you don’t have a spare £1000 to pay in, apparently you can pay in your £400, leave it for 24 hours and withdraw then pay it in again for 24 hours. Repeat until you reach £1000.

If you both worked full time minimum wage jobs then your household income would be 3200 a month.

What work do you and your DH do? I may be able to suggest ways of generating more income if I know your skillset.

Regardless of the working hours or op and families career choices this is one of the richest countries in the world. No one should be living like this.

I don’t think it’s from choice. OP says there are no more hours available.

Pretty sure she knows this 🙄

She can’t get more work, that’s the problem.

The problem is OP hasn’t been truthful about where the money is going. She states her husband works 30 hours a week on £16 an hour - that’s £1,675 a month after tax. She brings home £800 a month. Her fixed outings are £1,230. That’s a surplus of £1,245 a month that surely cannot be solely spent on food and travel. So it’s clearly going somewhere.

I wonder why the op doesn’t clarify how many children and ages

no childcare costs are mentioned

Why can't OP get more work? I can't find that anywhere on the thread

OP, your husband is earning max £400 a month so he needs a new job, or you need to get a full time job. Different jobs if required. You're not earning enough because you (either of you/both of you) need to work more hours.

Is that £150 pm on phones?