Half on my monthly income goes just on rent. Unsustainable?

[UnsustainableMum]

Single mum. We live in the south east. 3 bed as two children of different sexes. Half of my monthly income now goes on rent at £1600 per month. The rents just keep rising along with every thing else. Surely rents can’t rise anymore?!

The problem is - rents are set up for households with two adult earners. Otherwise, all the two-adult families would be loaded and this would push up rent prices. Is there no way you can get CM from your ex?

Half of what though? Because half of 1000 is very different to half of 2000 and so on and so on.

Wow thats amazing....are you a family of 4? Please could you share some of your veggie meal ideas? If that's 21 meals (7 x 3) approx per week for 4 people....them you're saying you're able to spend just £50 for 4people x 21 = 84 meals? (59p per meal?).....well, less than that as you say you also have a dog and presumably also have to buy cleaning products. Thank you

@UnsustainableMum your council tax feels high to me. Do you get single persons discount. Have you applied for council tax benefit.

Yep the rent is the killer. Have you applied for a discretionary housing payment from your housing benefit at council for unmet housing costs ( this is separate to UC housing element). You may get some extra help.

As you get some UC you might qualify for a social tariff on your water bills. Mine is £50 per month but would be £90 ish if I wasn’t on this.

Also you probably qualify for Warm homes grant £150 this year if your energy provider is part of the scheme and your name was on bill around 23rd Aug I believe.

Is £20 per day for three people a lot? £6.66 per day? When a coffee on the way to work is £3 and a supermarket sandwich meal deal / school lunch is £4?

Agree the car insurance is a lot esp if have no points etc

I always use supermarket :meerkat to check prices

having a higher excess can bring costs down

I pay £360 a year to insure my car which is think 7yrs old

I do pay in one go which makes it a bit cheaper and our money into account pot each month for the next year so I can do the same

bur if I did monthly think it was £36 more so around £400 which would be £33 a month so half of yours so def look around

But you don't buy this stuff on a budget. Coffee can me mafeat home or take a jar of nescafe to work and make a sandwich and fruit for lunch. Much cheaper

Rents will be rising because of the implications of the renter's rights bill. Landlords are getting fed up of being shafted by the government. They'll either jack the rents up or they'll sell.

£1600 seems reasonable for the south east when you consider London rents are well over £2000. This really all just tells me how utterly buggered the economy is.

That's an unnecessary comment.
It is a relatively new phenomenon that an ordinary 3 bed house would be 1600 pm in rent. Even in expensive areas.

It's ok that people who are working bloody hard, and have had to take on student debt etc to get their job, feel crushed hat they can only just about cover a roof over their head and food on the table.
That isn't ignoring that others have it harder.

However it is fair to say that someone on that income would have had a better standard of living in the past.

It is gruelling for anyone to work hard n
And barely cover the essentials. And being a full time working single mum is relentless.

It's ok for people to want a bit of the and sympathy.

There's probably hardly any difference in price between a 2 bed and 3 bed.

For one adult and 2 kids who are apparently struggling with the col?

Coffee at home, school lunch at senior school my DC go to is £2.80. £14.40 for cereal X3 plus dinner, every single day? That's nearly twice my budget with 2 teens.

It really is a lot, for those who really aren't aware...

Looking at the OPs costings her shopping bill includes all the cleaning products, toiletries etc. once thT is accounted for, and the fact that kids are school age and will need packed lunch bits etc it's probably more like 15 quid a day. For 3 meals for 3 people that's not loads. You could do it on less but would definitely have to take a bit on how healthy it was.

Harsh! I haven’t said I do not have any money. I spend money on good food but I do not spend it on ever buying clothes, shoes, beauty etc.

i had this discussion with friends recently and most people I know were suggesting their monthly food/household shopping is more like £1000 a month. So no I do not believe anyone can eat well on £50 a week as a family.

Three bedrooms for three people, two of them children, is luxury relative to how previous generations lived. You get what you pay for.

Which generation is that? People had more dc in the past and there was
off social housing.

more not off

This comment is wild! We eat a lot of vegetarian food and spend about 525 on supermarket shops for two adults!

I just looked up and the average cost of car insurance is now £562 a year. And that’s gone down £60 in the last year.

I have a friend who works in insurance and apparently it had to do with Ukraine and lack of car parts in why prices shot up.

the shortest answer to your query. Thanks God we still have a country which helps people.

but also with 1600 you can live reasonably well and make the teens go to work asap

OP might also be entitled to a means-tested reduction in council tax as her income is low enough to qualify for UC.

A lot of people don't realise they have to apply separately for the reduction, as in the days when people got housing benefit, the c/tax reduction used to be calculated when the housing benefit claim was processed.

Very grateful we have help available but if you utilise it be expected to get judged very harshly on mumsnet.

Our monthly food bill (and other supermarket items) plus the occasional fish n chip shop treat easily amounts to £800 to £1000 per month for a family of 4.....even then we tend not to buy branded products (supermarket own) and mostly cook from scratch but we all have good appetites and eat meat...so I personally think your food costs are reasonable x
Ignore the nasty comments on here. It amazes me how some people seem incapable of putting forward their opinion without being mean.

I agree, SE rents are ludicrous. A friend is lucky enough to have a landlord who regards her as an excellent tenant and hasn't put her rent up for 2 or 3 years because he doesn't want to lose her.

She's paying £1200 a month for a small 2-bed flat above a shop on a busy main road and considers herself lucky, because when neighbouring 2-beds have been relet, they go for £1600 a month. This is 50 miles from London. And we also have the joy of the 3rd or 4th highest council tax in the country.

@UnsustainableMum but that average insurance includes all the very very expensive cars to insure - electrics, range rovers etc. There are plenty of decent cars out there which will be much cheaper to ensure. That also are more economical on fuel. Also easier to switch cars then move to a new rental.

As you get UC there would be no point moving to a house with few bedrooms to save rent.

But it will save me maybe £300 a year barely seems worth it to be honest. Where does £300 even go these days? At least th car I have is a very safe on these country roads and reliable.

Bear in mind the teenagers with ridiculous premiums skew that average. My DD with a Ford Eco sport ( just a regular family car) pays £380. .If I just had normal insurance for my Astra it was quoted £357. Mitsubishi outlander is £420 for friend of mine. Even my DS is £600 now at 21

So for a " normal" cat that quote does seem quite high. Almost like it's something high dpec