To be struggling on 3k per month?

[Strictlyskint]

I am a single mum and really don’t know where I am going wrong. I am usually fine until there is a week to go until payday. Christmas is coming up and I am really stressing

I feel like I should start a business to help people who can’t work out where all their money is going work out where all their money is going! Could probably charge a fortune too seeing as they’re so clueless!
no one can tell you if you can afford to go on holiday next year unless you put your big girl pants on and sit down to go through your bank statements for the last few months. Start a spreadsheet and group everything you’ve spent into categories eg food, healthcare, household bills, car, travel, cat etc and then you’ll have a clearer picture of what’s essential and what’s ad hoc non-essential spending and shop around for better deals on insurance policies and phone / tv / broadband.
it might be that all your outgoings are essential and there’s no scope for cut backs, in which case you can’t afford to go on holiday but I’d be surprised if you can’t make some savings.

This, your just bleeting about having no money but not actually producing what your spending it on for anyone to give you any real advice.

Surely you still have to pay Netflix? I've just looked it up, and you do still need to pay the monthly subs, it's just a way of accessing the apps (like a smart TV, but I guess fir when your TV isn't smart).

How on earth would we know?

Look, you need to get a grip of your finances if you're real and not just here to whip the froth

Print out the last few months of bank statements.

Look at them. See for yourself what your are spending money on.

I'm struggling to understand how someone on £3k a month can't work this out tbh. You're obviously not completely incapable so why are you being so passive about where your money is going?

Of course it is BUT ONLY IF YOU START BUDGETING.

If you are determined to just keep spending money without paying any attention, you will always end up living paycheque to paycheque and be in constant crisis mode. Start taking some responsibility for your money.

😂 Sorry yes just realised that’s not clear at all. They do have their own stuff on the Roku channel also.

Yes. Make a YNAB account. There is a 34 days free trial. Now is the perfect time to try it.

It's envelope budgeting. You'll have categories for everything and you'll assign the money to each category. Then you'll be able to see how much money you do or don't have once your true spending is taken into account.

When you get down to the granular detail, you might (for example) suddenly realise that the cheeky £5 coffee that you have each morning at the train station is actually £25 per week, and £100 each month. Then you might be absolutely happy with that, or you might decide that you'd rather that £100 went towards your holiday.

You might realise that shopping locally at the convenience shop because you've run out of food is costing you £600 but if you meal plan and shop at Lidl, the same food will only cost you £500. Another £100 saved.

It's amazing what is hidden in our habits when we aren't focusing on it. YNAB helps you bring clarity to your spending and then you find your savings.

You'll set up a holiday category, and you can funnel savings towards it if you make savings elsewhere.

You’re frivolous 🤷‍♀️

OP's original and subsequent posts must be AI generated/related to training AI - look at them all ('see all' in the bottom RH corner of any of their posts). That's why they are not providing sensible replies from a real person who wants to do something about their situation.

Having said that, I think it's a useful conversation to be having to help anyone in real life who is reading the replies and having difficulties managing their money.

I don’t understand what you mean? It doesn’t say ‘see all’ apart from the button that allows you to see all the OPs posts? Unless the app is not showing me something

Yes, that's the one I mean. In my opinion (and |I may be wrong!) the set of OP posts suggests that they are not being generated by a human. They are the sort of thing that's generated when you input text into ChatGPT and ask for a short reply.

I would highly recommend you head over to Moneysaving expert forums. You don't need anyone here telling you that you should be saving 1k a month

Your money seems to be disappearing into a black hole. With your outgoings you should be managing easily. Your mortgage is very very low. Food expenditure is a bit high. Where is your money going. Are you in debt and'/or paying off credit cards.