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

You've also not included loads of costs in your breakdown:

Clothes
Kids extracurricular costs
Childcare?
Haircuts/optician/dentist/prescriptions
Birthday and Christmas gifts

You need to get a better idea of your true costs. I suspect you spend like you've got hundreds a month spare because looking at your breakdown you'd think you would have but it's because you haven't included everything.

Can already think of a few bits you’ve maybe missed like car tax, any breakdown cover you may have etc- sky looks high, I’m assuming you have internet bundled in so you could maybe swap to standalone internet and get something like Netflix instead which would likely be cheaper? However I think by the sounds of it there’s probably either more payments that are small but add up that you’ve not mentioned (for me that ends up being different streaming services, Xbox Game Pass type stuff) or you spend the ‘leftover’ money carelessly.

Also, holy shit your water bill! I live in a terrace and we have baths/showers daily and is only £40pm for us?!

I totally get it, life is kind of shit for a lot of people at the minute because everything costs a bomb and I hate it when people say ‘oh well don’t buy a coffee before work!’ type stuff because everyone needs little things to cheer them up and feel like they’re not working to barely scrape by, but that’s kind of what helped me when money was particularly tight last year. Little unnecessary expenses, getting lunch at work costing £5 a day when I could have packed one, a gym membership no one ever used, it all adds up.

You really could do with going on your online bank back to your last payday, taking out all your necessary bills and then seeing where the rest of the money went. It can feel kind of embarrassing or upsetting if things have added up and you didn’t notice, but it’s really the only way to know what changes you need to make. No real point cutting back on a £3 coffee twice a week if you’ve spent £100 on ‘top-up shops’ without realising or £40 on a load of subscriptions you forgot you had etc.

Get a water meter-£150 pm is shocking. I take it it’s based on rateable value. You will save a fortune. Get quotes for your car insurance. £60 is also a lot for your phone-and tv packages should be cheaper than that. It wouldn’t surprise me if you were on ‘legacy’ rates-ie you just carried on paying after your contract ended. It would help if you put the money saved into savings and had a weekly strict budget for the rest.

£600 a month for food for 1 adult and 2 kids?! how much are you all eating! That's ridiculous

Get a meter - £150 is loads for water.

You can cancel sky, reduce your phone bill but even after all of the above you still have 800 a month approx so you must be wasting money left/right & centre.

Surely even a couple on NMW would bring in more and that’s without taking into account you have children to support as well.

I don’t think many families would cope well on just £3k per month these days, not if you have a mortgage etc.

You need to look at bank statements for the last few months and list all the payments and card payments that aren’t what you listed. You need to see where all that money is going. It’s very easy to spend when you aren’t budgeting and watching where it goes.

You then need to budget and plan. It’s boring but it works

1. Don't listen to your parents unless they are offering some kind of practical support (I don't mean handouts, just advice and support) and ignore their criticism. Perhaps though they are losing patience with you if you are complaining about having no money to them and they see you being frivolous?
2. Sort out your spending. Use the notes app in your phone and make a note of everything you intend to spend before you spent it. It may stop you making impulse purchases.
3. Check your bank statements and see where your money has gone over the last 3 months. How much of your spend was non essential - cafes, meals out, takeaways, clothes you didn't need, nail appointments etc. See where you can stop spending.
4. Get some cheaper deals. I recently switched to Octopus energy and am saving £35 a month. They are also so much better than previous provider British Gas as they don't assume you understand the finer details of tariffs etc! They keep it all user friendly.

It will probably be difficult for you to do all of this and emotionally challenging. But, that will be temporary as you will be able to sort your finances and reap the benefits within a couple of months. If you choose to do nothing then this will not change and you will be in this situation for the long term and, it will probably get worse.

£70 a week on petrol is huge!
You also don't include anything like car service / MOT, car tax, buildings & contents insurance, cat insurance / vets bills, TV licence and any personal insurance policies.
Your mobile bill is high unless that includes phones for kids as well and Sky is expensive at £70 (mine is £46!).
I don't think it's a huge amount for 1 adult and 2 children. I earn similar but my outgoings are lower and I don't have 2 kids!

Download 3 months bank statements and put every expense into a category and also have “need” “want” and do a budget. You need to invest the time to get the reward.

If I cancel sky do I need a TV license?

Get one

They're wrong. That's unlikely. Most couples in FT work would earn at very least £26k on NMW so that would be a combined income of £52k

Is it 3k before or after tax, OP? If before tax, that is very tight.
Does that £60 on phone cover your and DC's phones - can you reduce that bill at all, and put them on very basic contracts? And shop around for yourself.

Can you call SKY and tell them CoL means you have to cancel and keep telling them this until they reduce the charge to you? Or really cancel it and rely on Amazon Prime and Netflix for a while.

you need a TV license even if you have Sky if you watch BBC channels or iplayer on it!!
Check your Sky package and remove anything extra that you don't use. Also check if you're out of your initial contract period as it's usually cheaper to enter a new contract period with a lower rate. Or drop your broadband speed if you're paying more for a superfast rate you don't need.

Looks like you should have around £1100 a month left over after your expenses.

don’t forget all the extras like mot tyres clothing school or baby extras,household things etc etc.

have you been through your bak statements?

No, not if you are only streaming from Netflix and Amazon etc. You only need a licence to watch BBC.

This is just under £2k.

What seems high:

Water - see if you can get a meter
Food - look into cheaper options.

Car insurance - £840pa? Can you get that cheaper?

Sky? I think I'd ditch that, or is it your broadband too?

Things missing:

House insurance
Travel
Car maintenance
Car tax
Clothes
Broadband
Mobile phone (unless that's the £60, in which case, you can cut that to under £10 SIM only)
Haircuts

Missing from income:

Child benefit
Child maintenance?

I think you can cut back in some places but you need to be really clear what you're spending on and budget for everything.

Ignore your parents, or ask them to please refrain from commenting. But you probably do need to do some work on this so as not to run out of money, especially as your actual living costs are fairly low.

So my wage

£3091 after tax
child benefit - 170

Even with Sky you need a TV license if you want to watch BBC programmes.

I would definitely see if you can get onto a water meter - we pay £30/month for four of us.

I have tried this but then they charged me a fee for the equipment

Phone expensive if out of contract soon ditch it and do sim only
Sky very expensive luxury again ditch it but in mean time lower your package with them

You should have about 700 left where is it going?

You need a TV License even if you have sky if you watch BBC.

It doesn’t, by my calculation it comes to £2,266 - some of those sums are per week and so should be multiplied by 4.3.

with that, OP, you have at £8k / year unallotted but this will also have to pay for holidays, Christmas, birthdays etc. Unless you are very careful you are all into “just about managing” territory.

Why is your phone bill so high? Is that because of the DCs’ phones as well? I have unlimited calls for £15/ month

For TV, I pay:

TV licence £12pm I think
Netflix £5pm
Broadband £22pm

I temporarily have Disney at £5pm, but about to cancel. DP provides access to his Amazon Prime and, temporarily Apple TV. The latter will be cancelled soon.

My mobile is £8pm.

You need to check your last 2-3 months bank statements to see where your cash is going because there is about £700 unaccounted for.

Also check on your water bills they are very high. And if you on a meter you might have a leak or something.

If you cancel SKY and don't watch any TV on the normal channels and don't use iplayer. You don't need a TV licence. So no freeview. Or any channels broadcasting live.

You can save money on pretty much everything there (except mortgage and council tax).

Get a more basic sky package (or cancel). Review phone contract. Meal plan cheaper options etc. pay car insurance annually next time.

You have enough money for your expenditures so you need to get a bit clearer on where the money is going. For 2-3 months write down literally everything you spend.