Is this possible to live of?

[77eleven]

For various long and complicated reasons I looks like I'm going to have to hand in my notice rather than return to work after maternity leave. I'm currently off looking after 9 month old ds.

My husband brings home between £1750 and £2000 a month depending on commissions etc.

Our mortgage is £780 (fixed for 5 years), and other bills, insurances etc come to £485.

I think that £100 a week for food is comfortable.

This leaves me with not much.

Does it seem feasible to live on this? I am absolutely terrified, although I realise it is more than a lot of people probably live on. I don't HAVE to hand in my notice, but would need very-full-time childcare and would be extremely stressed (whole other thread!).

I have done spreadsheets/estimates till the cows come home, but it is hard to say whether something is feasible until you've done it I think. The problem is I only have a couple of days to decide, so no time to 'experiment'.

Any advice/opinions welcome!

We have a similar food budget for the four of us (2 adults, 1 pre teen and one baby) and we manage fine. We meal plan every week and shop at aldi. We dont really watch pennies so we do have a lot of snacks etc. We spend about 70 on main shop at aldi and visit tesco for treats and milk and bread etc. (Aldi is 18 miles away from us but still worth it for big shop even factoring in petrol!)

We do make sure we try to save regularly though.... its little things like something breaking or kids new shoes or a school trip cost that can throw us... and car costs! (Car tax etc). So we try to save for all of those.

Our income is something like £2000 a month, outgoings about half that and then we put some in savings and some for food / occasional trip out.

Don't forget as well the many savings that you'll make though not going to work - i.think the obvious ones of commuting and clothes have already been mentioned but I have also been able to save money on not running a second car, being able to browse the reduced shelves in supermarkets, having more time to cook from scratch and shop around for ingredients, being able to do many jobs in the home that I wouldn't do.img at work full time.

Hi,

Yes, it is possible. You will get child benefit too.
I have 2 children (boy almost 10, girl 5.5) now but both are at school and I so wish I had packed in work when they were babies. My job is changing so much (moving away and becoming very un-child friendly with forced night/weekend working). I have always worked a few weekends etc anyway but the frequency of them is increasing (every weekend almost). I am planning to retrain next year so really regret not packing in when my children were younger. We have had no family help so it has been hard going.
I budget £70 a week for a family of 4 --- and that is at Tesco. Meal plan is the key to reducing your food bill. Our mortgage is similar to yours but finishes in 2017 thank goodness. You will have enough left at the end of each month to have fun etc. I have 2 accounts, one for the bills and one for 'everyday spending'. We run 2 cars (both work unsocial hours so have to) and we pay a childminder. Looking back, I should have quit work, got rid of a car and stayed at home until my children started school. I have to retrain anyway now so really kicking myself I didn't do it :-(
Don't put yourself through the stress of working while being a mum (like I have done for 10 years). You could always retrain later if needs be.