Newly single mum, how to work out my budget?

[Sakura03]

I’m a newly single mum to a 16 months old. I work full time but have high childcare costs and have just put a claim in for UC. I want to work out a budget but when it comes to setting a budget for food, clothes, activities/outings I’m completely clueless. How do I work out what’s a reasonable amont to allocate per month?

Hi @Sakura03

I would suggest starting the other way round - make a spreadsheet of approx how much you spend on things per month at the moment and work out what you can chip away at and reduce.

Good luck. Being a single mum can be tough but is also very rewarding, you'll be great.

I would work out
Rent, council tax, water rates, gas, electric, tv licence if you have a tv, mobile phone, broadband, childcare, transport/bus/car tax/MOT/insurance/service

Then when you add them together see how much you have left after subtracting your income.

Do you get maintenance? universal credit? Council tax reduction? Wages

Open a separate bank account to put your disposable income so it doesn’t get mixed up with your direct debits etc

Then from your disposable income think about how much a week you spend on food/supermarket and if there is enough left over put this in a savings account for when you need to buy clothes

There will be essential/non-negotiable costs (rent/mortgage, childcare, council tax, commuting).
Check you are on the best utility rates (I use MSEs cheap energy club and switch whenever a deal comes to an end).
Food - we switched to Aldi from Tesco a few years ago and spend about a third less. Try to avoid top-up shops for anything other than bread and milk, always seem to pop in for one thing and spend £10! No DC here yet, but my friends really rate Aldis nappies too.
Once you've deducted the essentials, you can then work out how much disposable income you have and how to spend or save it.

Work out your income from all sources - wages, benefits, maintenance.
Tot up all of your outgoings. Include an amount for annual bills - insurances, mot/transport passes etc. Martin Lewis's budget planner on money saving expert is good for making you think of things you might not include otherwise.
Work out if you need to make cut backs and where you can do that.
Think about switching utilities, making use of tax free childcare scheme/vouchers if you have joined the scheme, budget shopping, budget cooking etc.

Thank you everyone. I'm still waiting to hear back regarding UC claim but hopefully I will get some child tax benefits. I'm trying to do an easy, cheap but healthy meal plan, my downfall is work much as where I often pop out and get a sandwich etc so I could save quite a bit here but taking a packed lunch in to work.

Also, head over to the money saving expert forums - some people there are brilliant at making a little go a long way and are genuinely inspirational.