Money advice, new job?

[StevenB1]

Hello all, hope you are all well :)

Thought I would come here for some advice (dad needing advice haha). Ok so brief story me and my fiance are first time parents, little one was 7 weeks prem and we now have him home after 4 weeks in hospital.

Now money wise we have always been ok, I HAD a decent paid job but decided to leave as it was 80+ hours per week and had a big argument with boss over time off due to son being born early. Had to rely on savings for the past 5 weeks.

So I have two offers, one is a standard 8-5 job, home every night etc and no weekend work. Problem is it's a huge pay cut by about 1000 a month, with finances money and mine combined after all Bill's are paid it leaves about 150 a month for petrol/shopping. We could survive but would be scraping.

Or I have an offer, similar money but it's working away from home, fiance is fine with it for now I dont want to leave her feeling like shes doing everything, looking after our son, two dogs etc and so on.

Just seeing what people think may be best or if people have been in similar situations?

Thank you :)

Can you post your household income/outgoings? That usually helps work these things out. You need to include petrol and food shopping in your budget, they don’t come out of the leftover cash. Spare cash is what you have after every household expense is accounted for. Many people have to tighten their belts when they have a child, so it’s good to see if you can reduce your outgoings.

For me it would depend on how much you’re actually earning at the £££ job, and can you get a different job earning the same for less. For instance if you’re earning £40k for your 80 hours I’d say no, find something else paying the same, but if you’re earning £100k it’s not that simple.

It sounds like with the £££ job you’ll never see your family tbh. Is it worth it?

Thanks for the reply :)

Our monthly bills at the moment for rent, gas, elec,tax etc and our personal bills are 1750, that's BEFORE shopping/fuel. Cut down on what we can bill wise, sadly a good chunk of that (600) is a loan repayment. They were 1940 but managed to get some things knocked down and paid off.

At the moment the job I'm going for is (more or less) a basic take home of 1600 a month, that's after tax. That's with one weekend on a call out rota, and there's the possibility of overtime on top. So potentially 1800 or so a month. But that entirely depends on overtime being available. Perks are a company van etc so no money on fuel, and it's more or less a 9-5. So time at home.

The other job working away is 1600 take home a month to start, rising up to 14 an hour for a standard 41.5 hour week. Also one weekend every month. But, it's Sunday - Thursday, and then Monday - Friday working away from home.

With the first job, they are working on a contract gain where the potential to earn up to 800 a week take home is there...but that's IF they win the contract, and it won't be for a few months. It's a small family run business, so potential for pay rises etc aren't really there unless the work is.

I should add that my partner adds 500 a month into paying towards bills etc while she is on maternity.

Have you investigated whether you will be eligible for tax credits on your reduced income?

www.gov.uk/tax-credits-calculator