Sick of having plenty of money on paper but not enough to actually live!

[MrsMop2026]

We get around £3,000 a month on paper that is loads.
Shouldn’t be struggling at all but why am I always struggling to put clubcard vouchers & pennies together at the end of the month.

Rent - £1,200
gas & elec - £300 (paying back some debt)
council tax - £150
water - £35 (on a special tarfif)
petrol - £200 (but obviously that’s now going up and god knows what that will come too - and yes I use my free bus pass where I can and no I can’t use less)
cats - £200 (i have four so it’s expensive Im trailing the cheaper supermarkets litter at £2.99 for 10 litres atm so hoping to get this down and next I will try cheaper cat food)
Food - £600 (cant get this cheaper ones diabetic other has AFRID)

leaving me with £260 a month but that just seems to go so quickly with school uniform, school trips, the occasional day out. :(

I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do expensive days out, takeaways are a luxury in this house.
It is so stressful isn’t it? How does everyone else manage?

Are you drunk?

Oh, sod off back to the Tory club.
You clearly have no idea about the extra expense these parents incur by looking after their disabled child. Just be glad you can work full time and spend less time worrying about what others are doing.

We wouldn’t know how old the kids are - as the OP has vanished.

I suspect she’s filling in her claims form as we post to be aided and abetted by others on here who are also on multiple benefits advising her how to over egg the form for maximum payout.

i have children with lifelong incurable illnesses by the way. We work.

Your DH could get an evening or weekend job in a bar etc when you are home to care for diabetic ds. That is what lots of people do whilst one parent has to be at home to care for a DC.

You do know it is hard to get DLA? A fair few genuine claims are turned down and parents have to appeal. Half expect my child who is autistic will have his claim turned down. Why does it matter if the partner is at home? OP works and pays taxes? Do you wanna moan that I might not work much when my son starts school because I suspect the school might try to put him on a reduced timetable?

Good for you. Do you have family nearby when you need them? I don't. Just me and the husband.

If you are familiar with DLA forms, you should know that you can over egg the form however much you like but if you don't have the evidence to back up what the forms say then they aren't interested.

I have a disabled child and I can't work. My old workplace couldn't get rid of me quick enough and I don't see how any other place would be willing to hire me with the constant appointments I'd need time off for.

No I don’t - my parents are elderly and had too many children. Mother in law is 5 hours away.

now this thread will be absolutely derailed by people who couldn’t possibly work as their children are severely disabled claiming that ‘a child of an indeterminate age with diabetes’ is exactly the same as them. I’m not sure why they do it - but here we go.

Id stop the insurance for the oldest cat immediately. What food /litter are you buying op. Ive got 4 cats and don't spend that even with insurance . Definitely claim for UC you will be entitled to something which will be a help at least

Avoid the cheap cat litter option if possible, it's a false economy. I have 3 cats and I pay £28 per month for a 20l bag of Ever Clean multi-cat litter. I buy it on Amazon subscription. The bag lasts about 6 weeks and I only have to completely clean out and wash the 2 litter trays about the same frequency. Clean out the clumps daily and honestly it's fantastic.

I agree with that @GriftyShades

We get a fine grain wood based one from Zooplus and it lasts forever compared with bags of clay based.

We used to foster rescue kittens but have always had ridiculous numbers of cats so needed loads of litter trays. Means your bin doesn't get massively heavy too.

I'm on disability benefits for a short period of time because I have ptsd and I had a triple leg fracture two years ago

I got lcwra at the third time of trying - only at tribunal. I didn't get it when I was suicidal and unfit to work

Op left the thread as she was fed up of the judgemental comments actually. Not trying to maximise my benefits. I have nobody who can help with my children, nobody wants to be responsible for my child’s diabetes even if I trained them.. so no both working full time isn’t possible!
and FYI my husband got the job folks, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
Absolute vile comments on here some of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Diabetes is one the hardest diseases to look after my 7 year old isn’t capable of looking after themselves yet. No where near, you have adults going into DKA and loosing limbs because even they struggle to look after diabetes ADULTS.

Because they cannot inject insulin themselves, they need 6-7 injections a day. They need an adult to do their CGM changes and constantly make decisions. They need an adult to watch out for highs & hypos, need to do ketone monitoring when they’re sick or high blood sugars two hourly. OH AND WE ALSO DON’T SLEEP AS NO DOUBT THE DEXCOM GOES OFF MUTIPLE TIMES A NIGHT EVERY WEEK ETC ETC
Please stop commenting unless you’ve lived with diabetes type one yourself because half of these comments are just trash.

😂 I wish my cat was diabetic instead of my child also AFRID in a cat? Come on that doesn’t even make sense.
My life would be a hell of a lot easier.

Do they not go to school?

Ah yes, when I was pregnant I made sure my children would come out autistic & one would develop type one diabetes. Told the midwife if they didn’t we would have to try again for a disabled child.

Honestly have some of you been sniffing glue by these comments? This is why I didn’t want to come back to this thread as they are so insulting.

That’s been covered already.

right so if this diagnosis is relatively new then it’s not going to be this way forever, your dh can get a job when things have settled I suppose

It can take years for a diabetic child to build up the confidence to look after their own diabetes, it’s not something like a food allergy it’s extremely life threatening. No it won’t be forever, but it’s not something I will force I know of a lot of diabetic children going into DKA as their parents have randomly stopped helping them & they’ve ended up stopping taking their insulin. It won’t be happening to my child I want them to live a long, healthy life.

As I already stated my husband got the job. Three shifts a week so hopefully the benefit bashers will all go away now.

You still have every right to claim benefits if you are still entitled. Even if your husband is earning

You’re spending way too much on cats and food. I have 5 pets and spend about 50 if you exclude insurance. If they are all insured I guess that’s why? Do you cook from scratch ? I get food from a community larder for £18 a month and just top up with anything they might not have that week. Yes diabetics etc can eat most things, you just have to avoid carbs etc, we use low GI and low GL foods e.g. Dahl etc. Pets and food are the areas to look at. Imagine you are a single parent how would you manage. I am managing like that but there are two of us me and my dc

I’m not a single parent though? £600 is reasonable for a family of four.

I wish you nothing but the best, OP. You've been dealt a rough hand. Some of the posters on here need to learn a bit of empathy.

My point is that if you were one you would have a lower budget
so it’s a way of thinking what would you cut out. £600 is a lot for food and the cats figure is high too. You wanted advice...I got my food bill down from £500
per month to £150 per month by using community larders. Apologies if you are not looking for ways to save money I thought that was the point of the post maybe I’m wrong