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?

why am I always struggling to put clubcard vouchers & pennies together at the end of the month.

this doesn’t sound like it’s easy though… and the whole point of your post was that you’re finding things hard. It would be easier if you had 200 a month spare than spending it on cats.

We've got four cats and don't spend anywhere near that - what food do you have them on?

Ours have Arden Grange grain free and we get through two bags a month which is between £50 and £60 and then they have 3 or 4 tins of Purina Gourmet Gold a day between them which is another £50

I can’t believe how many posters think the answer is to take taxpayer money rather than stop spending £200/month on cats. No wonder the welfare bill is out of control

purina Gourment pouches £45 a month Purina biscuits about £32 a month and then litter as two are house cats, Was using catsan but I don’t think its very good!

oh piss off.

Claim everything you are entitled to, ignore anyone saying otherwise.
Write a proper budget with everything included. Your list doesn’t mention any insurances of any kind, any phone bills, any streaming services, car tax (maybe your car is motability?) birthday/xmas for the kids. That may be where your £216 is going.

I'm in the SE and that would be a below average rent for a 2-bed property anywhere within 10 miles of where I live, even though we're 50 miles from London.

I hope the combination of DLA and UC helps, OP, I can see that you are really s
struggling without it.

I pay car tax & insurance yearly so I don’t really factor that and my parents help me with it (probably something else people will moan about.)
We don’t use streaming services, but could be the phones only have sims and yes to insurance. Sorry I forgot to factor those!

That's a lot of cats! I didn't realise cats were so expensive. We have just one dog. She costs us about £ 10 in food monthly? She's still young and with no health issues though...

Firstly, would you mind sharing the rough area you’re in? Someone might, know a shelter if that’s what wanted.
Secondly, yes definitely cancel the insurance, and after that if care is needed you may well qualify for PDSA given the benefits you claim/may be entitled to.
Thirdly, for both your food and the cats food/litter, do you have a community larder nearby? Not quite a food bank, but somewhere you do pay, but a reduced cost, for stuff that is collated to stop food waste etc

I don't understand how cats cost that much. I have one and she maybe costs £30 a month in food and insurance. £20 of that is insurance. If I had your income and 2 vulnerable children I would ditch the insurance.

Sorry I just saw you were going to cancel pet insurance...as you were...

Your council tax is very cheap! We pay £250 here!

Bloody hell - how judgy? Did you not read the part where one of her children needs a full time carer. And also that the OP does work full time because it is her husband who is the stay at home parent.

Such a goady post!

Awww, is it reading or comprehension that presents a problem for you?

It's a good point though...Those cats cost you so much money!

£3000 a month for a family isn’t loads.

Your husband works at least 35 hours a week caring for your disabled child for just £83.30 pay or he wouldn’t qualify for carer’s allowance. he is saving the state many hundred or even thousands of pounds by caring for your child instead of social services carers doing it, there is no reason he should ‘get a job’ because he already has one.

universal credit is there to help people in your position and you should apply for it. Carers allowance is deducted pound for pound from universal credit but there are extra allowances for carers and disabled children because the state recognises that there are extra cost involved in raising disabled children.

You work outside the home, your husband does 35 hours a week disability caring, you are a working household and you should apply for working age benefits because you are exactly who they are designed to support.

I have a recently diagnosed T1D young child, so I fully understand how hands on and exhausting the care needs are, most people assume its the same as type 2, it's not even remotely the same, the care needs for a T1D child is around the clock, you dont get to switch off. I disagree with others that suggest your husband needs to work, your sons care is full time.We also have an autistic child so also understand how that intensifies things, carers need time to recharge too otherwise they will suffer carers burnout, adding more work ontop of care is not wise.

3k is not loads and you have high outgoings. Assuming you're on minimum wage? Aren't you entitled to any benefits?

"It’s madness and in the end it costs the taxpayer more but until the government recognise the financial strain placed on parents of disabled children there isn’t another option."

Completely agree with this - not just parent carers - but all family carers.

Paying family carers a decent amount would be the quickest way to simultaneously solve the social care crisis and save a bloody fortune in social care costs nationally.

On top of that it would also likely provide massive savings to the NHS as family carers would almost certainly spot health issues earlier (especially things like sepsis and UTIs) and also be better at preventing things from developing in the first place.

I would say it's hard to believe that it has never been looked at as a serious option - but sadly it is actually far to easy to believe - it is because benefits bashing has become somewhat of a national sport, so governments are terrified of doing anything that looks like huge benefit increases - no matter how beneficial to the economy and living standards of people.

Thank you for commenting, your right it is round the clock care never a peaceful night without the dexcom alarming. People really do not understand the burn out & care that goes into it unless experiencing it first hand.

Minimum wage is £25,396 per year full time which is £1,817.21 per month after tax. Two adults should have a minimum income therefore of £3,634.42 after tax and that’s before any child benefit etc.

The answer is clearly that you need to both work full time.

You would definitely get UC, have a look at entitled to. As a ballpark if you get high rate DLA it will be an extra 1k

It isn't the answer when disabled children are involved.