What is your monthly income ? How do you manage ?

[mummymcphee]

after tax my monthly income is £1800.00 or £450.00 per week and this is to feed and house me, my toddler and my parents. I get no maintenance from my ex despite contacting the CSA and because my job is just over the threshold for benefits I am not entiltled to any! My job would not be viable if I worked less than 30 hours a week. I have a loan and 2 credit cards which I have been using to pay for childcare approx £200 -300 per month.

My parents are retired and have rented their house out to come and live with me but are only able to manage DD twice a week as she is so active. They do help with food bills.

Should I be managing on this income...what do other single parents have to get by on ? Not sure how I am going to pay for Christmas.....

I am a lone parent on benefits with 5 children under 6,i recieve 3018 per month and 500 a month in maintenance from exh.

I know thats not going to go down well with some but its how much i get, and i am hoping that its short term,i would like to return to work when my youngest is 3 or 4 (shes nearly 1 now).

My rent is 1200 a month so that eats up a lot of it.Our food bill is also a lot although its gone down since exh has the kids 3 nights a week and one full day.

Before anyone sterotypes me we were married and he has a good job, im not a scrounger.

toocoolfor school. are you not effected by the benefit cap? i have 4 children and before i started working i was effected by the benefit cap. due to the high rent. mines 1100 a month.

I come out with 1176 a month. I get no benefits or tax credits. I pay 500 for rent and bills, 150 for my car and insurance. School costs me 120 a month in childcare and school dinners 75, I'm really struggling.

You should be able to claim some tax credits with that salary, moomooland.

No one here's going to do that, 5toocool (unless they are a twat). Your rent sound far too high

I live with someone, (looking for somewhere else) still have to pay half the bills, my kids not his, exH gives me nothing, three kids, work full time ad lookin for an evening job to help me through, complete nightmare!

would depend where tocool lives. its probably a private rent. mines private rent 1100 a month

mummy - I think if you could enquire about childcare vouchers that would help

I think it's hard to comment not knowing personal circumstances but I feel once childcare gets cheaper as your dd goes to school full time you are going to feel the difference. When is your dd due to start full time education?

Thanks for support everyone I have been away working and dealing with toddler meltdowns so sorry for lack of replies.

Anti DD is just 3 and birthday start of sept just after start of term so she is not entitled to early years funding till January. I agree that I should have used childcare vouchers .....perhaps the tax credits people could refer people to childcare vouchers when they assess you as not eligible for tax credits.

DD is due in full time education.....in 2 years time but I am going to talk to pre-school about her going up a year early. This is not for financial reasons but from her development.

Moomooland01 that sounds tough...I am guessing you are finding the csa as helpful as I am.

Is your rent very high Op?

I'm on just under £2k per month after tax and including maintenance from ex. However my monthly childcare costs are just under £1k and mortgage and other bills use up most of the rest. We do eat quite well, even though mostly made from scratch, I buy good quality food it's our only luxury. Most months I have to top up my income using savings from pre dd earnings. Hopefully when she's in school my childcare bills will drop and we'll have more money.

DD and I live in a one-bed flat with rent of 1300 per month. We live centralish (London), because the commuting cost of living further away would be almost the same. Childcare comes in at 850. My take home pay is 1800, tax credits 450, maintenance 300, child benefit 80. Thankfully my parents are very generous to us, and I am naturally frugal. Holidays abroad, savings etc will have to wait til we get free hours at nursery.

£1300 a month, my self and Dd 5, (no debt other than tuition fees that won't be getting paid up anytime soon). We live on the East coast so cost of living isn't very high, I don't drive which saves a lot, walk pretty much everywhere. I work 25hrs a week term time only so no childcare cost. I get no help with CT and pay £200 a month rent for my 2 bed flat (£80 a month HB). I make sure we have 1 holiday a year - was camping at a nearby festival this year and both had an amazing experience.

I get 1400 a month, part wages part tax credits (no maintenance). It is hard to calculate a cash flow as it goes up and down, tax credits seem to stop in nov and then pay me a lump sum in July despite the fact I'm earning a flat £12k per yr . I'm very lucky in that I have no mortgage/rent but I have some debts that are a little over 200 a month and childcare around 350. Things are ok, i don't go on hol or have many new things but am very lucky that my mum likes to get clothes etc for DS.

It does sound like your parents living there are the issue OP. Can you very nicely tell them to go home? Maybe the extra childcare would cost less than having them to live with you? Surely they at least had to pay bills and food while they were living by themselves? They could at least pass that amount to you, why should they be saving a nice pot of money while you descend into debt?

Singleandproud do you get no tax credits at all?

That was including my tax credits
£670 wages ( I only work term time so my wages are spread over the year), £400 tax credits, £80 CB and £130 child maintenance and £61 HB.

I get £165 a week wages £154 tax credits and £20 child benefit im lucky I live in a HA house my rents only £70 a week

After tax in get £1800 (plus £213 from the ex which is eaten up by credit card debt) I manage sort of okay on this but can't save any and I am like you earn just that bit too much to get anything. Thankfully I can work extra shifts when needed to pay for any outings etc.

I think its because you have 2 adults living in your house that are not paying their way tbh I think you need to tell them they are going to have to pay you rent. They are getting rental money from their property plus pensions so should be paying you some rent to be honest. Your electricity/gas bills will be higher not including the increase in food because they are living with you. I rent out my spare room for £435 a month (which pays for the loan taken out for my conservatory!) so without them their you could be earning that which would help you lots. My lodger is lovely too and stops it being so lonely.

I batch cook loads to cut down on food costs and shop in Lidl. Have pasta 2-3 times a week and buy up the reduced stuff to freeze. You need to go through you bills with a fine tooth comb.

This is something I need to address as I am not sure how I am actually going to cope!

Currently my monthly income is around £600.00 my rent alone is £495!

I don't get any benefits as the application process is complex due to me having finished studying in August, therefore tax year earnings are skewed.

I have no idea how I am going to afford to live

Puds, ring the job centre and make an appointment with the lone parent advisor, you can also visit cab for more advice. Yeah the application can be complex but if you don't sort it, you won't get anything. I know I have cried in the phone when sorting tax credits for the first time (it took forever), but it is tganks to that money that DS and I have been able to keep our heads above the water.

I work 16 hrs and get about £1250 pm between wages and tax credits after childcare is paid. My rent is paid fully by hb.
After all bills are paid im left with about £240 a week to live off which I can do very easily. If i dont need to buy 'extras' eg new shoes for kids, I can get by quite well on £100 and try and save the rest.
I have 2 kids.
Tbh im desperate to work full time, but id be worse off financially atm, I need to wait until youngest is in school.
You really need to get your parents to fully pay their way.