Renting as a single mum in London. Let’s team up!

[Kaisy123]

Single mum can relate to how difficult to rent privately as a single mum as they usually prefer couples as two incomes better then one. So I am looking to team up with another single mum to privately rent in Central London.
I have a young toddler, so ideally someone with similar age child, so they can play together and make friends.

I am currently working part time but want to go back full time, so if another mum also will work full time, we could help each other with childcare, cause childcare is so expensive. So I could stay with kids on my days off and she could stay on her days off, then we would need nursery only one or two days a week, which is much more affordable.

so please let me know your thoughts, cause I can’t see any other solution to rent in decent area and get back full time then sharing house with another mum. This way, we won’t need to stay on benefits (that prevent us finding good flat and won’t need to spend whole monthly salary on nursery).

I was looking, but could not find anything. If you happen to remember, please post it here, I will be checking. Thank you.

I do hope I answered your question, please read my last few posts. Thank you.

I lived with another women years ago. We both shift worked (full time) and were able to get opposite shifts. Worked a treat with childcare.

Not meaning to derail the thread, but I'm a single parent, 2 children, I earn £39,300.
I'm not entitled to any benefits except child benefit and single person council tax reduction. I don't have any savings.

I have to add, we are as single mums don’t have to only to look forward surviving, we can thrive, but uniting is a great option here. Basically if we connect with one each other, get along and find a place to rent together, we can live like other proper couples but without those emotional complications( of course childcare style etc has to be considered, but nothing in comparison when you live with a partner ), but we can make it work and make our lives easier and more organised. It’s possible, we just have to plan things properly and work towards our goals.

Thank you so much for sharing. It can work, at least fir a while. 💫

That’s ok, well done to you! If you want to team up, it can be a great solution to get more free time fir yourself and also less pressure when paying bills. Your salary might look good, but with 2 kids and rent and bills etc, it still not so much. Again, well done, it must be so hard. You are a star. Your kids will be so proud of you once they are old enough to understand.

Also, it’s good that you are not on benefits, as they are simply not enough. They are great to help people to survive, but with rising costs of living- not anymore.

I am sorry to hear that. If you earn 40k, but live with another person(house share) in zone 2, you get over £700 per month.

Do you get £700 in benefits if you live with another person in zone 2?

When checking the benefits calculator are you putting in that you live with another adult earning a wage? I don’t think you’d be getting £700 a month with 2 adults earning 40k each…

To get savings, the best thing is to have a side hustle- I have one. It dies make the difference, but not enough to save fir a house deposit yet lol. But that’s the goal. I work, I have small business, but being single mum takes lots of time snd energy. So trust me- you will get there. Kids will get older- you will have more free time on your hands, you will manage to start saving. But honestly if you team up with another mum- this can help you a lot- less rent to pay, less bills to pay, more free time fir yourself snd of course it’s nice to have someone who understands near by. 💪

It all depends… if you work full time, you won’t get £700 from UC. But if you don’t, you will have much less to live on. So working is so much better option. If you work full- time, I think you can get only about £200-250 extra, plus house benefit, so it’s quite good

If other adult is a single parent, you both can have extra £250 a month plus allowance fir rent( house benefit), so yes, it is quite good

By the way, housing benefit- depends on the place you live in. So in London it’s maximum 1,100 as I understand. So the rest you pay from your salary.

are you sure about those figures, re UC and earnings, while house-sharing ?
would you get any allowance for rent on those earnings ?
i'm not up to date, but am surprised.

I would never be interested in this as I have my own place but I am a totally lone parent with no one and I know what you me@an I struggle to find other single mums in the same Situation as most have a lot of help it’s like when people tell me to find single mum friends to swap babysitting with but most the father is involved so they don’t need to help!

How on earth are two single mothers with children going to share a two bedroom? Are you going to share with the other mother? Or your child? Cant really see how that would work.

Also- fairly sure your figures are wrong- what salaries are we talking here? And UC/benefits amounts?

Happy to proved wrong but this doesn’t add up at all to me.

Yes, as long as your savings below 16k

Exactly, good advice they gave you. It’s hard to find someone you get along with, but it’s possible. Just start looking. So many solo mums there, not only single mums. You totally can find other mums in similar situation, just keep looking.

Would another idea be just to get a female lodger, who likes kids? I did that recently and it was good because it helped pay bills and meant there was another person around, e.g. if I wanted to nip out for a few minutes.

Fair enough, let me explain.
if you have a two bedroom flat, plus living room, it’s great. So one room is fir you and your baby, another is fir another mum abs her baby. Living room can be a space fir kids to play together, kitchen can be a space to work from home (if one of you do so).
I did calculations, so if you earn let’s say, 1,700, you still get a top up from UC plus housing benefit( as long as your savings below 16k), so the other mum gets the same. So let’s count together, let’s say you earn 1,700 working full/time and housing benefit is 1,100, that’s 2,800. Ok , of course if you rent a room with another mum, they will take that in consideration. So let’s say, house costs 2,500, so it’s 1,250 per person a month. Your housing benefit will pay 1,100( if you are in London), check benefits calculator. So you have to put from your salary only 150 per month. The rest of your salary goes to bills, food etc. If you live with another mum and your shifts for work are different ( like my friends-a couple, I talked about before), you need to pay for childcare only 3 days a week( considering you are working full-time). So if you work full-time in London, average full-time salary is about 2,000. So for 3 days of childcare you are(in London it’s about 100 pounds a day- so 1,200 a month, and I am taking most expensive nurseries here), so you are left with 800. So min rent -150, you left with 650. That’s fir bills and food , but don’t forget you can share it with another mum. So yes, it’s not gona be easy, but surely better then living purely alone and on benefits. You can always have someone to look after your little one and get free time(maybe to do side hustle), and you can live Central and be able to put your children into a very good school. So yes, my answer it’s possible, not easy, but in my opinion it’s better then living alone and far away from best schools, hope this answers your question.

Could you please explain in more detail what it means?- female lodger? Thank you.

So what happens if the children don't get on? What happens if the other woman has a completely different parenting style? What happens when you come home tired from work and your little one isn't well and you have to look after the other child as well? You'd have to get on incredibly well for this to work and I think it would work best if you weren't both broke, e.g. so that you could hire a regular cleaner.

And you be in a bedroom with your child which means that in the evening only place you can go to is the communal living room. Sometimes you might not want that, you might just want some time on your own.

By the way, salary of 1,700 is the lowest I took into consideration. If you get job in inner London, it will be higher for sure.

Thank you op for this info. I had no idea that if you earn 1600 per month and live in central London you can get 1100 in housing benefit. I’m going to pass the information on to my niece.