How much will I need to live on?

[MeImAllSmiles]

Could really use your help here. Looks like I'm heading to be a single parent. I have two dds and no job. How much will I need to live on, renting around here is about £750/month, no idea about council rents, would I be better off in council rent? How much should I allow for bills,shopping etc. Any input gratefully received.

Hi
I am sorry to hear that you may be joinng our ranks but hope it will be for the best for you and your DDs.

Go and speak to the Lone parent advisor at the Job Centre as they will be able to advise you.

I work full time so it is a bit different but I totally struggle to pay the mortgage and child care on my salary. I get some tax credits to help with the nursery.

I was v surprised how much I spend on food just for DS and me as I cook all our meals and don;t use takeaways etc but I spend well over £50 a week! I thought it was half that until I ended up skint every month and actually added up all of the receipts.

Bills vary a lot but I pay £105 council tax, £75 for power, £22 for phone, so I woudl say another £200 a month on top of the £200 for food.

I only just scrape by and that is with NO clothes for me and charity clothes for DS.

I would think that council housing woudl be cheaper. I am sure someone else will be able to give more info.

MIAL if you are intending to claim benefits then you will get in the region of £170 per week for you and your daughters, then if you rent you can claim housing benefit and council tax benefit, you will unlikely be able to walk straight into a council property unless you are homeless and then you would be put into a hostel, your best bet would be to either see a lone parent advisor or go to the CAB and ask for a calculation to be done, were you responsible for paying bills where you are at the moment ?

www.entitledto.com gives a good idea of how much benefit you would get.

Your best bet will be staying where you are and getting Housing Benefit rather than waiting for a Council place...they're very hard to come by.

Myself and my 2 Dc lived in 1 bedroom at my parents house for 3 years with medical problems and were told we still didn't have enough points for a house.

Eventually I managed to save up enough for a deposit on a privately rented house and applied for housing benefit and council tax benefit.

The above link gives a rough guide on these too.

As for living expenses I managed to shop for food for myself and 2 Dc for £30-40 a week.

Hi, what Tinkerbel6 says is what you would have a week to pay all your bills and buy your shopping with if you claim benefit. In which case you may be better off in a council property, you wont pay any rent or council tax.

If you work 16hrs or more you wont be entitled to benefit but will get reduced rent and possibly a small council tax reduction. You would have about the same income on 16hrs as on benefit (ime).

Working 30hrs allows me enough to be able to live reasonably okish and not worry about paying the bills as long as im careful. The best thing I ever did was to set up a budget type of account. There's no finding huge amounts when the bills come in. I have to pay about £5 a month for the pleasure but for me its worth it to not have the worry. hth.

Thank you for the replies, obviously will have to do a lot of research before I make any move.

Hi - It's maybe a bit misleading to give you figures as everyones circumstances are so different but I manage a fairly good lifestyle working 16hours. My DD doesn't go without the important things and anything else we manage is a bonus. We are even managing a weekend away soon!!

One word of advice is to be really aware of what you are spending. I kept a detailed account of EVERY penny for about 3 months to see where money was going. It realy helped me to cut back my spending on the less important things and assess my priorities.

I also did a spreadsheet of all my unavoidable outgoings and planned ahead for the year so I knew what I had coming out, and when. That way I also know how much I should have left for extras/savings. The key to the whole single parent thing is ORGANISATION!!!! Best of luck to you and your dd's. You'll be fine. xx

Be careful on renting - I've been caught paying £600 pcm for a 2 bedder ( normal in my area) but the council insist that the ceiling for HB for 2 bedroom houses is £475 ( couldn't get a studio flat for that!). So the difference I have to pay myself and would do even if I were on IS.
Coucil waiting lists are forever in our area but put yourself on the list ASAP, you get points for every year you're waiting.

Having researched my position before making the final decision to be single (callous but true) via the CAB, entitledto, Tax credits phonecentre, websites, Job Centre etc - I thought I would be better off than I am now. There are a squillion loopholes that can reduce your HB payments seemingly and tax credits estimates seem to come in regularly over what actually happens later on! So when you do your sums, leave a wee margin if you can, I know it's hard but it won't be such a shock when the actual payments are awarded.

Bear in mind if you work 16+ hours a week you will also get to keep whatever your ex is due to may in child mainetance. If you are on benefits you don't get to see much if any of it! However this may then affect your Council tax and housing benefit.

I work 18 hours a week, at above mimimum wage rates and am very lucky to have a good employer who is very flexible with my hours as long as i get my work done. However i have high travel and parking costs and get very little support from family. I am broke most of the time, but I am much better off than i would be on benefits and can now afford to run a car, which i need so i can travel to work, but also because i live in a rural location and it's the only way to get to shops etc. However i do not have money to buy clothes, makeup, get my haircut once a year, very rarely go out and can never afford to have friends over for a meal.

I choose to spend the little extra money I have on activities for my son and doing things at the weekends. My son's clothes are mostly supplied by his paternal grandmother and i am very grateful to her for that. There are still some weeks where money for food is scarse and i have to not eat to get by. Fruit and veg is a luxury in our house and we eat a very limited diet, mostly pasta as it's cheap and filling!

I keep to a very strict budget. I have calculated my annual bills for everything and have a max of £40 a week for shopping for the two of us including toiletries and cleaning products. I put money into a seperate bank account each month to cover the bills (electric, council tax, water, phone..), child care, car expenses, and i put a bit aside each month for xmas. When the bills come in i then have the money to pay for them and when the car needs its service or road tax etc i know i have the money there. You have to be very disciplined and not take the money to pay for clothes or school shoes etc as you need it for those bills. I often moan i have no money for things, yet i have money in my savings for the bills. You have to regard it as seperate money and not be tempted to take it when you have nothing for food! I know i can not afford to take that money for other things because if i allow myself to get into debt i will never be able to get myself out of it and i can't afford to pay for loans or overdrafts.

Being a single parent is not easy. But working now means i can afford to heat our house and run a car and my son has swimming lessons now. On benefits i could not afford to do those things and in the winter we had to sleep in one room just to keep warm and i regularly had to go without food. Now it's much better but still not as I would want or like or choose to live.

Get as much advice as you can, work out your budgets and be realistic about what bills cost and what you can afford to go without. Be prepared to have to tighten your belt and go without and expect your ex to cause a fuss about paying towards the children. If you're the kind of person who can't live without your tanning bed sessions, getting your nails done and likes to shop and go out at weekends and enjoys takeaways and eating out then you will find it very hard to get by. Think about what is really important for you and the children though. I wouldn't advocate staying in a relationship you are unhappy in and is not working, but i wouldn't want anyone thinking being a single parent is easy.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.
Gilly

Does anyone know how much HB i would approximately get for a 2 bed property in Newmarket, Suffolk? Im waiting on the council at the moment but am very eager to make a fresh start with DD as still living with husband,. Ive been looking at properties for £650, but when I went to the CAB they calculated it to roughly £60 a week, which to me is ludicrous. Thats £240 off £650, which leaves me £390 to pay.