£180 a month

[brodiee]

For all groceries, toiletries, my son's clothes nappies etc, trips out, food when out (although will now probably have to take my own). So £45 a week.

Is it doable? Thinking of quitting my small part time job which generates £300 a month but has very early starts (4am!) and I'm struggling to look after DS and get up so early...

Will have £180 a month still if I quit. £100 from my DH (that's all we can afford to spare from his salary) and £80 child benefit.

That sounds incredibly tight overall. Are there no jobs closer to avoid the train fare? Or could you extend/change the mortgage slightly to lower the monthly payment?

So yeah he only has £100 left over for me, nothing for himself and he takes his own lunch to work everyday

I’m a bit confused... that money won’t be just for you will it? That’ll be for his food as well, and your DS’s?

Have you created a plan of what that would like for food shopping. What about new shoes, hair cuts, prescriptions or replacing broken white goods.

My biggest concern would be inflation. Your budget is so tight I wonder how you cope WHEN the cost of gas/electricity/food and petrol go up.

We would struggle to make £180 last for a week though I appreciate different size family etc.

Have you checked if you're entitled to any tax credits op? The threshold for one child is around 26k.

I think long term living like this would be pretty miserable, have you explored all options work wise?

Sounds tough, hope it works out

Sounds too tight a budget. Long term anyway.

Stick with the job until you get something which suits better.

Is DS likely to be going yo school or nursery soon?

Chance of different shift pattern.?

I would try to press on for another 6 months where you are, pocketing as much as you can of that £300. Apply for as many jobs with better hours as you can, and keep on building up your buffer.

Then you can reassess the situation then with potentially a) an easier time with your son - or harder, b) a better job opportunity and c) savings you can use as a buffer.

We are a family of 3 and we couldn't live off that at all. My food bill is easily £65 per week, plus eating out very occasionally (pizza hut lunch on Saturday was £45 🤔).
I think you might have to stick it out a little bit longer, once you DC is at school it will get easier.

Don't see it, sorry.

When you say you have savings how much are we talking? If you have £1000 then I would say keep the job, if you have £5000 then consider if you would prefer to use that to supplement the £180 until you can find another, more suitable, job.

Are you absolutely sure you’d not be entitled to any benefits? That may help.

How is the train £500 a month?!

That's £6k a year

I'd be looking at DH to get a job with a cheaper commute tbh.

Feral, pretty common to pay that much when commuting into London from the commuter belt. But yes, it's a massive cost when money is so tight.

Keep going, grit your teeth. How long till he starts pre school? That’s free childcare when you could sleep/ switch your hours around etc? Do you make sure you go to bed v early at least?

Any chance you can re-negotiate the early starts or drop an hour 4-5am?

Do you get tax credits?

It would be far too tight to live on that amount. You need to look for a job where the hours are a bit better. What about an evening job three or four nights a week. Or even Saturday or Sunday. I don't think I could manage 4am starts. Sounds horrendous.

If you are literally talking about your shopping for the week, then I think you could do it on the £41.50, certainly for a little while. Thing being, do you want to - life gets quite mundane watching every penny if you don't have to.
Could you look for an alternative - say one night a week bar work or something - it would make a massive difference to the money you had available, and again, wouldn't need childcare to be paid for.