Right, we are already at the bone, HOW can we afford 3 kids, and a car to transport them in, on one income? HOW?

[fillyjonk]

We are bascially breaking even every month

We hardly have extravagent lifestyles.

We cook everything from scratch, though I accept there could be less strawberies and more reuse of leftovers.

We buy 90% organic

All kids clothes, and most of ours, are handmedowns or from ebay/charity shops. Ditto most toys etc.

We use reusable nappies etc.

Holidays-camping, or with grandparents

Have already shopped around for cheapest utilites / insuance etc - ta Martin's Money Tips

I want a very safe car with 3 x ISOFIX seats, this is non negotiable, I am utterly utterly neurotic about car safety. This looks like the fiat multipla and whoa they are expensive.

Plus also-there WILL be another mouth to feed, clothe, etc.

what about keeping the car you've got (£120 a month - wow! i can't believe that somehow) and then hire a car when you have to go out as a family together?

i DO make my own soap! but its not really cost effective. i use gloop and so forth.

yeah am going to have to look into part time work. starbucks has always appealed. free coffee....Its that I cannot predict in advnace the hours I can work, I mean not even a few days in advance.

I can do crafty stuff. Its finding the TIME.

i am worried by this no make up and no haircuts

i am not that vain but

i am already resigned to no clothes

i am no a lanky 6 footer with perfect skin

i NEED my feminine fripparies

no NEW clothes i mean

re: time

not socialable, but i find i'm more productive in the morning, so i go to bed when the kids go to bed and wake up at 5 or 6am to do the stuff i want to do. bonus is it's daylight and so can even get out in the garden if need be.

i don't do it every night, but it is nice to have 5 mins to myself to sort out paperwork, mess around in the garden, go on the computer.

if you do home-schooling could you offer tution at the local comp.?

fillyjonk - Is the Isofix really necessary?

The reason Isofix seats come out as safer on the Which reports is because they eradicate the possibility of the carseat being fitted incorrectly. It's not that the seats perform any better in a crash situation. If you can't have Isofix, just make sure your carseats are fitted correctly and don't move them around.

We have a Concorde Ultimax for DD2. It is read and forward facing. It is a two piece car seat so the seatbelt threads across the bottom shell and the seat part clips firmly on top. The carseat is completely secure. There is no movement, not even a cm.

Not sure if this is possible for you but I work in a restaurant 3 evenings a week (fri, sat, sun) and get not a bad hourly wage plus tips - I also get a free meal to take home which is enough for DH and myself so we save on shopping too!

I am also doing a full time degree online (not sure how I find time but I am passing) which I get roughly £400 per month in student loan money (term time) - I am in Scotland though so it might be different for you.

filly does your DH work weekends as well?

"It is most definitely possible to live well with 3dc and 1 income. I've been doing it now for a few years - granted we live in the country and dh has a good job. " Well yes, the size of the one income will have absolutely everything to do with whether it is possible or not - and whether car ownership in such a situation is possible!

Nappyaddict - thanks for confirming that Freecycle stuff gets sold on e bay !

Good luck, FJ.

Filly start a bark sucking empire

I will send you my manual

(who gives a toss where freecycle stuff ends up?)

Filly I think that you are probably not near the bone compared to a lot of people here, so mainly you and DH will need to change your thinking... e.g. not spending £100 quid in Clarks

selling freecycle stuff on eBay is Against The Rules

Register as a childminder for after-school or school hol care? Run craft workshops as a holiday project and charge in the school hols? Get DH to do loads of overtime - or get a job with a company car which could be a Multipla...Have a swapping arrangement with another Home Ed family, and each have a whole day off in which to do paid work? Share a 2nd hand Multipla with another family and share costs? Take in a lodger? Or ironing?

HIRE PURCHASE!

we're broke too but we got a new car when i was pregnant with ds (well old but very good nick) and the repayments are very affordable.

will read rest of thread now and be very embaressed when 200 people already said this

Stupid rules, the idea is that you don't dump it in landfill, who cares if Colin down the road takes your old computer and spends 3 days dismantling it and recording the part numbers and then spends 1 week listing them on Ebay to sell them for 79p a part?

hmm?

oh sorry - you have already crossed off CM!

he works some weekends, yes. And that work is unpredictable. Its the unpredicatbility that is the issue. He does more than a 40 hour week easily, plus an total 2 hour commute (no we can't move)

i am very aware that there will be people worse off than me, btw. But I do all the obvious cost cutting stuff. And I do it partly so that I CAN buy my existing kids properly fitted shoes, at least while they are small.

I think I do not want to compromise on things for my kids, like safe cars and well fitted shoes, up until now I havve JUST held it together financially but this is going to blow a big hole in all that.

can he get cheap fares/lift-share/yearly transport pass?

does he take packed lunch/thermos/iced-drink (freeze water bottles) and take with him?

does he get freebies from work? bonus', overtime? company car?

can he work while on public transport, therefore doing overtime?

you will be able to manage have three children, you just need to plan, compromise, plan. we do it and i work fulltime (sole income £22,000 a year), we have two cars and at least one holiday a year away from home.

mp I think it is actually ok to sell it on, if you are up front about it

then people can sift through their replies and decide who they want it to go to

some people want it to go to a charity, etc

agree in principle about landfill but when other people would like to have and use the item it can be annoying to suspect people are just snapping everything up to eBay it

some people are not at pc very frequently and may miss a chance to respond, whereas there have been cases of people setting up auto replies so that they are always first to bag things like laptops, etc

I think it is not in the corking spirit of freecycle to grab stuff other people might want, purely to sell on eBay

I think that the necessity of 'well-fitted shoes' is a lovely myth spread about by Clarks, who I have found to be the worst fitters in the bipedal universe

Shoe Express / Barratt's do lovely children's shoes including really nicely padded ones - I find them really soft and much more flexible than the more expensive branded ones.

As long as the shoes aren't tight anything is fine IMO - and once they get to talking age they will tell you if their shoes are comfy or not

I agree you can easily fit shoes yourself as well as Clarks do

probably better

I would see if there's some work you can do from home to boost income. I do music teaching, and it is really nice because dh's salary covers bills, so anything I make is extra spending money. The kids just look after themselves while I'm teaching, but I've managed to arrange it so there are only really 2 half hour lessons a week where they are not 'actively' supervised, and tbh Sportacus fills that gap quite nicely!