If you're a single household, how much are you left with after all your outgoings have come out?

[Toinfinityandbeyond3]

I earn 25k, my monthly pay pays for nursery fees, food, bills, petrol, clothes for my DD and half of my rent, I receive UC childcare element and a partial contribution towards my rent. I receive cms from my ex of £300 pcm.
Every month I am over drawn 2 weeks after pay day, it's a vicious cycle I'm desperate to get out of.
I'm not bad with money, I just have so many outgoings.
My daughters cms money goes on half the cost of a contact centre which I'm court ordered to pay fortnightly, this equates to £90 every other week so I can't even use this to buy her anything.
I get paid on the 26th and I've had my daughters cms money go in and I'm still £200 overdrawn. My daughter has just started receiving her 3 year old funding so really hoping that makes a difference and I won't be in the red every month. I've reduced my overdraft from 1.5k to 1k over the last 12 months.
Just wondering how much disposable income others are left with from a single parent house hold?

To get out of the cycle, can I suggest you plan ahead. Organise a budget, cut back where you can. If possible allocate some treats... so the whole planning is worth while and you also have something to look forward to. Simple face mask or bubble bath nice candle?

Log every pound and penny. Commit to your budget, slowly you will see a pattern and habit of spending. Try to switch to own brands for cleaning products and batch cook food. Can you also do online surveys to bring in some extra income while little one sleeps?

Check you may be entitled to U Credit? Per Martin Lewis's show, some people could be eligible... Worth a check ✔

Also a single mum working and on UC. I have a mortgage so no housing support. After all bills inc. food and swimming lessons I have roughly £100 left for frivolous stuff. I try and save it for Xmas, birthdays, holidays and household emergencies but honestly it often gets wiped out if my dd needs new shoes, clothes, glasses etc.

If you are in UC have you opened a Help to Save account? You can save £50 a month for 4 years and the government gives you 50% extra as a bonus. I’ve saved £750 so far. It isn’t easy to access so I find it’s better.

Knowing what other people have doesn't help you , not a dig at you OP, but I never understand why people ask this question so often on here, it makes no sense.

As a PP says, you need to strictly review your budget, so you know what you have to pay compared with what's coming in. Don't forget to account for annual and irregular expenses.

Have a look at the moneysaving expert budgeting advice and do everything that is relevant, there's advice on how to get out of overdraft which is very important as the interest rate is so high.

My tip if you're disciplined would be to move your direct debits until later in the month and to use a credit card to pay your day to day spending like food and petrol/travel as it leaves the money for these in your account longer so keeps you out of overdraft and doesn't cost anything. Just set up a direct debit to pay the full balance off every month and treat the credit card payment like any other direct debit.

Don't otherwise change your spending or see the credit card as a gateway to free money. It's just a different payment tool that you can use to your advantage. Has the benefit that banks see credit card use like this as financially responsible, overdrafts are bad in their eyes, which is why they're so expensive.

Start here

www.moneysavingexpert.com/budgeting-debt-help/

Cut your credit card up and get it paid off ASAP. That's a costly exercise in itself paying the bank interest.
Live within your means packed lunches and frugal shopping but home cooking.
Only renew anything like clothing and domestic stuff as necessary.
Buy 2nd hand if necessary.
It's doable 🙂

Is there any way to increase your income? Either changing jobs or a side hustle? I do loads of surveys on my phone in the evenings while watching TV and with a bit of effort can consistently net £50/month from just that.

Having very tight control over your budget is essential - check out You Need A Budget. But ultimately it will be tight as your outgoings basically match your income so either you need to spend less or earn more if anything is going to change. I really sympathise, it’s not easy for a single mum especially with effectively zero financial support from the father. Can I ask why you’re the one who has to pay for the contact centre?!

£23.5K and Universal credit, child under 2 so no free hours yet.
I've got a help to save account and I plan on using my first bonus of £600 to pay off some debts.
I have 2 bank accounts, 1 for bills and one for spending. On payday transfer all the money for bills into the bills account and don't touch it.
I break by budget down into weekly to help, after bills/nursery and food shop.
I review my outgoings and decide what I can cut back on- buy things on offer rather than full price. Big shop at Aldi/farmfoods etc.
Clothes- buy 2nd hand.

Fuck & All

I am just about breaking even - but the list of things that I need to buy, which I can't afford, keeps growing (curtains, washing machine, etc). My income hasn't changed but the costs of everything have.I have no luxuries whatsoever - no skin/haircare expenditure, no social life, no holidays, I don't smoke or drink.
Last week I sold two Christmas presents I had received that I actually really liked.
I'm quite depressed tbh - this is just existing now.

Same here, older DC so no childcare fees apart from after school club. Earn marginally more but get less from ex. Pretty much minus every month. I pay a loan to local council as I borrowed deposit and first month rent and I also pay off a low interest loan I took for a car. Once those are paid off I really hope to break even each month. It's horrible working full-time, feel like I earn an OK amount and still struggle every month.

I have about £250 left for myself and DD (food, fuel, clothes, entertainment) after bills go out. I'll be debt free in 18 months which will make a difference to that figure but it's hard with just one income isn't it. I'm not in receipt of any other money except for child benefit. I've worked my way up to a reasonable salary over past 7 years so just need to hang in there! It was far dicier a few years back so feel like I've got more than I've had available in a long time.

Back in the day when ds was at nursery I was like you OP. My parents had to help regularly with a shopping order as I had no overdraft facility. Was really tough. I recall nursery being 1300 a month. When ds started to get the 3yr funding it helped, then school again helped. In the meantime I worked hard and moved up the ranks at work. I now have a good chunk of disposable income after bills, so hang in there OP. It gets easier.

Long term planning is the key, for me.

Draw up an excel sheet (or similar) that looks at your yearly costs and charts the income/outgoings across the year. That way, annual costs are not suddenly extras you need to find, but are part of the yearly balance.

Plus, if you can then carve out £20 left over each month you can see how that would add up over the coming year and beyond to help make things easier.

It also helps me really focus on spending only what I need. e.g. I used to spend £40 every 3 months to get the dog roomed. It never felt like. bit expense but over a year I could see it was £160 and over the life of the dog it would have been £2000+!! Suddenly, it wasn't worth it and I instead learned to do it myself.

But yes, it's tough and if you're keeping everyone safe and healthy then you're already doing a great job.

This month after bills and food travel etc I'm left with £400, I've put £100 into savings. So have £300. I need to get ds some new school shoes and I'm travelling on the train to see my mum at the end of the month so will probably have a bout £200 after those have been paid for. I had a pay rise in December and was just about getting by before when I had £200 spare each month, with no social life or real luxuries as all my spare money was going on ds. I'm lucky though that I have no debt.