I don’t have enough money for food for the rest of the month

[Tiredasamf]

I know there’s lots of threads about this at the moment. But what the hell is going on. What is the world coming to. I’m stressing out!

we’ve lived quite comfortably for the last few years - not wealthy at all, working class family (total income of around £2,700 a month after tax) but have always been able to afford all bills, food, clothes etc for the kids and always done 1-2 days out a month, and been able to save a little.

with the rising costs of everything we are now in a situation where we’re struggling.

as of today, I don’t have enough money for the food shops for the rest of the month. Bills are all paid and there shouldn’t be any extra expenses this month. It’s just food shops and petrol left

we’re literally going to have to eat beans on toast or other things equally as cheap.

if it’s going to be like this every month I don’t know what we’ll do. How are we going to afford Christmas? No more days out, no more fun things, no treats, no new clothes (kids are young and grow so fast so that’s a necessity that we can’t even afford now)

It’s set to get worse too isn’t it. what the hell? What are you doing to save money or cut costs? Please give me all your advice

Have a look at the Moneysaving Expert Money Makeover.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/

Walks you systematically through all your incomings and expenses, with prompts how you can make a little extra or cut the cost. If you up your income and reduce the cost of a few things, it frees up money that could significantly boost your disposable income and make things feel a lot more comfortable.

Good luck.

@AloysiusBear haha don’t worry, he’s on the waiting list for the snip. Absolutely no more babies here!!

@BungleandGeorge I hadn’t even heard of that?! I’ll look into it, thank you.

@User463763636363 THIS! This is what I keep saying to people. We’re not on a low enough income that we get support, but we’re not earning enough to be able to afford life. It’s us middle ground people who often get forgotten and it’s so frustrating. We’ve lived a lovely lifestyle the last few years and now these price rises mean we’re suddenly on the edge and it’s so scary. The saying “you’re only ever 2 months away from being homeless” has never seemed more true!

@Tinytortilla this was in Asda. It was a 1kg packet of 15% fat mince. I tend to shop in tesco or Asda as I can do click & collect and I like the rewards systems

@2bazookas yes, but it’s not that simple. And it shouldn’t be this way. We aren’t earning any less! Why should we have to give up all the fun things in life and suddenly be stressing about feeding our children just so the big money makers can earn even more!

@BadgerLovesMash thank you for this and for taking the time to give so much advice!

@SleepingStandingUp exactly thank you! 🤦🏻‍♀️ It’s not as easy as me just getting a job when DH is home. I’d literally never sleep if I did!

Will definitely look into Olio, top cashback, £10 a day threads and all the survey sites. Literally every little helps at the moment! We also pay £24 a month on bank account fees?! I’ve tried to downgrade to the free account but there isn’t an option to so I’m definitely looking into changing banks

We already don’t buy alcohol, posh coffee etc, I don’t get my nails done, I last had my hair done in April, no lashes or anything like that. I feel like all our money already goes on the kids and doing things for/with them. I’m hoping we don’t have to start reducing these things as I’d feel awful, hopefully all these changes will help to avoid that.

Gosh there’s so much to think about.

Good luck with the job applications. They might make all the difference to your finances. You might also find that you enjoy the break from home and the kids. It might sound a bit far fetched that you could enjoy a cleaning job or a Tesco job but having something else to do outside the home might be positively enjoyable.

Not saying this is a bad idea, but just something's to be aware of (I used to drive for Amazon briefly).
The shift times advertised are for the delivery time only, doesn't include time to get to your route. Off the top of my head is was £36 for a 3 hour route. If you got given a route near the depot then it's fine, if you get given one an hour + away, your 3 hour shift suddenly turned into a 5+ hour shift (plus any parcels that need to be returned to the depot on top of that). Once petrol money has been deducted the 5+ hours didn't seem worth it so I looked for other options.
Not to put anyone off, but just wanted people to be more aware of the reality of it.

Charity shops and Olio for Xmas presents.

Actually look at Olio for food this month. I've just cleared my freezer of everything I'm not eating and that would feed a family for a week, meals would have to be fairly random though.

Look for a community kitchen / shop.

I joined my local one last week, it cost me £5 to join but I got £5 food in return.

@User463763636363 that we don't* get support I meant

I do surveys when the kids are in bed,and whilst it doesn't seem a lot,20p here and 10p there soon adds up.I save up the money in my PayPal account and transfer it straight to my bank account when I need to.I like the fact that I can earn just from my phone,when I have a bit of time to myself,and like someone else said,the money really helps out.My favourites are qmee and streetbees.
qm.ee/6TT34LY4LJMRW
onelink.to/streetbees with code 73773X if anyone wants to give them a go.

I made £3.20 with superpay.me earlier today,plus 75p from qmee, plus lined up some streetbees stories for over the weekend.Doing surveys really does help me out.
superpay.me/?ref=Babybear
if anyone wants to give it a try,and you get a small bonus to start you off.

OP on the bank account I have one with the Co-op bank, they are giving £50 to swap there atm, I think it might need to be a friend recommending so if can help with that you'd be welcome.

It has no bank charges and even pays me a little every month to use it.

Another thing I have used is a coupon app for online food shopping- regularly getting £20 off vouchers using this although sometimes needs a spend of £80-£100 I use one called Honey there is another called Coupert or could just google online codes. Iceland sends me emails this week was a £8 off one as well.

£24 a month on banking fees??!!! 😱

I have 2 current accounts without fees that pay me interest! Santander and Lloyds.

Most banks pay a bonus if you switch to them. Can be £100 or more.

Childcare was almost non-existent when my DCs were little. I used to work in the evenings, from 6-10pm, in a local factory. DH and I used to cross each others paths on the doorstep!
Is that something you might be able to do, perhaps?

I can’t see if this has been mentioned yet OP - but have you looked to see what f you qualify for marriage tax allowance? You could get a fairly decent rebate from that.

www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

Just an idea to make your food go further - £5+ for mince is a lot. Can you get to lidl? I paid £2.99 yesterday for mince that is fine for 6 with veg added (it served 4 adults anyway) I add mixed beans, chickpeas or similar to meat to stretch it - eg lamb mince plus a can of chickpeas is £3.50 (yesterdays price) add seasoning, chopped tomatoes, veg and serve with couscous. Hearty, flavoursome at £1 per head.

"Definitely need to find more veggie recipes, I got a pack of mince yesterday for a chilli and it cost £5.60 just for that!! For the 6 of us that would only last one meal."

"@Tinytortilla this was in Asda. It was a 1kg packet of 15% fat mince. I tend to shop in tesco or Asda as I can do click & collect and I like the rewards systems"

Do you think you're using too much meat? We're a family of 5 (3 teens and 2 adults) and we use 340g of mince in one meal between us. We never feel like it's not enough.

We have cut meat from our diets so much as the price is just getting too high to justify.Using red lentils,extra veg etc with chilli,bolognese etc.really reduces the cost,but if anything improves the taste,to me.

Can I suggest looking at relief work with your local authority, where I work they are willing to be flexible with hours as they need staff.
All kinds of vacancies, working in youth clubs, care homes, leisure centres, museums. Lots of evening or weekend stuff that can fit round working hours.

Ffs 🤦🏽‍♀️

So sorry for fucksaking you UserError012345, as it appears OP DOES have savings so doesn’t have to live off baked beans on toast at all! This one’s for you OP 🤦🏽‍♀️