£412

[headaches80]

Hello everyone.

I’m quite meticulous with budgeting.
mortgage rate has gone up again. I’ve just done my forward planning calculation.

After all bills/ direct debits/ standing orders (all essential stuff like mortgage, energy, c tax, TV licence, life insurance) I have calculated that we have £412 per month left.

This is for food, clothes, gifts, any school trips and unexpected bills. also to include petrol.

I’ve not included the insurance (car, home/contents) etc which I tend to get annually (I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it).

I spend around £30 a fortnight on petrol (getting to work). I downsized my car to pay for Christmas.

How are you splitting your £412 in my shoes? This is joint income, 2 adults and two teens. Both adults working full time.

I’m thinking

£200 shopping
£60 petrol
£40 unexpected/ school trips
£100 left over (will get eaten up no doubt)

its not a lot :(

I know I can sell stuff on Vinted. I don’t have loads of extra to sell and intend to save this option for use ahead of birthdays etc, I made £200 recently ahead of sons bday.

I’m thinking of ditching the TV usage (making licence fee not nec).

if Martin Lewis is correct, I’ll save 17% on energy bills. This will save me an extra £42.50

Any extra income streams or savings that I’ve not thought of?

LOL.

Sorry but none of this adds up.

If OP has a 17 year old I suppose they must be at least 33 (assuming you had him at 15!)

If bills have gone up £600, your mortgage interest must have gone up by about £300 pm? So it’s either pretty sizeable or not over a long term, both of which can be changed.

But then also what actually is your take home if bills going up by £600 only leaves you with £400 for everything?!

If both are teachers working full time, earning £36k with post 2012 student loans you’d be paying about £60 per month in student loans - not hundreds like OP says. Less if you’re a newly qualified teacher, which is possible.

But OP says a 6% pay increase per month is £60 - which means her pay is £1,000 per month. Which is £12k per year as no tax, NI, student loan due. So she’s doing what, 2 days a week?

Hmm.

It's a load of old twaddle

Honestly though OP, if you start changing details, then it starts to look shady and you shouldn't get annoyed at people questioning it.

If your children are in their teens and don't need childcare (like the other teacher-on-the-breadline thread currently ongoing) then it is unclear where the money is going. I'm also public sector, live in London on a very bog-standard salary with wraparound childcare to pay for, and I'm certainly not rolling in money, but nor am I needing a second job. If I did, in your situation, I would do babysitting - as a teacher (if that isn't a detail that has been changed) you would be snapped up, and it is basically an evening off your own home responsibilities.

I can’t believe the thread hasn’t been taken down. It’s offensive.

You obviously didn’t read what I posted. I was giving an example of what could be bought for £45, I also made it clear there was no fresh food included as it was food I was donating to a local food bank, food banks DO NOT take fresh produce. And actually there was milk in my shop.

Of course she CAN go to a food bank. The whole point of many community food banks is to help families who are struggling, op IS struggling. There would be no questions asked at any of the local food banks near me.

As for MLM it was a suggestion, it’s not for you to say op shouldn’t do it. I was giving her suggestions which is what she’s looking for. Regardless of how people feel about MLMs they do work for some people who need to boost their income. It should be OPs decision if she wants to look down that route.

Re tutoring. Look into online instead of in person. I knew someone in your situation who tutored students in Hong Kong (I think). He fitted it in easily around his other commitments, and was getting around £40/hour four years ago. No insurance or anything. Just needed a laptop and good Wi-Fi. I wish you all the very best, it's a dire time.

Leaving out mortgage payments means it is too hard to really ascertain where the OP money goes. It’s often the biggest chunk unless people have nursery fees.

Plus tuition fees were 1k per annum till 2005, I think as the eldest child is 17 it wasn’t too wild an assumption that the poster may have had 1k per year fees. I am assuming the poster probably went to University as a mature student and paid 9k PA.

To fully understand a financial situation the age of people or at least the year they took their mortgage is very relevant. I’m also in the Midlands, my house cost 62k in 1999. House two doors down that’s exactly the same sold for close to 300k in 2021.

@Fairyliz I think you may be on to something

Almost everyone loses money in MLM. The "success" is nearly always smoke and mirrors. It's a profoundly irresponsible suggestion to someone in financial difficulties

Agreed

Looks like the OP has taken her toys and gone home after some perfectly reasonable questions (given that the numbers quoted simply don't add up).
However, if you are still reading, I would suggest completing a Statement of affairs here to understand where are your money is going.
https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

Hope they aren't maths teachers

Offensive how?

What?

My MOT is c£60 a year, insurance £240 a year, tax £110 a year, maintenance say £300 a year. Nothing like £300 a month!
I don't pay for breakdown cover, which I guess most people do.

Re the OP - I'm not sure why people can't just accept this is what she has left per month and help with the question she asked, rather than trying to pick over everything she had said. So what if she has a "massive mortgage" on a five bedroom house? Her choice. She's asking how you would allocate the left over money. If that question doesn't interest you, move on.

Personally I would use some of the "just on case" money in month one to shop in bulk, at Costco, or one of those Asian supermarkets. If the kids like pasta etc it's much cheaper in bulk. As is rice etc.

Also, places like B&M sell quite a bit of food and are sometimes cheaper, but you do need to do the research.

Where I live with have a community pantry, you have to be on the ball to get a slot, and it's not free, but it's stuff like four pints of milk for 10p, a tray of pot noodles for 30p, etc. They do also do hot meals but I'm not sure quite how that works. Search on Facebook for anything local to you.

@Crayfishforyou security

Hello - there are sites such as MyTutor where they act as an intermediary and tutoring is done online. My son does this, and as far as I know you are covered by the Agency's insurance. HTH!

To you any all the horrible, dismissive and judgey posters… get a life!

and….

I never said my husband was a teacher, I said I was.

I was a mature student, not everyone goes to uni at 18! My student debts are significant.

I work full time. I’m in a very small school. Budgets are poor and schools cannot afford pay rises. Again, read the news.

I live in a 4 bed, semi detached, ex council house in a pretty poor estate in a very nice town. Yes, we could downsize. Likely to mean we move area completely and spend so much in fees that the benefit is negligible.

My mortgage payments have just risen to a smidge over £2k a month. We got what they called an ‘income stretch’ mortgage. I don’t think they do these anymore. This means our interest rates (at a % over the variable) are shockingly high. This is in exchange for borrowing more than we should. This was, in hindsight, stupid. But it’s done, we could easily make the payments a decade ago.

council tax has risen by £160 a month
water has risen
energy has risen by £150 a month
petrol has gone up
food has gone up (again, read the news).

in good news for all of the lovelies, I’m booked to babysit for a local lady on Saturday night. 6 hours at £10 an hour

A M3 teacher, paying tax, NI, pension contributions and student loan contribution takes home £1804 a month.

That's really shocking that 2 professionals working full time could be living in such relative poverty.

I'm sorry you've had some nasty responses. I'd probably start a similar thread on moneysavingexpert forums as I think you'll get positive advice on both cutting costs as well as boosting income. I appreciate you've had some helpful advice here too, but you probably would be better posting a full income and expenditure and letting people help with that, as you must be able to make more savings there to free up more cash for food and some level of treats.

412 quid a month just isn't sustainable. It might be ok the odd month, but it would be miserable living like this month after month. Plus you're screwed the minute your roof leaks, or car needs repairing. It may be that you need to do something with your mortgage, or maybe somehow increase your income, or even relocate, but you would probably benefit from taking advice on your current budget.

Council tax up by £160 a month? It is capped at 4.99% increase outs is £££ and has increased by £30 a month (to £295). The mortgage sounds unsustainable tbh and if it’s combined with an expensive council tax bill perhaps moving is a better option ?

Fair enough OP. Sorry for being rude before.

I’d assumed 2x salaries of £35k plus. And from your children’s ages, your ages were >40.

Presume she meant £160/year. Ours is up £10/month.

To add. Despite my earlier flounce, I’m a pedantic person. I’ll prove the naysayers wrong. I’m not looking for sympathy nor political debate. I merely asked advice and I had an awful lot of great advice, so thank you for this.

I’ve got some avenues to explore. I’ve booked a mortgage advisor and have some babysitting in the pipeline.

I have just done the calculations AGAIN. it was a typo earlier, my c tax has gone up £60/ month (not £160). This doesn’t impact the monthly total as my initial calculations were correct.

I’ll post a full income/ expenditure tomorrow.

Yes, I’m being exploited at work. I know this. I’ve worked for the last few years for love of the role and genuine vocation. This hasn’t mattered to me until now, as we were surviving ok. I could probably get a pay rise if I move. My estimation of £60/m increase if teachers get their 6% was an estimate. Don’t forget that tax, NI and pension also come out of any rise (to the person that said a £60 increase would equate to £1000/m salary). If my estimate was incorrect then I’m delighted.

I have some historic health conditions. These don’t impact my ability to work now but do mean that life and critical illness cover are important, and at £112 month are more than most.