Learn to budget?

[Bigoldmoneypit]

I’m 35, earn 60k
I’m not a single parent although it feels like it sometimes…partner earns £120 a week so contributes £80. Unlikely to get a proper job, he’s practically unemployable, has quite bad depression, probably some personality disorder and can’t get out of bed before 12. I’ve accepted that’s how it is.

I currently live in a rented house, except I rent from a friend on a VERY reduced rate as a lodger. She’s doing us a favour as she had an empty house that needs completely redecorating (he can do it when he gets off his arse).

After bills but before things like food and credit card repayments I have about £1000 a month. As you can imagine by the end of the month it’s just gone. I pay my mum for childcare rather than my daughter be in nursery which will continue for a few years. I’m just desperate to buy a home one day as we have no stability. If my friend were to ask us to leave, we would have to cram back into my mothers house (not happening the year we spent there was hell) and I definitely couldn’t afford rental prices due to how much I pay her (£1000 a month).

My partner mows his way through snacks at an incredible rate so I’m fairly convinced the £1000 left over is spent on food and petrol.

Does anyone have ideas on how much I should budget to feed me, a man, a toddler, a 12 year old and two cats? We’re not paying bills so I need to take advantage of the situation and pay off £3000 credit cards and save if I can. Hopefully he will receive a 20k inheritance towards the end of the year which is a start of a deposit if he doesn’t spend it…

First of all tell him to get out and earn more if he wants to wolf down food constantly.
Next- write a list of everything you spend. See where you can reduce and add a bit of a buffer.
whatever is left pay things as soon as you get paid.

I find withdrawing cash and dividing by the number of weeks left over helps so i can physically see how much if left over. I spend less when I only have cash.

Are you claiming any benefits you may be entitled to?

That salary is roughly £3.4K after deductions so I don’t understand why you’ve only got £1K left to pay for your credit card repayments and for food.

If your credit cards aren’t on 0% interest cards then try and move them.

Why are you with this partner? What benefits does he bring to your life?

Once you have worked out a budget to stick to, get an app called Snoop. Its brilliant for budgeting. It links to all your bank accounts and credit cards and it learns where particular transactions get allocated to (e g. Tescos to the food budget, BP to the travel budget etc). It can be an eye opener as to where your money goes each month and can help you cut back in the right places.