£-11 and a week to payday.What do you do?

[Familysquabbles23]

Obvs I eat out of freezer, tins etc, but what other things do Mners do?

Am fortunate bills are paid and have fuel for this week.
Dreading next month as Council tax and water bills restart and gone up.
Nursery fees up.

Do you mean you have £11 or you are already overdrawn £11. Its definitely difficult but brilliant that your bills are paid. Do you have a credit card for emergencies?

Eating from freezer definitely. Would you be able to avail of a food bank?

It sounds really stressful. How many people have you to feed?

I try to budget out everything so I know where I'm going (petrol) and what I'm eating so I can make it last.

And then I look ahead to next month and try to work out a full daily budget so I know what exactly I'm working with and if there's going to be a shortfall. Anything additional I'd be trying to save even if it's just a fiver. I'd be looking across my spending to see where I could make even little savings like how much am I using my car, what free things can I take ds to that I don't need to drive to, what brands am I using in my shopping and how much food waste am I generating.

I'm in a sightly better financial position now but before I also took on additional shifts in work and tried to pretend the pay for them didn't exist so I could keep it for a rainy day.

Do you have a partner who contributes to your household or kids old enough to work and contribute?

Also would anywhere local do cash in hand payment like a takeaway or similar that would be looking? I've sold things on ebay before as well when I've been really tight and it been enough to get me through the last week to payday. Foodbank if you need it is a good shout as well.

Is this normal for you to be overdrawn before the end of the month?
maybe you could take on a second job? I did this for a few years to keep head above water.
have you tried looking at all your utilities on uswitch to see if you can get a better deal?

if you have nothing till next week and no fresh fruit or veg remember frozen veg is just as good, and probably fresher in most cases

What food have you already got in? How many do you need to feed?

Have you reviewed your budget to account for the increases in bills? You need to know if this is a one off and can be managed by cutting non essential spending or if you now have a deficit in your budget that will need bigger changes to cope with, unless it it very short term, eg when the nursery fees reduce.

You can cope with a small deficit as a one off by eating from the cupboard but not if you're short hundreds of pounds every month and it's more constructive to try and deal with it before it builds up into being thousands of pounds of debt after struggling for months on end.

Check if you're entitled to (an increase in) UC.

Cut any non essential costs (subscriptions you don't use, cheaper mobile, broadband, utilities etc)

Seek help if your budget doesn't balance.

Moneysaving Expert will walk you through it.

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

Finances are limited bc there's 3 of us, only me earning, DC is not yet 3.
We are not entitled to UC, DH has a job but can't work due to illness and isn't entitled to SSP as already claimed 28w.

DH is not capable of looking after DC more than a couple of hours except on a really good day, but I can't speculate when a good day will be, which makes working extra difficult, nursery can't cover extra hours. What I'd earn on an extra day would be very limited by the time I'd paid childcare but I would do it if I could.

We don't have family support.
We currently get Tax free childcare 15 hours plus the 20% uplift, but that will probably stop after June as DH won't have earned enough to qualify unless he's been able to get back to work.

I like the idea of a daily budget but when I'm in OD already that's tricky, yes for next month though.
I do have access to £500 credit card at walking interest rate but my cheaper cards are maxed out.

Looking at long term downsizing but that's tricky short term due to costs.

Minimising waste, cheap meals from scratch, searching for offers on fresh stuff, Vinted and eBay for kids clothes.
Tried Olio but the collection times are awkward with kiddo and I could have bought the stuff myself on reduced shelves.

.

I would probably do nothing. Your bills are paid, you have fuel and food, so in that situation I’m not sure I would need to do anything other than wait until pay day.

In the longer term though, I would be looking to work out where I could make savings/earn more

Can he not get new style esa? It’s based on national insurance contributions and is not affected by your earnings. www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-employment-and-support-allowance

Have you got stuff you could sell ?
What's your DH prognosis,? This sounds like a stressful situation

Try turn2us there may be charities that would give you a grant.

You can claim uc based on income, you don’t need to be unemployed to claim. It does depend on your income of course.

Have you actually checked if you can get UC? About half of people getting it work. Use one of the benefit calculators on gov.uk

have you made a meal plan for the week?
can you sell anything?

Maybe, I think I'll try and talk him into it, he hates the thought of being examined by DWP..

Thanks, but we are not entitled to UC, I have checked, unless I dump him and live with little, then we both would be entitled to Uc lol

Yes to meal plan, I should do more though, into next week so I can stretch next month's pay.

If it helps, I think most assessments are still being done over the phone. It would definitely help you out if he’s eligible.

Dh prognosis is .... literally...
despite him.living with massive pains, they either don't know how or can't treat him, other than pain killers.
He tried to go back to work but occ health won't pass him, so we are stuck. Pending a hospital appointment but no idea when that would be and after 3 years of pain struggles I doubt it will help. He just gets more symptoms and no respite.

He usually plateaus for a bit then improves then crashes again..

Sold a few things, but nothing much worth selling.. after 3 years of on/off employment it's starting to get desperate.

It doesn't make any sense that you'd be able to get UC without him in the household if he isn't currently earning.
Unless he's got a bunch of savings he's not sharing, in which case you've got a dh problem

UC works by first adding up all the elements you'd be entitled to, and then deducting an amount for earnings, other income and savings to come up with the final UC entitlement. As a couple, you'd have slightly higher initial entitlement than a single person would, so if you'd have UC entitlement if you were single then you also have it as a couple.

So he would rather his family went without?

No I think he'd rather work tbh but it's not happening.

Hey OP

Any chance he could work from home. Even a few hours. If he was honest at the interview and explain he would need extra consideration. I've regularly had staff who need flexibility. As long as they are honest and trust worthy.

You can call your council and ask to not pay council tax this month and spread the rest of the payments over 11 months not 10. You can ask for a break but you do have to pay it back

I'd go to my local community fridge for bread and fruit ( don't need a referal) and buy tins of beans. Had to do this myself when my cars clutch went. Actually I also set up Monzo pots to put £20 a month aside for brakedowns which doesn't cover a clutch but even if I only three months so £60 it takes the edge off. I also went to the community fridge for six weeks after and put the saved money towards paying off the overdraft.

Tedious but it's better in hindsight to put money aside when you have it to spare than find it when your broke. A few months of extreme frugal living and we was OK again.

Our money only covers three weeks out of four so the last week is always difficult. I do surveys on Prolific which bring me in cash to PayPal and we live off that.