Anyone else live on this?

[pinenuts75]

My rent has just increased,I’m single live alone I’ve worked out after I’ve paid rent, bills, and food I’m left with £175 for the month, does anyone else live on this?

If you are doing food for £100 a month 25 per week I don't think there's savings to be made and still eat sort of healthy. Try yougov for surveys they pay every survey but you have to get £50 but it's real money even twice a year that's Christmas budgeted for. You may find you can babysit lots of people would feel comfortable with someone who has had children of their own obviously you can't do late Fridays as you work Saturdays. It does seem lots of retail prefer several people on 16-30 hours rather than full-time

As an ex employment advisor, you may be eligible for a possible UC £300-400 pcm allowance. I haven’t work in jobcentre office for a while but doubt the core rules have changed. So if you work 30 hrs you’ll likely be treated as what was called then a ‘light touch’ customer so you’d have minimum interventions and any phone calls I did were all phone with this cohort. Also JCP can be a good place to start looking for a step up job in terms of identifying transferable skills, knowledge of job market, advice on any online courses you could take or volunteering opps you could do in your free time to progress yourself to a better job with more hrs. But you’ll probably have to be pro active and ask as there priority customers understandably will be the long-term unemployed.

So please do get in contact I think you can still make online applications. Only having less than £200 pcm a month as a singleton especially is tough. As a fellow single person albeit with much more disposable income left, I still feel a bit nervous with constant price rises so can only imagine how you must be feeling. Good luck!

McDonalds are also regarded as excellent employers with good career progression opportunities.

Even less for us, not even enough to cover food.

i sympathise with anyone struggling on minimum wage or thereabouts. A full time job or side hustle might be the way to go OP. Maybe dog walking, feeding cats whilst owner is away, helping an older person with their shopping?
Do you have any hobbies or interests that could be monetarised for extra cash?

I was reading that there’s been a huge growth in people having lodgers so maybe that’s a better option than sharing a house with several randoms. As you’re paying £750 rent for a one bed flat it’s likely in your area you could find someone wanting a lodger who’s charging £500 - £600 inclusive of bills. Have a look in the Spareroom website.

Not sure if this has been mentioned but since you live alone you can ditch the WiFi and just use your phone to hotspot. I pay around £12 per month for 200GB and I can stream films, do my work video calls, etc.

You say you work in retail so you will have transferable customer service skills.

I am sure you could find a second job to work three or four afternoons a week, maybe in social care work?

A basic calculation on the entitled to calculator indicates you could be entitled to approx £188 per month in Universal Credit.
Obviously I don't know your exact figures (eg it asks for how much you pay in pension contributions etc).
Have a look for yourself.

You NEED to apply for things like that, also try and increase your hours / change jobs / get a side hustle eg. Babysitting/ dog walking etc

I work full time as a civil servant and have £20 a month left after bills and shopping. I have stripped everything back as far as I possibly can

That's for gifts, savings, clothes, shoes, going out, house repairs, furniture replacement etc

It's seriously grim

Why?!

it’s absolutely there to help people out. You are working. Please claim for what you are entitled to.

49 is not too old to train, you need to have more confidence and put yourself out there.

You a also need to look after your appearance and look presentable at interviews, if you have let this go then start making an effort,

Some ideas:

1. Do you have a spare room - can you share with someone who can pay you a contribution?
2. Can you move and find somewhere with lower rent?
3. Universal credit - yes find out what you're entitled to
4. You need to work more hours. There must be retail work, cleaning jobs or bar work that you can do in the afternoon/weekend/evenings. My mum used to clean. She also worked in a fish & chip shop when I was young.
5. 49 isn't old! Can you think about doing a course or something to increase your employability?

How do you get by?

I pay £5.99 for my Netflix, it may be worth looking to down size a little

If that is after all bills and food it's not that bad surely.

I don’t pay a tv licence so I need internet to watch catch up etc

Do you get ads?

Warehouses literally take anyone with no experience. My adult DS complains all the time he has to work with agency staff with no experience and after they have worked there about 3 - 4 months they offer them permanent work if they are good and reliable workers.

Oh come on. All entry level jobs require experience ? I’d love to know where you are because thats very rare in today’s job market. I can understand if , for example, you cant do care work cos they all want early shifts and the busses dont start till 7 etc etc but it cant be the case that every vacancy requires experience.

Can you drop to the basic Netflix which is £5.99 a month? There are adverts but really not very many at all.

Are you applying though? If you've worked retail for decades, you are experienced in all sorts. Get some help with your CV, I suspect you are underselling yourself.
Otherwise some volunteering, or a course of some sort? If you're only working 30 hours you do have the time for this stuff.

As you are free in the afternoons you could see if anyone is looking for afterschool childcare/help? Picking children up and taking them home/feeding them/making sure homework is done sort of thing?

You can’t afford food?