Both work and we claim UC but still can't afford to live.

[Mocha1]

We have 3 kids, 2 who aren't at school yet, my husband and I both work 30 hours a week for charities so not highly paid. We also have childcare for part of the week and then juggle the kids between us the rest of the time (We don't want to work more as we dont want the kids in fulltime childcare). We rent and down't own. We claim UC but we are still really struggling to make ends meet. We really try to live to a tight budget but I have no idea how to lower our expenses any more.

Am I missing something? Is this normal? does anyone have any tips for saving money/ making more income somehow? I feel a bit at a loss as we keep dipping into our savings for just day to day expenses and we're nearly at the end of those.

Our income at the moment (I'm on MAT leave) - £3980
Outgoings- £4250

Do these outgoings seem like a lot for a family of 5 living in the south west? I've been going over our budget and I have no idea how to save any more unless we literally never bought another birthday present or went to a soft play ever again.

We have two children with a large age gap so we weren't paying childcare at the same time. We also didn't have a third child because we knew it would be a struggle and I needed to get back to work full time to ease our finances.

Often, what we'd ideally like and what we can afford, are two different things. If you can't reduce your outgoings more, then your only option is to increase your income. I'd look for opposite shifts or higher paid work.

Then you are deluded and do not understand how working population needs work

Lovely. Rather than name calling, perhaps you could explain?

Shall we just let every couple have three kids even when they can’t afford it? There are loads of women on this thread who would have liked more dc but couldn’t afford it so didn’t. What would be the burden on the state if we all followed op’s example?
And I am also another one who had to move to a cheaper area thanks to my home town being a huge tourist destination with massive house prices.

Some are that here too tbf but you can get a good sized 3 and occasionally 4 bed for between £750-£950. Obviously not in Edinburgh but other areas.

If we keep with the “continual growth” as a key underpinning of how our society works then we need ever more children

however Continual growth is clearly deluded / physically impossible

we don’t need ever more young people to provide growth and look after / fund the elderly if we changed a little how we valued and reward things that are not “growth” . We don’t know how fast we can shrink a population and remain viable because no one bothers to ask the question and that is likely to be problematic in the long run

I agree.
I'm sick of people having more than 4+ kids without an actual plan of having an idea of how they will support their kids without relying on state support. Then the kids are more likely to repeat this cycle because this what their parents have taught them.
I have friends living in one bed converted 2 bed homes with 4+ kids and not giving a dam about how it impacts their kids lives (especially since the first 2 are teens mixed genders)
The 2 child cap can be extended to the third child but I do not think it should be lifted completly. Otherwise parents wont learn how to be responsible for their choices.
People do make irresponsible choices. But when you chose to have a second, third, fourth, fifth it's taking the piss

The answer is you work more and should have had less kids. It's not hard to have worked out you couldn't afford the lifestyle you want on the hours you want to work and the number of kids you wanted.
Instead, it's going to be all about scrimping.

Can you move to a cheaper house?
Can you rent out a room to a lodger?
Buy gifts and clothing at thrift shops.
Make all meals from scratch and grow green vegetables yourselves.
Can you take on tutoring? lawn mowing? ironing?

None of that makes sense.

We have an aging population meaning at a stage if more people don’t have children there will not be enough working age people to pay taxes and keep services going .

At some point, we’re going to have to accept that we’ll have a couple of older generations who have a difficult time of it while we decrease the population. We cannot keep adding to it.

I’ll take a difficult retirement to give me kids and their kids a better world with a smaller population to support.

But we need productive young people. Not just more people depending on the state.

Of course a 3rd child is a luxury. You have chosen to have children knowing that you can't support them because you are:

1. Both only working part-time
2. Claiming UC, and therefore expecting taxpayers to subsidise your lifestyle choices
3. Still complaining that you don't have enough money

You need to start by both getting full-time or second jobs, and stop expecting the rest of the world to fund your choices.

Nailed it.

Right. But savings will be made on NOT having those children? Like I said, over £8k per child per year is the cost for state education, that money can be used to support the elderly we already have. With less children, adults can work more, pay more taxes, claim less benefit. Reduced benefit payments, including child benefit, would mean more support available to those with disabilities who are unable to work.
And with less people we will need less services?
Perhaps I am in fact dim, but I don’t see why it would be such a massive issue?

When they are teenagers they get even more expensive so you really need to increase your earnings now if you can. I have been shocked at how much my 3 cost now and have upped my hours accordingly even though I would love to still be part time.

One of you needs to go full time, unfortunately.

8k won’t touch care for the elderly and assuming there are no people to do it then they will also be paid more or will have to be coming from elsewhere ?

I could not agree more.

Most of the people in my social circle have one child or none due to financial constraints. These are professionals that have "good" salaries

Those I know of that have 3 children got "caught out" by Mother Nature ie they went in for a second child and had twins.

There are people, just less people? And no 8k isn’t enough but that’s just education. Like I said, less children, less benefits, more adults in work and paying tax. Perhaps I am talking rubbish but I’d love to see some actual figures on this.

Why do you both work only 30 hrs a week in low paid jobs? It may be more cost effective for one of you work more hours while the other looks after kids…so no childcare

But 30hrs isn't much off full time anyway really is it! At my workplace 37.5hrs is full time.
If they were working 15hrs each 30hrs total i would understand the uproar.
Its not always easy to pick up additional hours many contracts are a set amount for full time and set amount for part time so unless you want to change jobs which might not be feasible for OP or her DH it is what it is.

It’s pretty straightforward. She wants/needs more money so her answer is to expect to be funded by more state support rather than working more herself. The state has no money of its own. It gets money by taking tax off other people and redistributing it. In essence for her to get more money, someone else is getting taxed more ie doing some more work for no pay.

Her attitude is disgraceful.

She says they don’t want to work more so they spend more time with the kids

thats called a choice that she has made

yes if you spend all the money you have on children and refuse to work more hours then that’s your choice and you will have less money for other things