How are people living with a single income?

[chrlng]

Hi. I've been struggling to understand how people are living on a single income. Not about how are they living but about how they have enough to buy house and go for holidays abroad and be generally comfortable. Most of the people I know have 2-3 children and are living comfortably with a single income. I mean a close to minimum wage income. My husband is a driver. His wage is £25000 per year. It works out about £1600 per month. And I'm on maternity but from my job they can't find a part time position for me so it turns out we'll live on a single income soon. We're only having a 6 months old baby.

Our spendings now:
Mortgage £268
Council tax £122
Electric/Gas £120
Montly payment for car £125
Car insurance £120
TV channels/broadband/phone £55
Water £55
Charity £28
Pet insurance £20
Pet food etc £30
Home insurance £15
Petrol £50
Baby food/nappies £120
Groceries £200

Sum: 1,328

Remain £272 from my husband's wage without any extras, holidays, activities for the baby, toys etc. If I have to buy something more or travel to my country once a year we're below zero.

The question is : since I'm not British and I don't know how things really work. Is there something that people do to get benefits or earn from the government more than they're suppose to? I've tried the benefit calculator and I can't claim anything more than child benefit (which I already claim). I'm not asking what people are actually doing because I've heard about people doing something to trick hmrc. But is there really something that these people are doing to claim so much to have a pretty comfortable life?

The people I have known on a low income have had help from relatives in the form of free childcare or have been bought stuff. I remember buying a new dishwasher and one of the Mums at school, had just been bought exactly the same one by her wealthy Grandmother.

Very similar to you - my DH earns £25k and our monthly outgoings total about £1400, leaving £250 disposable income. We're not on benefits because this was a lifestyle choice (ie. I always wanted to be a SAHM but was conscious of the low income). So for 5 years we just lived off my DH's income and put all of mine into savings. We'll now be comfortable for several years.

My husband covers all the bills and expenses, and we use £50 per week from savings for days out and extra treats. Could get by without doing this, but it means we can do all the stuff we want to do.

Child benefit is £1800 per year, so that's £1000 for a holiday, £500 for clothes and £150 for each child's birthday.

Benefits would give us more disposable income than the £50 we allow ourselves from savings! We do absolutely fine.

Be ruthless about your outgoings, eg:
You can't afford £28 a month on charity donations.
Car insurance and baby food/nappies costs seem high - can you cut them down?
You haven't included Child Benefit as household income at £95 a month

Could you work around your DHs hours, so no childcare costs? Evenings/weekends?

Also people do have years when they can't do what you want - years without no holidays for example

In a year or two you will have no claims discount and that will free up lots of cash for example

Here are our expenses for comparison:

Supermarket £390 (£90/pw)

Pet care £35
Water £33
Life Insurance £28.90
Energy £80
Netflix £10.99
Mobiles £22
Internet £31

Council tax £148
Mortgage £520

Total £1300
+
Annual Bills & Presents £200 per month (See below)

Car Insurance (for 2 cars) £400
MOT and service (for 2 cars) £400
Car tax (for 2 cars) £180
Breakdown cover (for 2 cars) £80

TV licence £160

Dentist £50
Optician £100

Boiler service £70
Home insurance £160
Christmas £400

Family birthday s £400

Total £2400 per year (£200 per month)

= £1500 per month

This benefits calculator is really helpful and generally very accurate.

Unless you have huge amounts of savings you should definitely be entitled to some help.

Ignore the Working/Child Tax credit as its now Universal Credit which factors in your personal circumstances to the calculations.

www.entitledto.co.uk/

I'm a single parent and I drive a cheap car paid in cash (so no monthly payments)
Broadband/Phone/TV and water look high to me.
Instead of buying baby food, it will be much cheaper if you give baby what you eat. Do you use nappies that are own brand or something like pampers? I don't have a baby so don't know how much nappies cost but I think you'd get that £120 lower.
I'd be cancelling the charity donation and considering adding a few items to the food bank trolley at the supermarket if you want to give to charity. If you shop at Morrisons they have pre selected bags at different price points to make things easier. This is a Google pic but they range from £1.50-£5 and there's a brief description like "babycare" if you're keen to know what kind of items are inside.

Gosh some people have low mortgages! Is is because you have them on a longer term?
Your car insurance is really high, but as pp said you should shop around at renewal and it should be hundreds cheaper.

Because if you're on minimum wage, the top up they give you will take you past £1600 a month. If you EARN £1600 a month, you're screwed.

Cut off for UC for 2 adults and 2 children is £1100.

That's how.

I know because we've done both.

That’sa lot for a car. Your income is very low, I don’t think anyone is comfortable with multiple children whilst earning so little tbh.

If you are struggling maybe it's not a good idea to have more children!

You pay £120 a month in car insurance? Surely that can't be right. What kind of car do you have? Mine is less than £200 a year

A Toyota aygo. Just a small car. Just got my driving licence though. I guess it'll be less next year but for now that's how much I pay 😕

I don’t spend unnecessarily. No charity donations. No coffees. Take packed lunch and go on free days out to museums and parks etc. No holidays for the past 15 years. No Sky tv. Clothes from supermarkets. Kids only have 1 pair of shoes at a time. The only treats we have are gifted by grandparents. We make use of free services such as libraries. As for buying a house - mortgage is cheaper than rent!

Tax credits are being phased out, so you can’t make a new application for them, it’s just for people who were already on them. You would have to claim UC. Play around with the calculator as you are likely to better off working part time and getting some help from UC with childcare costs than giving up work completely.

A couple of years ago when we had DD I was a student and DH had a minimum wage job so our income was around £25k. We managed ok and saved for a house deposit but it wasn’t a luxury lifestyle- no car or holidays or anything like that.

If I had your mortgage payments I would be RICH.

Car insurance £120? Seems an awful lot.What do you drive?

I am a single parent earning 26.000€. I dont have a car because the expense isnt worth it. Having a car would make life easier but not so much so that I am willing to put stretch myself financially for it.

I dont have a TV or and subscition services. I just use youtube and free streaming services. I have a smart phone but dont pay for internet as part of my package, given that there is wifi almost everywhere these days I domt need it so save myself a few quid a month that way.

Most clothes and toys are bought second hand and once its finished with its sold on.

Im a single parent and was on an average income when I was married but I went freelance and took on extra work after we split so I could cover his share of the bills. Best thing I did, but of course was a risk.
Maybe look for ways to increase your income if you cant decrease outgoings, cost of living is only going to get worse so youre better off trying to fit some work to fit in and around your children.
But yes Id stop the charity donations.

I'm a single parent and spend a huge amount more than you on food. I don't have a mortgage, I used the equity when we sold the house in a divorce to buy the smallest house I could find that worked, because I knew he wouldn't pay maintenance and I'd struggle (and he doesn't). I'm not rolling in it but I can afford one short foreign holiday a year .

Im a single parent. I dont have holidays or luxuries anymore. Im far from comfortable. The only thing i can think of based on my friends is they have family. I have none

They get things like pram, school uniform, bikes etc bought as help. A couple i know have parents who cover the direct debit for car/council tax that sort of thing.
Most holiday with their family and only have to provide spends.
Some others dont manage tho and dont have these luxuries

Free childcare massive too. I know a lot of people who have never paid for this and school drop offs and after school clubs also covered.

The reminder of £272, you save as much as possible. Possibly, get it out in cash physically store it somewhere annoying to get to. Like, the basement or a very high shelf that is hard to reach.

Then, everytime you take cash out, write down the amount, date and the reason behind the withdrawal. I'm a bit lazy and if I'm out and about and see an excellent deal/ sale then, I would return for the item and not judge myself harshly.

You would need to apply for UC and it wouldn't be child benefit. It would be child tax credits and working tax credit however you can't apply for this as stated already.

What sort of job field are you working in? Could you do a night job twice a week to earn extra money? Work in a school or administration? Look on NHS lots of jobs available OP.

I'm a single parent I manage fine tbh. I have a holiday every year... been on one and have another one next month!

How do people have such low mortgages??? Mine is 5 times that. And 2 in nursery. No way we could go to one income. I’m doing something wrong.