To ask your family’s disposable income

[sochicsocheap]

It’s looking more and more likely that I will not return to my job after mat leave. Decision now will be SAHM or try and find an evening job but am curious to know what other families budgets are. Anyone mind sharing how much money you have after bills and necessities

Are you married is the most important question.

I’m a single mum with a house owned outright so no rent/mortgage and my disposable after all bills, food, school stuff, savings etc is around £1000.

However I have lived on much, much less (£350pm) and honestly it’s no fun.

You can used things like flexible working, condensed hours, tax free childcare etc so you’re only paying for 3 days and then it’s not too horrendous. Plus if you do want to get back to work eventually it’s so much better to not have a massive gap.

Not sure how my details help you but ours is a lot more than that.
We might be able to get costs down to free up more but we dint need or want to really.
Sounds quite tight OP, might be ok in the main but you need an emergency fund too

Yes, we’re married. I would be fine with a part time job but struggling to find one. DH doesn’t get in till 6pm and most jobs are night shift so I’d be out 7pm-2am then need to be up by 6am to do school run and of course won’t be able to sleep during the day with the baby around. Weekend job is possible but then I guess it comes down to more money vs family time

It’s hard choices.

I was a single parent and worked full time (min wage) and had literally bugger all left. Never being able to afford anything and panicking if the kids feet grew was awful. It was ok the first year or two. But by year 10/11/12 it was really draining.

I used to do four bank shifts a month . I don't know what your profession is but I just did generic support work for £11 an hour. Those four shifts gave me my softplay and lunch money so staying at home was bearable. Could you do one bank shift on a Saturday or Sunday? It's not forever!

@sochicsocheap

Yes, we’re married. I would be fine with a part time job but struggling to find one. DH doesn’t get in till 6pm and most jobs are night shift so I’d be out 7pm-2am then need to be up by 6am to do school run and of course won’t be able to sleep during the day with the baby around. Weekend job is possible but then I guess it comes down to more money vs family time

Can you do anything from the home. Of a weekend?

I did manage to do some very small freelance, basic wage work at one point, just on People per Hour in my more desperate times while jobseeking.

What work do you do OP? Is bank work possible? Or casual?

I think that your income would make life quite tight, and it might take a while to get back to your previous salary when you eventually return to work when baby starts school (if that's what you're considering).

We don't have a mortgage so very lucky there.

Our income is £550 pw.

Bills come to £70 pw

I budget £100 for food. We generally spend £70 in Aldi, I take cash out each week. The rest goes in a tin to pay for top ups but it's rolled up each week. Any left goes towards Christmas........there was a grand in there last year. Im very frugal tho and will cobble something together to avoid doing a top up shop. I even get milk delivered to keep me out of the co op.

The rest goes into savings, and we take whatever we need from that....... this time of year we do and spend very little. It means we can do whatever we want later on in the year without worrying about it.

I think we live very well on a not huge income. Tho im aware no mortgage / debt is a huge luxury these days.

Look into both of you condensing hours, nine day fortnight, etc, so that you save on days of childcare. You are better off going back to work and progressing your career.

If I didn't work and we relied on hubby. Then we'd have about £750 a month spare. For food, clothes, petrol, etc and that's just not enough for us and would mean we couldn't save. So I work part time and bring in another £1000. That allows us to have cheap holidays, a take away each week and not worry if an applicable breaks.

Thanks everyone. I’m going to have to get my head down with DH and try and come up with a plan.

Really appreciate the help

Forgot to add I’m not in a career now it’s a pay day-to-pay day job

Everyone is different as depends what they earn and how much their mortgage is mainly. After mortgage, bills, food, petrol, debts and pensions about £2000 a month left. This is for savings, holidays, clothes, going out, hobbies

We're on rather less than most here. DH earns £21k per annum, and I've not had paid work since before I had the kids.

We make a LOT of sacrifices. No holidays, only a couple of weekends away in the last decade. A lot of vouchers for days out, shopping the clearance sections, you get good at bargain hunting and fixing things!

We home educate, and the kids have SEN so work wasn't an option for me.

You just have to do the numbers to see if it's better to work and pay for childcare (so expensive) or would be better off staying home and tightening your belts.

Not a lot to fritter on luxuries, I'm counting my Netflix and now tv as necessities.
I became a sahm when pregnant with 3rd as childcare costs would have cost more than I could earn part time. Dh has a reasonable income but we have 6 kids and run 2 cars. We chose to get a dog over having annual holiday, she costs us over 2k a year now she's getting older (insurance is pricey). We have a financial cushion in savings, have multiple saving accounts for birthdays/dog/insurance. We invested in a home gym set up, more than paid for itself with saved membership fees. Have take out once a month, save up to do day trips when dh is on leave. These days unexpected costs are not a crisis situation, in the early days I would be so stressed if things broke down. We are pretty frugal with things and I love my spreadsheets to manage our finances.
No matter how tight things have been we've always paid a min £10pm in to each child's savings too, nobody did this for us as children (dh's half bro and sis had it from their aunt).

I dont think it would be possible. Not if absolutely everything had to come out of the £1000 a month. Birthdays Christmas car repairs and so on.

I used to do two evenings a week and every other Saturday morning as a care assistant. I felt like a SAHP and I was making good money, not enough to pay any tax and I never had to worry about school holidays or illness etc.

Would u get any uc with that?
Childcare is expensive.
After my first I went back and after our Second dh got made redundant, he got a new job quickly but the hours changed meaning I couldn’t go back to work with the same hours and had no one to look after the kids. Child care meant it wasn’t worth me going back. It was tough but we did it.
I actually now get carers allowance as the kids ended up being diagnosed with asd. Still it’s not easy but a lot more doable. I don’t have a mortgage though.

In your case @sochicsocheap I'd look for a weekend or evening job, even very part time like 2 evenings/week would bring in needed income. Or I'd try to become a registered childminder. If you cared for 2 other children 2/3 days a week (many people need part time childcare and struggle to find it), you'd have a regular paycheck and time with family.

It does sound very tight. I personally would never give up my financial freedom and would continue to earn as much as possible. Even if to start with it only broke even with childcare - but that’s probably only a sacrifice worth making if you can build a career and there’s a clear upward trajectory for improving earnings.

Do you want to have a career? If you did stay at home could you combine that with study/development needed to build one? Thinking longer term to have better earning potential.I agree with others that some sort of part time work is probably also essential in the short term.

Our salaries combined bring in a lot more and I’m still putting together a comprehensive budget as our costs are going up a lot. Monthly childcare for just one child is going to be over £1000 pm and then there’s after school clubs and extra curricular activities for our eldest too. Life is v expensive right now.

Goodness. Our mortgage is lower than yours and our net income is £5000 pcm and we have no spare cash at all. We do pay our dd's rent at university which is £500 ish. And spend about £5000 on an annual holiday. But otherwise can't afford things like home improvements, second car etc.

When my kids were young my whole salary literally went towards nursery fees but it was worth it. Firstly fees decrease as they get older, I kept my employment adding experience to my career, and was eligible for childcare vouchers which saved money off nursery fees. I did start back part time and gradually increased back up until they were pre school age. It was a hard time but for us it was the best thing and paid off.

@A580Hojas

Goodness. Our mortgage is lower than yours and our net income is £5000 pcm and we have no spare cash at all. We do pay our dd's rent at university which is £500 ish. And spend about £5000 on an annual holiday. But otherwise can't afford things like home improvements, second car etc.

🥴

I'd agree it's all dependent on childcare costs. I initially became a sahm because my whole wage covered childcare and i had to add petrol for the work commute onto that. Now the kids are older we pay so much less so I can work

£5k on a holiday

Shows everyone has different priorities with their disposable income.