Really dont know what to do for the best....

Oldernotwiser

Could you clarify what you mean by " just bare minimum on luxuries and food "; it seems a bit contradictory to me.

viktory

karenr84 wrote: »

Obviously this is going to go down in April when our tax credits do and we've worked out we will have the grand total of £12 after everything at the end of the month!!!! The reason why its going down is that my husband changed his job in August 2010 and went from being self employed to employed and is now earning a bit more money than previously.

This is illogical. You have stated that your tax credits are going down because your husbands income is going up - so surely you should be in roughly the same financial position as previously?

Jowo_2

The debt free wanabee board will give you advice how to deal with the debt. If you post a SOA there, (they will tell you how to do this), they will scrutinise your spend and suggest ways of cutting down. I recommend, if you have not already done so, that you use the MSE budget planner to ensure you've got the full handle on how your money is vanishing, it's a very helpful spreadsheet.

affordmylife

i think you would benefit from being a sahm whilst your girls are little. maybe get a part time job to fit in when husband at home if you wish.

i would imagine based on just his income you would still get a good bit of tax credit. i think with a bit of planning you could manage just fine.

depends how important work is to you. good luck x

cte1111

Do you enjoy your job? Does it fit in with your long term career plans? I think these are important questions to think about in making your decision.

It is very difficult to get interesting, fulfilling, career path type part time jobs. If you have already got one, then I would hang on to it if I were you.

You say your girls are at nursery almost full time. If you are working 25 hours, can you not adjust to working 3 days a week? This would mean that you are at home for 4 days a week, so spending the majority of the week with them. Maybe your husband could ask to change his hours, so he does condensed hours but have a half day off, cutting down on your childcare costs and having more times with the children himself.

Bear in mind that it won't be long before you will get some reduction on childcare costs when your children are 3 and then before you know it they will be at school. Your 25 hour job should then fit in nicely with school hours and you get the best of both worlds.

I'm certainly not saying carry on working if you don't want to. If you would rather be a SAHM then great go for it. But if you do want to carry on working, there are ways of reducing childcare costs and ensuring that you and your OH both enjoy time with your children.

Have you checked if your husband or your employers offer childcare vouchers? These mean that you can each buy up to £240 (think that is the right figure) of childcare vouchers out of your before tax salary. So effectively you save £48 per month if you are a basic rate tax payer.

Orville

karenr84 wrote: »

Thank you but ive already done that one but it uses last years financial information which wouldnt be relevent now as i was on maternity leave and hubby on a lower income. Thank you for taking the time to reply though!

Just fill in last years info using this years..

karenr84

Thank you for all of the advice. I will take a trip over to the budgeting board to see what we can do!! I really appreciate it thank you x