Housng benefits help!

DaisyFlower

doveman1234 wrote: »

@paddedjohn iv tried to find a new job that works around the job i have at presant iv sent out endless cvs but unless you are fully flexible they arent interested iv also looked into a total new career but iv had no luck!

Given you are still very young, why cant you be fully flexible? Whilst its nice to work part time, you have a family to support.

Your wife could use childcare, millions of people work and use it if they have no free family childcare - you may even get some help of tax credits towards the cost of nursery. Or given your part time hours, she could work night/weekends etc easily around your hours so no need for childcare - if she looks now she could have something in place for when her SMP ends.

You state you have done things the "right way" however it depends on what you see as right. A child is a huge financial responsibility, one that you dont appear to have catered for and claiming benefits to support your lifestyle choices is never the right thing.

doveman1234

merlin68 wrote: »

Go ahead and give up work, you won't be able to claim nothing. Your generation think they should have it all. I have a daughter a simlilar age. JSA for a couple is £105 a week. So you wouldn't be any better of.

If i didnt want to work then i wouldnt of got 8 GCSE's grade A-C and 2 A-levels both grade B would I?

I was being sarcastic in what i said as i want to work and will always work.

cord123 wrote: »

You havent included what you are getting from smp now.... could you not put some of that away so when you renew your car insurance (which will hopefully have gone down) you can pay it off in one lumo sum? Also buy car tax stamps, that way you dont need to find a lump some in a month.

Nappies - you dont have to spend that much! Look for bargains.... asda do 2 packets for a tenner. Not sure exactly how much in packet but around 65 so that 130 nappies, they should last you 2 weeks minimum so nappies a month - £20, wipes get 4 for £3 in asda, but use cotton wool and water when at home. It may be not as convienient but is cheaper! Also, if he is going through that much milk a week i would change him to hungry baby, that is quite a lot!! That should instantly save you atleast the cost of one box of milk! I weaned my LO at 4 months, that is considered as quite early but he needed it, sounds like your LO does too!

Food - spending way too much! When I was on maternity leave we cut ours down to £80 and that was to feed my step children (x 2) for atleast 10 times a month! Pasta, mince, smart price tinned toms are 24p passat is 24p get those instead of the £1 odd jar of sauce.... it tastes alot nicer with a few herbs in... some pasta - cheap meal for about £2.50! And you can freeze some....jecket pots and baked beans, freezer food... it may not be steak every night but needs must eh!

As a pp said you will start weaning in the next few months so although it initially wont make a great deal of diff to milk costs it will eventually. Also, follow on milk is usually alot cheaper, cow & gate is reg on offer for around £5 which they can have from 6 months so that will halve your milk costs.

Having a baby does cost a fortune but you just need to save money off non essentials. Could your wife not get an evening job in a supermarket etc to get some extra money when her smp stops? Have you looked into help with childcare aswell... you may qualify for some help there so she can go back to work for a few hours?

My OH and I now have a seperate account so say we get £2000 into the account and our bills are £1500 £450 is trf to our'house' account. This is what we need to live on for the month, so petrol, food, nappies, clothes, days out etc. I do the monthly shop (on the ineternet) so costs less already - search for free del code. Get every thing you need for the month so atleast you know you have food and nappies etc if you run out of money... obv you will need to buy milk and bread but if you run out of money it isnt the end of the world. Then whatever you have left divide by 4 (ie, number of weeks til the next payday) you will be amazed how doing that you are a lot more careful. so say now you have £80 a week to live on .... put £40 in petrol. There is no reason you need to spend the other £40 because you have food etc.... just dont spend money on rubbish-magazines etc are not essential. PAYG phone, you will wait for people to ring you because you have to top up before you use it and not pay after! it will be tight but it is do-able!

Thanks for this post. I really liked the seperate bank accounts might have to look into doing that.

Mrs_Arcanum

Mobile phone can be even cheaper if you look at giffgaff - check the referrers board first and get an extra £5 credit. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2886670

doveman1234

DaisyFlower wrote: »

Given you are still very young, why cant you be fully flexible? Whilst its nice to work part time, you have a family to support.

Your wife could use childcare, millions of people work and use it if they have no free family childcare - you may even get some help of tax credits towards the cost of nursery. Or given your part time hours, she could work night/weekends etc easily around your hours so no need for childcare - if she looks now she could have something in place for when her SMP ends.

You state you have done things the "right way" however it depends on what you see as right. A child is a huge financial responsibility, one that you dont appear to have catered for and claiming benefits to support your lifestyle choices is never the right thing.

I work dodgey hours already so its very hard for me to get another job around it.

I have looked at jobs where i get 40+ hours per week but its less money as i dont have any experiance in anything. I have even applied for bloody Pizza hut and didnt get a response lol

I had a child for personal reasons, i wont go into it but i might not be able to have children later on in life.

Oldernotwiser

doveman1234 wrote: »

I had a child for personal reasons, i wont go into it but i might not be able to have children later on in life.

You still haven't addressed the question of your wife carrying on working, either in her present job or doing something else. It's great that you're working but it really isn't feasible to support a family on one person's part time job without living a more frugal lifestyle than you seem prepared to do at present.

doveman1234

Your right i havent, as regards that, child care costs are alot of money and the job she did before leaving for maternaty she gets paid minimum wage so not alot. All the money she would get would go into child care which is why there is no point in her returning to work.

escortg3

i just put your details with you partner having no incomee into entitledto website and it says

£58.71 Tax credits per week
£3.88 Council tax reduction
£69.18 Housing benefit per week
£20.30 Child Benefit

Total in benefits £152.08 per week plus you wages of £263.00 = £415.08 per week

Hopefully its right and you will be able to get some help

doveman1234

Thanks for that info. Really helped. I have booked an appointment to housing benefit to see if that can put it into play so that when her SMP finishes it can come in straight away. That would really help with costs on everything if it was how much help i will get.

escortg3

doveman1234 wrote: »

Thanks for that info. Really helped. I have booked an appointment to housing benefit to see if that can put it into play so that when her SMP finishes it can come in straight away. That would really help with costs on everything if it was how much help i will get.

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx you can put your details in and play around. Try putting in now with SMP and see what it says. Good luck

spartacusthe1st

hi u should def apply for housing and council tax benefit now, even if its oly a few pounds a week so when the time comes in december when you are getting less moey all you have to do is just go in to the council with paperowrk saying smp has finished and your tax credit award notices and they will photocopy them and you should get a letter in the post about week later with your new housing and concil tax award. it will save a lot of time as they already have you o the system. hope this helps.my husband use to earn 200 a week and out rent was 110 a week, and we only had to pay 40 pounds a week for rent we couldnt believe it!