Not enough income to support our family

sarahberr

We have had tough time lately as with 3 children we have had huge child care bills over the summer. I have sat down and worked out that the bottom line is we don't earn enough money! As we both work in health and social care the wages aren't going to be leaping up and with the cuts we may not have jobs in future either. I just cannot see how we can carry on. We are not eligable for any benefits and the only extravigance we have is 2 cars. Both are needed for our jobs! Neither of our jobs are flexible enough to allow us to work on different days so we don't need a minder. As youngest is not yet 2 it won't be until sept 2014 that child care bill will come down. Our mortgage is about to come off fixed rate which means we will be paying less interest but it is going to repayment from interest only, so monthly ougoing will be more. Any one faced similar problems and how did you get through it?

Any advice would be great,

Sarah

victory

Not that you are in debt but over the forum in the debt free wannable they are marvellous people there that can help you if you let them have your outgoings and incomings,they will help you and see what you can do, they are great:D

gonzo127

you need to do a SOA (statement of affairs) and post it up for people to help you go through http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html is the normal one people like to go through as its nice and simple but covers all bases

BitterAndTwisted

What I would do is to get a small notebook and write down every single penny you both spend for about a fortnight. Some of those spends will jump out as non-essential. Cut those out completely. Go onto the Debt Free Wannabe part of the forum and complete an SOA. Visit the Old-Style part of the forum to get some super tips on how to grocery shop more effectively. Consider spending some time on your days off to meal-plan and batch-cook for the freezer.

Have a look at this website for some really good ideas for economical recipes:

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

If they can fed a family of four for £100 a month think about what you could do to get your grocery budget down. Some people, rather than cooking their usual meal every night do a home-made soup and a pudding instead once a week.

DKLS

Have you thought of selling one of the children for experimentation purposes?

fannyanna

I'd definately second listing out your income and expenditure on here. People are very helpful.

Desperado99

DKLS wrote: »

Have you thought of selling one of the children for experimentation purposes?

Now, now... be nice!

Are you able to car share with a work colleague? (I'm not suggesting getting rid of a car, but you could halve your petrol costs)

ajs88

Your main two problems seem to be the cost of childcare and that you cant up your income in your profession, and with your experience in health and social care you may be well placed to become a childminder either for additional income when your not working or as a possible career change incase of redundancy or if it pays better when you take away the need for your own child care

I have no idea what training or inspection you need for this, or how much it pays, or how easy it is to get customers but just thought it might be an idea even if its just a plan B

shelley_crow

Is there any chance one of you could move onto a night shift, so that one car and no childminder is needed? This would depend on what area of social care you work in but generally this is the shift that employers find hard to fill and retain staff on.

Before I started university, I used to work early mornings and evenings in domicillary care while my OH worked in the daytime. It is tough but very do-able.

blondy24

Like others have said SOA is needed in order to get opinions on cost reduction. Just a few areas perhaps food bills, tv subscription (e.g. sky, broadband etc), mobile phone tariffs. Have you got anything you could sell via ebay or at a car boot to help in the short term? Do you have family that could look after your kids a couple of days a week to reduce childcare costs?

I am sure you will get lots of help on here.

freda

Is the person who earns the lower wage earning enough to cover the car expenses and childcare with a reasonable amount left over? Don't underestimate the car costs either - on top of petrol you need to add on car tax, insurance, AA/RAC, servicing, one off repairs, consumables like bulbs, wipers, oil, windscreen liquid etc. We save £90 per calendar month towards this and have a fairly new car. We also save £200 per month towards a new car, assuming ours will last a conservative 5 years and cost £12k replacement (hopefully it will last longer and cost less, so we'll have some left overs for savings!)

Sit down with a notepad and work out if it is really worth the both of you working. If you go to entitledto.com (I think thats what it is) you can work out if you'd become eligible for any benefits if one of you left work.

Don't forget that with one person at home, a lot of other bills may drop too - i.e. food as you will have time to shop around, bulk cook cheap freezer meals etc. Although the heating bill does go up when the house is occupied all day!