To work or not to work: That is my question!

Dunroamin

GlasweJen wrote: »

Why are you quitting work? Why not let your husband drop down to a more reasonable number of hours?

Exactly what I was going to say. It would be fairer and would keep the OP's employment up to date.

banner188

If I were you I would give up one of the cars. If you gave up work, couldn't you do without it anyhow?
Also, remember, if you give up work, you need to do it as close to next april as possible due to the £2500 income disregard that will be applied to you.

If you got a job of about 16 hours, and your OH dropped to 40 hours and you got rid of the car, I doubt you will be much worse off.

mildred1978

GlasweJen wrote: »

Why are you quitting work? Why not let your husband drop down to a more reasonable number of hours?

Absolutely. Where will the extra "family time" be if hubby is still only there from 2:30-6pm?

poppasmurf_bewdley

bridgemant wrote: »

£200 isn't a lot of money if you have to buy school uniforms for 3 children or tax 2 cars or pay for school trips or buy christmas presents for 5 people...

I know it sounds awful as I know there are pleanty of people out there who would love to have £200 a month "spare" money but to be fair, it's not money to waste, it's going on things that are necessary, they just don't fall into the category of food or bills!

As for the hours I work. Yes, I only work 25 hours but my husband works 50+ hours so we don't have any FAMILY time. If he's at home, I'm at work. He works nights, usually from 6pm til 6am and then sleeps til 2:30 in the afternoon by which time, I've left to go to work and the children are at a minders (or in school). I get home at 6pm and he's gone to work again. Does that make more sense?

Nobody has to buy Christmas Presents for five people. You have three children which you buy presents for. Anybody else, you tell them that you are not buying presents. End of. It's not difficult.

When I got divorced and left in a financial mess, I told my brother that his two kids would not be getting presents from me, and told him not to buy for my two kids. The same went for my mother.

Your costs for buying Christmas presents are extraordinarily high.

mildred1978

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

Nobody has to buy Christmas Presents for five people. You have three children which you buy presents for. Anybody else, you tell them that you are not buying presents. End of. It's not difficult.

<snip>

Your costs for buying Christmas presents are extraordinarily high.

And actually, buying for your children isn't obligatory anyway!!

sniggings

Face1992 wrote: »

If you have £200 per month to do whatever you like with, then you aren't really doing that bad!

How much do you think you should have left to just fritter after paying all of your bills?

£50 a week, yeah they are rich :rotfl:

Just hope the kids don't need new shoes or want to go to a dance class.

How dare a family with both parents working expect a holiday or a night out.

mildred1978

sniggings wrote: »

£50 a week, yeah they are rich :rotfl:

Just hope the kids don't need new shoes or want to go to a dance class.

How dare a family with both parents working expect a holiday or a night out.

The OP hasn't told the whole story. She earns £10k. Hubby earns at least £15k and they get another £5200 a year in benefits.

She says their bills are £1100 a month, that they have no debt, and £200 a month left over. But they must be bringing in AT LEAST £2300 a month. So where is the rest??

tyllwyd

I'm a bit confused - you say that you and your husband both work, and you get Child Benefit and £60 per week Tax Credits. So you get £240 per month tax credits? That seems quite a lot to me, although you haven't said what your total household income is. What does it cover - is it childcare tax credits, or do some of your kids have special needs?

princessdon

What you are essentially asking (some of us) is that we are working mothers who have far less family time than yourself can provide extra benefits so you can make the lifestyle choice of staying at home that we'd all like to do but we don't get much help (plus what little we get is being taken away from April).

But essentially to answer your question without bias - It depends on how much you earn, your OH earns, your Childcare costs etc, before anyone can begin to give you a question.

DaisyFlower

You are doing what a mum should be doing, financially providing for children you chose to have.

Thanks to other tax payers you already get a lot from the government and only have to work 25 hours. If you want more family time work more and let your husband work less.