how do you live off one wage?

mum26

I worked part time until we had three children, then dp got a nightshift job and it was too faffy to try and work round his hours (also had more children), he finally moved on to early shifts last september after ten years of nights and this has been the best year for a long time, I got a temp job which got made permanent (12 hours a week but I usually pick up a lot of overtime) which I really enjoy. We've taken a bit of a hit as he has lost his nightshift premium and even though I only earnt 2.5k (didn't start job til near christmas) we've lost about 25% of our tax credits but I don't care, i'd rather be in full control of our destiny, waiting to hear about another job at the moment which is slightly more pay with the potential to progress. My one big regret is that I am capable of so much more than a minimum wage retail job (as are most people working in them! Great for flexibility etc though) but fear it is too late now thanks to the decade trapped at home whilst dp worked on his career. So I would say keep your hand in where you can, if it is possible to work round each other even part of the time to reduce childcare bills then that helps. Mine are nearly all at middle school now and life gets a lot easier as they get older x

floss2

nickj wrote: »

....if you live within your means and are prepapred to make sacrifices for a few years it will reward you far more than those who dump their kids and go off and earn shed loads of cash ....... money can't buy you time, your kids only grow up one , you only have that chance once , make the most of it , it doesn't last long

alwaysskint96 wrote: »

why is a woman who works dumping their kids but a bloke isnt??? Or do you count yourself as having " dumped" the kids on your wife

TBH, I understood that the poster meant "any parent", not specifically the mother.

trinity_enigma

floss2 wrote: »

TBH, I understood that the poster meant "any parent", not specifically the mother.

Really? I'm not so sure. Although the post was not gender specific I think he was thinking in a stereotypical way.

Would the response have been the same if the mother was already working and it was the father comtemplating going back to work? I really don't think so.

nickj_2

floss2 wrote: »

TBH, I understood that the poster meant "any parent", not specifically the mother.

indeed, .....

nickj_2

trinity_enigma wrote: »

Really? I'm not so sure. Although the post was not gender specific I think he was thinking in a stereotypical way.

Would the response have been the same if the mother was already working and it was the father comtemplating going back to work? I really don't think so.

you're thinking in a stereotypical way too

GwylimT

I was a single parent for a long time and so had no choice but to live on a single wage, I wasn't earning a lot but with a lot of very strict planning it was something I was able to do and back then there was even less help with childcare costs.

When my wife and I decided to start a family we knew we couldn't really afford childcare so when we started trying for a baby we stopped spending my wages so we could both become accustomed to having less money and to have a little safety net (which then paid for my sons university fees).

Now my daughter attends nursery and I work part time, however in September I'm going full time and then our daughter will start school in January. When our youngest leaves hospital we are going to both remain full time workers as my wifes employer has an onsite creche so when she isn't lecturing so she can go to the creche throughout the day and it is very good value for money for members of staff.

Person_one

nickj wrote: »

we more or less lived on one wage when our kids were young , mrs j worked at waitrose 2 days a week , but as we only had one car it proved too much hassle getting her to work dropping kids off at parents etc , so she switched to just working on a saturday which was much better , then as the kids got a bit older she did child minding, then trained as a pre school and after school cub worker . i guess we survived on less than £15p/a , not really sure how we did it , but we always went away 2 times a year , in this country , i managed to pay off our mortgage last year , if you live within your means and are prepapred to make sacrifices for a few years it will reward you far more than those who dump their kids and go off and earn shed loads of cash ....... money can't buy you time, your kids only grow up one , you only have that chance once , make the most of it , it doesn't last long

If you really try, you might just be able to be a tiny bit more insulting to working mothers.

It won't be easy though...

nickj_2

Person_one wrote: »

If you really try, you might just be able to be a tiny bit more insulting to working mothers.

It won't be easy though...

if you read the question asked , how do you survive on one wage , which i have answered honestly , it's what we did , it's what worked for us , we got to spend a lot of our time seeing our kids grow up , we were there for them when they needed looking after , ie parenting ,
i guess if you can't stand the heat , keep out of the kitchen;)

Person_one

nickj wrote: »

if you read the question asked , how do you survive on one wage , which i have answered honestly , it's what we did , it's what worked for us , we got to spend a lot of our time seeing our kids grow up , we were there for them when they needed looking after , ie parenting ,
i guess if you can't stand the heat , keep out of the kitchen;)

Or, however hot it is, don't denigrate and insult other people in order to validate your own choice?

Since when is it ok to be nasty for no reason?

meritaten

my OH isn't in the bottom league of wage earners in fact he is below the national average. my son is in a similar industry and had about 8 promotions compared to my OHs 4 - but earns less. his wife works part time in retail - Yeah - minimum wage which means if she didn't have free childcare she couldn't work. she wants to work, so us Nans and Granchers pick up the slack. I sometimes wonder why the Hell I do it - it actually costs me as I have to pay the bus fare to school and back again - her memory is awful so most weeks I also pay his 'snack money' or dinner money (only for the day - I aint paying the whole week!). and quite frankly - I have been the school gate mum three times with my own kids - and after six grandkids its getting too much - I just don't want to do it anymore!