Need Help to save money with Type 1 diabetic child in household. 2 June 2014 at 2:45PM in MoneySaving mums 4 replies 1.6K views

Dani1810

Hello,
This is my first post :-)
I have recently had to give up work to look after my 3 year old daughter. She was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in March 2 weeks before her 3rd birthday.
My tax credits have also stopped. I have applied for DLA (cant apply for carers allowance until i am in reciept of DLA) o the only income we have is m other halfs wages. He works full time on minimum wage.
I have applied for housing benefit and still waiting to hear back from them.
So in the meantime we dont have alot of money and still have rent and bills etc to pay for.
Can anyone give me any advice on how to make/save money whilst we are waiting for everything?
Any advice would be great :-)
Thank You

double_mummy

could you not go back to work while she is at nursery? this would then give you back your working tax credits as well. can you get any work from home?

if you havent used something in the past year sell it

Person_one

Do you definitely need to give up work completely? I know type 1 isn't always easy to manage in a small child, but in just over a year she'll be at school and the staff there will have to handle it. Are you worried that she wouldn't be safe at nursery?

savingmummy

Best thing to do is a SOA (http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php) this will tell you what you have coming in, and whats being paid out.
Make cut backs on things you don`t NEED, and free some spare money that way.


I know its hard but it is doable if your strict with finances. Change energy suppliers, cancel sky/mobile phone contract (if you can)
I don`t work at the moment and my hubby works FT on quite a low wage too, unfortunately we don't qualify for rent/council tax help so instead we`ve made cutbacks on out outgoings and food shopping and so far its working.
Good luck.

DomRavioli

Hi OP,

My mum worked when my sister who is type I was ill, the only time off she had was when she was severely ill; she was diagnosed slightly earlier than your child, but saw no reason to give up work (My sister is now 35, and although still severely affected by her diabetes, she is perfectly healthy apart from that), and there isn't usually a reason to give up work for that, as it is quite easily managed with drugs.

Is there no way you could have gone part time/flexi time, or find something which is part time? I can understand that you would want to look after your child but if your budget won't stretch then you have to make sacrifices.