How do people afford to drive/have a social life?

Mummy2Two_3

Hi

Please feel free to move this if it is not on the correct board (i wasnt sure)

Anyway me and my partner have 2 children together and he works 40hrs a week earning a take home pay of approx £1177.40(Per month)

We have just been told that our Child tax credit is going to be £132.00 (per month) but we are finding things very difficult

We DON'T
...Smoke
...drink
...have a social life
...have a car
...have days out etc

And
...we mainly buy clothes secondhand
...we use cloth nappies
...buy reduced priced foods

I am having driving lessons which we are struggling to pay for (which will be worse now our tax credit has dropped by £50) we cannot understand where we are going wrong because we dont 'waste' money....but we never have any to enjoy!


Im now starting to wonder how everyone else does it? how do you afford things?

TIA

2_litre

your obviuosly spending it on something look at what you have got rather than what you havent

Gaz83

What sort of bills do you have?

If learning to drive is what you want to do, why not do that and get a car etc. before having children?

I genuinely don't mean that point to sound nasty, just when people have children there has to be a compromise.

dmg24

Mummy2Two,

Believe it or not, your income is considerably more than many families. If you are struggling to cope, I would hop over to the Debt Free Wanabee Board and post your SOA (have a look at the stickys at the top of the Board), and they'll be able to offer you advice and support on cutting down on your outgoings.

Best of luck x

lewt

Gaz83 wrote: »

What sort of bills do you have?

If learning to drive is what you want to do, why not do that and get a car etc. before having children?

I genuinely don't mean that point to sound nasty, just when people have children there has to be a compromise.

bit of a waste of time pointing that out now aint it? i dont think she can put them back in......

Mummy2Two_3

Gaz83 wrote: »

What sort of bills do you have?

If learning to drive is what you want to do, why not do that and get a car etc. before having children?

I genuinely don't mean that point to sound nasty, just when people have children there has to be a compromise.

That is a fair point to make, but i didnt want to drive until we had 2 children as we find we rely very much on other people:o
Until you actually HAVE children and you dont have a car you dont realise how difficult it can be

Mummy2Two_3

lewt wrote: »

bit of a waste of time pointing that out now aint it? i dont think she can put them back in......

:eek: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Gaz83

lewt wrote: »

bit of a waste of time pointing that out now aint it? i dont think she can put them back in......

As I said, I didn't mean for it to come across nasty at all... just explaining that having children means sacrifices of other things.

bonnie_2

Our income is £1000 a month and we manage fine, with 3 children. have you got a big mortgage and debts. Why not post an soa.

lewt

Gaz83 wrote: »

As I said, I didn't mean for it to come across nasty at all... just explaining that having children means sacrifices of other things.

maybe you should do school talks or something :rolleyes: :rotfl:

Gaz83

lewt wrote: »

maybe you should do school talks or something :rolleyes: :rotfl:

Given the amount of people that leave school with next to no knowledge of how their income works, that's not a bad idea.