Always skint and have a 3 month old child. I need money advice

CH27

I despair of this forum at times.

snowleopard61

The OP is the same age as most first-year undergraduates. He’s living away from home, on a minimal income, with virtually no dependency on parents, without getting into debt, without claiming benefits and trying to find ways to economise in order to contribute to the support of his child. I think that’s pretty admirable.

OP, I wish I could add more to the helpful suggestions you’ve been given – one very small one is to try the blog ‘A Girl Called Jack’, especially the earliest part, which is about feeding yourself on an extremely low income. Otherwise, I’ll just say how much I wish you well and that I think you’ve got the right idea. Good luck.

Poppie68

gettingready wrote: »

You know nothing about why OP may be feeling too tired to take on another job, you have no idea how is the child being looked after and if the child needs OP to break his back to get an extra tenner.

Stop judging people. Help if you can. If not - just stop posting nonsense

Who's judging its called common sense. He asked for advice on how to provide for his baby that extra tenner would provide either a tub of milk or a couple of packs of nappies....

Poppie68

gettingready wrote: »

You know nothing about why OP may be feeling too tired to take on another job, you have no idea how is the child being looked after and if the child needs OP to break his back to get an extra tenner.

Stop judging people. Help if you can. If not - just stop posting nonsense[




Oops duplicate post

Poppie68

It's absolutely ridiculous, another thread turned into a war zone by posters hijacking in the name of 'The How Dare You' group. All advice given was constructive, people gave opinions on the Ops 'I'm to tired and want to relax' comment, Op was mature enough to not take it to heart......and then the terrorists turn up and it BLOWS up.

CharlieRabbit01

Flinchy-Stryder wrote: »

So, i'm 19 and have a 3 month old child who was not planned and i'm on a engineering apprenticeship. My money situation is so bad that i literally have no money to spend on anything and i'd like to change this so maybe i can help out the mother of my child a little bit.

I get £410 a month. Its broken down like this have you looked at other ways to up your in come, a part time job? or benefits? When I was an apprentice at 18 I worked evenings and weekends in a petrol station a total of 57.5hrs (37.5 full time inc. 1 day a week at college plus my part time job 2x 3hr evening a week plus 2x 7hr shifts at the weekend) giving me about £600pm

£200 a month rent - the owner of the annex i rent has been so kind to me and cut the rent from £65 a week to £50 a week to help me. [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]do you pay council tax? you can claim council tax in a non-council home I used to. have you tried applying for housing benefit?[/COLOR]

£80 a month on food - i do one big shop and plan it all out so i have a dinner 5 times a week. I blag the other 2 days a week at my mums house for free lol. [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]you could be paying less, what kind of meals do you have? I used to eat lots of pasta and rice with sause dishes and made things like sausage caserole in a big batch then portioned into meals and froze[/COLOR]


£30 a month on my phone bill. [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]not much you can do with a contract, just dont go over your allowance[/COLOR]

£46.50 a month on a travel ticket so i can get to college and work.[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]apart from using ones own steam this cant really be improved[/COLOR]

£40 a month on lunch i allow £2 a day. I have tried buying packed lunch stuff but it all went off before the month was out. [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]even now I dont spend this much on lunch I buy bread and ham weekly for my lunches just dont get tempted by other goodies[/COLOR]

£11 a month on laundry costs. I try to limit this as much as possible and that is the cheapest i can do it without having to wear stinky clothes.[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]if your at your mums 2 days a week for food then take your washing with you, I used to visit my boyfriend every weekend at his parents and his mum would wash my clothes[/COLOR]

That leaves me with the sum of £2.50 which i'll treat myself to a few cans of that 39p energy drink and a couple of bars of chocolate or crisps depending on my mood. [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]those energy drinks are sooo bad for you I'd recommend a different kind of treat, you shouldnt be needing to drink energy drinks buy crisps and chocolate in multipacks or if your good I buy a large bar of chocolate on offer then eat 1 strip per portion (ie per day) [/COLOR]

hope this helps, your doing well and when you step out for the first time it is hard.

fivetide

Mrshaworth2b wrote: »

Thank you for this post, cheered me right up

Thought a amusing anecdote might move the thread on a bit or distract any battling. Doesn't seem to have quite worked out but if it brought you some cheer then that's good!

PlymouthMaid

Flynchy - check out making your own soup Every week I make a massive pan of soup which does me lunch all week at work and I can freezer a bag. Cheap ones include lentil, tomato and chili, potato and leek, minestrone, chili bean etc. It is hard to go wrong - bung all ingredients in pan and simmer til tender then smush up as much as you liek or have it lumpy. Ask for more details if you want but I suspect there are lots of soupy threads here if you do a forum search.

Home made soup tastes better, is cheaper and is probably more nutritious.

McCloud1

I think you're doing brilliantly OP. You're at the age that most people have only just gone to university, yet have managed to control your finances better than many older, wiser people and not get into debt. If all people had the same sense of personal responsibility there would be a lot less people living on handouts.

I have a lot of respect for your self-discipline. I'm several years older that you, have a much higher income with no dependants, and I spend half my time moping about being poor. Kudos to you sir.

Mrshaworth2b

fivetide wrote: »

Thought a amusing anecdote might move the thread on a bit or distract any battling. Doesn't seem to have quite worked out but if it brought you some cheer then that's good!

All you can think is maybe she can't tell the difference between a bag of frozen peas and a bag of green beans so outs them in their own bags?

Or am I thinking too much into it haha :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: