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

Georgiegirl256

Faith177 wrote: »

I work 35 hours a week mon-fri I then do over time at 3 hours a night so that brings it up to 50. I then do 6 hours on a Saturday if the overtime is there if not I do 10 hours at my pub job and then another 10 hours on Sunday so in total working 70 hours a week

While doing all this I STILL manage to run my own home and do everything for myself. my mum lives 600 miles away so can't pop over to hers whenever I feel like it.

My OH works over 110 hours some weeks and just gets his normal salary nothing on top it's just expected

!!!!!! my mum worked 2 jobs totalling about 65 hours while having chemo for breast cancer! She is on her own so again had to do everything herself

If you want to stop being so skint and supply for your child then you are going to have to make some sacrifies simple as that is what a good parent does

Respect to your Mum, that's awesome bless her! :T I hope she is on the road to recovery now Faith?

To the OP, you need to earn extra money? I'd also say for you to get another job. You could easily do extra hours on top of the 32 you do already....plenty of people do. Some bar work at night, or a job in a retail store at the weekends should be easily sorted out.

Mrshaworth2b

Some of the comments on here are harsh.

Fair enough some of us work silly hours to afford our lifestyles, some of us don't. This guy has come on asking for advice. Give advice or don't.

Also, there was a comment made about £11 would buy a months worth of nappies.....For a 3 month old.... er no!

Anyway op, check benefits, make sure you are claiming for all that you can. Split your shopping into less than once a month then things don't go off. Live on discounted food, there are plenty of threads on old money saving thread that will give you recipes to live off far less money. And plus there generally for a family of 4 so think, that's more than one portion = more than one meal. Handy!

Ask your parents for a little help? May it be washing, freezing you some food, paying for your dinners? Anything!!

Flinchy-Stryder

Poppie68 wrote: »

You really do have your priorities mixed up.....when you have a child your needs are at the bottom of the pile....poor you knackered at the end of a Mon to Fri week.... working 32 hours a week and a day at college leaves you evenings and weekends to provide for the child you made. You overspend completely on your lunches you can get this down to a fiver a week and probably could halve your other food bill...People who struggle to provide for their children are not supposed to own expensive phone's and contracts, a simple pay as you go would suffice. The time for kicking off your shoes, relaxing and being able to have a bit of luxury comes after you have got yourself a decent job, made sure your children are fed, housed and clothed, bill's paid then it's your turn.

I know my priorities are in a bit of a mess. You appear to have overlooked this, but seeking advice on how to get my monthly spend in order is a priority that will enable me to deal with my other priorities. Do you see this now?

My apprenticeship is also very important cause it will mean at the end of it i will have a decent job. If i left it now to get a job it would certainly not be a decent job.

Lily-Rose_3

Mrshaworth2b wrote: »

Some of the comments on here are harsh.

Fair enough some of us work silly hours to afford our lifestyles, some of us don't. This guy has come on asking for advice. Give advice or don't.

Also, there was a comment made about £11 would buy a months worth of nappies.....For a 3 month old.... er no!

Anyway op, check benefits, make sure you are claiming for all that you can. Split your shopping into less than once a month then things don't go off. Live on discounted food, there are plenty of threads on old money saving thread that will give you recipes to live off far less money. And plus there generally for a family of 4 so think, that's more than one portion = more than one meal. Handy!

Ask your parents for a little help? May it be washing, freezing you some food, paying for your dinners? Anything!!

Re the bolded comment:

Exactly!

And re the underlined comment:

That one, and some of the comments on here remind me of The Four Yorkshiremen sketch, from Monty Python. :rotfl:

For the majority of people, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to work 65-100 hours a week EACH to make ends meet.

All I can think of is that people must be living beyond their means, and therefore have a MASSIVE amount of very high outgoings, OR their budgeting skills are very poor!

Flinchey, you don't need to justify yourself: you are still very young and are trying your best.

You came on here for help, and I am sorry you have been subjected to some harsh responses. Hopefully, you can take some help from the ones that have actually been helpful.

Flinchy-Stryder

Thank you to everyone who has offered me advice. At my next payday on the 5th of dec i will have a second attempt at making packed lunches. I never knew before this that you could freeze a whole sandwich. I'll also look at some cheap soups to try bulk the lunch out a bit. I only work until the 20th of dec and go back on january 5th i think, so next month will mean i have a bit more money but it will be a good time to trial my packed lunch.

Others asked about taking my washing to my mums house. Thats not possible as her house is about 30 miles away. I have phoned around for jobs this evening in pubs and restaurants. Most have nothing but 1 hotel said they will call me tomorrow as they will need temp staff for xmas. Oh and my apprenticeship is in aeronautical engineering for those who asked. I'll check out the food boards for some more food tips that will hopefully reduce my spending

Lily-Rose_3

Flinchy-Stryder wrote: »

Thank you to everyone who has offered me advice. At my next payday on the 5th of dec i will have a second attempt at making packed lunches. I never knew before this that you could freeze a whole sandwich. I'll also look at some cheap soups to try bulk the lunch out a bit. I only work until the 20th of dec and go back on january 5th i think, so next month will mean i have a bit more money but it will be a good time to trial my packed lunch.

Others asked about taking my washing to my mums house. Thats not possible as her house is about 30 miles away. I have phoned around for jobs this evening in pubs and restaurants. Most have nothing but 1 hotel said they will call me tomorrow as they will need temp staff for xmas. Oh and my apprenticeship is in aeronautical engineering for those who asked. I'll check out the food boards for some more food tips that will hopefully reduce my spending

Good luck. But one of your problems does appear to be that you are overspending needlessly on food when you could take packed lunches.

I even take packed lunches out when we go out for a long day trip (like 8am til 11pm.) Hubby and daughter laugh at me, but they thank me later when we can't find anywhere to eat, or where we DO find is expensive, (like £35-40 for three of us to eat!) and we have a ruck of cheese butties, cheddars, kit-kats, and apples and bananas.

scratchyrat

You could look at http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/ for cutting down your food bill.

Its short dated or past its best before (which is fine) but there's often things on there that have longer dates. Its £6 delivery but saves in the long run.

Flinchy-Stryder

Lily-Rose wrote: »

Re the bolded comment:

Exactly!

And re the underlined comment:

That one, and some of the comments on here remind me of The Four Yorkshiremen sketch, from Monty Python. :rotfl:

For the majority of people, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to work 65-100 hours a week EACH to make ends meet.

All I can think of is that people must be living beyond their means, and therefore have a MASSIVE amount of very high outgoings, OR their budgeting skills are very poor!

Flinchey, you don't need to justify yourself: you are still very young and are trying your best.

You came on here for help, and I am sorry you have been subjected to some harsh responses. Hopefully, you can take some help from the ones that have actually been helpful.

I'm not bothered by the snotty responses, i just ignored them. I only turned 19 3 weeks ago and i am trying to improve my situation. Its life lessons i'm learning and i think people who left those comments are forgetting that. Putting them to 1 side, i'm very grateful for the advice people have given to me.

emsywoo123

Flinchy-Stryder wrote: »

I'm not bothered by the snotty responses, i just ignored them. I only turned 19 3 weeks ago and i am trying to improve my situation. Its life lessons i'm learning and i think people who left those comments are forgetting that. Putting them to 1 side, i'm very grateful for the advice people have given to me.

Hi
Sorry if I missed this, but are you in the first year of your apprenticeship? If not, your wages should be higher.
Also, for everyone saying about extra hours, it is not quite so straightforward depending on the funding structure of the apprenticeship.

Faith177

Lily-Rose wrote: »

Your OH works 110 hours a WEEK?

Is that a mistype?

Nobody works 110 hours a week. If they work Monday to Friday, that's 22 hours a day.

Even if he works 6 days; it's nearly 19 hours a day. Impossible.

And out of interest, if you have children, who looks after them while you're at work 70 hours a week, and your OH is at work 110 hours a week?

If you don't have children, then you can't really compare your situation to the OP's.

I agree with the people who have said give the guy a break - he is only 19, and is still finding his feet in life. All these posts about how working 40 hours a week is 'nothing' and is virtually part-time, and he needs to get a grip and 'man up' and all that.

He is doing his best. Give him a chance.

And 40 hours a week IS full time, even though some are making out that they do 300 hours a week! And that is just normal! And you're no kind of man if you don't do at least that!!!

You DO need to make your own lunches though OP. Spending all the money you spend on lunches is a huge waste of money.

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

Respect to your Mum, that's awesome bless her! :T I hope she is on the road to recovery now Faith?

To the OP, you need to earn extra money? I'd also say for you to get another job. You could easily do extra hours on top of the 32 you do already....plenty of people do. Some bar work at night, or a job in a retail store at the weekends should be easily sorted out.

To lilly-rose YES he does work 110 hours some weeks he is a pub manager so some days doesn't finish work until 1:30am - 2am he then has to be up for deliveries first thing in the morning which means a 5 - 5:30am start. On a good week when he can get a night off or two then he will only work 70 but it's still 7 days a week. He is constantly tired and stressed but at least it's a job.

We don't have children as unfortunately we are unable to have children
but we have some outlays that are the same as OH for example mortgage, travel to work etc if we didn't work the hours we did we would have 20-30 quid a month between us spare and we don't want to live like that so we have to work. Our main expense is our animals they cost us a fortune every month 80-100 a month in food alone not including the 15 insurance per cat x 7 and 50 per dog x 2. I pay 200 a month for train travel to work alone

Yes our animals cost us a lot but to us they are our kids. Some people spend that on their children just at least with our kids they can't talk back and they do as they are told (most of the time lol). If we had children we would probably be spending the same on food, clothes and childcare so it's swings and roundabouts only advantage it they were children we would get CB

Georgie we thought she was in the clear but it looks like it might be back (we found out tomorrow) but I know for a fact she'll kick it's butt like last time