Can a family of four manage on £700 a month?

leftieM

I'm currently on maternity leave and have just discovered that my wage will be cut by £200 a month (net) when I return. As I have two kids now and would bring home £500 after childcare fees I wonder if it's worth working. I'm not particularly fond of my job and it is a short term contract anyway working for a man who I find untrustworthy and unkind. This wage cut is the last straw.
If I stop working we will have about £700 to live on after the mortgage etc. is taken into account. We are trying to save money for rates, car costs and 'rainy days' while I'm still receiving a wage so we don't have to pay for those things out of my husband's salary.
Can we manage? We didn't seem to do so well when we were both working, although we had a number of debts which we have since cleared, leaving only our mortgage.
I would really appreciate some advice and stories from people who manage on this kind of money. Although £500 is a lot to lose, I think that the chance to be with my precious girls is worth more than that.

Bossyboots

I think you would need to post your expenses here before anyone could give you an answer.

Have you put all your expenses into a spreadsheet and see how it works out. Whether you could manage depends on the type of lifestyle you want.

My own personal choice would be to be with my children, particularly if you do not like the job you are doing. You can always look at something part time further down the line if you need some extra money and I found once my children started school, I got bits and pieces of work there and also some temping and other mums would help with childcare in return for the same favour.

LearningToSave.

you say after mortgage etc.....is that after mortgage and bills??

nadnad

Why will your wages be cut when you return to work?

ceegee

Need more info here, re £700 after mortgage etc. What is the etc?

From where I am sitting and from my experience, I reckon you could be up for a "yes" answer ( as long as you don't have debts!), but we really do need a breakdown of your finances. Post a detailed breakdown here.

Spendless

We are a family of 4 (kids aged 5 and 2) and this is the amount roughly that we live on after mortgage and bills are taken into account.

We do not have any personal loans, the amount on the 0% cc is sat in a bank account earning interest.

Husband has a company car and whilst we pay a lot in tax on it, we also have no running costs either. We don't pay for fuel either so that helps also.

The areas where we struggle are if work needs doing on house and holidays. We sold my house (from before we married) last year which has helped with work on this property. This years holiday is courtesy of a sharesave that's come in but previously we have had cheaper holidays.

Have you taken into account that your tax credit amount may change? Even if you are on the family element £545p.a you would still get the baby element of an additional £545p.a for the first year, you would also get an extra £11ish child benefit.

Is there any work you could do that would fit round one of you being at home with the kids? For example I used to work 5pm-8pm Mon-Fri at a DIY store when I only had eldest. The 5 year old is now at full-time school and I've just started work as relief lunchtime supervisor at school in next village 12-1.15. The youngest goes to my nans/MIL for her dinner whilst I work. These jobs just gave me a little bit of money and I could/can still attend the mums and tots etc with them.

fezza_2

I do manage on £700/month after mortgage bills etc not including food and petrol. You manage by using all the money saving skills that are here on this site in every aspect of living.You slash costs without slashing your lifestyle.
Well thats what we did. Of that £700 £350 on food and petrol a month
£250 into savings to fill up the next Isa,£150 into savings a month to cover xmas/car and house insurance emergencies.
You quickly learn the differences between want and need!
I will ask have you looked at the impact of losing working tax credit on your projected income and have you looked at if you do not return to work will you have to pay back any maternity pay?
One further point while your off on maternity why not see if you can manage on the £700 a month , try all the money saving techniques on the site and see if you can save the excess money for a few weeks.
Our income was slashed from over 40k a year two years ago to 12k last year,but I would not change that one bit our family has never been stronger,my kids have learnt a huge lesson in life that all the money in the world can not buy you the love and happiness that we have today! You cant get back the years of your kids childhood, if you can manage for a few years then enjoy that time with them.

Bossyboots

fezza wrote:

One further point while your off on maternity why not see if you can manage on the £700 a month , try all the money saving techniques on the site and see if you can save the excess money for a few weeks.
Our income was slashed from over 40k a year two years ago to 12k last year,but I would not change that one bit our family has never been stronger,my kids have learnt a huge lesson in life that all the money in the world can not buy you the love and happiness that we have today! You cant get back the years of your kids childhood, if you can manage for a few years then enjoy that time with them.

I should have thought of that. Many years ago when we were planning to start a family, we started putting my salary away every month and just living on the one to make sure we could do it. This also gave us a nest egg behind us for later on.

leftieM

Thanks everyone for the encouraging responses. Fezza's response is particularly impressive - you manage to save money too!
When I said that we will have £700 a month after mortgage etc, I'm including all of our direct debits (endowment, insurances, telephone) but not things that are purchased monthly (food, electricity, petrol) or things that have to be bought occasionally (oil, presents, paint for the house etc). I have included child benefit and CTC (as calc from the online calculator) in the £700. I have another 6 months before I'm due back at work so we will have to see whether we can manage on £700 as suggested.
I hadn't considered that I might have to pay back my maternity pay! I'll have to look into that.
My wages are being cut because I started a new contract at work and have to start from the bottom again salary-wise. I work as a post -doc researcher and the funding tends to assume that new PhDs will do the job, rather than experienced people. As I had been in post for 3 years my wage had risen yearly but now I have to start again.

Spendless

re-your maternity pay- Have you received more than the statuory amount? (ie has your maternity pay been topped up by your employer?). If you have you will either have to return for so long or repay the extra. If you've only received statuory amount that won't have to be re-paid.

You could contact the Maternity Alliance for more details.

Pink.

fezza wrote:

One further point while your off on maternity why not see if you can manage on the £700 a month , try all the money saving techniques on the site and see if you can save the excess money for a few weeks.

Fezza's idea seems like a really sensible one and would give you a pretty good idea whether or not you can manage without your salary. It might also be worth having a look at Martins Budget Planner. I found this really helpful when trying to work out our family budget.

Pink