I’m a mother of two on £100,000 – my bills are so high I don’t buy clothes or make-up

The average UK household is spending nearly £119 per week on food shopping, amounting to more than £6,000 per year. For families with children, the cost can increase to £170 weekly. Rising costs mean that 61 per cent of people in the UK claim they’ve had to cut back. In a new series, The i Paper asks families how they manage their weekly budget. This week, we hear from a single mother-of-two, Yasmine Camilla, 40, about how she budgets her £100k project manager and social media salary for her and her children, aged 13 and 11. She shares her life balancing work, parenting and budgets online @yasminecamilla. I work really long hours. I have ADHD and so I find organising meal plans and food shopping really tricky. It’s very up and down. My ideal week is that I’ve meal planned, bought all the snacks for the kids and have all my ingredients. But if I have a busy week and it doesn’t go to plan, I sometimes have to rely on takeaways or to save time, I use Gusto boxes. It saves me thinking time about the meals I’m going to cook, I just select them. My daughter is quite a fussy eater and my son can’t eat gluten so it’s tricky to accommodate everyone in the house. It costs £50 for five meals for two people and we like the classic beef cottage pie with cheesy mash, Thai-style yellow chicken with rice and the sausage and potato hash. I buy a two-person box and divide it between three. I budget around £400 a month for food, but when I buy takeaways it can go over by £200. I do a food shop that’s delivered, usually Sainsbury’s, though I shop around and see what deals are on, or have been emailed to me. Shorts I always buy water, as we don’t drink London tap water, and for the kids I buy crisps, fruit and protein yoghurts as I feel it keeps them fuller for longer. I go for supermarket own brands unless a branded item is on offer for the same price, my only exceptions are mayonnaise (we have Hellmann’s), ketchup and water as my kids prefer Evian. I buy some things in bulk such as washing-up liquid, fabric softener from Tallow & Ash, toilet paper from Who Gives A Crap? and cheap coffee pods. My kids have school lunches which cost £20 per child per week and for dinners we have a lot of chilli con carne or anything you can cook in the slow cooker. They love macaroni cheese, sausage pasta or chicken goujons in the air fryer with potato salad. I like to make things I can use as another meal the next day, and we often take leftovers to lunch or work. Between my full-time work and social media, I’ll earn £100,000 this year. Although I earn well, I have had to cut back on certain things – such as juice, extra household cleaners and air fresheners and certain snacks such as fruit bars as they’re quite expensive. I also try to limit how much meat we buy as it’s super expensive. It keeps the bill cheaper to make vegetarian meals like stir-fries with rice noodles, Mediterranean vegetables with feta and jacket potatoes. I have fixed budgets for Christmas and birthdays – £300 per child for birthdays and £200 for Christmas and I use a saving scheme called Park where you put money in and can’t take it back out. I put money into those each month, even if it’s £10 or £20. For days out we do a lot of free things like museums and we take a packed lunch. I collect vouchers to have free or discounted meals in restaurants like Wagamama. My mortgage at the moment on my two-bedroom Victorian terrace is around £1350 but I’m on a one per cent interest rate that’ll change in February – I’m expecting it to increase by £600. I’ve lived here for 13 years and my plan was to convert the loft but it’s become too expensive. I’ve now turned the dining room into a bedroom to make it big enough for us. Weekly pocket money for the children helps keep us on top of monthly budgeting It’s a constant battle. I’m earning probably twice as much as I was when I bought the house but I still don’t have any more money to do anything to it. I pay a lot more in gas and electric – we’re careful not to use things unless we really need to and I always encourage the kids to turn things off, but energy bills and water are double what they were five years ago. I can’t afford things like a new pair of glasses – though my eyes have deteriorated. The basics are around £3,500 per month which is a huge amount. I feel like I’m constantly chasing my tail even though I’m earning more. My daughter goes to ballet and my son has some clubs but I feel they’re the kinds of things I shouldn’t have to cut out. Just because I’m a single parent doesn’t mean my kids shouldn’t do extracurricular activities. I’ve cut out what I would consider luxuries – I no longer get my nails done, I don’t buy clothes, make-up or expensive skincare, I get my hair done every three months and I buy all the kids clothes on Vinted. My son is 13 and he’s a size 11 shoe so his trainers can be £100 and they’re the ones he wants to wear to school. I don’t want to say no. I know when you’re a teenager it’s important to show up in a way that makes you feel confident. I did recently switch them from £5 pocket money per week to £20. My daughter was starting to ask to go to New Look and buy clothes and she got to the age where she wanted to do her own thing. We had a serious conversation and I explained that everything they want has to come from that £20. I think this will be better for my budget. I didn’t grow up with much so I’ve probably overcompensated. I want them to have a better life than me but I also want them to learn the value of things and see that things aren’t there waiting on a platter.