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Mummyinc 
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Joined: 01 October 2011
Location: New Zealand
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 Topic: DP going back to Study for a year??
Posted: 09 January 2013 at 7:07pm |
Hi there, would love some advice please? My DP is considering going back to study for a Year in June, we will have a 15 month old bub then and I'm not *planning* on going back to work It will mean we will have to move islands, and obviously have a bit of a tight year. I would love to hear from other families with a Stay at home parent and a student parent, he will be pursuing his dream career and I have no doubt he will get a job at the end of it so I'm fully supportive of this and pretty excited about the possibilities and the chance to live in the South island for a while, the only thing for us is we have no idea where to start when trying to figure if we will be able to afford to live as getting into debt ( other then Student loan) is not a option, i have looked on the Studylink website and that suggested a weekly amount of $340 which would cover maybe just rent and a little extra left over. I am not sure what else is available to families? Thank-you in advance 
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Tissy
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Posted: 09 January 2013 at 8:48pm |
presuming you are both over 25, you should get student allowance (the $341.60), and most likely an accomodation supplement via WINZ prob will get a top up of some sort from WINZ, not quite WFF but something like that, the family tax credit part i think it is.
I have friends living in Duneidn, where he has been studying, and mum stayed at home with the 2yr old and newborn twins, they got Student allowance, accomodation supplement and a bit extra. the ended up with approx $450 in their account each week....which honestly is a sh*te load more than other students get (im on 172 a week)
they 'survived' his degree by living in a cheaper area of town (dalmore, dunedin) and not having a flash car, and not splurging, they got what the needed and saved what they could.
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jazzy
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Posted: 09 January 2013 at 8:54pm |
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what is he studying? is there no way you can stay where you are & have him study part time while still working?
Have you looked into benefits, I don't know if you can get any extra if you are on an unemployment benefit via studylink, not including student loan that is.
I think you may have to reconsider getting a job till he does.
You should be able to get the accommodation supplement.
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Hopes
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Posted: 10 January 2013 at 10:07am |
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We've been in this position. There basically just isn't much out there. You can get a student allowance, if you're eligible (we weren't, Dh had used all his at the beginning of his studies), working for families (you get less because neither of you are 'working', but you do get some), an accommodation supplement, and that's it. You can't get an unemployment benefit if your husband's a student.
If you have no savings, you might be eligible for a special grant from WINZ. Because we had savings, we weren't.
We did it for six months living on my PPL and then what I earnt working two days a week. I won't try and pretend it was easy! Personally, if I was in your shoes, I would try and find at least a part-time job.
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jazzy
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Posted: 10 January 2013 at 11:10am |
This may help payment tableyou need to be work 30hrs a week to get WFF. DH left work to complete his study in a yr, we lived off my wages. He was not entitled to anything extra as we were living together. We were getting married at the end of the yr when he finished his study & the plan was to have a baby a yr later as then he would be in a good job & we would have 2 incomes...well it didn't work out like that, he graduated in Nov, we were married 2 weeks later & baby arrived in feb. He had no job I was on mat leave from a week before baby due & he was 2 weeks late, there was no WWF, PPL then so we drained our savings. We applied for a benefit & practicably had to beg for it & it was stuff all so got into horrible debt. DH got a job when DS1 was 8 weeks old & we ended up having to pay nearly all of what we got on the benefit for those few weeks back..it took us yrs to clear debt. It was really tough but so worth it, but then I was working & bringing in a good wage but we were only on one wage...I don't see how we would of done it on no wage. His qualifications may get him a really well paying job but make sure there is a market for him to get into. start saving now & you should look at getting a job also...it a tough road.
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ToniF
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Posted: 11 January 2013 at 10:38am |
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We were kind of in this situation. It was almost three years ago now so i'm not up to date with what is currently available with student allowances or WFF. My DH was studying full-time & i was a stay home mum. We initially had good savings which meant we couldn't get an accommodation supplement but we were able to get a student allowance. Towards the end of his studies we'd used all the savings & in the last few months we didn't get the allowance & just lived off student loan.
I remember at times it was very hard but it wasn't impossible. We had very good family support, the grandparents like to spoil my kids & they pretty much brought all my daughters clothes & toys so we were very lucky in that way.
Is there anyway your husband can work part-time? My husband use to do this when he could as long as it didn't interfere with his study.
We also didn't have the costs involved in moving town. We lived in Dunedin, had cheap rent & my husband walked to walk so only used one car. I don't know where you are planning to move to, but we found living in a student town meant there were other people in similar situations to ours which was comforting at times :-)
The one thing that kept me going was knowing it wasn't forever (but for us it turned out to be a few more years than we thought). What i did find hard was once the study had finished & he started earning it took us quite a while to get back on our feet.
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ToniF
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Posted: 11 January 2013 at 10:48am |
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Just thinking.... If it is something you end up deciding to do my advice would be to do all the things like dentist check ups, new tires on car, buy new shoes etc now before you have no income as those are the things which are really hard to fit into the budget.
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jazzy
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Posted: 11 January 2013 at 11:25am |
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personally I think it is just better to save hard out for the next 6mths...also go through what you have & sell what you don't need or wont to take. If you have sky get rid of it & anything else that is not essential.
Any chance you can become an in home child carer? You will have time to get into it before you leave & then you could set up again when you move.
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ToniF
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Posted: 11 January 2013 at 12:19pm |
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lol jazzy you sound like my husband he would say save too & that is what we did, we lived frugal long before had to use allowance & loan which is probably what allowed us to know we'd make it through living on such a low income. I just hated it when we had very limited funds when things like having to get new tires came up it just seemed more stressful as opposed when had more income.
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jazzy
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Posted: 11 January 2013 at 1:05pm |
 ToniF wrote:
lol jazzy you sound like my husband he would say save too & that is what we did, we lived frugal long before had to use allowance & loan which is probably what allowed us to know we'd make it through living on such a low income. I just hated it when we had very limited funds when things like having to get new tires came up it just seemed more stressful as opposed when had more income.
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ha ha I wish I sounded like this back in the day. I would sell the car since no one is working for at least a yr. Move close to study or shops & get on a good bus route. We went from 2 to 1 car as I was still working & worked night shifts & went back to part time work after 3mths. When DH worked he took the car as it was a real distance away & I walked with baby everywhere. I am so glad DH did what he did it has set him up & he updates his skills regularly.
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Hopes
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Posted: 11 January 2013 at 1:52pm |
jazzy wrote:
you need to be work 30hrs a week to get WFF.
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Not quite - you need to be working 30 hours a week to get the 'working' portion of WFF. You still get some.
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jazzy
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Posted: 11 January 2013 at 2:24pm |
Hopes wrote:
jazzy wrote:
you need to be work 30hrs a week to get WFF.
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Not quite - you need to be working 30 hours a week to get the 'working' portion of WFF. You still get some. |
that's what I was saying. I know you can get the Family tax credit without having to work..I don't know much about this one, can you get in while on a benefit or is it included in the benefit? I posted the table yesterday.
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DP going back to Study for a year??
