Hey Sally, do yourself a favor and ring Centrelink anyway, just to check. Are you getting FTB A and B? If not, you should be, and you can have it paid fortnightly rather than waiting for it at tax time. You may also qualify for some rent assistance (not sure what the cut off is but worth asking about). 55K is not a lot to live on, esp if DP is being a total prat with his vehicle expenditure.
Yep get A & B and it's paid fortnightly. Don't pay rent anyway. Thanks

Thanks MN, I did have a budget and we tried the food plan thing too and it just never worked out. If I had complete control of where money went to it would be easier... but that's not going to happen any time soon. I don't want to uproot Brendan out of his centre, he's been going for just over a year now (14 months) and they are trained to help him too (sees speech, ot, ect) his room leader and the co-ordinator have done some extra training to help Speech Delayed children.

I've put my name down for a job at Target, that's where I want to go, they are very understanding of having children especially prems and special needs kids.

Thanks everyone