Survival....

JoJoB

Moving to a place that will have the rent covered by HB is a good move of course, but I'm puzzled as to why you don't think you will be able to afford tv etc (though you are obviously looking at this as an opportunity for getting closer and talking more which is great).

I know things are tight on jsa, but you will get rent and council tax paid for, and an additional monthly payment of child tax credit, plus your child benefit. I know plenty of people who manage perfectly well on this, and I plan to myself soon as OH may be getting made redundant too!

Do you have loan/cc payments you are trying to budget for? If so just come to some arrangement with the companies concerned or get in touch with CAB to discuss options. I don't think there's any need to panic sell all your stuff! You can even get help with deposits etc from some councils.

Cash converters and second-hand/junk shops might have your old telly etc, but I wouldn't imagine you'd get that much for them to be honest - but maybe every little helps.

I do feel for you, facing all this upheaval. I'm dreading it myself - OH is 95% certain to lose his job in the summer and then we will have no option but to have the house repossessed and move to rented. I don't mind living somewhere else and adjusting etc, I just don't like the in-between messy transitional limbo bit! Once you are settled I'm sure you and OH will have lovely quality time with each other and your toddler and will get a lot out of the enforced career break.

Pollycat

Hi
I'm sorry to hear about your OH's redundancy.

As well as trying the DFW board, the OldStyle board has some really good advice on menu planning, bulk cooking etc.

Good luck

ailuro2

I wouldn't move away from somewhere with great transport links etc, and close to people who would employ me - like other folks have said, working for other people can be a great stop-gap, and can be very flexible. There do tend to be more job opportunities in more built-up areas.

There are still plenty of people who need cleaners and grass cutters, or have elderly relatives who need company and are happy to pay people to do it- have you thought about jobs that come with accommodation?

Have you asked your landlord to drop the rent? Having good tenants in a property is better than having none - only you will know the market in your area, and know what supply and demand is like.

If you're determined to move, then go somewhere that will have fantastic schools for your little one, maybe a ground floor flat that has a garden, good playgroups etc. are also important - if you're moving to a different area without a car you need to get out and meet people and make friends/netwrok.

MAny jobs are found by word of mouth, I work in a big factory and know that the people who are hired quite often already knew someone who got an application form for them.

Can you go back to work and leave OH to look after LO?

Is there any hope of gettign jobs in the near future?

Try not to think very short term, think that in six months to a year from now things will have settled down again, wherever you end up.

Best wishes and good luck, try to get a good sleep, everything usually looks better after a good night's rest.

p.s. Any pubs in the area that need barstaff, or shops that want late night shelf stacking done? If you miss seeing each other for a short while it would be bearable to shore up your emergency funds for when you need them.

did you find out yet what benefits you would be entitled to?

https://www.entitledto.com is the govt. official website - put in some figures and see what is comes up with.You might be very surprised - I know people who can survive on benefits and still have money left for TV, mobile phones, kids activities, so it's worth looking into imho.

wannabe_sybil

Good luck - it is amazing how you can manage if you have to.

Also, don't lose the internet, it is a phenomenal source of information and bargains and using quidco and daily clicks (see DFW board) you can get the money back. Also good way of finding out about local services etc, free resources, you would be surprised. Also this forum is my lifeline as SAHM and I would sink without its support.

Also tv, not necessary but useful for little one, ceebeebies are a useful source of age appropriate stimulation. tv licence is under £12 per month.

Look on up your income board.

Always fall towards each other, when things get bad. It is amazing how close you can get when you are close and working to the same goal.

Hope all works out for you.

wannabe_sybil

Also look on Old Style board. There was a thread of someone feeding their family on 50p per person per day for several months, checking out all the info on nutrition, aiming for five a day etc. Grocery Challenge has some really good ideas about cutting down.

I am very bad at keeping shopping bills down but I have got my grocery bill slowly down to nearer £50 per week for two adults and toddler and we are eating more healthily. With discipline it can be done, and I found online supermarket shopping works through my.supermarket.com (with ipoints to redeem for things you can give for special occasions) that the delivery charge of £3.50 if you spend more than £40 (with Sainsbury) was more than saved by petrol costs, time, lack of opportunity to impulse buy etc and you may be able to manage a fortnightly shop. There are, I believe, codes for free delivery on some of the shopping boards - have a rummage!!!

Also on Special Occasions board there are people who give very inexpensive small gifts home made, and some of them are amazing. You may be able to continue to give token gifts, which makes you feel so much better.

Hope this helps.

Cookie_monster_7

We are not entitled to jsa because we were both mature students for the last 5 years so not enough contributions or something so tis tight.

I am so so grateful for all the helpful suggestions everyone is making and the lovely support. It really is heartwarming. My dd is pulling at my leg just now so I will go and play with her but I'm going to write down all the suggestions you have all made on here and do them. What a fantastic lot you all are.

The jobcentre website and the local papers are not coming up with any jobs that don't ask for experience....even factory packing jobs....I mean, how long would it take to learn how to do that? It must be that with all the redundancies there must be a pool of experienced workers who can fill these positions. I have more varied work experience than my OH so it might well be easier for me to get a job and have him look after our dd. *sigh*

JoJoB

Cookie_monster wrote: »

We are not entitled to jsa because we were both mature students for the last 5 years so not enough contributions or something so tis tight.

You won't be entitled to contributions based jsa, but you will get income-based jsa - which is the same amount. I think it's £60.50 for a single person over 25 and £94.95 for a couple per week.

I get child tax credit of £200 per month at the mo, prob going down to £150 when DD is 1. So I assume you might get around the same? Plus £80 per month child ben. So that's about £600 per month coming in to pay all your bills apart from council tax and rent, which will be paid for you. So it's do-able without too much misery involved.

Kirri

Cookie_monster wrote: »

Thank you so much for that inspiring post pukkamum, maybe it won't be too bad. We are talking about how, without the internet and tv (maybe ) we will have more time to spend together talking and also just reading and listening to music etc....stuff that we rarely do because the internet and tv are a bigger priority in our lives.

I was also considering getting rid of my tv to stop paying the licence. I've been making much more use of the library anyway lately and enjoy going and getting books for free

Are there also things you could sell on ebay/Amazon etc? It's surprising what we hang on to which if we think about it we don't really want or need.

[Deleted User]

Oh yeah be a Taxi driver loads of money!

Friday night in Swansea averaged £11 an hour before expenses of about £9 an hour:eek:

In the last hour had a runner(non payer) for £7.90

a call to the pick up a guy who when questioned(due to previour runner) had no money and got kicked out after 15minutes with police( who were called as guy would not vacate car) due to not having cash and being aggressive meant in two hours I earnt approx £5.60 meansd taxi driving is a viable option if u want to take abuse off arssseholes for nothng:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

RAS

Cookie_monster wrote: »

We are not entitled to jsa because we were both mature students for the last 5 years so not enough contributions or something so tis tight.

Hi

You really need to disentangle this one.

You both need to sign on, whatever happens, because you get your NI contributions paid for you whilst you are signed on. if you do not do that, then you will not have the required contribution record if you are redundant in two years time or the pensions rights accruing.

However, you may not get paid JSA because you did not pay enough Ni when you were students.

I am a bit ropey on this because the names of the benefits change but you still get mean-tested benefits.

If you have been a student recently, you need to go into your old University (if possible or the one nearest) which provides free careers and job-hunting help for two years after your graduated.

You also need to see if the welfare officer will help you work out what benefits you can get. if not ring the local council and ask where they run benefits advice centres, as you plainly do not know your rights.

Once you know what council tax benefit, housing benefit and child tax credit you are getting, then you can make an informed decision.

You should be able to get an idea of the HB allowance for your area for your family and then look for a property that is in that range. if something is a bit more expensive, haggle as a lot of landlords are struggling to get tenants at the moment.

if you are both out of work, you need to be somewhere where there are jobs, where transport is good and cheap. I know it may mean living somewhere you do not like so much but having been a recent graduate when the economy was in a dire mess, that is what matters. It meant I had to forgo living in my old university town, which I loved and move to the city so I could get work, but i am glad I did it.

If either of you can get permanent work in the place 30 miles away, by all means go, but do check how much the housing benefit allow there as it may well be a lot less.