Help please

twinmum07

With our mortgage we were interest only and have then gone into a 6 month baby break so I very much doubt we would be able to go back into interest only, especially with me self employed. We also had a baby break with the twin so I guess our records would throw some serious doubts as to whether we can actually pay our mortgage (quite rightly!!!).

I think our main frustration is looking at the long term. Once the baby reaches 3 i would be happy to use a private nursery and swap him at 4/5 into school so we could use the 2 1/2 days for me to work outside the home earning around £1000, with only one to look after part time for the other 2 1/2 days I would anticipate the business bringing in around £750. The car loan would paid, saving us £375 so in 2 1/2 years we can meet our payments, pay our debts and quite quickly live a debt free comfortable life. In 5 years i can work full time, run the business at a lower level and bath in champagne. we just have to try to hold it together over the next 2 1/2 years! i can see the light at the end of the tunnel but i'm not sure our current situation will allow us to the end of the tunnel in one peice!

t4mof

twinmum07 wrote: »

can i be rude and ask what you did? I will do anything i can with and around my kids as well but i think the hard thing is that as a teacher, I could get £25 per hour doing supply if i had childcare but without I guess I am looking at minimum wage ish. i would actually love to do supermarket work or office work but it is hard to look at such a difference between the wages of a job working around DH as opposed to working daytime hours on such a good rate. There is always tuition but not at this time of year and i feel anxious about putting my eggs in the tuition basket for Oct/Nov when I can't guage the possible uptake in our area. We put a few flyers out in February this year but a very small number of them and had no response. I am sure better/more active marketing would help but I think we just want safeguard now.

Me and OH were teachers but both gave it up - me in 2000 after having only graduated in 1998 and OH in 2004, just 6 weeks before DS2 came along. We thought he would walk into another job but didn't (hence a lot of our credit card debt - we had to live off them and a large crippling loan for a while).

Tuition is a good option but I would imagine in the current climate that would be one of the things people would cut back on.

Anyway to answer your question - I got a temping job in an office working 20 hours a week. Sort of data entry I suppose. I started in September 2001 and I'm still at the same company today - a year after I started I was taken on permanently, went full-time in Nov 05 when we realised OH was killing himself working nights at Tesco and actually my full-time wage would be higher. Got my first promotion in July 06 and my second in April 07 and have been doing the same job ever since. Best move I ever made to be honest. My first promotion in 2006 was actually into a training role and I absolutely loved it - finally got to put those teaching qualifications into action :rotfl:

Supermarkets are the other obvious option especially if you have 24 hour ones around you. Checkout work in the evenings or shelf stacking would all help. Bar work and waitressing are also other options. Just depends what area you live and what's around locally.

You've already managed to make savings of approx £200 in the last few hours (although some not immediately). A part-time job that would bring in £400 a month and perhaps your business making £200-300 a month and there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

slummymummyof3

Have you considered putting yourself forward for exam marking?

As a teacher, you could also look at working in FE not just a school - perhaps you could get a twilight class? Now would be the time to approach a college as they are timetabling for September. Your teaching (primary??) would give you experience for childcare/Early years courses.

Approach schools directly and let them know you are available for supply (if in laws can agree a set day a week) - is your CRB up to date???

Advertise offering private tuition. Look on County council website for positions covering ppa time as these are likely to be for 1 day per week.

twinmum07

Very silly for me not to have thought of it before but FE colleges could be perfect as I am a maths teacher so there will probably be quite a few opportunities outside normal teaching hours. I will sort out a CV and see if we can talk to the in laws about a regular commitment for next year (this may be difficult as they have already booked holidays) and then I can start ringing around and sending speculative letters to schools and FE colleges with details of what I can do and when.

Bar work/waitressing would be unlikely around here as our town has only 3 pubs and population is heavily weighted towards the lower ends so masses and masses of young people looking for part-time work who can be more flexible. I will enquire anyway just in case. We have a 24 hour supermarket and there are others within a reasonable driving distance so I will look into those too - I guess supermarkets would be more likely to see a 30 year old as a bonus not an antique! I think I need to list the possibilities and then rank them in order of pay and prospects and work my way down as my natural instincts are to sit down and just blast, sedning letters to everyone and everyone but all jobs wouldn't be equal and I would be foolish to commit to 3 hours bar work on minimum wage a week that could clash with an offer of teaching evening classes.
The temporary work I am doing at the moment is one to one tuition at the school i used to teach at so they asked me when they realised they couldn't complete the programme in time but next year they are looking for a full time primary specialist to delivery both maths, english and a little year 7 work so I can't continue with that. However, it might be worth letting schools know who I am and that I could be available to deliver their one to one next year.

My son is being Christened on Sunday so I have picked a bad time for my lightbulb moment as I have a house to clean from top to bottom, all the food to make and a cake to bake so I don't have much time this week. However, this means that Sunday night is clean up after the christening and first thing Monday is full action stations. I desperately want to start now but am more likely to give myself a nervous breakdown than do anything productive. I can aim to have the childcare conversation with the in laws this week but i think we need to spell out exactly how bad things are and why we need a concrete arrangement now that we can rely on. When i left my teaching job last year they said they could still do a couple of days a week so I could do some supply and run the business effectively but the agreement was totally informal and didn't materialise due to something unrelated so we need to explain that we need to know if they can do something set in stone for the next academic year. I guess essentially it was the lack of childcare over the last year that has caused most of the problems as the business should have been bringing in £500 a month but with 3 under 3s in the house i have been unable to focus on it.

I am looking at door to door catalogue type things, which I know won't bring in very much at all but may at least be something i can do with the kids so i can feel like I am doing something in the time when I have all 3 kids and am on my own, obviously I will also be working on the business when I can but some of this can be done when DH is home to be with the kids so i can work effectively.
I will register with supply agencies as well as writing to schools and colleges directly.

I am so grateful for all the help I am getting here. The advice seems so obvious but I think from our point of view it is hard to see sense and pick out solutions so we have been given lots and lots of great options, whereas this time yesterday we didn't really think we had any!

[Deleted User]

Have you considered tutoring work at the Open University. They periodically recruit new tutors, and although they don't make it essential taht you have a teaching qualification this is desirable. Check out their webpage and see if there are any of the courses that you would be able to teach.

Also, the majority of most courses are based online so it may help resolve the childcare issues.

Local colleges are also a good place to look, as are local Univerities (probably temping only unless you have a PhD - exam and coursework marking, exam invigilating, sessional lecturers, etc)

- also not massivly useful but have you signed up to the survey sites etc, not massive rewards but you could save up vouchers etc to cover the cost of Christmas and birthday presents

twinmum07

Thank you - there are part-time vacancies with the OU, which feels a little scary but I will give it a shot. Closing date is next Thursday so thank you Domino.
I am already registered with most of the survey sites and have balances with most so will sit down and see where I am with each and jump back into those - I know our shortfall is enormous but every little helps!

t4mof

You sound so much more positive in just 24 hours

Enjoy the weekend and you can get down to business next week. And keep popping on here for more advice as and when you need it.

Let us know how you get on with your job hunting.

Verbatim

Do any of the FE colleges have creches? Good luck with the job and childcare hunt.

twinmum07

Thank you again for all the support. We are both feeling really upbeat about getting things sorted and looking forward to being proactive and are even starting to hold a hope that by the time March comes we might be able to not just make our payments but maybe overpay by a couple of quid (it might just be a dream but why not aim for the sky!)
We have spoken to the inlaws and they have said they will come down for a day a week next year so that I can continue to work once the twins start nursery. They are going to have a think about a concrete day so I can start hunting for work next week.

We have rung the car insurance to report our extra 2 years new no claims bonus now our non-fault claim has been settled. We were paying £127 a month and have been told that will come down by £9 - not a month but just £9 over the full year!!! Hopefully it will be a bit more of a dramatic saving when we come to renew.

I guess we should probably start a debt free diary for the journey ahead, although really we are just looking to pay the minimum each month and are not at the satge of being able to menaingfully chip away at the debt so it will be a long journey. I will go start a thread and report back with a link.

twinmum07

Have set up the debt free diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/33697545#Comment_33697545

So excited to be heading in the right direction