Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

ceridwen

minnie2 wrote: »

i have just worked out i do 140hours a month for my second job ontop of the 130hours i do for my main job. Thats 270 hours a month!!! that is scary!!! and what do i have to show for it.....nothing really!! plus i am looking at doing more!!

dizzy_lizzie wrote: »

I am........



Luv Dizzy x
♥

....and me.....shocked that is....

Good on ya' for working hard to get rid of those debts - but I must admit to thinking "hours a month....errr....how many hours a month is one full-time job = 165 - 180 approx". So - 270 is 90 hours approx more than even a 40 hour workweek....:eek:

How many hours one can comfortably manage to work does depend variables - like ones state of health, how long it takes to get to work at the job/s, whether any O.H. is doing his fair share of the housework, etc.

Errr...how do you fit in those 270 hours you do now? What is a breakdown of a typical week at work for you?

Dinnae want to think about someone "overdoing it"...:(

ceridwen

minnie2 wrote: »

me too!! it is scary when you think about it!! may be getting another 12hours of work a week too soon!!! its just a shame the pay didnt reflect this!! I get £6.84 an hour for second job - but get tax heavily on it as its my 2nd job!! also when i do 24hours work at a time im actually only paid for 12 when you work it out which is a real cheek!! for a 24hr period i get paid a set amount of £90.59 (£72.39 after tax) but hey ho!!

Another way round the problem of getting more money for work would be to ensure you get the NMW for the hours you already do.

At a very quick glance £90.59 divided by NMW doesnt work out...as NMW is £5 summat per hour (think its currently £5.85 per hour???). So £5.85 x 24 = £140.40 - NOT £90.59.

I assume some of that 24 hour stint is "time on call" - rather than hours you are at work and working? I dont know what the rules are for rate of pay if "on call" - but have you checked them and seen that the employer is complying with them?

I presume you have been working for the employer in question for over a year (ie acquired a degree of employment protection)?

One factor that strikes me too is that working so many hours (and I assume the type of work you do involves having disturbed nights' sleep as well?) is very physically arduous. I also assume these are the type of jobs that don't pay you your salary as normal if you are off work ill - but give you SSP instead. Just concerned that you need to ensure that you don't "drive yourself so hard" that you become ill....

Frugaldom

Just popping in for end of month catch up.

Minnie2 - Well done for putting in the hours to earn whatever is needed to make ends meet and clear any debt. Not sure how your hours are made up or what it is you do, but it's an average 9 hour day, every day.

I don't think it's excessive. As any fulltime mothers, carers, farmers, self-employed (as a broad term) will tell you, averaging 270 hours over a period of 720 each month isn't too bad. I know I was doing a 52-hour basic week while training in a previous job and others have involved round the clock 24/7 with only 4 hour breaks in between - bit like having a baby! :rotfl:

I admire determination and am sure everyone knows their own limitations - the body soon reminds us.

Hope everyone with ailments, illnesses and/or injuries is feeling better.

Don't forget that this week is first payment of the 2011/12 Council Tax
Don't forget to return your Census

End of first quarter 2011 figures (I won't be spending tomorrow)

Groceries: £205.91
Electricity: £265.00 (pre-payment meter)
Coal: £23
Logs: £50
Internet: £59.94
Mobile Phone: £15
Telephone: £119.88 (Paid for full year's line rental up front)
TV: NIL (not yet due)
Footwear & Clothing: £52.50
Gifts: £11.98
NTS Membership: £15
Transport: £81.50
Insurances: £45
Pets: £21.34
Garden: £4.53
Misc: £1.89
TOTAL SPEND TO DATE: £992.47

Still doing my 'EEK' challenge (Everything Else Kitty) and have earned a total of £537.82 in extra income made up from hen & egg sales, cashback, savings interest and vouchers. Of that, I have spent £425.60, which includes a year's road tax for the car.

Savings will be blown to pieces when we move house again. Ho hum, hopefully the next move will be the last for a long while. It'll be the fourth house I'll have had since bringing this challenge to MSE - this is WHY I'm always skint. LOL

Take care of yourselves and your pennies.

23rdspiral

wow Minnie! i'm stunned! and i thought my OH worked too much! gosh, you take care hun. i'm sure you're managing ok, just dont go catching any of illnesses we have on here!

tax - eek, i now have a worse headache after trying to understand those posts!

house - we were told we could go get the keys, but they werent at the EA and the EA just looked blank and asked us why we were there. sheesh, she's been so useless. turns out they'd had more problems and their mortgage had gone out of date! anyway, all sorted now, no need to dwell. we got in for 5pm and the electrician came at 7pm... he was really nice, but no quote yet though.

they've left the garden full of stuff, and the shed is full to bursting, but aparently they'll sort all that out today. i'm still too sick feeling to want to do anything there anyway. (but what on earth would they have done if we'd actually needed to move yesterday like most people would do!?!?)

it's all starting to feel a bit real now. maybe i can persuade OH that we'd better get packing now! lol!! :rotfl:

alec_eiffel

tumptyteapot wrote: »

I've googled but I can't find it, do you know what channel it is on please - I'd need it on the Iplayer or 40d cos we have no TV :-)

ahh, found it - I anticipate much shouting at the screen if it comes onto 4Od, it looks terrible!
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/superscrimpers-waste-not-want-not

actually I am fuming allready reading about the first family - "Sanjay works as a consultant psychiatrist and Christina as a sister-in-charge at Birmingham Hospital. Between them, they have a joint salary of £108,000 per year. However, they have a monthly overspend of £2,800 - which means they're spending £33,600 per year that they don't have." they are all "self-confessed shopaholics."

I can't imagine earning that much money! How can people spend so much!

I used to get a bit miffed at shows like this where people had such abundance and still squandered but then Dave Ramsey made a comment on his radio show about it. Someone had loads of debt and they had a huge wage but he said - before you judge* these people with their huge wage and huge debt, just knock a zero off each figure and it's just the same as "normal" people". That really hit home to me.

*I'm not saying you're judging, this is what Dave Ramsey said

alec_eiffel

23rdspiral wrote: »

wow Minnie! i'm stunned! and i thought my OH worked too much! gosh, you take care hun. i'm sure you're managing ok, just dont go catching any of illnesses we have on here!

tax - eek, i now have a worse headache after trying to understand those posts!

house - we were told we could go get the keys, but they werent at the EA and the EA just looked blank and asked us why we were there. sheesh, she's been so useless. turns out they'd had more problems and their mortgage had gone out of date! anyway, all sorted now, no need to dwell. we got in for 5pm and the electrician came at 7pm... he was really nice, but no quote yet though.

they've left the garden full of stuff, and the shed is full to bursting, but aparently they'll sort all that out today. i'm still too sick feeling to want to do anything there anyway. (but what on earth would they have done if we'd actually needed to move yesterday like most people would do!?!?)

it's all starting to feel a bit real now. maybe i can persuade OH that we'd better get packing now! lol!! :rotfl:

Congratulations on the house, we moved house a year ago today. I hope you are as happy in your place as we are in ours :beer:

tumptyteapot

alec_eiffel wrote: »

*I'm not saying you're judging, this is what Dave Ramsey said

Oh I am judging :-)

alec_eiffel

tumptyteapot wrote: »

Oh I am judging :-)

:rotfl: Fair enough!

Laushappy

Ur welcome 23rdSpiral

cw18

ceridwen wrote: »

I assume some of that 24 hour stint is "time on call" - rather than hours you are at work and working? I dont know what the rules are for rate of pay if "on call" - but have you checked them and seen that the employer is complying with them?

I think it's just local agreement.

When I was in IT they paid £21.50 for 7pm one evening until 7am the next morning, the only exceptions being Sunday (7am to 7am - a 24 hour slot - which attracted £25.50 per 12 hours) and Bank Holidays (very rarely needed, but attracted Sunday rates)

Those were the rates in force when I joined the company in 1998, and still in force when I was made redundant in 2008 !!!

If we were called we were then paid for the hours we had to work at the 'appropriate rate' - the same as if we'd been in work for those times (could almost always do the work from home overnight and at weekends though)