Taking Voluntary Redundancy and looking at my budget!

Hurdler

Update. Think that we've ironed out all the issues, and the formal offer is being written up with a target start date of 1st August.
Doing some education to help my longer term career courtesy of the recruitment agent (thrown in as a sweetener) and then, I am taking 3 weeks off from the grind that has been responding to recruitment requests, updating job-search spreadsheets, maintaining an up-to-date profile on Linked In etc.

I will need to work with the accountant to put the Limited Company I set up into dormancy, but the skills and training I am getting over the next couple of years will mean I will be better placed to start it up again and have those "ticks in boxes" re: certifications that get you past the first screening. I was getting nowhere for high end IT contracts, simply without those, although with 18 and a half years' experience, you'd think that would have counted for something!!!

So... here's my strategy coming up for the next Quarter...
1) Sort out the limited company and the whole p45 malarky and obviously I need to still dip in to the Redundancy reserves, because I won't be getting paid until end of August/beginning of September (I assume that's how it works for a month in arrears? My last job paid in advance!!!) so there is no going bananas with money just yet!

2) I got quite cross with Sky who rang me up (after I had downgraded my package and took off channels I never watch, and took off HD)... they wanted to offer me a reduced rate package... ummm.. let's see. I am STILL living off a VR lump sum. So... NO!!! I'll reinstate it ONCE I get paid, and not before. Sheesh! Is it so hard for them to understand that it might be a tad more important to eat and keep a roof over your head than to watch Wimbledon in vivid HD??? Seemingly so!

3) I am going to wait until October when the mortgage is recalculated annually to see what effect my overpayments had over the year and then I *think* I might be able to go double the payments and still live an ok lifestyle.

4) Once that is all sorted out, I am going to follow Martin's advice and leave 6 months salary from the VR in a savings account for emergencies, and use MSE to find the best short term bond for safekeeping.

5) I am still looking to do a Diploma in Journalism, but part time, obviously, but there are benefits in having a full time job in the IT industry as I did actually manage to make it to the 2nd stage of a technical reviewer freelance role so worth doing.

So not quite out of the woods yet - still a few months to go... I am going to use the three weeks to chill out, do a load of stuff I hadn't really gotten round to doing, and be rested for the start!

Thanks for reading, and if anyone has any other useful advice for nailing the finances... that would be great!

foxgloves

Sounds like you are getting loads of plans in motion. It's going well here.....my VR leave date was April. We always failed to live within our means while we were earning 2 full time salaries but having our LBMs a couple of years before me taking VR was key here to our improved budgeting skills! We have decided to ditch Virgin Media and stick to Freeview as we did a bit of an audit of all the programmes we'd really enjoyed over the last few months and 99% of them were on mainstream channels. It's funny when you ring these companies to cancel. When we downgraded a package before, we were told 'What will your kids do if you don't have Disney, etc?' When we replied that we don't have any kids, the desperate individual in the retentions dept said 'Well what about your neighbour's kids if they pop round?' Haha! 'That would be our worst nightmare', we said and they finally admitted defeat! I think you said you don't cook, which means that a lot of my money saving wouldn't be right for you, but I am finding that cooking everything from scratch, doubling up & freezing as well as growing lots of veg ourselves is massively helping us stay on budget (as well as lose weight!) We are also much more sensible with presents, putting bits & bobs aside when we see them, and generally spending less, but choosing better. I'm not currently looking for work. I haven't ruled out applying for another job if I saw something I fancied doing.....not much in the public sector at the moment which is where my qualifications are most relevant, but I am enjoying getting on with lots of different projects in the meantime and am finding that the big reduction in our budget is manageable if I use the skills I now have. As somebody said on another thread....Money management isn't magic, it's maths! So true. Wish I'd discovered it 20 years ago!

Hurdler

Oh I do cook - but have been guilty of those weekend takeaways. Now I try convince myself a ready meal from M&S is my "give the kitchen a rest" treat ... I have my grocery shop now every 2 weeks and if I need bread/eggs/milk I just get it from the corner shop.
I usually freeze things like jar-mix chilli/casseroles and use them for when I get back from the gym...

I just laughed out loud at the "what if the neighbours kids come round" - that is hilarious!!!

foxgloves

I find that 'daisy-chaining' or rolling things over re meals helps no end in sticking to my food/household budget. i.e. As a bit of an old-styler, I'll roast a chicken, then get 2 more meals out of it plus a couple of packed lunches for partner. Then I'll make stock (nothing fancy....it just goes in the slowcooker overnight) and use it as a basis for some soup. I've tried several different ways of managing the food budget. The current one is working best. At start of month, I work out a rough plan of what we're going to eat over the next month and we buy as much of it as possible when we shop for the first time that month. Then, the rest of the month, I just need to buy the fresh stuff, milk, eggs, fruit, veg that we don't grow, etc. I don't stick to the menu plan too rigidly...i.e if I find we've got lots of something that needs using, I'll make something with that rather than have to waste it. Also, as veg growers, we sometimes find we've got a glut of something.....cucumbers last couple of week so lots of salads & raita. Now it's caulis so we're having lots of cauliflower cheese and veg curries. I'm always rolling over things from one meal to another. i.e If I'm chopping peppers for one meal, I'll freeze some to use when I next make a pizza, that sort of thing. Having more time since taking VR defintely helps, especially with growing stuff. we have also lost weight & are feeling a lot healthier as since we've been budgeting, we are buying less unhealthy snacks and takeaways, as well as fewer stops for cappucinos & buns when we're out & about!

Hurdler

I have actually started to take cut up apples to the Outplacement office to have as a snack and I normally have a banana as well. And lately I've taken to buying a range of nuts and a grab handful and put in a ziplock bag to nibble on. The Outplacement offices have free drinks so that only leaves lunch, and because I am effectively working for myself at the moment (albeit not on a contract) at least lunch is/was tax deductable!!!

And there are plenty of places that sell wraps etc, and they have a great japanese place next door that sells dumplings for £1.50 - bargain!

Hurdler

Update: start on Monday in the new job, but I have decided to keep my "austerity" measures and, as you can see in my sig, I joined the Mortgage Free Wannabe sub-forum.

If there is one thing that I have learned in this episode - I need to be MUCH better prepared in this current climate. So the money I was saving in now getting chucked into the mortgage.

I also would still like to give contracting and working for myself another go, in a couple of years, not to mention continuing to pursuing a career change into journalism.

Good luck to all facing the spectre of redundancy ... And thanks to everyone who helped me at the time.

R.