My SOA - a bit more complex than most :-)

patman99

Meant to ask. How far is it from your house to your place of work?. Also, what sort of car do you own?.

atnoble32

Difficult time i know, but no possibility of downsizing your house?

DizzyDizzy

Hi Geoff, I feel for you I really do. I agree with what's been said previously, maybe just batten down the hatches as it were and ride it out. Keeping a spending diary is always an excellent idea, just the thought of having to write it down can put you off the extra little spends. Have you maybe thought about ringing or writing to your creditors and pleading hardship - sometimes people have reported that the creditors have agreed to cut the interest, or lower the monthly payments?

All the best, Dizzy

geoffhodge

Sometimes things get worse - may have to wait a little before snowballing etc. My wife's just had her contract cancelled (this morning) so that's £700 less a month coming in (although less childcare, transport costs etc) but at least the problem of her working for a bank isn't an issue :-) (looking on the positive here). Hopefully she can get another job soon - we have one more salary payment for her to come in (according to HR).

To answer the other questions, I live 22 miles (by road) from work. Can now get the train into work again (as I don't have to be home at times not condusive to the train timetables due to childcare times) so can save work with that. Would love to bike it in (so free) but just that bit too far for someone as unfit as me.

Can't downsize the house as we are already in one of the cheapest houses in our area, unless we move to one of the areas near us that I woul d really not be prepared to live in (like to be able to walk around without a bullet-proof vest) :-)

Car is the worst possible car for economy - 26 mpg. We can voluntary terminate the HP in about 8 months so will do that, and get a much cheaper-to-run (and finance) car then.

We'll get there somehow - currently concentrating on jobs. Also looking for a better paid one for me now I don't need to be able to WFH at very odd hours :-)

Cranny44

Your wife could claim carers allowance while she looks for a job would put another £50 quid or so in the pot each week.

geoffhodge

We already claim carers allowance as she was just under the max salary limit once we took off childcare costs but thanks for the suggestion :-)

jade-evie

You say your wife had her contract cancelled- was there reason for this? I'm an HR bod myself!

benbenandme

Its only a tiny one, but can you/your wife sign up to the survey sites?? It does take a while to build up but they pay out in cash or vouchers, maybe they could be put to one side to help with xmas / birthdays? Make sure that you are using quidco / topcashback for any possible transactions, use every loyalty card going etc etc ... I know it is only pennies but over time they do help a bit, and its nice to receive some nice post in the form of a cheque or a voucher rather than just bills

InDeepDebt

Looking at your SOA and the comments that go with it.

First – Satellite TV and broadband. What about freeview and another broadband provider? I’ve just moved to O2 (actually – move on Tuesday) and it is £13.50 for six months (£7.50 line rental - £6 for unlimited calls) and then £26 a month after 6 months. I also do on call and broadband is essential.

Groceries – do you have an ALDI, LIDL, Iceland, Farm foods, etc? Our grocery bill went from about £600 a month down to under £300 by doing a fortnightly shop but starting at the cheapest shops first – my route is ALDI, then LIDL, then Iceland and finally Tesco or Sainsbury’s (to get what I can’t get at the other three). You’d be surprised at the quality too. LIDL smoke salmon – 200g is £2.95 and is better than any other I’ve tasted . ALDI dishwasher tablets are half the price of Finish – and work just as well. It took us about 8 months to really get our shopping bills down but we’ve done it.

Other people have mentioned stuff like a pre payment certificate for medication. My wife has one – would have cost her about £50 this month if she didn’t have one!!!

Not really relevant now but are you sure about your wife’s work contract (as was)? I work for a bank and you are allowed an IVA or bankruptcy so long as, if one of the parties is the bank I work for, I don’t break any agreement with them.

HTH

Jim

geoffhodge

Hiya,

Apologies for late replies - not had chance to go online for a good few days :-)

To answer, we do already to the survey sites and there is an Aldi and Iceland near us - we shop at Iceland quite a lot and do like a lot of the Aldi food but find there is very little we can actually buy there which we can eat.

The reason her contract was ended was that she was still in a probationary period and they said they were not happy with her cash differences as there were some more than £10 (the max allowed in a day). They should have sent the paperwork through for her to appear as she onlyu has until Thursday now but they haven't, and she can't ring HR as they have an automated system which required a employee number before patching you through and hers no longer works. She is trying to get to them via their main switchboard today.

We are appealing based on the fact that she was supposed to have a buddy assigned to her to support her, suggest training, help her and liaise with the branch manager yet was never assigned on. In her final meeting, they told her who it was (rather too late) but this was also her line manager (the written materials expressly states it will not be your line manager as they are not impartial).

She was supposed to have weekly one2one's with the branch manager and in six months, only had 2. They also refused to let her input corrects on several occasions meaning the different was found but not corrected, so showed on her reports and on at least one occasion, they told her they had logged into her till when she was off and, by their words, 'fiddled with it' and it was showing a £600 differenece but they wouldn't say whether or not that was showing on her report (she couldn't pull that report off).

She was never shown how to trace differences, or allowed time to do it, and other permanent members of staff had worse differnences than her (differences are posted on a big wall in the staff area for everyone to see).

Our broadband, phone etc. is all due for renewal in a few months so we will take a look at it then,

Thanks all for your help - everything is on hold until we see what happens with her job as we don't know where we are until then.

Geoff