No work = no food = no answers

Got_No_Answers

Hi

I need some help please on what I can do to find money to feed myself and my wife.

A little about me. I had a back injury at work about 16 months ago. Whilst my back is still not 100%, I have some painkillers which now enable me to get back to work. I took my FLT licences about 3 months ago to hopefully give me an edge to work back into warehouse. I have registered with every agency within my area but apart from 3 weeks work, they have not offered me any work. I call everyday and enquire if there is any work, I check their websites and the local websites (indeed, jobsite, totaljobs etc) and find several jobs that are advertised by the agencies I am registered with, but they say that the job needs at least 6 months recent experience (before my previous role I have worked in warehouse for over 10 years). How am I supposed to get recent expericence if there is no job?

I am applying for any jobs but I have only had 1 job interview, who did not really look like he wanted to be doing it. Whilst I thought I did my best, I have not heard anything since, and this was 4 weeks ago so I guess I was unsuccessful

Anyway, the main point of me posting is I only have £200 left to survive on. This needs to cover petrol and food and I just dont know how I can get this to last. I am just thankful we dont have any children! I know that I might be panicing over nothing and the agency might pop up with a job tomorrow but I have not worked for over 3 weeks now and I have no answers.

I am not entitled to any benefits as my OH works fulltime. Her wages cover the mortgage, c.tax and utilities and the loans we have and she is lucky if she gets £8 left a month.

I feel like such a failure as a man, as a husband when I see my wife stressed to the eyes on wondering how we are going to survive. She does not blame me and infact is always encouraging me by helping look for work after she comes home but it is taking its toll.

We have £13k in debt with loans. My OH's wages covers all the payments and we have approx 21 more payments until we are "loan free" with just the mortgage left. The mortgage company are great and have agreed us to keep on interest only until august next year, which is why my wife is able to keep paying all the debts etc.

I am sorry to sound like I am moaning but I really dont know how we are going to cope if I cant find work. We would not be able to eat and family are not in a position to help either. My parents are retired, my wifes parents are disabled and are living on the breadline.

My wife has sold all her rings and necklaces, her car (she now walks to work) and I have sold everything we can do without (mind you the house now looks very japanese :rotfl:)

Thanks for reading :T

asparagus1968

gosh,you are not moaning!
my heart goes out to you,so many are struggling,jobless etc.
you need soe help,and i don't know enough but...
keep up the good work looking for employment.
maybe post on the employment board,they may have some ideas.
any unemployment insurance you could use?
if you cannot afford food,you can't make the loans a priority i would have thought,unless they are secured on your house?
could you pick up any "ad hoc" work?-like handy man/gardening/dog walking/bar job etc?
i hope someone more clever comes to your aid soon,sorry not much help.

Candy0107

Hi, pop on to the old style board for advice on your shopping (batch cooking etc) re the loans can you contact the creditors and make a token payment?

Good luck

candy xxx

chappers

Well done for getting ahead of the problem the only thing I can say is if push comes to shove remember your priority debts i.e mortgage and then Council tax, then obviously food followed by utilities with water being the lowest priorty, all your unsecured debts would have to wait.
As you have done here speak to them before the problem arises and you may get a more sympathetic ear, for example you may be able to increase the terms and pay less each month to give yourselves some breathing space. The same with your utilities can you pay by DD to spread the cost or if you are reduce your DD (you may run up some debt but at least be contributing something that they are happy with) on a temporary basis.
Good luck i hope something comes up soon as you seem to be a decent bloke who wants to pay their way.

saterkey

do you have a spare room that you could rent out to a student perhaps for a few months/weeks. Have you thought about short term fostering, if your good with kids and have a spare room i think its something like a few hundred a week to cover expenses and a wage. You can also do vulnerable adult fostering i understand. Rent out your driveway perhaps. could you take on a shop job that your not on your feet too much, perhaps even a paper round which is a hour or so every day exercise not sure how feasible with your back.
If you volunteer, it will give you confidence and experience is different environments, look for something food related, food may be included.
Woopsies, bargain basics, batch cooking, grow your own veg. pick fruits like blackberries and make into pies etc. use freecycle maybe sell stuff you get on car boots to get a bit of cash.
Heard about dropshipping i think it was where you sell on ebay and get the merchandiser to send straight to the buyer so you dont see item at all but pay the ebay fees and get to keep any profit you put on.
Really cut down on expenditure, are you eligible for working tax at all.
cant think of anything else at the moment. good luck hope things work out.

ineed

I'm so sorry to hear about your current situation, I can't imagine how worried you must be. Your not a failure please don't think that. I just wanted to say if you need to you can go to a food bank just to give you a link there, so you at least have food if things don't improve. As others have said old style money saving board will give you loads of helpful advice on shopping savings.

Have you considered a DMP for your debts? Might be worth chatting to CAB about your options or look into it online. Use a free charity like CCC if you do decide on a DMP. It isn't for everyone though as it can affect your credit rating.

You may also be able to get a crisis loan if needs be. Good luck with whatever you decide, and I really hope things get better for you soon .

Got_No_Answers

Thank u all for your comments and kind words :-D

Saterkey unfortunately our house is far too small to rent out our box room. Also my wife suffers night terrors and night panic attacks so would not want anyone to have to be in the house when she does have an attack.

I have been to my local pubs and every warehouse industrial warehouse around. I have also put up local adverts on my FB to see if friends, friends of friends can keep their eyes peeled.

As much as I would love to volunteer this is not going to help with the money front :-(

I will ask my darling wife to look on the old style board as the most creative thing I can cook is beans on toast (as long as my wife cooks the toast and the beans ha ha ha)

What is an SOA? Would this help you all to see where we can cut down?

Cheers

ineed

SOA = statement of affairs. You can make on using this site.

HappyMJ

Got_No_Answers wrote: »

Thank u all for your comments and kind words :-D

Saterkey unfortunately our house is far too small to rent out our box room. Also my wife suffers night terrors and night panic attacks so would not want anyone to have to be in the house when she does have an attack.

I have been to my local pubs and every warehouse industrial warehouse around. I have also put up local adverts on my FB to see if friends, friends of friends can keep their eyes peeled.

As much as I would love to volunteer this is not going to help with the money front :-(

I will ask my darling wife to look on the old style board as the most creative thing I can cook is beans on toast (as long as my wife cooks the toast and the beans ha ha ha)

What is an SOA? Would this help you all to see where we can cut down?

Cheers

SOA = Statement of Affairs. It's effectively a budget.

This one is a good one which you can copy and paste the results here in MSE format. http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

You should also do a benefit check to see you are getting all you are entitled to. You may be able to now get working tax credits for example. This site will help show you if you could be entitled to anything. It's a bit complex though but give it a go. http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

Tixy

Hi

A SoA is a statement of affairs - basically a list of household income and outgoings and list of debts and APRs etc.

Whilst you are obviously trying very hard to get employment I think you might need to seek some advice from one of the debt advice charities and consider that you might need to take a decision to reduce your loan repayments (such as via a DMP - debt management plan).

Doing a statement of affairs is really useful and should help you see where your money is going each month and whether you can manage to carry on for a bit longer being very frugal or whether you need to bit the bullet. If you post the statement of affairs on here people might be able to make suggestions that can help you ease your budget a little and what possibly debts solutions might be most appropriate.

Got_No_Answers

Thank you all for the SOA link ... here goes:

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1316
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1316
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 260 (interest only till Aug 2013)
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100 (over 12 months)
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 42
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 19 (water meter :T
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30 ( 2 x on PAYG £15)
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 23 (virgin as no landline)
Groceries etc. ......................... 0 :eek:
Clothing................................ 0:eek:
Petrol/diesel........................... 0:eek:
Road tax................................ 0:eek:
Car Insurance........................... 36 (wife pays this for both of us to be insured on my car)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10 (prepayment card 12 months to cover my painkillers)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 7
Life assurance ......................... 23
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 (handmade cards)
Haircuts................................ 0 (wife does mine, her mate does wifes as she used to be a hairdresser)
Entertainment........................... 0 (friends & own dvd's are free :T
Holiday................................. 0 (I dont think so)
Emergency fund.......................... 0 (I wish)
Boiler cover............................ 9 (our boiler is very poorly)
Total monthly expenses.................. 622

Assets
Cash.................................... 200 (to survive on for food, petrol and anything else)
House value (Gross)..................... 120000 (negative equity)
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 123200

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 130000...(260)......3.9 (interest only till Aug 2013)
Total secured & HP debts...... 130000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
CC1 = BCard....................3156......150.......21.9 (mnimum +£1)
CC2 = HCard....................2235......100.......0 (minimim + £5)
Car Loan.......................5000......200.......21.9 (minimum = finishes Aug 2014)
PLoan..........................3550......150.......21.9 (minimum = finishes Sept 2014)
Total unsecured debts..........13941.....600.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,316
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 622
Available for debt repayments........... 694
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 600
Amount left after debt repayments....... 94
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 123,200
Total HP & Secured debt................. -130,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,941
Net Assets.............................. -20,741

I have made some notes to explain some bits. The £94 is not really £94 as my wife also pays £50 to her mum to help her with medical costs as she is in a worse state than us and needs some support with medical costs until at least feb next year.

So there it is ... please make comments, suggestions as at the moment I need everything anyone can help with :beer: