The unthinkable has happened...redundancy

beadgirl87

It takes time to sort out getting your food cheap but its rewarding when you get there. I can spend about £6 a week sometimes and feed myself fine.....bf spends £30 + as he buys everything ready made, he commented the other day how did I seem to get more food for a small amount.
Use mysupermarket and have a proper compare of brands, shops, packaging sizes. As you are not working atm, you have lots of time to figure this stuff out and then once you have a job, you can carry it on as you know what to do.
Also go to supermarkets in the evening, fruit and veg, and bread is reduced, buy a few loaves and stick in the freezer, you don't need to pay £1.50 a loaf! Things like garlic, rosemary, herbs, onion are staples to add flavour to any meal.
Use your tesco clubard, boots card, nectar card, morrisons miles card, in time these points will build up.
If you go to any event or dinner, check out vouchers etc. I know cinema is cheapest on a Wednesday, Tues or Mon, so only go on these days. Alot of places have a day with half price food or drinks, plan the social life around the offers.

I was unemployed for a few months and in that time,
*I had a proper clear out of my stuff, sorted it all out, gave away stuff, sold stuff, regifted stuff etc.
*Signed up to survey websites -do them in evening while watching TV.
*Big clean of the house, fixed loads of little things.
*Did alot of work on learning to cook better and select my ingredients wisely.
*Started a bit of gardening, growing my own lettuces, onions and carrots right now
*Compared prices around town for things.
Much of this was to save me from boredom, aswell as save me money lol

Now I am working again I can just get on with work and know where I buy stuff to save money.

I think the advice here has been very good, with the right mindset you can get through it, once you get going it is surprising how little money you need to live on.

Flat_Eric

There is not a lot that I can add as there have been lots of helpful replies already.

I spent a year on reduced hours with the consequent reduction in salary. I ended up really depressed and wasted my days off *finding * stuff to buy on e-bay and other shopping retailers i.e. spending like I still had a full time job but with the reduction in salary meaning there was no buffer to cover the credit card or overdraft. My credit card ended up in the thousands and I was overdrawn within a few days of the new month starting. This only exasperated my depression and so the vicious spending cycle continued. Don't spend your days browsing the web/buying more clothes. Why not volunteer in a charity shop ? I know your priority is to find a paid job but if I had my year of reduced hours again, I do feel I would use the time more productively. Even if you just volunteered one day a week, it will be something to occupy your time. I sometimes wish I didn't do the job I do and instead did something more productive/that helped others but thats another story.

How do you keep track of your money? I use open office (you can download this for free). I have created a financial spreadsheet so I can keep track of all my spends. Its handy because you can have as many sheets as you want and you can tweak it to suit you.

this website :money::money::money:also has a budget planner that you can download. (somewhere on the home page I think??) ETA here (scroll down for downloadable spreadsheet)

This website might also be worth a look

further edited to add - have you thought about mystery shopping ??? I also like the dog walking idea :j

squidgychesspiece

Thanks all, am properly exhausted tonight with all this thinking

Flat Eric your post sounds very familiar. I am finding it really hard to get motivated to even get up in the mornings. Its silly as when I was working I was up at 6am or earlier everyday and out the house by 7.30 dog walked and everything. You mention volunteering - I contacted a local hospice last week to see if they need any help in the charity shop/reading to residents etc a day or two a week. They want me to go and see them.

As for managing my money...I don't :rotfl:Believe it or not I have a spreadsheet with all of the outgoings listed and I check to the statements each week to see what's gone out and keep track of what is left. I've found this way I can usually make sure everything is paid and stay just within my o/d.

I used to do mystery shopping a while back, it's quite fun sometimes and sometimes you get to keep what you buy like sweets or sandwhiches!

Beadgirl, sounds like you acheived loads in your time off :T I wish I could be that productive! I definately don't want to look back and feel I wasted this time as when do you ever get 2 months off work?? Flippin36 there is a car boot sale close to us on Sunday so I think we might go to that. It's only £6 a pitch and we have HEAPS of trash/treasure.

Early night for me as lots to be getting on with tomorrow.

SCP

slowlyfading

Sounds like you're taking lots of steps in the right direction, well done!

As another member has said, keeping a spending diary is a real eye-opener and may just show you where all of that spare change is going!

Have a good day today

DS4215

I was made redundant a few years ago and luckily was only out of work for a few weeks, but one thing that helped me was to get into a routine including setting aside one hour a day to look for (and apply for) new jobs. This was browsing all the recruitment agencies and job sites and applying for any possibility.

It might be that you can get some temp or agency work to bring some money in.

squidgychesspiece

Hurrah, the sun is out! Feeling positive this morning and ready to take some (albeit small) steps in the right direction.




My mammoth to do list includes:

1. Work out how I am going to eek out the groceries past the weekend. Reading some of the great ideas on here it MUST be possible
2. Do energy comparison to see if it is worth contacting Landlord and asking to switch
3. Ask to pay council tax over 12m
4. Start spending diary - small setback here in that I had to collect my dry cleaning this morning as needed suit for interview and it was £66 :mad:. Shouldn't need to spend any other money today though. DH and I were going out to dinner tonight but I am going to whip up a masterpeice(!) instead :laugh:
5. Look into reducing home and mobile phone bills (I'd forgotten DH mobile in my SOA which is £30 pm)
6. Check dog food prices online (thanks Barbeduk) Poor dog already looks miserable at the lack of scraps coming his way :rotfl:
7. CUT UP CARDS
8. Find a cheap breadmaker
9. Find clubcard, nectar card and boots card and put in purse
10. Sort bits for car boot/ebay
11. Check out the website link Flat Eric posted, looks interesting but only had a really quick look
12. Set aside some time each day for chasing work
13. Clean the house

Phew _pale_ not much then? It's nice to have it all written down though.

The Saver - my first thought was to pay off mbna too as the monthly repayments are huge but I'd be too scared of how we'll pay the rent if no job turns up. Better to hold fire I think.

Anyway, off to get ready for my interview now. Thanks again guys

room512

Good luck with the interview xxx

PollyOnAMission

Regarding dog food: what type of dog do you have, and what food do you give him?

I have two medium sized (16kg each) dogs and it costs me under £1 per day to feed both of them. I buy wormers online from vetUK.co.uk, search for the cheapest deal on pet insurance.

I am a bit of a dog diet geek and in no way advocate cheap and nasty dog foods. They are not good for your dog and are often a false economy because you need to feed more due to being less nutritious. Likewise a lot of the over-engineered sciency foods are a waste of money! The best thing you can feed your dog is the most natural food possible. For me that means a raw diet (raw meat, bones, offal) which can also be the cheapest way to feed, but it's not for everyone. There are loads of good complete foods, some more expensive than others, but I remember the Pets at Home Brand Wainwrights was really good for the price (no artificial additives etc). I think it cost me about £1.50 per day to feed both dogs on this. Try this site for advice if you are thinking of changing food http://www.whichdogfood.co.uk/

It sounds like you are doing really well having fallen on some tough times. Well done you, keep it up!

RAS

Hi

Do go over to the Money Saving Oldstyle forum and set up a store cupboard challenge - list everything in the fridge, freezer and cupboards and get people to suggest menus for you. And read some of the old ones.

Also have a look at the 5 days for a fiver thread (recent) and at weezl's amazing 50p a day thread, although prices will have gone up since then.

Porridge oats - porridge, add to crumble topping to bulk out, add to mince to bulk out although red lentils are better, make flapjacks.

Someone suggested supper of 8oz meat per person? Yikes. I can afford it and regard half that ample. 2oz decent mince makes a quite a good mince sauce to flavour a root vegetable stew.

Marco_Panettone

Join your local freecycle/freegle groups - you might be able to pick up a breadmaker (amongst other things) for nothing!

Cash in any Nectar points, etc to help reduce the next grocery bill too.