What else to save the pennies?

rigsby1967

Here's the story lol.......not long been on jsa, been for 1 interview and having another shortly, anyway, i am very worried about going under so i wondered if there is anything else i can do, so far i have
Cut gas from £53 - 45 pm
cut electric from £45 -43 pm
Cut mobile from £28 - £7.50 pm
looking through the "tougher" threads and have taken some/alot of the tips on board, less washing powder, batch cooking, bubble wrap windows (winter) ect.....
Selling stuff that is no longer used/needed (been on a selling spree to get a little money together for DD birthday tomorrow....she's an adult).
Can live from freezer/cupboards for at least 6-8 weeks...maybe longer, but will need milk/bread/fruit.

Thing is my mortgage payments that i pay, alone are £249 pm but is due to go down starting from September, one thing i really REALLY don't want to do it take a mortgage payment holiday.

Are there any threads i may have missed/you can recommend to save money or do you have any tips until i am in paid work, or maybe another forum on this site?

Thanks

Ets I don't drink or smoke but i am somewhat overweight so another saving could be proper potion sizes!

Uniscots97

Thanks Rigsby, I'm in the same boat as you (various interviews after redundancy but getting nowhere, all I want is a job why does it have to be so hard, I'm either under-qualified or over qualified ). There had been chat on here (I can't remember what thread sorry) about electricity free days, where you cut out all non-essential electricity use (i.e. keeping the fridge on is ok) so I might try that. I'm also buying what I can that's reduced and batch cooking where I can. Another thing you could do is surveys, you won't make a lot but it might be enough to pay for your tv license or broadband.

Above all else, good luck. I do know how you feel.

Spendless

Hi, I can sympathise about the job. I lost mine at Christmas and since then I've had 3 weeks temp work and nothing else. Can you get help with your mortgage? I was able to do so, years ago when I was on my own (you don't mention a partner). Re- selling things have you included any old/broken jewellery you n o longer want? And what about any old clothes. There are places that pay per weight for them. I found somewhere recently that also weighed in net curtains, Eating out of the cupboards/freezer is good too.

newlywed

Meal plan - saves lots of wasted food.

Try the budget supermarkets or the local market if you have one.


I was over/under qualified for each job I applied for after being made redundant a while back but eventually found employment at a firm I worked for previously (and said I wouldn't go back to :rotfl: ) but it pays the bills.

If you had a good reputation at a previous job, then have you tried asking if they have anything going? Then you can look for something you want to do...

torbrex

Take a look at where you shop, can you find the same things cheaper elsewhere or even the same place but change to the 'value' lines instead.
Walk don't drive.

mumonashoestring

Are you paying to heat any big open-plan areas (e.g. sitting/dining room)? If you're spending most of your time in one or the other pick up a cheap curtain rail to fit the gap between rooms and some large curtains from a charity shop and divide the space, then just heat the area you use

Good luck!

PhGage

I don't know if it's practical for you to reduce your fuel bills any more. We've had a temporary change in the size of our household so we did the following:

We turned off the fairly large fridge and now put freezer packs in that to help cool it down and use it as a cool area in the kitchen (which can get very hot in Summer).

We converted an elderly upright freezer into a fridge by using a digital controller on it (this is much smaller than our larger fridge so still costs less to run. We had the controller already).

Our hot water is heated by gas. Our washing machine has a cold fill. We re-use the hot water from the dishwasher for a load of laundry in the washing machine (saves fuel, water and some detergent/water softener). We fill the washing machine with hot water from the tap through the detergent drawer: this makes use of the gas-heated water rather than relying on the washing machine to heat it which is more expensive. If the washing machine load is only a light soil then we might recycle the hot water from the machine load and use it for another load that has to be put on straight after.

We try to batch cook with the oven to get the best use of the fuel. Otherwise, if something is supposed to be slow-cooked on the stove top or in the oven (casseroles/stews/soup/curries) then we bring it up to temperature on the stove and finish it in a modern 'haybox' (in our case, it's a polystyrene box, a survival blanket, some insulation offcuts and radiator foil).

Using the above, we've more than halved our electricity usage at present and we haven't increased our gas usage.

Not all of the above would suit other people's house layouts. The modern haybox only works as long as people have good enough arm/hand strength/mobility to be confident in handling hot pans/dishes and their contents.

Owain_Moneysaver

Are you eligible for / claiming housing benefit? It won't pay the capital repayment on the mortgage but it may pay the interest.

rigsby1967

Thank you all for the replies.

unixgirluk, I hope you soon find yourself a permanant job as well, when i was younger i went from one job to another with no problem and no interveiws, it was all word of mouth. I'd forgotten about the surveys so thats something to start up again. :j.

Spendless, your right i don't have a partner now but he had got me some jewellery that i have got together and will look into selling, i'm hoping that will bring in a couple of hundred (she says ).

newlywed, well done for taking the plunge and going back to a workplace even though you'd said you would never go back . I do have a good reputaion in a place where i use to work but it closed down but a bloke i use to work with opened up a place of his own, long story short my son introduced himself and the bloke i worked with said what a good worker i was and to go in for a chat....well i went in for a chat but he is fully staffed to overflowing so no room for me but maybe in the future.

torbrex, i buy all value stuff apart from Tea and coffee...well i mix a good coffee with a cheap coffee. I also look for whoopsies.

mumonashoestring, Love this idea :T.

PhGage, I'd been looking into the modern haybox but as yet haven't tried it, only read about it a couple of days ago.

Thank you, keep the hints and tips coming :beer:.

rigsby1967

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Are you eligible for / claiming housing benefit? It won't pay the capital repayment on the mortgage but it may pay the interest.

Yes i am eligable for HB, i do get that and the shortfall is £249 pm for me to pay.

Thanks

Spendless

rigsby1967 wrote: »

Yes i am eligable for HB, i do get that and the shortfall is £249 pm for me to pay.

Thanks

You can speak to your mortgage provider about taking a reduced payment for so long. That's what I did, when the amount of money that was paid towards my mortgage by benefits was less than the monthly payment required. I know you said you don't want to take a holiday, well this isn't a holiday as such, just reducing the payment for a short time. You would have to pay back any short-fall, but you've said the payments are due to reduce in September. It seems a shame for you to struggle so much for the sake of 1 month.