Where Do U Draw The Line And Say, Right I'd Be Better On The Dole?

full-time-mum

LFCGUY wrote: »

To be honest its a job I have absolutly no interest in, I messed up my final 2 years at school so couldn't do what I really wanted to do which was a something in the line of computers, I took any job I could find which was an apprentice joiner, it wasn't all bad as the pay was actually very good when I started out, then Mr Blair decided it was a good idea to let our friends from the EU which changed everything. When I finish at 4.30 thats it, I've no interest in doing anything else in the line of carpentry/joinery, I've stuck it out thus far as I haven't got alot of money to retrain. It may be different elsewhere but certainly around here anyway people take any job they can get and stick at it, they can't pick what career they want.

I understand where you are coming from but you really need to capitalise on your existing skills or use them to subsidise a change of career.

If IT is really your interest, then why not do an evening course. If you left school at GCSE level, then you could try the people at Next Step.

Meanwhile, maybe you could, say, make garden benches and planters for a bit. I know that woodwork is stiffling you but instead of seeing it as a chore, view it as a means to an end and see it as making money. What about wooden toy boxes? I'm sure good quality ones would sell well.

LFCGUY

Oddly I know a guy at work who uses scrap wood to make chess boards, he flogs them on ebay at anything from £100 up

Bogof_Babe

£60 a month for phone calls is pretty excessive, unless you have to make a lot of business calls. You could ditch the landline and get two all inclusive mobile packages for less than that.

What is "£12 Tax"?

Thunderbird_2

Dear Friend

Believe me when I say I really feel for you!

Since you don't like your current job, and you managed to get £150 extra after contacting CCCS, why don't you save £100 of it for two monthes and get yourself a Reach Truck Licence ( Just in case, the reach truck is like the forklift, but battery operated and smaller in size, designed to work indoors and in tight spaces where a counterbalance forklift would impractical there) and your potential earnings will be £7 plus per hour through agencies and you might be able to do some overtime which its rate could be time and a half = £10.50/ hour ( Provided you have done 39hrs in that week)
With Reach Trucks, you are almost always going to work indoors in a warehouse or similar kind of place. I don't recommend a counter balance forklift as you might work outdoors( I know it is Summer now, but Winter is not that short either.)

Anyway, what I am saying is, if you get yourself a Reach Truck licence ( As I said earlier, it costs about £200 and takes a 3 days course to get it) you will be able to improve your income by working for an agency for a short term and then you might get a permenant job in one of the places you work for and then you earnings is going to be much higher.

By the way, most factories and warehouses need Reach Truck drivers

Then, you might have the time to do evening college course to gain the IT skills you like and need to get your dream job. :cool:

Your landline bill is £30, why don't you switch to TalkTalk? Switch back to BT if you are not already with them and take a contarct with TalkTalk. This way , you will cut the phone bill by £10 and save £15 on AOL as you get the broadband for free as well as your landline phone calls!! :j

If you can, cancel your mobile contracts and get yourself Pay as you Go with Vodafone as you can benefit from their Stop The Clock option, in which, you can talk up to one hour and pay only for the first 3 minutes in the evening and weekends and you only need to top it up once in six monthes to keep the sim card alive! Or T-mobile pay as you go? and you may like the Mates Rates? If you are a texter kind of person, genie O2 pay as you go might be the one for you, as you get 300 texts if you top up with £10!!
If not and you feel you need all the cross network min that you get in your contract, why don't you try Free line rental through cash back deals? If you do it to the letter, you might get all what you pay plus cashback from Quidco and you might be able to sell the phone which they send you!!

For gas and electricity, get your last 3 bills and check how many Kilowatts you use on average and go to energyhelpline.com and see if you are ith the cheapest. If not, switch the supplier and you could save on your fuel bills and have up to £30 cashback. If you are on prepayment meters, then Ebico Ltd. ( Equipower and Eguigas ) is more likely to be the cheapest for you. I am saying this, because if they are the cheapest for you, you will not be able to switch energyhelpline.com, instead, you might need to go to their website and switch there. Just google Ebico and you will find them easily.

Regarding your car finances. I don't know if you can sell the car and pay back the outstanding balance and get yourself a Nissan micra or something similar for £750 to get you from A to B till everything is sorted!! Just an idea. You know better.

This is what I could think of at the moment. More ideas might fellow !!

I hope this will help you in sorting your finances out and be proud to be dealing with your debts :T .

mrsspendalot

LFCGUY wrote: »

Yep i've already 1 year done, done courses M150 and T175 all towards a degree in computing and yes they paid for all:T

Its gettting motivated to continue, they don't start again until October anyway so pleanty of time to get into the mood again, Its only 60 points i've got, its 360 or so needed for a degree, its gonna take a hell of a long time to get there and I aint getting any younger, I wonder if any firm would be interested in a 30 year old trainee, makes me wonder sometimes if its worth it.

Yes that is the downfall of part time study - I have been fortunate enough to have the time to double up and take 120 points a year so i can get my degree in 3 years. But I don't work full time so I guess you would find it extremely hard to double up like that (although it is not impossible and you would still get them all paid for)

Kaz2904

The thing with the 2 2.5 hour sessions in one day is that you have to have an hour break in between, so either pick up litte one for 1 hour and take back or pay for 1 hour "lunch" break.
My DS goes for 2 sessions on two days a week and 1 session another day. DH has to pick him up in his lunch break because I'm in bed while this is happening.

oojakapipi

My ex is a carpenter (self employed) and used to share a workshop with a snooker-cue maker. We took all his off-cuts (as they use very expensive and exotic wood) to make things with. If you can find someone in your area who does this type of work I'm sure they would be happy for you to take their off-cuts as they are only thrown away. This would be a great thing to do in your spare time if you want to, and you could make a killing on ebay and such like, like your work friend does. It would involve doing intricate work, but at least it would be different from your day job, and at your leisure, my ex hated doing any woodwork outside working hours, but quite enjoyed making things out of this wood (we made all sorts, lamp bases, coffee table tops, mirror frames all mainly as wedding/birthday gifts), there is a gap in the market for quality/unique wood accessories/furniture.

full-time-mum

Kaz2904 wrote: »

The thing with the 2 2.5 hour sessions in one day is that you have to have an hour break in between, so either pick up litte one for 1 hour and take back or pay for 1 hour "lunch" break.
My DS goes for 2 sessions on two days a week and 1 session another day. DH has to pick him up in his lunch break because I'm in bed while this is happening.

Obviously, we were lucky at our nursery as they ran a lunch club (£2) a day which covered that hour.