Climbing our way out of poverty. Start small, think big!!!

belowtheline2013

Hello ladies and gents

Let me introduce myself.

I am a mother to 2 young children (a 2 year old and an 11 month old). I work part-time for the local council. My partner is an agriculatural engineer who was made redundant from a well-paying job at the end of last year. We have no plans for any more children!

We have debt and no savings!

We are currently relying on my small part-time wage, my partner's JobSeekers Allowance, Tax Credits and Housing Benefit. Our weekly all-inclusive income income is £425. Our housing costs (rent, council tax, water, electricity/gas and TV license) total £274 per week. Meaning that after housing costs our income is £151 per week. This puts us well-below all of the statistics I can find for child poverty in the UK.

Now is the time to change!

The only way we can raise our current standard of living is by 1) increasing our income and 2) reducing our outgoings.

I believe we have already exhausted no2 as much as possible.

I will start by putting an SOA out there and then writing down all the things we have done to improve our situation so far but for now I have to go. Time to feed the kids!!

kittiej

hi blt :j

It might be easier to tell us what the £151 has to pay for so you can get some helpful suggestions.

What will happen when your DH doesn't receive JSA any more?

Good luck with your journey

Just editing - what did your DH have to do as an agricultural engineer and is it something he could do self-employed?

belowtheline2013

Thank you.

JSA runs out 22nd August. Our Housing Benefit will then increase to the maximum but still means our income will drop further.

OH built, serviced and repaired dairy parlours and had been doing it with a decent local company for 7 years when he made one of the biggest and most selfish mistakes of his life and accepted a job with another company without consulting any of his family or thinking it through. He was simply bored with his job and thought there was something better out there. It basically turned out to be a scam and went downhill from there. He left after about 6 months and went back to a welding job he'd done when younger. He lost his mother and his work performance dropped, he was signed off with depression and on the day he returned back they handed him a redundancy notice.

He has been trying for every job going but the problem is that most engineering jobs want someone qualified to degree level and he isn't. He is also horrific with computers/IT and all jobs want that too. He is a qualified welder and has had a couple of temporary contracts (2 weeks each time) but there just isn't any work out there. We live quite rurally on the coast in Scotland. He also went on a company funded course to become a wind turbine technician and got an "A" grade on all sections of the course but wasn't one of the ones selected for a job (he has sent his CV off to a few other companies too but never heard anything back) Otherwise he has applied for loads of supermarket, labouring, driving jobs etc. but never gets passed the interview stage or doesn't hear anything at all.

His engineering qualifications are out of date (he did a HND in 1999). I have said to him about going back to full-time studying but he says he just wants to find a job and support us. He's nearly 33.

£151 is for food, cleaning, toiletries, baby formula, nappies for 2, clothes/shoes, travel, mobile phone (kept topped up to a minimum for jobs), phone & internet (we were managing without this but OH was losing out on a lot of chances to apply for jobs so we just got it again last week). I made an SOA earlier but forgot to save it, will do it again later.

I have been working on a self-employed venture by starting an ironing service but the trouble is we had to give up our car as we couldn't afford it any longer and from all the research I've done 95% of customers would want delivery and collection.

I really enjoy writing and want to start a degree in English Lit but with all the things that have been going on and working overtime, kids etc. it just seems I never have the time. Now is the perfect time though as it would be fully funded through Open Uni.

OH has mentioned going self-employed before as a "handyman" type person as he is best at practical things - he's really good at DIY, gardening etc. but we looked into and there are so many people offering the same thing.

I don't think it would be possible to go self-employed doing the dairy parlour engineer. I don't really understand it but I think it would take a lot of money to start up.

I'm having a shot at writing an eBook on some baby topics as I like to consider myself an expert now after having two so close together ;-) Haven't actually started it yet though. By the time we've got the dinner done, kids bathed and in bed, ironing etc. I'm ready for bed!! Or I spend a couple of hours on here - eeek!

We have done dooyoo, surveys, ChaCha and swagbucks before but never really seem to make anything from it and right now it's probably not worth it as it would all have to be declared to JSA/Housing Benefit.

eco_farmer

I know of a local firm looking for someone with your partners skills ref parlours however its in somerset ................. pm if of any interest.

kittiej

Hi eco famer :j would there be any accommodation to go with that as OP lives in Scotland?

Op I don't know whereabouts you are but I recently saw quite a few job ads for renewable energy technicians as I was looking at the Orkneys. Wind farms are supposed to be really taking off with some islands having their own community turbines. They are popping up more and more in Wales too.

Re yourself, I know you have 2 littlies but if you can get free funding for the OU then give it a bash. I'm an OU student and really enjoy it as it's my escape from real life , why doesn't DH do a degree with the OU as well if you can get the funding, he could study engineering if he wanted or something completely different, he might get some credit transfer for having a HND (though don't quote me). I would take advantage of the opportunity.

Are there any courses he could go on if he was made redundant?

If you have to buy formula can you get it cheaper from the baby clinic? Don't know if they still do that as my baby is 7 going on 18!

You need to look over the Old Style boards to get some ideas of how to stretch the little you have.

Good luck, hope your fortunes turn around soon x