Losing my job at the worst possible time!

Sea.Shore

....because we're getting married next month, aside from having 2 girls and a mortgage, bills...my job is coming to an end as there's 'on work'.

So, I'm posting this to get an outsiders point of view because we need to cut back a lot on spending, some aspects will be obvious but any useful tips would be appreciated. I'm going back to student life, and applying to university for 2016 so looking for a full time job now isn't doable when I'll be at college 3 days per week from September.

Mortgage £508
Council Tax £140
Water £37
Gas/elec £70
TV license £12
Sky £96 (obvious one - will be contacting them soon)
Insurance £6
Car £175
Sofa £40 (ending in November)
Mobile phones £60
Life Insurance £15
Credit/store cards £90

Asda shops are usually around £70p/w
Diesel is usually £150 p/m roughly

Partners income, roughly, is £1200. He's just started a new position and I think being emergency taxes so unsure of exact amount, but is £18,500 annually
Child benefit £136
Child Tax Credits at the moment is £210, under the circumstances we are both working.

Opinion

Sorry to hear about your situation. I would imagine he should be on tax code 1060L, which means his take home pay should be £1,305.75, so that's £100.00 per month better off you'll be.

asajj

Can you change mobile phone contracts? I use GiffGaff with £15 monthly pay? Will you get redundancy pay?

Any chance of shopping somewhere else like Aldi? Online shopping could come handy or try using local green grocers for fruits/vegs.

Gas/electric - are you on the best possible tariff?

Sea.Shore

Hi, thanks for that. I can't change phone contracts for another year but my partners is due for an upgrade so we can shop around.

I do shop online with Asda for ease, we only have 1 car so I can't do a weekly shop and hang it on the back of a pushchair and walk home, it it lets you keep an eye on how much you're spending!

Gas/electric is fairly cheap I think, can't swap though because they overestimated our bill for a month (£300!) but won't change it and said we must pay it, however we didn't notice they had stopped taking direct debits out for some reason so we owe them some money.

getmore4less

Go to this board and read a few threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76.

do a full SOA using this form

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

Post it on that board starting a new thread.

TELLIT01

Contact you mortgage provider if you have any concerns about keeping up with payments. They may be willing to provide a mortgage holiday or reduce payments for a period. Don't wait until it is a problem.

Paully232000

What about getting a job for the other 4 days a week, and if this adds up to over 16 hours per week I think you would keep some tax credits otherwise you may lose them as both of you are not in employment.

Freeview is fine,

what about online shopping if this is all you use the car for? You can choose between asda, morrisons, tesco,

Sea.Shore

The mortgage shouldn't be an issue, it's just trying to find a way to reduce everything else/cut the crap out so we have a little more disposable income for anything else.

At the moment, we would be scraping it

Sea.Shore

Paully232000 wrote: »

What about getting a job for the other 4 days a week, and if this adds up to over 16 hours per week I think you would keep some tax credits otherwise you may lose them as both of you are not in employment.

Freeview is fine,

what about online shopping if this is all you use the car for? You can choose between asda, morrisons, tesco,

This is of course an option, however I'd be limited from September for what I can work, due to childcare. But, I'm keeping my eye out at the moment for any weekend jobs that may come up

getmore4less

Sea.Shore wrote: »

The mortgage shouldn't be an issue, it's just trying to find a way to reduce everything else/cut the crap out so we have a little more disposable income for anything else.

At the moment, we would be scraping it

Get to the debt board,

Your current list of things is nearly £1600pm and you have stuff missing.

no indication of debts, but you have £90pm going out on cards which hints that you have not been managing with both of you working.

Any savings?

you need a budget ASAP.

gettingtheresometime

if you're applying for 2016 why can't you apply for a job now?