Missy's looming redundancy, fighting the Tesco monster, the chub and toddler tantrums

missymoo81

Hellooooo………

Thought it was about time I started another thread, A LOT has changed since I last posted, and I have issues to overcome and a few realisations have dawned! For those of you just reading, its me, OH, 2 year old May and 3 year old Roo. Life is pretty hectic! Currently dealing with toilet training and ‘chicken spots!’ nice!

Basically, as per the title, OH has had an email (nice way to let him know!), saying he may be made redundant, now this is major, as he wouldn't be able to get another job, due to his line of work, and my part time job can no way even nearly cover the bills!! I have a huge CC to pay and nursery fees etc, so its all been a bit of a shock. Now it may not happen, (fingers crossed, it doesn’t), they have until the end of july to let us know. But even if he remains employed, apparently terms and conditions will change, which reading between the lines means, he’s in for a pay cut.

Sooooooo…… have had to do some major thinking of the ifs and buts and what I can do in the mean time.

So have spoken to Roo’s nursery and have bought him down to one day a week and have upped his days at the funded one. But this wont happen until september.

I have applied for 4 jobs in case, but no interview or even any feedback, which is worrying.

Fortunately 2 of our big loans are up this month, which makes me feel slightly better.

Bills are pretty pared down as it is, but even if OH isn't made redundant this time, it is likely to happen in the future, so could do with getting OH’s offset OD and the mortgage paid off ASAP! Now I don’t contribute to the bills, as i’m paying for my OU, half the nursery fees and have a huge CC bill to pay off, which I’m trying to pay off in the next 5 months, am about to switch to a 0% which should make it easier.

Monthly expenditure is huge, I always try to get the bargains etc, but am spending upwards of £600 per month just on food and ‘stuff’! this is generally spent in T£sco!!! I know it’s terrible.

Ways I’m trying to help things now:

Only having DW and WM on when solar panels are working, not putting the extra hot water on, just using what there is from the solar panels. Being diligent turning the lights out when not in use etc.

Using the Bread maker, as have tons of bread making ingredients, instead of buying bread, Really searching for deals on food etc.

Trying to get My CC down asap so I can contribute. Ebaying everything I think will make a bit of money that we don’t need.

Trying to grow some veg so that we can eat that instead of spending such a huge amount on food!

Potty training May to save on Nappies, she is more than ready and is desperate to, but I’ve been too lazy to find the time until now.

Trying to coincide my trips in the car to other places to conserve petrol.

I have downloaded the CC app, so I can keep track of it.

Honestly I know these things sound like small things, but I have just been mindlessly spending on the credit card, and forgetting. For instance, i thought the shopping bill for the month(which is what the Joint CC is for) would be around £300, nope, its £500 odd!!!!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek: Honestly, the money I have spent on food is ridiculous! Am in shock, I can’t believe it is so high! That does include, school uniform and sun hats and 2 birthday presents but still!!! I have only fed me and the 2 toddlers this month, and we've been round families at dinner time at least 5 times in this time! and both children eat at nursery for lunch twice a week, god the more I write the worse I realise my spending is on food!!!! Most of it goes on fruit and veg and salad, as most things are T£sco Value everywhere else!!! Will join the grocery challenge again.

Oh and to top off the wonderfulness, the WM decided to break yesterday?! :mad::(Talk about timing. Have done some research and I’m pretty sure its the heating element. I have descaled it about 12 times but it hasn't helped. So cheapest thing is to wait for OH to come home in 2 weeks and fit a new £10 element and see if it works. I can do a cold wash until then!! Not the best but needs must.

Along with the oh my goodness money challenge I also need to get fitter and healthier, am disgusted at my weight gain and chocolate consumption, need to start exercising, it’s only around 20lbs but so many people around me seem to be either being diagnosed with or god rest their souls, dying of cancer, and its scaring me so much.

Along with that another challenge is to get my house in order, have been following the flylady thread, which definitely helps.

So lovely MSE people, I hope you can keep me company and on the straight and narrow!

belleandthebudget

Best of luck, Missy! The food and bits fund is DEFINITELY my problem too and I'm even worse than you as there's only me to feed - no OH or kiddies. I'm slowly, slowly getting into the swing of meal planning but the extra spends do love to creep in there without me noticing!

Bobarella

Welcome back. Oh it never rains it pours does it.

When you say OH will not be able to get another job, what's the plan then if he is made redundant?

missymoo81

Hey Belle, thanks for poppin in
And Bob I know, it's all fun and games here! Have done some research, and if I got another days work, which is possibly on the cards, I could with tax credits etc afford to pay the bills, but only just, we'd sell everything we didn't need to get the mortgage right down, and OH would be a house husband until the oil industry picked up again. So I do have a plan but I'm hoping it won't come to that.

Bobarella

Wow who'd have thought oil wouldn't be a good career choice. Is it global factors at play?

I'm glad to hear you have got a scenario in mind though for if the worst happens..that must be a comfort. Fingers crossed though for the best.

laurasavon

Will your OH qualify for redundancy pay to give him a bit of time whilst he looks for a new job?

Can you increase your hours whilst OH is at home?

I'm due to be made redundant and I'm looking forward to finding a job without a 120 mile commute - is there anything your OH wants to do? With the push of redundancy it can open up new opportunities.

Good luck :beer:

missymoo81

Hi Laurasavon, yes he will do, we'd have to live off of it as don't think we'd be entitled to tac top ups this financial year as he would have already earned too much. Have looked at what we could sell and we'd be ok for a while.

Going to finish cleaning and then come back with some ideas, babies just out the bath and off to bed.

elsien

Would doing the food shopping using cash work for you? I find I'm more careful when I do that, as it feels like spending real money, where a card doesn't. I get the cash out for the week, and when it's gone, it's gone. Focuses the mind wonderfully.
Have you done a spending diary to see where the food money is actually going?

belleandthebudget

Ooh, the cash shopping is a good idea. It also encourages me to stick to the list/budget because you don't want to get to the checkout and not have enough to cover it all!

missymoo81

The cash shopping is a great idea elsian, but I have to do my shopping on line as I never have a moment to go without the children, and we have a t£sco credit cArd so that we collect extra points and we pay it off each month. I've sat and made a list of what we'd need for the month and it came out at £210, but that was really scraping by. Petrol is generally around £60pm if I'm careful. So that's £270, I wonder if I can set my budget at £300. I know I could do it, I just need to meal Plan, and not serve up army sized portions!! Something I have started to do is think ahead and making sure I have enough left for the next day, bread for example, instead of being greedy and having an extra slice or 2 those 2 will do the littlies for breakfast, if that makes sense. I know Aldi are cheaper for a couple of bits, but I need to research which and figure out if it's cost effective driving there as well.

StrugglingYouth

A few small changes will make a huge difference. Make a list of all the food items you have in your house currently. Then check it against the list you already have of things to buy.

Remove duplicate items and try and substitute items you have into place of those you dont. Swap mashed potatoes for mashed cauliflower, incidentally that will help with the weight loss also.

After this I would leave it in the basket or save it for later, then go back an hour or two later and really go through each item and assess whether you genuinely do 'need' it, or that you just 'would like' it.

The old style boards are very useful in making meals out of things you wouldnt consider.