In a bit of a predicament, extra income

thaimeister

Hi Guys,

Not sure where to start but here goes. This post is partly a way to vent my frustration and partly to ask for advice, so forgive me if I ramble on a bit.

Basically my wife & I are having the worst spell of bad luck. I lost my sales job a little over 2 months ago. I approached all of my contacts in the industry and at first was optimistic of finding a job with a similar salary relatively quickly. However, that has not been the case. After exhausting all of my leads I have had to look at other jobs. I have now had a provisional offer of employment from one company & I'm currently going through their recruitment process which should take another month or so to complete. The downside is that the salary is considerably less than my previous employment.

That on it's own would not have been so bad as any job is better than nothing at all, and with my wife also working it would be manageable. That was until this week when my wife also lost her job with nothing else to go to. So within the space of 2 months we have basically gone from having a very reasonable combined income, to almost noting at all. I am currently claiming JSA until I start my new job, but as my wife is not a UK citizen she can not claim any benefits whatsoever. We also have a 2 year old who I claim child benefit for.

My new salary (provided I pass the entire recruitment stage of course) will not be enough to cover our monthly outgoings. I'm guessing I should be able to get a little help from tax credits but we'll still be left considerably short.

I guess my reason for posting is to ask for any advice on how we can top-up our monthly income enough to cover our outgoings. We'll need to find around 400-500 extra per month. The problem is, as I will be working shifts, finding a second part-time job for me is not an option & having a 2 year old to care for means we have to fit whatever we do around him.

So basically I guess I'm looking for suggestions on how my wife & I could earn 400-500 per month between us from home or online, that kind of thing?

Again sorry for the long post

Many Thanks

DomRavioli

Reduce your monthly outgoings - post on the debt free wannabe for info on how you can live within your means - that is the first thing you need to do.

You will struggle to get that kind of money whilst working another job. Try searching the forum for sites people use, but you would be better reducing your outgoings rather than attempting to make that kind of money on such a short amount of time left over from another job.

asajj

thaimeister , sorry to hear that spell of bad luck. I suppose it sort of depends how much you can bother with it but with surveys etc. you might be able to get some giftcards for the likes of Amazon and use it to buy essentials.

Is your wife working? Would she be willing to spend couple of hours every day? She could try some of the survey websites.

Alternatively, likes of Lionbridge would be a good one from what I hear.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4444987

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1715429

You'd need to do a bit reading on the forums. Look at sticky topics.
Also as suggested, find ways to reduce your outgoings!

Good luck!