From debt to freedom...

Honeysucklelou2

Got paid for some gardening work that I did in August, so have spent £20 of it to invest in my own garden. DS3 was excitedly looking at every tulip in the garden centre but managed to persuade him that some Rembrandt tulips in various colours would be good! Also bought some onion sets for the allotment and a heuchera for the garden. It should compliment the purple one we already have.

Paid £40 off a debt using Job 2’s wages. We are paid weekly so I’ve used up some holiday pay to balance to wages to cover Thursday. I’m glad I’d already  made the decision to cut back on one shift but am now really thinking hard about the future of working at Job 2 at all.

Spendless

I think the issue of Job2 was going to raisie its head at some point.

Maybe you need questions to ask yourself. Some of them could be how much do you need the wages from Job2 to pay off remaining debt? Does all wages from job2 go towards remaining debt? Without job2 can you still pay off debt and how long will it take you?

Of the 4(?) children still living at home, are the older ones at the age where theyre financially independent of you? By that i mean working f-time or Uni students with enough income of their own for buying their own things eg clothes and personal spends. 

Btw did you ever sort the request for some tax credits back? 

Flowers and veg sound great. 

lucielle

Maybe time to do an SOA with and without the income from job 2? 

L

Willowtree222

I agree with the others. Howul much difference will job 2 make? 

Spendless

A while back you were doing 3 jobs. I seem to recall that you  once said that job3 was connected to/more in line with job1 (apologies if I've got this wrong) . If you do need an additional job then is a return or looking for something similar to what job3 was a possibility?   

Cherryfudge

Lots of good questions above. Could you perhaps do relief hours only at job two so you only take on what you have capacity for, e.g. outside of term time?

I think your DS3 may have inherited your gardening gene!

dawnybabes

I’d write down a sow with both options - could you instead do some private tutoring ? Would that be a better hourly rate / use of time ?  I get it’s a lot of balls to be juggling but if stopping job 2 means you’re struggling to pay everything and have to watch every penny will it be worth it ? Or is the time gained back better ? Only you know the answer to that one. 

Spendless

Another question may be, of  the remaining debt is your credit rating now good enough to move it to a more favourable interest rate?  

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Spendless, Lucielle, Cherryfudge, Willowtree222 and  dawnybabes .

You are right Spendless, at one point I did have 3 jobs, when I was doing 3 days at Job 1, 2 days at Job 3 and the evening shifts at Job 2. Now I’m full time at Job 1, dropped down to 2 nights at Job 2 and have occasional Job 3 work but gardening instead of what I was doing. The gardening I tend to do when outside of term time.

The way I use my wages is to use Job1’s wages to pay for the mortgage, electricity, broadband, council tax, car and house insurance and debt repayments. I then use Job 2’s wages for weekly petrol costs ( I have to drive to work as it’s not on a bus route), childcare costs for DS3 so that I can actually do Job 1 and food and any gifts.  Job 2 is still, even on 2 shifts a week, worth nearly £400 a month. I don’t feel I can take such a cut in income at the moment but I do need to pace myself and stop saying yes to everyone who asks me to cover a shift for them! Definitely something to mull over more. 

Spendless

It sounds then that giving up job2 or not having a 2nd job at all isn't going to be feasible for a while. 2 things will stop though in the coming years the debt repayment you're using job1 wages to pay for and the childcare bill for DS3 that comes from job2. Guess that  ends as he goes to Secondary school? So 2-3 years time from a recent post about age? If the debt payment had gone and you no longer paid childcare would those 2 bills equate to your current wages from job2  The rest of the bills might be tweaked or cut down on eg grocery bill as  the older family move out but those 2 are the only ones I can see currently with an 'end date' (other than the mortgage eventually)