Redundancy

Valli

Hello Chirpychick.

Reading through your posts a couple of things struck me -

Look into claiming free school meals. Check your county council website or ask in the school office. In addition to free meals your child might get free school milk and any educational visits should be free.

Are elderly inlaws entitled to attendance allowance which will help pay their transport costs?

tori.k

I think the irony of the situation for us was we are/were in the middle of trying to downsize and the amount my budget will fall short with living here on one income is near enough the same as the money we would have saved if the move can go ahead.
We are determined not to let this derail our plans, the money we have saved towards the new house won't be touched.
Husband redundancy package will have to cover the cost of an additional car as he will lose his works van, my wages will cover our rent and direct debits, sadly everything was already cut to the bone so don't have Sky or any real luxury expenses that we can cut to free up any excess income, so there will be some interesting dinners ahead as I will clear the cupboards and freezer, we don't have a huge stockpile but I reckon there 7 to 10 days at least then the fun will start currently I spend £240 on food and household sundries a month this will have to be almost halved as my petrol cost will now have to come out of this budget.
This is my worse case, it shouldn't be too hard for DH to pick up more work, as it's very much an old boys network he's working in but I'm preparing for the worse then everything else is a bonus.

jk0

Another vote here for catching up on the odd jobs:

I was sacked in 1986, much to my relief as I hated the job. I was out of work for 7 months, but used the time productively. When they built my flat, they painted the windows before the putty was dry, so it remained like plasticine. I went round every pane scraping out the old putty, and replacing with linseed oil putty. After three weeks, I primed and repainted at my leisure, and enjoyed doing a thorough job. I would never have had time to do all that if I was working, and no tradesman would have been interested, even if I could have afforded to pay him.

BTW, I still have a PAYG phone. I think unless you need the internet on it, why have a bill every month?

Primrose

Hello there. Another couple who here who have both gone through the redundancy mill - more than once in fact. Yes, it does come as a huge shock but as the days pass and the bayloffs still don’t appear at the door you grow a little more confident that you will survive the situation. You’re in a good place having no debt apart from your mortgage and are used to living frugally so don’t underestimate how this good training will help you.

Encourage your husband to fill his days with job seeking, and have some inexpensive domestic projects lined up to fill moments when time does drag and allow depressive thoughts to creep in. Above all, continually boost his
his sense of self esteem and sense of self worth. Redundancy really does give this a bashing. And laugh a lot together, even if it’s black humour.

Do some menu planning - batch meals like using lots of different versions of Spag Bol sauce (chile con carne, cottage pie, meat & potato hash browns etc so that you economise on fuel with bulk cooking. Home made soups are cheap and filling. Thermal underwear or several layers indoors will help keep heating bills under control.

Your husband will possibly suffer disappointments with job interview rejections. Don,t let them derail you. You WILL survive!

Oh, and if you’re a member of your local library check out their dvds etc. You may find, that if you check your county online library catalogue there are enough cheap offerings there to save you some money on your Netflix subscription!

LameWolf

Primrose wrote: »

Your husband will possibly suffer disappointments with job interview rejections. Don,t let them derail you. You WILL survive!

That's the truth; many companies don't even have the courtesy to email saying "thanks but no thanks" - you have to remember that that's the norm these days and not let it get you down.

chirpychick

Valli wrote: »

Hello Chirpychick.

Reading through your posts a couple of things struck me -

Look into claiming free school meals. Check your county council website or ask in the school office. In addition to free meals your child might get free school milk and any educational visits should be free.

Are elderly inlaws entitled to attendance allowance which will help pay their transport costs?

Thank fully he does get free school meals as in infant school they do now. At first due to many problems I was providing packed lunch but school have been great at getting him to have free lunch now and he's enjoying that. I'm never sure if I should be giving him a "tea" as in sandwiches, fruit etc for dinner or still I give him a full dinner. At the moment I'm judging it by his hunger.

He should be entitled to free milk but because he's lacto free I have to provide that.
I was buying cartons £1.35 for 3 :eek: now I've brought a bottle and buy one big one for £1.40 but that covers the full 5 days.

I also provide him a banana everyday as I was horrified when they asked me if he was eating breakfast as he seemed so hungry at school and I discovered he wasn't eating the provided snack! He has issues with food so now I send the banana in and we know he's had a snack.

He's very fussy for breakfast and I often let him have a brioche so I know he has eaten (he won't even eat toast!) but these are expensive so I'm starting to look into recipes for making a brioche or savoury muffins or something that he can have instead.

It's tricky trying to not allow fussiness but with his additional needs I've also learnt that actually he won't eat even if he is hungry if there isn't food he cant have. So I do have to make some allowances.

I've done the main shop this week for £8.99 :rotfl: (I used £7.50 in vouchers) and in a little while we will go on our weekly jaunt to a$da for yellow sticker items. I'm trying really hard to use up what we have. We usually use what we get as "extras" as it's not all that reliable for things and you just never know what you're going to get.

Pickle is poorly today and so him and daddy are making a hedgehog house. (We went to Costco for a box and ate free samples, brought nothing whilst there :rotfl:)

Thanks so much to all the people who have replied so far, lovely to read about people who have come out the other side.
Everyone's advice is invaluable x

Lynplatinum

Hiya chirpychick

Good Grief - you ve only just cleared your IVA and now another body blow - I do feel for you and yours.

Tori - its just such a shame and the not knowing is somehow worse:(

Feel I can comment because after my divorce I lived for 4 years on Income support (for various reasons my ex made it impossible for me to work - so I went back to college and volunteered at a chazzer!); then, after 10 years working somewhere I loved (the job and the people) the government changed its funding and I was made redundant (luckily I had 3 months salary in the bank by this time - thank you Martin :money: - made it last 6 months!) then I decided to run my own 2 businesess for 10 years. The government changed funding methods again so now I am semi retired and just run the one business. So money is again tight.

So what have i learnt?
1) Dont be too proud to accept help from friends - be it stuff from an allotment or lifts in the car.
2) MSE is your best friend for info, help, advice and opinions!
3) As someone else here said look at it as a kind of game: to give those ultra rich tax avoiding fat cats as little of your money as possible. (as a small business the tax man is down my back fast enough but the big swindilers get away with it! Doing 'Deals' :mad: )
4) think out of the box - dont think 'I cant' think 'why not?'
5) Its not all about money - do swaps - so I dog and house sit for a friend regularly and this year she has paid for my entrance to the Royal Cornwall Show + 3 days away in a travelodge + petrol in Bath to see the Christmas market I save egg boxes for a farmer friend and occasionally get free boxes of eggs! I pick up fallen apples for an elderly neighbour and get a bag for myself etc etc!
6) Talk/chat/moan/scream on here - I think most responders so far know where you are coming from by direct experience. There's a wealth of knowledge so dont think your questions are silly - we all had to ask/find out sometime! But also make sure you do some fun free stuff - libraries are a good scource of info with regard to these also the internet type in ' Free stuff to do near XXX (wherever you live)' even if you dont buy owt the atmosphere is often worth a trip out!

Finally Tori - dont wish to intrude too far but that is quite a grocery bill - may I ask for how many folk + creatures? To give you an example of a very practiced frugaler - I feed 3 adults + a 20 month old (who eats at least half adult portions) + 2 large dogs for between £30 and £40 per week. Perhaps folk on here can help you cut that bill?
Check all your bills (water - phone - internet - insurance ) folks and check em every so often - join MSE Energy Club.!
Check all your 'habits' and use the MSE Demotivator tool! Coffees/newspapers/magasines/ high end brands/ not getting yellow stickers/ walk rather than car/ dont make shopping a hobby - sure other folks have more suggestions! Over to you guys......:A

chirpychick

Tori, I'm so sorry you're going through this too.
I didn't think I had much in stores but last week I didn't spend a penny on food, I made veg soup for the first time, I made treats out of stuff we had in, if we didn't have it we just went without it and it was hard at times but I felt so great when I got to the end. Plus shockingly I still have stuff left to use this week. I've spent a total of £12.50 for the things we needed this week. (I did use a voucher for £7.50) but even so that's £20 for a week. For 2 big appetite adults, one very fussy 4 year old, 2 with allergies and intolerances, 2 dogs and a hamster.
If you search the board for cheap recipes there are so many ideas - some are a bit outdated price wise but still cheap.


I hope I can help you along the way x

tori.k

Lynplatinum wrote: »

Finally Tori - dont wish to intrude too far but that is quite a grocery bill - may I ask for how many folk + creatures? To give you an example of a very practiced frugaler - I feed 3 adults + a 20 month old (who eats at least half adult portions) + 2 large dogs for between £30 and £40 per week. Perhaps folk on here can help you cut that bill?
Check all your bills (water - phone - internet - insurance ) folks and check em every so often - join MSE Energy Club.!
Check all your 'habits' and use the MSE Demotivator tool! Coffees/newspapers/magasines/ high end brands/ not getting yellow stickers/ walk rather than car/ dont make shopping a hobby - sure other folks have more suggestions! Over to you guys......:A

Not at all my budget covers 3 adults, I didn't think I was doing to bad at £55 a week, I see I still have lots to learn, I do cook mostly from scratch as DH is diabetic so don't use a lot of prepared or tinned foods as they are so high in sugar and he has to limit spuds and most carbs, I tend to spend a lot on fruit as I use Apple puree as a sugar replacement in a lot of things, and he has soft fruit with Greek yogurt for breakfast most mornings . I do grow a bit of my own and probably spend around 45 on food then the other 10 on bathroom and cleaning sundries ( bulk buy when on offer) it's daft things like toilet rolls that push the budget way up, i only really shop in lidls once a week and use a local fruit and veg wholesalers it's 10 miles to the nearest supermarket so not worth the fuel to shop more often. Costs will drop a bit during the dark half of the year now it more soup and stew weather.

atypicalblonde

Good Morning Chirpychick and ToriK xx

DH and I were in a similar position last year, albeit not through redundancy but due to several non-payers (we run our own business). I remember logging on to internet banking around 1am and there being nothing there in any of our accounts. We had an empty fridge and our kiddies are only small (they were 4 and 2 at the time).

We were lucky in that we had a relative we could ask to help us out short term until we got sorted (and we did get all the money that was owed to us, thanks to the kindness of another MSE user who guided me through the court process through PM - I will never forget her kindness). We paid every penny back to the relative through very very stringent belt tightening. Everything was homemade, all F&V was bought from the market, we avoided supermarkets like the plague.

As others have said, make it a game and challenge yourselves in a fun way to make your money streeeetch as far as it can go. It IS doable, and this too shall pass, make sure you log on here regularly for moral support.

Wishing you both all the best xx