BIG drop in income help!!!

booklover

:hello: Toria

Are you aiming to become a Clinical Psychologist? :think: It seems a great career and very worthwhile. I am really interested in Psychology and love reading all the research.

I tried to get on the ladder but haven't succeeded so far. I am currently doing the Fast Track degree in social work as I have my Psyc degree. I am really enjoying it..

Anyway aim high.

Good luck :A

Fiona

onamission_2

toria27 wrote: »

At the moment OH is on £36500 so that is how we afford the mortgage, .

Toria
I'm on a slightly lower salary to your OH and I'm clearing over £1900 per month after Tax and NI. Are you absolutely sure of your figures??? I'd expect your OH to clear £2000pm on that salary.?!
- start a spending diary for both you and OH to see where your money is going and go through your bank statements with a fine comb. I found i was spending over £40 a week on coffee and sandwiches/food at work.

hth.
onamission

RAS

OAM

£36500 is OH current salary P.a.

£1200 pm is what he is expected to get in the new job.

Agree about the spending diary.

toria27

bridget I hadn't heard of the improving working lives in the nhs, I have worked on the bank before though and really enjoyed it, the local psyciatric hospital only do long days though, the ward I used to work on for example had 11 patients, 2 staff nurses and 2 NA's and it was the NA's jobs to get the patients up in the morning and help with meds etc, a very busy time. When OH changes jobs though and stops working saturdays this will be a possibility though.

Booklover - yes I have been aiming at becoming a clinical psychologist but as you probably know it is very hard, I was thinking of fast tracking for social work or psychiatric nursing but wanted to wait until DD is a bit older first if I do it that is. Well done for doing it though it will be a great career to have.

onamission- OH is currently getting £2231 take home pay per month, I started the thread as he is going to be dropping this wage considerably. We don't by any food at work, wish he did then we could cut back on that, thanks anyway.

beautifulgorgeous_2

Will the reduction in pay be forever or will it climb quickly in a year or two. Also do you plan for your daughter to be an only child.

msmicawber

Hi Toria,

Lots of people have given lots of advice, but one thing I'd like to add about having two cars is that if the only real reason you keep one is to get you home at midnight once per week, I would advise finding out the cost of a taxi or minicab home as I don't believe it can cost more over the year than tax, MOT, insurance, maintenance and petrol on a car, no matter how small.

Spirit_2

Hello toria
You are doing a great job in supporting your husband through this change, but you need to be very clear about what you have to do to manage financially. Just hoping to deal with debt when it comes is not enough. You have to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

You are losing the equivalent of your whole mortgage payment from your monthly income (think how would you have managed last month if your mortgage payment had been 2000 pounds - its the same effect).

When my husband was redundant from a highly paid job I planned to replace his lost earnings by increasing mine . It was not overnight and as we did not ask for any help or cut back on the big/difficult things we accrued debts. It took several years to build our income back up and cost more than just money; I posted detail on another thread (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=593894) so won't bore you by re-rehearsing it here .


As you do not want to downshift the house (a big/difficult thing) and as you hope your income will increase again in the medium term ; for the next year or two could you plan to:

• Let your house and rent somewhere cheaper to live (I was considering/dithering about this but events overtook me and I couldn't)
• Take a lodger (if you live in a nice area and housing costs are high this might be possible).
• You have have said your parents are generous with money, could you ask that they help you with time instead? Would they help with child care on or two days each week so that you can increase your working hours?

No apologies for repeating - You have to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Best wishes
Spirit

hypno06

Hello!

do you have a spare room? If so, if you take in a student lodger, this can pay you a good amount of money - we have been doing it for the last few years, and although we have to share our house with another teenager, we get paid £120 a week for bed and board, which allows us to eat!!!

Speak to your local education authority/children's services or see if there are any language schools in your area - the latter often need people just for a week or two at a time, so not so much of an invasion.

Otherwise, I think everyone else has covered the options! Let us know how you get on. It will be a tough couple of years and you will get lots of support here in the difficult days, and you can shout about your successes in the good days!!

Good luck to you both!

GettingThingsDone

Hi,

My OH has had a drastic cut in income to have a more balanced life and I can recommend it from a 'quality of life' view.

Obviously we've had to have a few cutbacks here and there, but our lifestyles have not radically changed. She does a lot more ebaying, for example, to go on the same types of holidays as before.

However, our mortgage payments are relatively low, so generally it was been possible to have a monthly positive balance - not that we have money left over at the end of the month!

I think to downshift comfortably i.e. not increase your debts and stress levels, you have to accept that something has got to give. Could you sell your house and buy something cheaper?

Good luck!

gtd

oops_a_daisy

another area that you can reduce easily is the amount per month on dental. Have a look at HSA via Quidco for £25 cashback and on the top level cover it would still be less than you are putting aside for just basic treatment per month. Not a massive saving but 'every little bit helps' or something like that