Loosing a wage...

maman

Siebrie wrote: »

My advice is not so much money-related: get outside as much as you can, even just a walk around the block is fine. It will lift your spirits and give you energy, and appreciation of your home, give time to think through problems (and menu plans....), and is cheap movement. This will lead to spending less money

Apologies tink as I don't know your specific reasons for giving up work. I'm assuming maybe health related.

I'd agree with getting out and having a plan for what to do with your extra time. Particularly as you'll be stopping work after Christmas which can be very dark days (literally).

When I gave up full time work, although it was from choice I found it very difficult. I didn't have any financial issues but it was hard having so much free time and feeling I should be using it productively. Plus many of my friends were still at work and even if you don't like your job it gives structure to a day.

CapricornLass

Another problem with being at home is that you run the heating more! The lowest tempertaure for acceptable heating is 18C, but if you are a chilly mortal like me, you might like to invest in vests, thermal leggings thick socks and waistcoats, and wear extra layers when you are feeling cold. Slippers that cover your ankles are good for warmth too.

I've even worn a woolly hat indoors (you lose 25% of your body heat through your head). Just remember to take it off before you answer the front door....

mumtoomany

If you, or anyone else, is thinking of investing in thermals, I would go for men's ones. The ladies ones are always very pretty, but not very warm. Men's long johns and thermal t-shirts are much warmer and I've found much cheaper. After all no-one sees them. When we first moved here we had no heating for several weeks. We moved in November, to a big, old stone-walled, drafty farmhouse. We all kept warm with thermals, hot-water bottles and blankets. Good luck with this, mumtoomany.

VfM4meplse

timehastoldme wrote: »

We have a ridiculously happy life on very little money, good luck.

That's the ideal! I can see how this is possible at an older age, when family financial commitments have reduced, you have enough stuff to keep you going for a long time and perhaps start to value the simple things in life more.

The OP however referred to school uniforms. Children are expensive and vulnerable to social pressures that those of us past a certain age care little about.

suki1964

Tink, the move to being a paid worker to not, is very scary at first. But Ive seen your posts and you do seem to have a good grip on the basics, meal plan, yellow sticker shop etc etc

When I went to not earning, the hardest thing I found was actually spending money on myself. Mr S didn't care what I spent, but it took me an age to get to getting myself something. I know I never bought any new clothes for myself for about a year

Now I am well enough to work part time, but Mr S has also gone part time to a very low paid job so money is just as tight, if not tighter but we do live a pretty full life

We are tight with the heating, we layer up and use lap blankets and Mr S has finally conceded wearing slippers about the house. We eat well, if a tad boring seeing as I only buy veg in season thats locally grown and around these parts we grow only carrots, turnips and cabbage However I do take advantage of Lidls super 6 and Tesco now do a cheap range of veg. We don't eat a lot of fruit, I tend to only eat frozen blueberries and Mr S like tinned fruit so we do get some in us most days. We also have at least one meat free meal a week and Im also very partial to free meals. Free meals are if someone I know has been fishing or shooting for example and is offloading the spoils, or even free from the freezer. Thats where say Ive opened a pack of 4 burgers or 8 sausages and we only need 3 burgers or 6 sausages, I freeze straight away the left over ones.Every now and then there's 6 sausages or 3 burgers to be used - free meal

I don't know how you feel about charity shop shopping, but I love it. We have around 8 charity shops in our local town, and every now and then I take myself down and hunt through the lot and the amount of New or as good as new stuff I find is amazing. Ive stocked myself up for this winter with jumpers, cardigans, fleeces, boots and shoes for around £30 if that ( boots and shoes were all new with tags )

We grow some veg, some is more successful then others but for the price of a packet of seeds its worth a shot if you have room. My herb garden saves me a fortune on its own

Diesel for the car is my biggest weekly expense We both need cars as we live miles from anywhere so I use it wisely. Tomorrow I am needing to go out so I shall do everything I need to do, dentist, shopping, haircut, banking, post office. Means a long afternoon out of the house but saves me making lots of smaller fuel thirsty journeys

We do go out, Half price pictures is Tuesdays and now during the winter months you can get a two course lunch for £5 in most of the restaurants. We also take advantage of anything on thats free as most people around here do. Air shows, firework displays, community days, - whatever, we go .Whist trips to the theatre are a rarity , the cinema often have live theatre shows

It is a challenge, its finding the lifestyle you can live comfortably without depriving yourself so much that you go sod it and blow the budget.

Good luck

[Deleted User]

Hi Tink

Apologies, I don't know how old your children are so some of the below may not be relevant. I have just listed what's helped me (DH is self employed and times have been very hard recently due to the changing work climate)

- uniform - our childrens school has a huge supply of pre loved uniform (often a lot of it is lost property which is never collected). Same at the high school where I teach. A nicely worded email to a teacher can result in some excellent pre loved uniform. Our kids school have been aware of our situation and where happy to help, after a good wash and iron the items were wonderful
- school dinners - as soon as ours stopped getting FSM they started taking packed lunches, no questions asked. There was a bit of fuss a first because their friends had dinners but at approx £2.50 per child per day, no way!
- yes you will be tempted to use the heating more. Tea lights, a plug in heated blanket, a flask of tea by your side - works wonders. Also going for a brisk walk outside soon warms you up!
- I do a 'lazy' shop at the land of Ice once a month, so if we are ever tempted to have a blow out and get a takeaway we have something quick and easy from the freezer instead, which is cooked far quicker than a takeaway could arrive!
- your library is your friend - I use my library card more than my bank card! The ladies who run ours are always happy to make me a cuppa too.
- waste absolutely nothing, and meal plan according to your cupboard contents.

Finally, enjoy not being at the beck and call of clock time. It's wonderfully liberating xx

[Deleted User]

One more thing to add, which is that you still must build money into the budget for treats. For example, we pay for Sky TV, many people might see this as frivolous but we well and truly get our money's worth, we don't go to the cinema (or indeed go out much at all), so this is our social budget and at £23 a month (I haggled hard) is worth it for us. We have movie nights with the children where we snuggle under blankets with popcorn, they won't remember not seeing the latest film at the cinema but will hopefully remember those special evenings at home snuggled up with mum and dad.

Wraithlady

If Sky is too much for the budget, but you still want movies, then Cinema Paradiso are about £8 a month and you can have both movies and TV series. It's DVD's through the post, a little clonky but it works fine, and there's no hurry in returning them. Netflix are also fairly cheap and no contract, though their films range isn't that good (and their search facility is abysmal!)

PipneyJane

Tink_04 wrote: »

Ok so it’s happening, after Xmas I won’t have my wage. We will manage as will still have DH wage but mostly looking for OS advice from those who have been here before. I’m not planning on getting another job yet and want to live as fugal as possible. Any advice welcome!

Thanks

Tink

Tink, having been through redundancies, my advice is to do a budget. Make it as detailed as possible, including school uniforms and a budget for your kids’ activities, something for household repairs, car insurance and repairs, all the annual/semi-annual expenses divided by 12, as well as the regular monthly ones. Seriously, if you treat your kids to a pantomime once a year, include that and divide the cost by 12 so that you can save up for it a month at a time.

How much money is left from your husband’s take-home pay, once you’ve accounted for every potential expenditure? Give each of you an allowance - you will need some mad money to keep you sane - and then allocate the remainder to savings.

At various points over the last decade, my husband has been made redundant twice and me once. Goal one was to ensure that we could live on either wage. Goal two was to ensure that when we are both employed, we saved up a considerable emergency fund - more than 6 months expenses - while still having cash set aside for the things that make life worth living (holidays, concerts, time with family and friends). Goal three was to save to replace the cars, when that time comes. Goal four was to invest for the future (pensions and ISA’s and overpaying the mortgage).

HTH

- Pip

Tink_04

Thanks so much for the support and amazing replies, it quite overwhelming at times but in a good way.

I have been saving my wages up for the last few months and I'm currently in my notice period at work so only a matter of weeks and 1 more pay day to go .... I'm excited & nervous but will see what happens!