Husband made redundant and facing £1200 monthly shortfall, any advice?

[Tappings]

I'm probably going to get flamed in this thread judging by how others have gone.

DH has been made redundant, he was the main earner.

We're lucky that he'll get a decent payout, equivalent to 6 months take home salary.

I work 30 hours per week. I got a promotion in February and have a decent take home, above national average.

DH will be entitled to contributions based JSA and we'll get child benefit back, but even with those and cutting back our bills we'll be £1200 short per month. And that doesn't account for any personal spends, kids clothes/ uniform, adult clothes, birthdays etc.

Due to my recent promotion, me getting a better paying job is extremely unlikely, even if I went full time. I'm close to the ceiling of my profession. There's no option to go full time where I am either.

DH is (was) a well paid professional in a competitive field and was quite senior in that field. He's already looking for jobs, has sorted his CV, spoken with several recruiters and has an interview lined up for next week.

Any suggestions on what we can do? Advice/ support?

Thanks - we're in Scotland so probably not the same opportunities here. He's constantly on LinkedIn!

. My husband currently remote role but moving to one where he will be away a couple nights a week now. Most places whilst not remote will let you have 2/3 nights at home. He’s not restricting himself to just Scotland surely?
Has he seen the revolut ones - www.revolut.com/careers/team/risk-compliance-audit/?city=UK+-+Remote

You surely don't need to spend £150 a month on children's clothes when they are in primary? You can easily half that or even lower. Second hand Is your friend. I only spent on shoes and coats and hobby kit at that age. Everything else was supermarket or second hand.

Can you reduce the frequency of the dyslexia tutor for a while?

Respectfully, how can you not be living paycheck to paycheck if you have £8K of credit card debt, approx £600 difference between income and outgoings, with no contingency and no savings to get you through this rough patch.

Not having a go, just trying to show that things could be easier next rough patch with a little pre-planning.

If your husband is a techie can he pick up some cash in hand work locally setting up tech for others or teaching them to use it?

Are you sure it will only be 6 months pay? If it's redundancy pay then the first 30k is usually tax free, will that give you essentially longer on your current income?

Could you reduce the gas and electric bill by having heating off during the day at the moment? It's quite high.

Water seems reasonable for a large home so I think you're right being wary of a meter.

I would be wary of changing the pet insurances as new insurance would exclude previously existing conditions and may not be as good cover, costing you more should there be a vet visit.

Can the kids walk / cycle to school with DH?

Is the car costs right ? It seems a little high for a monthly figure.

Would the kids go for packed lunches?

Kids shouldn't need £150 per month for clothes if their wardrobes are already well stocked. Can you just buy absolute essentials for now.

Yes one thing that jumps out at me @Tappings is that you had savings for the children budgeted but no savings budgeted for yourselves.
I would also (once through this bumpy patch) factor in even small mortgage overpayments , it builds a nice cushion.

Yes, we probably can reduce it - it's listing our current budget, which I'm looking to change.

I pretty much only buy school stuff, shoes and sports kit new, and even some of that is second hand (school jumpers, johdpurs etc) but second hand gis and riding boots are still a bit pricey. But yes, we'll cut down because we have to.

The tutor is every week (term time) or not at all.

We save everything not budgeted for as written at the end.

Where are you getting the £600 difference?

I do think you are panicking too early. I recently left my job (as it was making me miserable and not a good fit). I did have a moment of panic as during my notice period I realised just how how bad the job market was at present.

However, I just signed up to some agencies and am now doing a contractor role. It’s a six month contract and granted it’s not job security but it’s lucrative and is allowing me add more to my savings so if in the unlikely event in 6 months I don’t find anything new, I have a nice buffer.

Dont cancel the swimming lessons!

I’m being made redundant come September 1st. My pay out is 11 months worth of salary. I’m a single parent though. Some of its redundancy and some pilon payment which is taxable. I’ve been applying for jobs even though I’m tied until September. It’s brutal out there. I’ll take anything to get by as there are no jobs in my expertise currently. I do feel for you i was fine but now I’m stressing xx

Haven't RTFT, so sorry if I've missed stuff.

We were in a similar situation a few years ago - our pets had to all be rehomed. It was a brutal time, but with the savings made there (and later the sale of our house 😪) it meant that we could then afford our daughter's university accommodation when the time came. We'd been hoping to contribute towards her tuition fees, too, but our cloth needed some very blunt cutting so she's now saddled with an eye-watering debt.

I'd treat this as a wake-up call, but that's because, having been there, I now catastrophize like a pro. I'd sell the house, port the mortgage over to your next (smaller!) property so you don't have to pay the penalty (if the lender allows it), and downsize like a beast. You can even start auctioning your stuff now - that will cover some bills.

Sorry this is happening, OP, but you can navigate it. You just need to cut your cloth, and it's honestly quite freeing.

The gas& electric bill is monthly direct debit so we pay the same every month but use less in summer and more in winter. We've not had the heating on since April.

The car costs build a contingency for when a big bill comes in. For example we know a timing belt change is coming up and that'll be £££, if we don't have it in the pot it'll go on a credit card or come out of the general savings pot, both of which we'd rather not be the case. But obviously if we can't meet our essential bills then we can't save for the car.

We may be able to walk to school on days DH doesn't have interviews - it's 50minutes at child speed each way.

Packed lunches, maybe, it's not like DH doesn't have time!

I'm really really hoping we don't have to go that far! But it has crossed my mind.

ODFOD.

Elder millenial here, in my 40s, raw dogged ADHD my entire bloody life with no diagnosis until 6 months ago, still no medication and there are no RAs that would be any benefit to me in my job, yet I still work bloody hard. F right off.

Im always shocked when I see things like this. I dont understand how people dont track where their money goes. Im not on the breadline but I know all my outgoings!

So sorry. I have been there. It is easy for people to suggest he takes any job, but it is incredibly difficult to job hunt while working another job. And your husband's mental health is important too.

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread. But I would go 100% at looking for a new job in his sector til the money runs out then look at dog boarding /walking or market research as a stop gap. Have a look at Dep for National Statistics as they are always recruiting interviewers and you can do it in the evening.

Get in touch with your local food bank and food pantry type places. Not because you necessarily need food parcels at this point, but because they can put you in touch with all sorts of other organisations and free funded stuff. Likewise with Citizens advice.

He can also ask his employer if they will fund him retraining. What's the worst they're going to say, no? So what?

To answer your question about Channel 4, they have their own app, which you can watch with ads (which are to be honest the most frequent and log ad breaks I think I come across on TV apps!) or you can pay for ad-free, it's something like £3.99 a month. ITVX is similar, you can watch it on the app with ads for free. I can just about tolerate the apps. There's TV on You Tube too of course.

Check for free trials of things like Amazon TV, and movie sites like Rakuten. Don't forget to cancel your Amazon subscriptions, if you have any.

Same.

I appreciate the sentiment from the poster and it may well help someone else, but I check my bank accounts daily and have all my expenses on a spreadsheet.

j would give up absolutely anything on that list before rehoming your pets. That’s just awful.

No - he’s looking all over but obviously the cost of flights/accommodation are a factor in roles that are in another city. He’s used to travelling a lot, his last post he averaged a fortnight away every six weeks, but the company covered that. I’ve passed that link on, thank you 😊

I have not suggested rehoming my pets!

I would see if you can switch to interest only payments on your mortgage for awhile, cancel any tv subscriptions ie Netflix/sky etc
I would get him to sign on with an agency whilst applying for jobs within his sector so he can do some temp work if offered.
Depending on your area is there an international school or equivalent? when we first brought our house and had eye watering mortgage payments after interest rates increased we turned one of bedrooms into a twin room (moved our then small children into the smallest room together) and took in summer students that were coming over with their schools. They stayed for 2 weeks at a time and it was actually a lovely experience (and gave us an insight into what 13-14 year olds were like to live with 😂
That increase in income from Easter -September really made a massive difference and meant we got ahead again.
Meal plan on a 2 week basis and stick to your list.
Have a sort through any unwanted clothes/stuff to sell on vinted/ebay/car boot.
One of our friends was made redundant, she is working for Amazon 2 days a week delivering parcels and retraining for a different sector at the same time as she was struggling to find something in the sector she was in.
6 months money sounds like a good buffer but it really isn’t, especially with the job market as it is so I would be trying to eek that out as much as possible.