Need help and advice - things are not good.

[tutu100]

need help and advice to see if there is anything I am not doing or could be doing as we are not coping financially. DP works in on the face of it what seems to be a well paid job. And it would be if we didn't live in the south where property prices are high (although we live in the cheapest area in our city). Dp has to commute the 18 miles to work as there is no way we could afford to live near his job (very affluent city). He rides a motorbike though which really keeps petrol costs down compared to if he took the car. We do have a car, although it tends to only get used at weekends. It is 18 years old, so not worth anything and doesn't cost much to run.

DP has not had a payrise for several years. He is in a job where the hours are long, but it is salaried so no chance for overtime. I do not work partly through looking after the children (child care costs make it unfeasible), but also because atm I have mental health issues which mean I can't work.

As our income is classed as good we are not entitled to any benefits other than child benefit and we have had our tax credits cut down to what I think is the minimum and apparently next year we won't get them anymore.

We have been struggling for the last 18 months, but luckily had savings which we kept dipping into to make up the short fall. However at the rate we are going we only have 2 months worth of money in the savings and then it's gone.

Also I have been able to cope food wise because we've always had a pretty well stocked up cupboard and freezer, but even those supplies have depleted and now no longer get replaced.

Basically I need suggestions of where else I can cut spending so it matches our income.

We have no debts at all (other than mortgage), dp has made sure all our suppliers for things like gas, electric, insurance etc are the cheapest. We already shop at Aldi, and have always used car boots as a source of clothes and toys for the children.

DP and I don't buy anything for ourselves unless it is absolutely necessary. We don't go out either.

I feel really bad asking for suggestions because on the face of it DP earns what should be a good income but it just doesn't seem to be enough to live on anymore.

Check out training companies a google would bring them up. I am going to start marking papers in jan as I found a self employed thingy that you do from home and she told me its about sixteen hours a week. They post stuff to you and you post it back and you get do much for each person passed the course or each paper you mark. Might be something worth looking at? I needed a nvq 4 in care which I have as well as a load of other bumf HTH

Thanks, I will look into all of that. I also have a GNVQ in Health and Social Care (don't think they do those anymore), so might open the scope a bit more for possible things I can mark.

I've had lots of good suggestions from people on this thread, and am going to be trying/looking into all of them. As I said. Every single penny we can not spend is a help and it all does add up. We are lucky it is not a bigger overspend each month. I hope we can do enough to stop us doing it now that we don't have our savings as a buffer.

signet2012 - if you don't mind, would you pm me the details of that marking work? Could be useful to me too.

Get CAB to help you look into DLA. They helped us with ds's and we wouldn't have got it without them. Good Luck!

Have you tried online surveys? Over the last 2 years I have bought a new 37 in TV and a dvd player from the vouchers. It seems to be only pennies at first but if you spent 50 to 60 minutes a day 0n a variety of sites the £ 10 vouchers soon start rolling in.

www.msmummyoftwo.com/2012/08/5-top-ways-to-save.html chec ot my blog for some fool proof money saving tips, it helped me I hope it help you x

For exam marking you can contact the exam boards direct via their websites. The main ones are OCR, Edexcel, AQA and WJEC. There may be others that you could mark GNVQs for, try City and Guilds for example. Good luck!

I thought I would come back and update this thread as I have used or tried to use the advice that you all gave me.

Firstly I contacted our mortgage company to see if there was a better deal we could have. There wasn't, we are still best off on their SVR which we are on, but at some point the amount we needed to pay must have dropped, but the direct debit didn't so we have been over paying on the mortgage. The guy did some recalculations as the mortgage amount is now less than it should be (if this makes sense!) so we now have a lower monthly amount to pay. £60 a month less! That goes quite a long way to helping our finances tally up.

I have been doing the £30 food shop that several kind mumsnetters messaged me. Again this has been great for keeping our food bills down, which was another of our biggest expenditures. I am also becoming very good at creating meals from whatever is lying around.

I have had a really good run off luck on ebay, the stuff I have sold has gone for really good prices which has allowed us to finish the remedial work in our bathroom.

I haven't yet done anything about claiming DLA as I have started a new therapy programme and am doing a bit better, I am trying to be positive so I am really hoping that I'll continue to make the progress I've been making. However if things get bad again I will apply and having looked at the criteria for it when I am at my worst I should be eligible for it.

Things are still not easy, and DP and I have days when we are so fed up of having to make do or go without. But you can't beat that feeling of achievement when you've fixed something for pennies or free which if you had money you would have thrown away and bought a new one.

So thank you to all of you for your advice. The last few months have been challenging, but I am less stressed now over money than I was. One thing which has helped is knowing how many people are in the same situation. I don't feel like DP and I are being useless IYKWIM. Recently we have had several friends who have always been very spendy and always had expensive clothes, expensive houses and a lot of cash to throw around have sadly had changes to their personal lives which have caused their income to drop and for the first time in years they are struggling. They were shocked to find out that DP and I have been for a while, but we were then able to share advice we've been given with them, along with a few of our own tips, and they are starting to realise that things might not be as bad as first feared for them. The other good thing is that DP is getting to see his mates regularly for the first times in years as they are all staying in as no one can afford to go out. So there is an upside to everything!

Have you tried this board?
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=145
Very helpful for making money out of nothing