Our income has halved overnight, any survival tips please?

[Cherryup]

Like many others we have been hit by CV-19. Both been on 80% furlough since March and DH has just been made redundant, he's only been there a year so will get a week's pay. I'm due back at work next week.

With jobseekers and £60 a month UC our joint monthly income has halved, so need to cut expenditure fast. Any tips would be gratefully received.

So far I have;

Cancelled pet insurance 😬
Mortgage holiday until end of Oct
Requested council tax over 12 months instead of 10

I think our utilities are all competitive, I can't do anything about loan repayments, as that's in my name not his.

We spend about £120 a week on food for 2 adults, 1 dc and 2 cats. Need to reduce that I know.

Trying not to panic but I am.

Sorry you are in the stressful situation OP. I think utilities could be a big saver potentially, compare prices, see if there are any combination deals too, some even do packages including Internet. I know we saved quite a bit when we did this, when we moved house. Also insurance, do you have car insurance and home insurance you can combine in a joint policy? Again has saved us quite a bit. Can also save quite a bit shopping around on mobile phone contracts. Your food bill does look also like it could come down. Lidl do quite good pet food that's value for money too. No massive individual savings, but saving some here and there will add up.

£120 a week on food!!!! Definitely cut that right back. We spend £40 a week for 2 adults and it's plenty (admittedly that's not for 1 DC or 2 pets like you, but still doubt we'd be anywhere near £120 if the same).

Go through bank statements with a highlighter - I discovered an old travel insurance policy that we bought as a one off for one year but seems to have recurred every year so have cancelled that now.

Netflix, Sky or Now TV? Cancel them and stick to freeview.

Trawl through things you might be able to sell in ebay, every little counts.

Contact utilities and tell them you're struggling, see what they can do to help.

Switch to fee-free bank accounts if you pay.

Work out how much your outgoings or total bills are, then check you can meet them.

Use a budget planner like ynab (www.youneedabudget.com/features/)

Also - good luck and don't forget to take care of your MH.

You spend a lot of money on food, you should be able to halve that assuming you don’t have any special dietary requirements/child still in nappies. Is there anything you could sell like a car or something? Do you have any unnecessary expenditure like a tv license or a newspaper subscription? How much do you have left after paying mortgage etc.? It may be worth trying to sell and move to a cheaper house/use equity to rent if you have any.

Do you have two cars? Can you take one off the road? Car tax & insurrance refund?
Interest only mortgage? Cancel every direct debit you don’t need - gym membership, pay tv. Move to a payg phone.

Get your dh signed up with temping & driving agencies now, don’t wait. Flag himself as looking on LinkedIn, network with ex-colleagues.

How is he coping? Set him to work on cleaning, redecorating etc. Help him to maintain morale. Cancel childcare while he’s home.

Look into things like Disney+ for 6 months free on o2 - have things to do in the house so you don't go mad sitting around doing nothing. Joining a library will be good too. It's so important to look after mental health in this situation.

Thank you all, it's made me cry, I think just that you're acknowledging it's a difficult time. I am so worried about DH, he suffers with his mental health anyway and is now full time carer to ds, he's 9 and no trouble but it's a big change.

Some great ideas, I really need to concentrate on our food bill and get comparing various things. Good idea to make one car off road. We're locked in to our mobile contract until October.

He has started making wooden ornaments and plaques to sell, they're fab and it's great for giving him a purpose as well as hopefully making a bit of extra cash.

I think by September the job market might look up a bit, he has his age against him unfortunately and also a health condition which restricts some of what he can do.

Thanks again.

@Cherryup check with your utilities and phone, sometimes switching a deal if it's up within a few months might not have an exit fee or cost much, we normally switch our sim only contracts a month or two before they run out.
Go through everything you own and sell what you don't need.
Also you'd be surprised what random stuff you'll find in your kitchen cupboards and can make meals out of, bulking things out with veg can make a difference to save money and start switching to the cheaper brands.
Your DH might be able to get a repayment holiday on his loans, perhaps they might allow you to discuss it with them if he sends them a letter/email authorising you to discuss it.

Great advice already. I would also:

• Set a household budget and take out the cash to pay with so you don’t overspend.
• cut down unnecessary travel to save fuel/ transport costs
• Essential shopping online- food, meds etc.
• Buy things in bulk (toilet roll, pasta etc) as it will work out cheaper.
• Buy value and supermarket own brands. I recently discovered Lidl and spend much less than I used to.
• Save money using vouchers, discount t codes, cash back cards. Check your Nectar, Tesco points etc and use those to shop.
• Sign up for something like Prolific where you get paid to do studies. It’s mostly small amounts but soon adds up.

-Set up a standing order to put aside a bit of money each payday to cover for any emergencies.

• Cancel any memberships
• Check the coat of your phone/ broadband and take off any ‘extra’ packages you really don’t need.
• Have a huge clear out, then sell at a car boot, on gumtree or Facebook

oh and check to see if you were eligible for your mot extensions, that buys you some time on another expense.

Thank you, I will look at bulk buying and really work on keeping shopping down. I have been food shopping in Tesco during lockdown as that was the best shop round here for safety measures, but I will go back to Aldi now, that's an easy save. I will go back to strict meal planning and lots of veggie days.

All 3 of us are tasked to find things to put on eBay this afternoon. Trying not to worry DS, it's a fine line though isn't it? He needs some understanding that life will be a little different for a bit.

Netflix has just been cancelled so thanks for that suggestion, feel bad as DH uses that a lot, but he is going to go through all his old dvds instead (late night when he can't sleep).

We will ring round utilities, phones, insurance this week and see if we can get better deals.

We're up for this challenge! Just hope it doesn't last too long.

Thanks again, you've all given me some hope.

Look up recipes from Jack Monroe - she has a couple of recipe books for bootstrap /tight budget cooking, like 'Tin can cookbook' that might help.

Thank you @Margo34 I'll have a look.

@Cherryup, on YouTube there is a set of videos by a chap called Mike Jeavons. One of these is a week on a food budget. Might be worth a look for an idea or two.

Bernadine Lawrence, How to feed your family on £5 a day.

Fantastic little book.

Please please please get some form of insurance or see if you'd qualify for free care through PDSA.

If something were to happen I am sure you wouldn't pick having a pet PTS because you can't afford the expensive bill. It's not worth the risk.

This is one of those things where when you don't have the insurance something happens but if you did have it life would continue.

If you can't get a good plan get a basic one just in case! I pay £17 a month for a top tier plan (lifetime 12k) so it's doable to find cheap.

It sounds like you can save a lot on groceries. Obviously no eating out or takeaways. If you have a day out, take all food and drink with you. You can save a huge amount by keeping your phone and switching to a no contract SIM once your current contract runs out. Use the library instead of buying books. Consider cancelling any extra curricular activities.

I really wouldn't cancel your pet insurance OP.

Pet bills can easily run into the thousands and a lot of vets won't take a payment plan. Please make sure your animals are covered.

I really wouldn't cancel your pet insurance OP.

Pet bills can easily run into the thousands and a lot of vets won't take a payment plan. Please make sure your animals are covered.

You can extend the £500 interest-free overdraft facility from your bank for I think another 3 months, well worth it. Some Councils are waiving Council Tax I think so check if yours has a scheme/hardship fund in place.
As well as economising on your shopping you might want to explore urban foraging. I live in a city centre & manage to supplement my diet a fair bit this way. Nuts, berries & edible fungi turn up in so many odd places. Your DH might find this very calming & a help for his mental well-being, as I do. It's also a great free family activity. I've been where you are more than a few times & know how stomach churning it is but don't give up hope. There are many on-line guides such as this www.countryfile.com/how-to/foraging/monthly-foraging-guide-whats-in-season-where-to-find-it-and-how-to-forage-responsibly/

Thanks for the food budgeting ideas. I'm going to work really hard on a meal plan and aim for my food shop to be halved when I next go on Friday.

Re the cat insurance, I completely take on board what you're saying, I will have a look at what Pdsa would help with and if it's not much then shop around for another deal.

Is there any way you can earn more money in your role OP? When you go back is there any chance of overtime?

When you say DH is now carer for DS, is eligible for carers allowance?

@Choice4567 I could potentially try and increase my hours a bit, although I worry if I do that, when DH does find work, I will struggle to reduce them again.

Sorry I just meant doing the childcare whilst DS isn't in school.

I got rid of my TV license and only pay for Netflix at 5.99 per month now. I can still watch catchup for other channels, just not BBC or iPlayer. I don't miss it.

Have a look at some of the money making threads on MN and this reddit is quite good for ideas for making small bits of cash to top you up:
www.reddit.com/r/beermoneyuk/