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.

So proud of myself, just done my weekly shop for £38. Admittedly my meal plan includes various things already in the freezer.

Tarka daal with rice and chapatis for dinner, instead of our usual Friday night takeaway tonight.

Thanks again for all your help.

That's brilliant

Well done!
We quite often have a shop from the cupboard week where we use up all of the cupboard/freezer bits and have really random meals. It means a week off shopping and we use up random bits.

Fascinated by your food bill where do you normally shop OP? Sorry to hear about your situation! I was just going to suggest Aldi but I can see you have noted it.
Phone contracts? Can you change anytime soon to a sim only deal and not renew.
Pension reduction for 6 months to help out if possible?

@Joebloggsss I had been shopping at Tesco during lockdown but back to Aldi now.

I will look in to reducing pension contributions for a while. Thanks

If you do go for pet insurance again look at cashback websites (topcashback or quidco). You can get a reasonable amount back.

DP might be able to claim New Style JSA if has paid enough NI contributions in last 2 years which should have if been working full time. You may get this and UC, but slightly less, for 6 months.

www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-jobseekers-allowance

Have a look at a benefit calculator, you might get Council Tax Reduction depending on your wage.

www.betteroffcalculator.co.uk/calculator/new/step1

What sector is your Dh in?

He's applied for job seekers and universal credit, seems to be a backlog though as he hasn't heard anything and applied about 3 weeks ago. He's tried ringing but just put on hold for hours, then goes dead. I guess they're extremely busy.

He works for specialist suppliers to the construction industry. Construction seems to still be busy, but there's been lots of redundancies in his specialism. Lots of transferable skills though.

I saw in news that U.K. Hermes is hiring 10,000 delivery drivers. It may be worth your DH doing that while looking for a job in his sector.

Op have a look on www.moneysavingexpert.com loads of advice especially in the forums

Hi OP! You've had loads of good advice here already. I just wanted to suggest receipt scanning apps, where you earn rewards for uploading receipts. Some are better than others, but I use these three: Shopprize, ReceiptHog and Shoppix.

Speak to your son's school. Would you be eligible for the free school meal shopping vouchers now due to your change in circumstances?

Shop around for cheaper pet insurance, they vary hugely. But you can't afford a massive vet bill so you can't afford not to insure!
Can you sell, rather than just SORN your second car? Try Bulb for electricity. Rigorous meal planning, market for your vegetables? If markets are open at the moment... go through bank statement with a fine comb for any ongoing unnecessary things. Fingers crossed for you that things improve soon

Thank you, I am working my way through all your great ideas.

I'm feel more optimistic, we've had some eBay success this week and eating well on a small budget. Mortgage payment holiday has been confirmed until end of Oct and we've stopped various other small things.

I've found a cheaper pet insurance. We're reluctant to sell his car, as he'll need it if he finds a job but then we wouldn't have the money to buy another. We'll see where we're up to in a few months.

I'm not sleeping and have had a few, guess I can only describe them as panic attacks, I can't catch my breath and go a bit dizzy, must just be the worry and realisation that life has really changed for us.

Thank you 💐

have a shop from the cupboard week where we use up all of the cupboard/freezer bits and have really random meals.
Brilliant idea -I like calling it 'shop from the cupboard'!
There are such good suggestions in this thread -would be generally a good idea to follow this advice if when things improve.

Have you heard of Quidco? They are good if you want to switch any utility/insurance providers as you get cash back... worth looking into. The cash back sometimes takes a couple of months to come but it’s like a little bonus!

Sign up to agencies ASAP as it will widen DHs job search considerably. Even if it’s a 3 month contract that’s 3 months of less stress.

Don’t have much to add except Citizens Advice offer free help with universal credit so maybe contact them and see if they can help speed up the process. Some libraries are offering a ‘pick up’ service where they choose books you may like and you collect them-for your DS? It’s free and they have fun challenges over the summer.
We were in a similar situation a couple months ago (our business lost all income overnight due to Covid) and I panicked but things have levelled out and we’ve become ‘more savvy’ because of it and spent more time together as a family doing simpler free stuff, so easy to say but try not to knee jerk worry or make drastic irreversible changes. Wishing you the very best OP.

Do a benefits check, does your dh get carer's allowance?

Call all companies, bank, utilities, credit card, loans and tell them your income has halved. Some companies are better than others but they all have policies to help.

As you have a disabled child in the house bailiffs cannot legally enter and remove items, your dh may also be classed as 'vulnerable', I'm not suggesting you stop paying utilities just that if the companies do hot cooperate with you they are not going to get anything by taking you to court.

Check if your new income entitles you to 'warm homes discount' and if you are apply for it this is £140 towards your winter fuel bills, sometimes given as cash.

Check your council tax, I recently put in a claim for UC and my council tax bill dropped a huge amount. Also overpay your council tax if you can so that is is paid off quicker and then put the same amount in an 'emergency' account.

Have a serious look at your food - do you throw food away? If so this is where you make your cuts, so rather than buy fresh veg that is thrown out when not used buy frozen or tinned.

If your dh doesn't cook now is his time to start. Lots of things our parents or grandparents ate took time but were much cheaper eg pancakes and Yorkshire pudding batter (same batter) cost pennies but can be the base of a good meal. My mum would do a sort of toad in the hole but with lamb chops.

Stop going to the shop and get deliveries, Iceland do free deliveries for spends of £40, if you are not in the shop you won't be tempted with, "that looks nice" if you are paid monthly then get a shop once a month and set aside a small amount for extras you might need. Milk, bread and cheese all freeze really well so if you have enough space buy monthly.

Also join a cash back site and do all your shopping online.
Meal plan.

Look at your bank account and other accounts, you might get a bonus for opening a new account or transferring to a different bank.

Do your 'top up' shop locally, my local butcher often puts an extra sausage in a bag if it is the last one, or knocks a few pence of the price and gives away for free 2kg bags of the ends of cooked meats - great for the cats.

Fanally

Take a few deep breaths and remember there will always be someone on MN to lend you an ear.

Hi OP, I know how stressful this is right now. You will get through it. There's some fab advice on here. Well done on getting your food shopping down so much last week!
Have you got any Tesco points that you could exchange for vouchers towards your food shopping?

Just wanted to add my support OP. We weren't in great financial shape before lockdown and then both had a massive drop income as both self employed and it's so horrible, I really feel for you. All I can say is that it's amazing how little you can live on quite happily.

I second PP's suggestion of checking out Jack Monroe's blog, the recipes completely slashed our food bills and are pretty healthy. I find that we still do one more expensive shop a month when we need to restock on butter, frozen veg, tins etc but the rest are very cheap.

No big tips to add as you've had some amazing advice already. One thing that saved us a fair few quid a month was switching to bar soap instead of shower gel. I'm not a massive fan of frozen veg on its own but it's fine cooked into recipes and no waste. I've got loads of cheap veggie recipes if you want them.

Also depending on how much bread you use, put half in the bread bin and freeze half. I used to throw quite a bit out because we didn't need a whole loaf at once.

It sounds like you're doing an amazing job OP. Don't forget to make sure you still all have fun together or living really frugally can be a drag. Perhaps a little job for your DS could be to research free things to do near you, find nice places to walk and take a picnic that you've never been before etc?

Sorry - just had another thought - not sure if this is relevant to you. I pay my gas and electricity by direct debit every month and a lot of excess money had added up - more than what was needed to carry me through the winter. I ended up getting a couple of hundred pounds back.
You said you're tied in to your mobile phone contracts till October - you're often allowed to 'upgrade' a few months before. I went for a sim only deal I found online, still through my original provider and went from paying £75 a month to £12 a month. It's worth phoning them and asking the question.

Hello, we had this happen to us once, for a period, and I can share what I did.

1. Take stock of what you have - sell what you'll never need (my expensive teapot went very quickly).
2. I didn't tell the kids much, just bigged up the free things we did instead.
3. you are cash poor but time rich now - use it. I did Christmas shopping from summer, got amazing things at car boots and hid them. Your child is only nine so won't notice so much.
4. this is a hard one but tell people who might give you stuff (people with 11yo stuff for the charity shop may send it your way instead of the charity shop) - you don't have to beg just mention casually. I now pass stuff to people I know are a bit strapped.
5. Review events, birthdays, Christmas. We totally revised Christmas and probably cut the budget by two thirds - and have never gone back. We still have a cheap recycled homemade Christmas every year, it is our family tradition and it is better than the old way.
6. Treat it like a challenge or game. This was just my way of coping - I went on mse boards and did their challenges to save money. Gave me a petty victory when I ended the week £1.12 better off than expected.
7. Be strict about presents for everyone else - give them a homemade cake or something's but do not be pressured into wasting money.

I know it is horrible. I have been really skint and scared about money. But you can still be happy if the bills are covered. The amount over the bills and food that you need to have a good life is surprisingly small - but I don't deny the energy and time it uses instead.

I wish you all the very best.

P.s. If your DH was minded to, an allotment really saved us as we got the veg, exercise and somewhere to entertain the kids for little money. But this is not everyone's idea of fun so I left it off my list!

Try to tackle your sleeping as well OP - there are lots of tips online regarding sleep hygiene etc and if you are still struggling your GP may be able to help with suitable sleeping tablets which can help you get back into a pattern.