Just found out we are skint - help!

[Sella]

I found out last night that we are officially skint, dh deals with finance and caught him on phone to a debt management agency, says we are in dire straights! He is working on commission and I'm on maternity leave with dc3! Baby is only 3 months old and I'm breast feeding so can't exactly go and get a little job. By day I'm a childminder but wasn't planning on going back till Sept, have new kids lined up for then so can't really go back to that straight away as it will take time to build numbers and would lose sma immediately. Need ways we can make money, either working from home or something I haven't considered yet, any advice please it's really worrying me.

Have been thinking about that, the only thing that's holding me back is I'm worried I may be in breach of receiving my maternity pay...?

sella - if you do bettaware / avon they expect you to eclare your earnings as it is cash in hand - this helped me out big time with my ds when on maternity leave as i forgot to mention to people i was on mat as i assumed that i was earning under a taxable amount i dis not need to mention it . you won't get monitored and you get back what you put in, when i did avon i also used to buy all our toilitries with my customer orders to save money same with cleaning producys for bettaware only downside was ds and i walked miiiiiles.

How about home ironing? There are regularly ads for this in our local area. I couldn't do it (cannot iron!) but think you can get £6 per hour and can do it in own house in front of tv when kids in bed?
I do online surveys - onepoll, valuedopinions and yougov. Still haven't got any vouchers off it but doing the surveys daily/ as often as get invited to do them and slowly building my way up.

Thanks for suggestions everyone, will start looking

I would definitely recommend advertising for pet feeding/walking. Especially mention if you are prepared to look after smaller pets (Gerbils, Hamsters, Rabbit, Guinea Pigs) as these can be trickier to find care for.
As a pet owner I know how tricky these things are to sort, advertise in local vets as well as newspaper shops.
Do ask among friends (you don't have to say how skint you are, just things are "a bit tight" at moment, most people will think they have been there). A personal recommendation is worth its weight in gold.
Good luck!

nice idea, thanks mummytime will give that one a go!

Hi all just wanted to say we have had all the paperwork through for our debt management solution (didn't have to go with iva) it all seems really positive and there's is a very strict budget re not getting into this mess again. I think we have both learned a valuable lesson about sharing our problems and talking more to eachother - thanks for all your help and advice x

Can I just suggest the Motley Fool Dealing With Debt board www.fool.co.uk

They are fantastic. I've recently cleared £20k debt with help and support from them. the regulars that post include a CAB advisor, a professional insolvency expert and the support you will get is amazing. The Fool also has advice on writing to creditors.

Through them I got a DMP with Payplan (another free debt service) and the whole thing was pain-free - it did take just over 4 years but now I am enjoying earning the money and not handing it over!! It has changed my way of thinking - if I dont have the money or need it, I simply dont buy it.

Like everyone has mentioned, selling things on eBay, car boots etc. If you have a spare room to rent out etc (probably not best with a young one but if needs must...)

Life will be a bit stressful to start with till the budget's under control and then it's stress-free after that (well until the car needs MoT work - you need to have emergency pots for that)

You've done the right thing, if anything it makes you wonder what a materialistic society we've become.

BG