Ok, tell me not to panic and help me come up with money making/saving ideas

[Bumperlicious]

So, DH was forced to quit his job yesterday. I can go into too much detail, but they messed him around with regards to his flexible working request (we had both been working PT and sharing care of DD) and we are going to pursue things through the courts, but that is by the by.

Until now we had both been working more than PT, me 24 hours him 27, bringing in about 1.5 times a FT time job. Now, in the meantime I am going to have to go back to work FT but even so, that still doesn't cover us. DH is going to have to find a new job that is either in the evenings while I work FT to tide us over temporarily, and eventually hopefully find a PT job that gives him enough hours and pays us enough to go back to how we were.

In the meantime we are going to be a bit screwed financially. I am bust making a list of things we can sell, e.g. a fridge and a freezer we have in the garage, baby stuff, potentially one of our cars (both old bangers), car boot sale. I don't really know what I need really, just some advice on saving making quick money, soothing words, advice on finding PT jobs for DH, how to get through this without fighting and feeling resentful towards DH for working in such a shitty job in the first place and having to go back to work FT.

We live in rented accommodation and that is the bulk of our outgoings, but even moving is going to cost us more money than we can save in the long term and we really don't want to have to move, so that is worse-case scenario. Cheap but still healthy food ideas? We have a 15 mo DD. Aaarrrrgggghhhhh, we are fucked!

poor you, terrible situation. I'm not very good at bright ideas myself but can maybe offer a few suggestions. With regards to DH's job, you seem to think that you have a potential claim and are considering going through the courts. If you are both not working and do not own your home you should be eligible for legal aid and with the help of a solicitor you may be able to reach a quicker settlement out of court without having to spend months waiting for anything to happen. If he has a claim, you could probably do with a lump sum cash settlement sooner rather than later. Worth a try. difficult to advise about what sort of work without knowing what type of experience or employment skills you both have. Why not try looking in your local paper and see if there are any part-time jobs there. sometimes there are jobs that can be done part-time from home or even things like delivering leaflets etc that you cood do with DD in her pushchair. Some of my friends have been quite sucessful selling stuff on ebay so maybe that is worth a go? Ref food, when times were hard for me I used to buy in bulk and often found that frozen stuff was cheaper than fresh (maybe keep your spare freezer in garage!) Don't forget as well to contact the benefit agency to see what you may be entitled to. Good luck

If you are renting you may well be eligible for housing and council tax benefit. contact Childrens tax credits your award should go up if your income has gone down.

Right, ebay/sell anything and everything.
Would your DH work weekends? Have a look at Job centre online. There should be plenty of evening/weekend work on there.
I know someone who works at tesco on a Sunday evening counting fruit and veg for 4 hours 6-10pm and earns £200 per month, you get more as it is unsociable hours. She got that job via the job centre site.

Thanks for the replies.

DH is fotunately being represented by his union. I already work and fortunately my job are happy for me to increase my hours.

Spent the morning in the garage. Some (we have a couple of friends storing their bikes in our garage) has accidentally shut the door to our unplugged fridge. It is now covered in mildew and not suitable to be sold .

DH going to the job centre tomorrow and instructed to call the tax credits people though TBH I don't think its going to affect our award at all. My FT salary is just above the threshold for an increased award.

It's going to be really difficult to find a PT job with the right and enough hours. He was working 3 days incl. a saturday, which was great as I was at home to look after DD.

I'm sure it'll all work out in the end and DH is best off out of there, but we both just feel this weight pressing down on us with the constant fear of how we are going to manage.

a mixture of salt, vinegar and water removes mildew from fabric .. I'm almost certain it will work on white goods too .. can't hurt to try can it?

Do you think it'll work on the rubber seal?

can't hurt to try ..

dettol do a mould and mildew remover too

Mystery shopping could be doable?

try white toothpaste and a toothbrush on the rubber seal to get rid of mildew.

no brilliant ideas on money saving that you won't have thought of. Make sure you're on the best deal for energy, do your shopping in a few places (eg: markets for fruit and veg, lidl etc for produce, wherever for meat), take packed lunches, buy in bulk etc.

Sorry to hear about your DP's situation. You might be better off settling sooner than later and get this behind you and have the money now when you need it

We are doing "cheap food" atm!!
Please don't take offence if my suggestions seem obvious - I can only speak from what we are doing to penny pinch!!!
Asda are doing pizzas 3 for £3 (they're big and fill you up!!)- you could also try homemade spag bol - we did it last week and there was loads of it and dead cheap: 49p spaghetti, £1.34 Dolmio jar, 1 onion (20p?), £2 for mince.
I assume chilli con carne can be made for not much as well!
Only advice I can give is use the Bogofs in supermarkets as much as possible, go to Aldi or similar - we spend anywhere between £25 - £120 a week on food depending on what we buy, as most of it is non perishable.
We do beans + sausage on toast, own brand weetabix.
Check with Warmfront to see if you can get any free heating/insulation/lightbulbs etc.
No heating on apart from half an hour before we get up and an hour before bed.
Have a look on ebay to see what are popular sellers and maybe set up a shop dropshipping to customers?
Garage sale?
Hospitals/Councils have p/t jobs on their websites - or as I said on another thread Fish4jobs or totaljobs are good if it covers your area.
Don't have any quick fixes for you, but tax office can arrange a tax refund for your dh if you ask/fill in form if he isn't going to be working for next few weeks (assuming he earns enough to pay!!)
Bicarbonate of soda in water gets rid of mildew.
Hope things turn out OK for you

have you tried www.moneysavingexpert.com?

lots of useful advice and a forum.

Charlene1 you can make bolgnaise even cheaper with a tin or two of chopped tomatoes and some garlic and herbs instead of the Dolmio!

There have been lots of threads on the food board about cheap meals recently.

Don't know where you are Bumperlicious but www.gumtree.com can be really good for part-time and casual type jobs that dont get adverised in other places.

That sounds nice house of mirth - I will try that