Ok, any idea how I can make £15000? Any at all?

[Dalrymps]

We live on a very tight budget. I am a SAHM through choice and dh works full time. We had to take a debt consolidation loan 3 years ago due to debts run up by both of us whilst studying at uni. We will be still paying it off for the next 5 years.

I don't want extra money for luxuries, just to be able to live without worrying about getting in to further debt.

I've been trying to think lately if there is some way I could make enough to pay it off quicker. I can't apy of part of it, it has to be the whole amount. It's probably a bit less that 15000 now as we've been paying it off for 3 years but will still be quite high because of the interest.

I am interested in all ideas great and small

Rob the bank

For only £100 of your GBP British pounds I can tell you how to make thousands of money on the internets.

Get a job?
These days being a sahm is a little of a luxury, IMO.

None of the ways I can think of are legal unless you get a job.

LMAO, Follow "elfinblast"'s advice

NOT! No seriously, get a job

best to get a job.
the debt would paid off in no time.
as you went to uni the job opportunities are out there.

Yes I know how.

You need to meet Robert Redford in Vegas, have him fawn all over you and buy you a dress and then wh, oh hang on wait, that's a film, not real life.
You can't make that much money legally in one go.
If you could I'd have done it years ago.

Boring reply, but can you swap the debt somehow? So you're paying current interest rates not the ones when you got the loan? Having £15k debt is probly nothing to lots of MNs but it's where you are at the moment and it's worrying you. Why not seek out some IFAs who can give you some useful advice for where you are? But play a few off against the others.

ebay lots of your stuff, its amazing how much stuff you have that you dont need, could do without, and what otehr people will die.

do something extra like baby sit for one night a week, earning say £30 a night, that would make you 1.k per annum, in three years 4.5 k, so would get you closer to your debt quicker

Thanks to all the people who suggested 'get a job' , strangely enough I had thought of that!

Spending time looking after my 17mo ds means more to me than extra money. I'd rather live on a tight budget than send him off for someone else to look after. Just my choice, don't mean to offend anyone else who works.

Of course if we really couldn't afford to live on the one wage I would go and work, I am not work shy so to speak.

I think it's quite sad that being a SAHM is a luxury these days, what is so strange about wanting to look after the lo I gave birth to? I have always worked before, even whilst at uni and now I want to do this for a while. Plus, he has slow weight gain issues and is very difficult yo feed food and milk so he would most likely waste away under someone elses care. Anyway, I don't want to get in to a sahm v's wahm debate. Just asking for financial advice really.

Yeah, having thought about it, it does seem pretty impossible but just thought I'd ask in case anyone suggested anything I hadn't thought of.

Thanks for the helpfull suggestions ickletickle. I have some stuff i'm gonna ebay. Supose it might be a case of doing lots of little things to save it up.

Tigerdroveoverthebunnies - Thanks for that, I will look in to it. Although I am a little scared of paying of one debt with another iyswim. Think my current loan is something like 9.9%...

godivaegg - Sorry but no, the job opportunities aren't out there. I did 3d Design, I live in a very small town in the middle of nowhere and most of the jobs here a minimum wage or close to it. Even if I lived elsewhere there aren't many jobs relating to my degree. In fact, only 1 person off my whole course got a related job and he had to move to London and it was still a crappy wage!

Oh and then there's the point i'm not getting a job right now as i'm looking after my ds.

elfinblast - Erm, no thanks

Claire2009 - I think I liked your first suggestion of 'rob the bank', seems easiest to me

So, anyway, now i've had my pms induced rant about being a sahm, any more suggestions, even things I can do from home etc?

Is there any chance of an evening job - say 3 nights a week after lo has gone to bed? Supermarket or late night shelf stacker at dept store?

I know jobs pay min wage but if you are serious about chipping away at your debt you could earn £15k over the next 3 years by doing 3 nights of 5 hours at £6.50/hour.

Evening shifts at bars/restaurants/supermarkets when your dh can look after your child?

Selling eg Avon, Virgin cosmetics, Osborne books, Ann Summers ad infinitum.

Child minding after school

There are lots of ways really.

Yes I had thought of an evening shift... Have asked at local coop but nothing there. There is a morrisons and aldi and a mc donalds (groan-worked there twice before) so could look in to that...

Had considered osborne books before, wonder if there'd be enough demand for that typre of thing in such a small place?

Don't I have to have some sort of qualification to do childminding?

Thanks ladies, this is good stuff.

Have you thought asbout retraining so that when your child is older you will be able to get a job that earns above minimum wage? If there are no jobs relevant to your degreee now, that situation may well not change.

There are lots of home study courses or part-time courses available and although you won't be earning at once, at least you will be preparing yourself to.

Rach - yes i've thought of this. I don't really want a job to do with my degree anyway. I want to be a midwife but no option to train from home or do it p/t so am going to wait until children are at school which will be a while yet (haven't had the 2 other imaginary children yet!). By then my dh should have done his pgce so he'll be on a better wage too...

Do you know if there are any childcare qualifications I can do mostly from home?

"Of course if we really couldn't afford to live on the one wage I would go and work" but you can't you have debts to service which are acumulating interest.

There will be pt work out there but you may well have to compromise or put career plans on hold until he is older. There is a big push on upskilling sahms in readiness for returning to work in the future - IT courses, C and G's, NVQ's(although with a degree you are beyond most of those), self confidence, helping in schools, interview techniques etc, even just a few hours a week commitment or on a Open Learnring basis with resources to help with childcare. Noone is suggesting you have to abandon your idea of being a good mum to your ds, you wouldn't have to leave him in childcare all day to do any of this, just that it is an obvious route to alleviating the situation.

Straight question: are you actually living within your means, and meeting the debt repayments with a plan to paying it off (taking your DH's future job prospects into account?). If yes then you might as well carry on as you are, or get an evening supermarket job if you want to pay off the debt quicker.

If the answer is no then you will simply have to look for a p/t job. Unless you have some kind of special situation, it will not do your DS any harm to be a day or 2 in a good nursery. If you are "worried about getting into debt again" then it sounds as if something isn't adding up.

It is not hard to become a childminder - I believe you have to become registered (a load of hoops to jump through but plenty of guidance on it all) and then when doing it you work towards NVQ's if you want to.

Are there any shift-type employers in your area? (eg. we live in a small town but with a number of large distribution centres, a sandwich-factory etc.)

It's great being a SAHM but the longer you do it the harder it is to get back into work. That is just one of life's big choices.

Be a surrogate mother ;)

Do you live in or close to an affluent area? Could you advertise in the Lady as a companion/housekeeper/secretary etc on a part time basis?

Lisz - I do not 'have debts accumilating interest that I have to service'. I have the one loan that is a fixed payment every month.

I don't mind compromising on the type of work I do, I would do any job going if needed to feed my son. As I have already said though, I am not looking for a job, I am a SAHM at the moment. I have put my career plan on hold, I won't be persuing the route I wish to take for another 7 years. I am going to work whilst my dh does his pgce to fund it but that is not until sept 2010.

I'm just looking for things I can do now, not a career, just little ways to make extra cash.

blithedance - We are living within our means and paying all our bills and the loan and for food, petrol etc every month. We budget, check the bank a lot, shop smartly for food, dh bikes to work, have called all providers and got the best deals we can, cook homecooked food a lot etc etc

I suppose I am worried about getting in to more debt as often, in life things pop up you don't expect for eg, car needing fixing, extra high gas bill, lots of birthdays in one month etc etc

We do have a 'special situation' wih ds, he has been under a dietician, speecha nd language therapist, moving pictures program for difficult to feed lo's, physiotherapist and paediatrian to do with his weight gain. we have been working very hard to get him on to the chart, he was off the bottom. Only this week has he got to the same point on the chart that he was at when he was 10 weeks old (he is 17mo now). Progress is very slow, he still has 4 bottles a day that he will only take from myself or dh and as I said before, it is very difficult to get him to eat. I don't want our hard work to go to waste. His health is more important to me than money.

There are a few placed that do shifts I think. A pastry factory and mcdonalds, not sure what else... I'd rather do other things I can do on foot (eg leaflet dropping) or from home (eg osborne books) though.

Geepers - Good plan but I can't even seem to concieve my own dc2 at the moment.

Magnacarta - There is an affluent area in my town, maybe I could have a look in to that.

So far I'm quite interested in the childminding thing although not sure i'm up to it! Maybe thats just a confidence thing?

I was in exactly your situation Dalrymps when ds was tiny. I wanted to be with him as much as physically possible - it was really important to me.

For a while I worked weekends and DH had ds. Not ideal for us as a family but TBH a toddler is not going to ask for 'quality family time' IMO. Quite a good time to do it.

After that I went to one day a week (Mum in law had ds and TBH it was healthy all round, break for me, change for ds, good relationship fostered with his nanny) and one day at a weekend. I don't think I ever felt this was compromising my SAHMness......

Also agree that childminding would certainly be a good way to earn. If you can cope with your ds, you can child-mind I would say!

Another thing we did was re-prioritise completely; came off the treadmill of 'we have a 3 bed terrace, next it's a 3 bed detached@ etc. We sold up and downsized to a 2 bed terrace and it was worth it for us. Not an easy market now though I guess

Dalrymps, you don't need to be qualified to be a CM. You have to do a couple of courses (first aid etc) but other than that you could be set up in a matter of weeks.

I have two friends who are childminding while their own children are little. They earn about £6 per hour for each child.

slowreading - Tanks for the understanding. Maybe I should look into this childminding business... We are trying to keep out of the 'rat race' thinking or we would drive ourselves mad with thoughts of what we don't have. I am not materialistic, I am very aware that this time with ds is important and time I will never get back.

Edwardcullen- Intersting, will do some research.

Try looking at Money Saving Expert - there are quite a few threads on there about upping income.

Could you do cleaning for a few hours a week - this can pay more than minimum wage.