Impending redundancy :( Ideas please?

[sasha]

So M will find out hopefully this week if he is going to be made redundant. It's a bit depressing, but we've kind of been expecting it and have been trying to prepare by saving up our pennies where we can, and pre-buying stuff we know we'll need over Christmas, etc.

Anything you can think of to cut back on while we live off M's payment? If he can't get work before Term 1 then I'm probably going to go back to teaching (ugh - not that I don't enjoy it, I just didn't want to do that while the children were still so little). But that would mean no pay until mid-Feb. We're unsure of how Centrelink will pay us as when I inquired, the customer service person told me it depends on his payout as to how long we would have to wait for a payment from them. My FTB will go up, but again we're unsure how much by. So we're playing it safe by budgeting on his payout and nothing else, which will mean that even with careful planning and cutting corners, we'll pretty much run out of cash by the end of December if nothing changes.

So... any drastic tips will be considered! I should add we're pretty frugal anyway, but I'm hoping that someone will be able to come up with some stuff we haven't thought of

tia

[luna moth]

Could you maybe do a bit of evening work here and there? Even if it's babysitting, or call centre work, or something else pretty small, it might just make a difference...

[Nai]

Hmm without knowing exactly what you are already doing I would suggest the following:

- ensure you have a meal plan and shopping list to shop according to need and cut out any 'treats' or non-essentials
- make bulk meals and freeze or stock up on non-perishables while you still have income
- use bicarb & vinegar for cleaning
- cycle or walk where possible to avoid using the car and petrol
- look for the cheapest insurance options for house and car
- get a capped mobile phone plan
- run a cash budget so you don't use cards for any purchases.

[sasha]

Thanks for the ideas, and we are celebrating because M is keeping his job - kind of. He will be in this position until Christmas, and then start his apprenticeship in January. So this means that we'll not have to deal with Centrelink (yay) but we'll take a massive cut in income, so we'll be using some of your tips anyway! The insurance is something I hadn't considered, thanks. Also our phone/internet contract finishes in December so I'm going to ring around and see if we can get a better deal with that too.
Thanks again