Searching for a second job

[ScottyDuck]

Hi all,

We're about to finish up our holiday and then on Thursday morning it's back to work (for me anyway). Since Feb I fear our financial stability has gone down hill! We (DW and I) live on just me salary which has me bringing home roughly $700/wk. Then after taking the rent and the like out we are left with roughly $70 for food and the like for the whole week which means when we get to have a luxury spend, it normally means going without food for a few days!

I'm currently a full time manager at McDonalds and it's shift work (S*** work too) which will probably make it harder for me to look for anything else... Does anyone know of anywhere in the northern suburbs of Melbourne that are looking for Casual employees??? I want the extra income, but not at too great a cost to my personal health or the stability of any family time!

[~me~]

Hey ScottyDuck..congratulations to you and TeniBear!

Have a look into Specsavers..they employ alot of casuals and pay really well. Have a look at the website. Most Specsavers are franchised so the store itself does the hiring.
They employ all sorts...could be just to stand out the front of the shop and hand out spec clothes or give aways at train stations or work in the store itself.
They will also train you and if you work at Macca's that usually looks good on your resume.

[PumpkinZulu]

Hey Scotty!

Firstly, congrats

Secondly, casual work is TIGHT at the moment! Especially for older workers (i.e. over the age of 20 lol) because it is just so much easier to hire a teen atm and pay them wayyy less than they would someone 20+. I'm having this issue too at the moment. May I ask, how much do you pay on rent, and what else do you have (like foxtel, your internet plans/phone plans etc etc). DF and I are master budgeters you see WE both lost our jobs last year, and although I have just recently started doing a bit of cash work, we survive pretty well off of around $350-$400 per week. There are a few things you can cut down on around the house, like shopping at Aldi for supermarket items (which IMO are just as good, as sometimes better than the expensive brands). DF and I also buy all our food from a market, atm it's Footscray Market as that is our closest. Basically, we have a monthly rotation of recipes, and every Sunday we sit down and say, 'I'd like x/y/z for dinner, brekkie etc this week', then we write up a list of groceries we need. If we're having two or three dishes with chicken, we'll buy in bulk, divide into individual portion bags and freeze it. Same if something like mince is on special; we'll buy lots and freeze it. We also buy big chunks of meat (cheaper) and take it to a butcher to portion up for us. Planning is really key to saving heaps of money, on food especially. We spend usually $10 or less per meal per night. Occasionally it will be more if we want to splash out, but sometimes it will be much less than $10, if, say, we had bought some meat on spesh a few weeks prior and frozen it. Check out a blog called the $120 food challange...very cool

Anyway, enough of my food blabbing lol. Jobs. I'm sure you've tried Seek etc? I'd just aplly heaps there, and hope you hear back. Otherwise, you could try sites like Gumtree Melbourne, there are often lots of people looking for someone to do simple things around the house or garden, help people move etc etc. It's cash work which I know is not reliable for a steady income, but it helps. I do nannying/babysitting for cash, but like I said, sometimes there's lots of work, sometimes there's none. My brother works at Maccas doing a cert...hmm, something lol. But the hours are not so great, sometimes he'll get lots of shifts and sometimes none, so I understand.

I'll have a look on Seek for you, I hope someone else can help more than me and you get *****loads of easy, well paying work soon (ahhh, the dream )

[ScottyDuck]

Thanks for the early responses guys

as for budget here's how it goes:

from roughly $700 (just less really)

Rent: 380
petrol 50-100 (for 2 cars, mostly running one)
Phone/net: 25
personal loan (from wedding): 80
Teni's ph/ mobile net: 50
gas bill: 25
electricity bill: 25

having worked it all out using both cars... I have $15 per week left! At most using 1 car gives us $65 per week but take into consideration that I haven't included food!

[PumpkinZulu]

Yikes! Is it maybe possible to sell one of the cars/cut down on car use (I assume you drive to work so that probably can't change with shift work and public transport).

[Mak]

An enterprising young chap around us letterbox dropped offering to mow the naturestrip for $10 - I think the whole street took him up on it and he has been back every 4 weeks. Is there anything like this that you could/would do? It worked as most people work in the area, was low investment and he didn't have to drive around from job to job. Also maybe dog walking/odd jobs/babysitting - there may be a hidden minefield of cash in hand stuff you could do. Is there anything like that you would be interested in??
Good luck!

[feeb]

I would suggest selling a car.

I would also suggest going around different shops at shopping centres and seeing what they have available.

Good luck

[allycat06]

Hi Scotty...congrats to you and Teni

DH and I were in similar situation to you guys a few months before DS was born. I was on mat leave and a full time student and DH was pulling in around $700 a week. The one thing that stands out for me in your budget is the amount of rent you pay...it's alot! Do you live very close to the city or is it a big house? Would it be possible to find a cheaper place? (Sorry I know this thread was supposed to be about you finding a second job...getting a bit off topic!) Would perhaps make a huge difference and prevent you from having to find another job?

ETA: Do you have a lawnmower? Perhaps doing a bit of mowing/cleaning up gardens on the side?

[PumpkinZulu]

The one thing that stands out for me in your budget is the amount of rent you pay...it's alot! Do you live very close to the city or is it a big house? Would it be possible to find a cheaper place?

That stood out to me as well, $380 a week is a lot, you must be in a big place. If you can see yourself and Teni moving into a smaller place (maybe a two bedroom, I know in my area you can get really really nice places, 2 bedroom for $300...even $350 is better than $380, I know $30 a week doesn't seem like a lot, but that's an extra $120 a month in your pocket!)

[~me~]

The other thing to remember is when the baby arrives, you will be eligible for the baby bonus which is around $398 a fortnight and also Family Tax A and B.
I agree on selling the car if it hardly gets used as the rego must cost a bit on two cars.
Your rent...is that $380 a week?
DH goes to the Vic market once a month-every 6wks for out meat and I scour the junk mail and usually shop between Aldi, Coles and Woolthorths or IGA depending on what we need that week. We don't buy our meat from the super market as it is too expensive for what you get and you can quite often get cheaper fruit n veg at the local Fruit n Veg rather than supermarket. If you got the Vic or Footscary market for meat around closing time they start selling everything very very cheap.
What do you do when the Rego comes in for the car? Do you put money aside for unexpected bills?
You can also look into if Teni or you qualifies for a concession card through centrelink so you then get discounts on your household bills and car rego.
Look into working from home jobs like envelope stuffing..something you an Teni can together or walking jobs delivering junk mail, another thing you can do together.

[Mummato2]

OK - the things that stand out to me here are:

Teni's mobile - is that possible to cut it down to a $30 prepaid? If that's per week - I think that is a terribly big bill. If that includes both mobiles, get 2 mobiles prepaid on the same network that offers free calls/texts to one number and nominate each others. That will cut that down HEAPS

The other thing that stands out to me is the amount of rent!! Is it possible to get something smaller in the same area or move just slightly away cheaper?

ETA - Sorry xxx - just read all the responses AFTER typing mine and see the lease is not negotiable until March.....blah!

[TeniBear]

Mummato2 - My phone bill's not actually $50 p/w, that's just how much he puts on my bill each week so we can get into credit on it in case one month we can't pay it for some reason. If I remember correctly, he's cut that down to 30 or 40 a week now, putting it in proper savings instead

One of our friends has had the idea this week to buy out his soon-to-be-ex-wife's half of their house and rent it to us at a really low price (with him still living there ) but that's not really an option for us, at least for now. First big "no" to that is, if we move before bubs is born, I'll be having my homebirth with the friend there Second point, he hates kids and doesn't know I'm pregnant again I think he'll be withdrawing the offer as soon as he finds out he'd be sharing with a newborn

Ooh, and his dogs live inside and I hate inside dogs, especially yappy ones like his that jump everywhere and rip the furniture to shreds...

[~MummaBear~]

I have no advice but just wanted to let you know my Dh works as a manager at our maccas and he has been there fo 7 years now and it SUCKS lol We were over the stupid shift work hours ( same shifts your store has) so he now does 5 night sifts a week it sucks but because of shift allowance he gets an extra $70 a week. But yeah like I said I just wanted to let you know we pretty much know exactly where you are coming from about needing more money ( we have 3 kids and a morgage on the same wage!!!) and about staying for the security good luck with it... Will be slightly easier once bub is here!!