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On January 10th 2005 I began a new life. It is a life I am looking forward to, and after 5 days (14th Jan today) I can say I am totally happy. At 36 weeks pregnant I left my full-time job as a teacher/teaching assistant and started my maternity leave. We are going to notice a big difference financially. We used to split all our household bills half and half, and whatever was left out of our wages was our own, to spend as we wished. Now, we will have to manage on OH's wage, and for the first 6 months we will have my maternity pay also. I think we will be eligable for some benefits, but I have sat with the calculator, and it is going to be really tough to make ends meet. Neither of us have regrets...we are delighted to be starting our family and the money doesn't matter. Our little one is far more important to us than money. Managing the finances is just a new challenege, and I will try and document here how we cope with it! Extra Pennies Extra pennies are there for the taking. I have done a couple of car boot sales this year making about £30 profit, sold a few items on Ebay (making only a few pounds profit), done over 18 online surveys (making about £50 in vouchers and Nectar points - I could do more but don't have time) and I have picked up about £2 in dropped money off the pavement!! I go for a walk every day past the shops and through the car park and often find odd coins on the floor. I always pick them up and have now got my daughter trained to do this! All the money that I find in this way goes into her bank account and it might make her £20 that she wouldn't otherwise have had by the time she is 18. |
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Two years ago I really didn't know how I was going to manage to finance the life of two adults and a baby on just over £200 a week. Bills alone took over half of this money, then petrol for OH to commute to work takes £40. That leaves £60 a week for everything else; food, nappies, clothes, not to mention repairs and replacements to household items, Christmas and birthday presents, holidays and days out etcetera. It was a scary prospect, however, it's worked out ok. I can be incredibly careful with money, and I have made it work for us. We do get some government benefits which I save for luxuries and emergencies. I do a weeks shopping with £35 and I really don't feel at all deprived. I watched a programme on television last week called Casualty 1906. It was a docu-drama based on three actual days at the London hospital using data from the log books. If you didn't see it, I'm sure you can imagine..there was REAL poverty. I don't spend a single pound without thinking carefully about it, but I feel rich. I have the good fortune to be spending a pound! I have a warm home and food for myself and my family. I have no need for "things". I must be on one of the lowest incomes in the UK, yet I feel on top of the world. January 2005 At the end of each year I calculate the average weekly cost of our household bills. This includes; gas, electricity, water, telephone, television, mortgage and endowment policy, buildings and house contents insurance and council tax. For the year ending 2004 it averaged out at £101 per week. This is a huge amount (well over half) out of our weekly spending money, so I have started the month off by seeing if I could reduce any of the bills. By doing searches on the internet to compare prices I found I could reduce the house insurance by £240 a year and I may possibly be able to get the telephone bill down a bit by using an internet company for our call charges. |
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