Financial woes.

[merrymunky]

It seems everyday, people around me are falling victim to the credit crunch. It''s finally catching up with us now too.

My FI found out a couple of weeks ago that all employees within his company (mobile phone sales) are losing 16% of their hours due to the current econoic climate and the struggles facing seemingly every company right now.

When he first started at the company almost 5 years ago he was in a great position. The basic salary was decent enough for him at the time and the bonus was a great sales incentive. He could double his wage most months through the bonus scheme.

However, with this 16% cut in hours, his basic salary is going to be LESS than mine.

Now my salry is shocking. I earn on a pro-rata basis. Even though I work full time I am only paid for the weeks of the year that I work...and being that I work in a school, I get 13 weeks holiday a year. 4 of them are paid, the rest are not. So I lose a lot of my actual full salary.

We have had an arrangement for years to manage our finances fairly and somewhat proportionately to our respective earnings. We have been talking recently, due to the fact we will be married ths year and have decided to pool all our money into our joint account to cover all our expenses and to have a "pocket money" allowance individually.

I am just concerned that now we will be earning even less than our only just comfortable income, that we will fnd the next few months a major struggle.

Has anyone else found themselves in this position? How have you handled it?

 

[AmberGretchen]

merrymunky- so sorry to hear you yours and your FI''s financial woes

I think if you guys can do it, sitting down and figuring out where your money goes each month would be a great place to start. My DH and I try to do this pretty regularly, and it really helps us see places to cut back - you may be surprised to be spending more in certain categories than you thought.

I know things that have helped us save in the past: going out less (renting movies, doing cooking projects together at home, getting board games we enjoy playing together all helped with this), setting a budget, as you are doing, for non-essential spending, and cutting our grocery budget and shopping at less expensive grocery stores all helped.

 

[bee*]

D lost his job last October and has been doing freelance work from home since then so although he has been getting some money in, it''s not regular. I''m a full time student and normally work full time during the summer although I found out the other day that work will be cutting peoples hours so there won''t be regular full time work this year although my part time job is safe. D and I wouldn''t be huge spenders especially since I''ve gone back to college but it definitely sucks having the extra pressure. We hardly ever eat out and instead of going out on nights out, we mainly stay in with our friends.