Status Quo

I know I haven't updated this blog much recently but really there is no change - after 7 months hubby is still looking for a job with no sign of anything in sight. So as we approach our second Christmas of job worries we try to count our blessings instead of worrying. I'll update again when anything actually happens :)

Still waiting....

Hubby has had some interest on the job front lately, though nothing has materialised so far. He’s sent off some speculative CVs this week and had a few replies…one letter to say they aren’t recruiting…one phone call to say they will keep his CV on file and another phone call to offer him an informal chat. The last company would be great to work for as we know somebody who has worked there before. At the moment they don’t have any jobs on offer but they want to meet with Andy to scope him out anyway. That sounds promising.

I am trying very hard to leave this all in God’s hands, for he knows when hubby’s new job will come along. I do admit though that at times I do struggle with impatience and frustration. In my heart I know and accept that God’s will will be done….but I wish I could shake the frustration and impatience.

Good news!

I have some good news for a change :)

Unfortunately it doesn’t involve jobs :(

But anyway….remember I mentioned hubby had paid for unemployment insurance before he was made redundant? Well we just found out today that the insurance company will pay out. This will pay for our mortgage and give us some much needed breathing space.

I am so grateful for this – we have prayed hard that God will give us what we need whether it is finances or experience of hardship….we left it all in His hands. Isn’t our God an amazing God?

Andy is still waiting to hear if his claim for unemployment insurance was successful. This is something which he paid £100 a month for but the company are trying everything they can to get out of paying it....stalling....losing paperwork....that kind of thing. So 2 months and no income later we really are going to need that £1500 income from the insurance in the next couple of months as Andy's redundancy and our savings only give us 5-6 months of mortgage payments. Please pray that something will come up before we get to the end of our (shrinking) pot of money. I must admit I do worry about how long Andy will be unemployed and how long we can make the money last.

Feedback from the interviews

Andy didn't get either job :(

The first one....he drove 60 miles and then when he got there the company said they were looking for a technical drawing person and not a project manager. Well why didn't they read his CV then....because he put them under no illusion that he ever was a technical drawing person.

The second one they stopped the interview after 45 minutes and said they needed somebody with hiring and firing experience. Andy has some management experience but on a smaller scale then they wanted.....which is fair enough. The positive thing was that they said he interviewed well and had good technical skills etc. I'm hoping Andy doesn't take it personally as I think the feedback was generally very good.

So...the hunt continues. Anyone looking for a Project Manager with an engineering degree? Well....I had to try :)

Hope on the horizon?

Andy has just (today) been invited to 2 interviews for next Thursday and Friday. One of them isn't quite the same kind of area he'd been working in (Project Management/Engineering) and is more Plant/Manufacturing management based and the other is the same kind of role he's just been doing before he was made redundant. I hope one of these is just the job!

No sign of a job yet

Not much to report really. Andy is still job hunting (even in areas outside of engineering now) but nothing is coming up. I feel so helpless and I can sense that he’s really starting to panic now.

I also notice that he seems to somehow be ashamed that he’s lost his job. Yesterday at this new church that we’ve joined the pastor was introducing himself to us and I noticed Andy really beating around the bush regarding work. Afterwards I asked him why he didn’t just say that he’s been made redundant and he told me that he felt like the lowest of the low for claiming benefits. Now I despise claiming any sort of benefit myself (not that I’ve had any benefits except 25% off council tax and disabled student allowance) but anyway – I digress. So anyway I despise claiming benefits but he’s paid tens of thousands in tax over the years so £60 a week isn’t exactly anything to be ashamed about. But I can see his point – he’s got a very strong work ethic like I have and its killing him to have no job. But I trust that this is all part of Gods plan and that Andy will have a job that gives him what he needs – when he needs it. Weather that is money or self development or professional growth I don’t know – but God will him everything he needs.

The early bird catches the worm

Hunny and I went out for an Earlybord dinner yesterday and saved about half the price of the usual meal. Sure the menu was more limited but the food was the same and it was actually nicer with the restaurant being a bit quieter. For those who don't know Earlybird meals are served in restaurants in the early evening before it gets busy - they tend to be much cheaper (good for those of us on a budget) but have a limited menu.

For those in the Huddersfield UK area then I highly recommend you check out 1535. It does great food, a pretty good early bird menu, quick service, friendly staff and its got lovely surroundings.

Watch out for some car related bargains

We have 2 cars (ok I feel kind of guilty about that but we do use both of them....and mine is a crappy little thing anyway) and May to July is a really expensive time for us as both cars need insurance, tax, MOT, servicing and repairs. Last year the bill came to £3,000 and so I have been worrying about this years repairs and tests etc. But we've managed to find some bargains this year and I wanted to tell you a bit about where you can save some money with all of your car stuff!

Insurance
SHOP ABOUT - In my experience it is best to change your provider every year as your current provider rarely (if ever in my experience) charges less than a new company will charge you....even if you do try and barter. Sites like confused.com and comparethemarket.com are pretty good but beware that the price they give does include some "generalising" and the actual price can change at the point of purchasing it.
LOOK FOR MULTI-CAR DEALS - If you have 2 or more cars you can save LOADS of money by going for a multi-car deal such as the one that Admiral does. I've just saved nearly £250 on their multi car policy.

MOT
BOOK ONLINE - Some places now give you a discount for booking online. The one that I just booked into for mine gives a £20 ($35-ish) discount for booking online.
DEALS - The place that I've booked mine into sells an insurance that is possibly great news if you have a car that's a few years old (or if you know there is likely to be a problem with your car). Basically you pay £50 (about $80 ish?) and any repairs that are needed on non-durable parts is done free, up to a value of £600.

Servicing
DO IT YOURSELF - Its a bit difficult servicing your own car, but on some models its pretty easy. Interim services for people who do alot of mileage have a good potential for saving money as the actual work needed is (depending on the car!) easy. Generally speaking its an oil or air filter change and it takes about half an hour (ok, maybe an hour the first time you do it!
LOOK FOR DEALS - Look out for bargains on places that sell oil filters etc as they sometimes do a special offer where you can pay as little as £10 to get an oil filter changed.
AVOID CAR DEALERSHIPS - Unless you absolutely have to get your car serviced by a car dealership, try and find somebody who can recommend an independent garage. Not only are you more likely to be able to strike a deal with them, but you're also more likely to get a friendly and more personalised service. Beware that warranties may be an issue if you use an independent garage....although I have a feeling this was supposed to be getting sorted out in some legislation....whether it ever happened or not I don't know!

Tax
BREAK DOWN THE COST - If you have 2 cars, try and break the payments down by buying a 6 month disc for one car and a 12 month one for the other.
THINKING OF BUYING A NEW CAR? If you're thinking of buying a new car, then remember that smaller cars and hybrids are cheaper to tax

Repairs
You can sometimes save money by buying parts online but also try bartering a little on the price - and ALWAYS go through the bill with the garage before you leave and query anything you're either not happy with or work that was carried out unauthorised.

So I hope you found those tips useful :)

Just when you're starting to feel a bit more positive....

A few people lately have been telling me that they've been reading or watching somewhere that the recession might be turning round now. Personally I have seen no evidence of this and I find it funny that these people are never able to cite specific sources....so I remain sceptical. But I must admit that despite Andy losing his job last month I have actually started to feel a bit more positive recently. But then I go and find articles like this that drag me back down to earth.

Personally I have a feeling that another million won't be made unemployed by the end of the year - but what do I know? If he is right though then that is very worrying especially for those of us who are lucky enough to still have a job in the automotive and manufacturing industry. We are a worldwide major company and have lost nearly a quarter of our workforce in the last 5 months and I just don't know how many more losses we can take before we end up not being a viable business any more. Sure I am so busy I'm meeting myself coming backwards but unfortunately that doesn't guarantee me a job will be there forever.

And another thing that is REALLY beginning to grate on me now is all the talk about the YOUNGER generation being so badly affected....seemingly much worse than any other group. Well personally I think that's a bunch of ********. For a start the very young people generally speaking don't have a mortgage and another thing they tend to be a cheaper workforce and at the moment that's a good thing. Try being older and experienced and nobody wants to pay your higher wage.....and yet your mortgage company still expects you to keep up with the mortgage payments. I dare say that many of the older newly redundant have paid their mortgage by now so maybe its those of us stuck in the middle....those of us with mortgages ....who are the ones that are really struggling. Its not rocket science.

More horror stories

I do wish people would stop telling me about various unemployment and redundancy horror stories. It seems like everyday I get told about Tom, Dick or Harry who were made redundant 12 months ago and who are STILL looking for work. At first it was worrying but now its just downright annoying. Can't these people see that I have to believe that something will come up soon for Andy? Do they think I want to be made even more worried then I already am? I really NEED to think that something will come up soon even if the reality turns out to be different. I *do* trust that God will send him/us down the right path in whatever time it happens to take....but I'm also human and need small things to keep me going.

Andrew applied for JSA yesterday

Andrew went to register with the Job Centre yesterday and I think its fair to say that the experience wasn't quite as bad as he's anticipated. Although he did say there was a shocking number of track suit clad young men hanging about outside. Andrew always finds track suits very shocking so to see so many of them in one concentrated area must have been a real eye opener LOL. The reason he was a bit worried was because we've heard these horror stories about people being forced to take the first job that they are offered otherwise they'll loose their benefit. I must admit we were both worried that they'd make him accept a job in a supermarket or something. But anyway it turns out they give you a contract which lists what jobs you will consider - your allowed to refuse 2 I think? So he's got a contract to find work as a design engineer or project engineer within 40 miles of our home and paying 26,000 or more. Its still a good step down from 32,000 a year and a 5 mile trip to work but that's life I guess and beggars can't be choosers.

Job Centre meeting

My husband got his official notification of his redundancy yesterday and today he received his appointment to go to the Job Centre for an initial interview. I really hope they know how to help him but to be honest, I can't say I feel too hopeful about it. The feeling I get from listening to other people is that the Job Centre people are good at finding help for unskilled people but not so good with the professionals. When the JC people came into work to talk to the affected workers about the upcoming redundancies, my husband said they were trying to push him into a career change or plumbing. The thing is he loves his chosen career and he spent alot of money on his education to get there so a career change isn't really an option. I can understand his point. I mean I reckon my education has cost me £70,000 and its going to take me until retirement to pay it all back so a career change wouldn't be an option for me either. I think the professionals are the forgotten people in this recession.

Last week we wrote to our MP about supporting local engineering jobs. We got a fob off just as I susected *sigh*.

A very late update

Wow! I have so much to update but first I must explain what happened to me and my blog. Well me being the klutz that I accidentally deleted it. I mean seriously how stupid was that? Well anyway I finally figured out that it is possible to get your blog back!

Well I have alot to update on. First of all I'll recap on the potential issues that we had a few months ago and then I'll update on them. The first issue was that our 2 year mortgage deal comes to an end in May 09 and we could be in negative equity by then which means we wouldn't get a new mortgage deal. Our mortgage provider is Northern Rock and well we all know what's happened with them so that was a worry. We were worried the bank might just call in the mortgage and we'd be left homeless. Also job losses were announced at our company and we were both waiting to hear something.

So I can tell your dying to know what happened :)

Well first of all we couldn't remortgage as we didn't have enough equity in the house because of the huge price drops. We did have SOME equity but it was only like 1 or 2%. Our mortgage company would put us onto the standard variable rate but wouldn't offer us anything else. For now though that works out cheaper as the interest rate is so low right now. But now for the horrible part. Andy did lose his job in the redundancies. He is our chief income earner and we are now 70% less in income that this time last year. That is very worrying. He is applying for jobs like there's no tomorrow but nothing is coming up yet :(

Well now I have my blog back online I'll update more ofter. I might even do a little makeover on it :)

Update

Hmmmm....so what's new in the last month? Well the first wave of redundancies happen at work this week. Everyone in the affected areas got their "at risk" letters last week and now they are in the final stage this of liaising with HR about their package etc. A couple of weeks ago we had a corporate email though about an additional 800 redundancies. I think its highly unlikely that we won't be affected by this phase of redundancies though. The first phase was mostly shop floor workers which wasn't surprising really as the current orders had gone through the floor and that's all they work on. The engineers though work on products already in the field and also research and development of future products. In those departments the work is as relentless as ever. But we were told last week that even engineering are facing serious cuts despite the workload being so high already.

And we didn't get good news about the mortgage either. Because the house prices have dropped so much in the last 12 months our LTV (loan to value) is now up at over 90% which means nobody wants to give us a mortgage. And to make matters worse our mortgage company Northern Rock have written to us telling us they have no products to offer us and we will switch to their standard variable rate (SVR) as of May. So we are at the mercy of Northern Rock then until we can get our LTV back down which might take 4 years or more. So were just hoping NR don't put their rates up too high.