Newly single parent struggling financially

krissovo said:
Yes, I got the camping version as I already had the sky dish and it was €49.
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Ah - I see. How did that work out for you? What size is the dish (50cm or smaller?), where are you located and how reliable is your reception especially in heavy rain? I presume you're pointing at Astra 28.2E/Eurobird 28.5E? Just curious so I hope you don't mind the questions.
 
Hi all.
Thanks for all the replies!
So many good suggestions. I am going to look into doing some babysitting at the weekends. Nights moreso as I get little enough time with the little one as it is without eating into the 2 days we do have together. If that doesn't work I will look at minding during the day.

My car is 8 years old and just taxed for the year, NCTd etc so although i would prefer a smaller engine size, it's a good car with low mileage and a lot of money poured into it this year already so I'm reluctant to change it this year.

Have started the spending diary and it is already helping as it was tipping into the shop for lunch and getting lunch, drinks, chewing gum, newspaper etc that was part of the problem. You don't even realise it but it is all totting up.

Heating oil went yesterday (sigh) so that isn't going to help matters this month.

It's all fun and games really

But I'll do my best to readjust and I'll also keep my eye out for that wealthy husband/winning lotto ticket/easy job requiring no qualifications with a 7 figure salary
My luck has to change sometime!
 
I am a single parent and for a few years when things were tough, I rented out my spare room, babysat in the evenings after work, and cleaned houses on Saturday mornings. This was on top of my full time job.

I know from talking to my friends that good cleaners are very hard to find. Ailbhe, perhaps another area to look at - a few hours in someone's house on a Saturday perhaps. You could bring your daughter with you. I used to bring my son and he watched tv. Not ideal I know but needs must.

It was very hard and extremely exhausting at times, but I look back now and know that it was all worth it. I have a nice house and my son is happy and doing well in college.

When money is a bit less tight for you, would you think of hiring a private detective to search for your daughter's father? Besides the money issue, itt also might be important to your daugher in the future that you tried to find him.

I'll be thinking of you. Best of luck Ailbhe!
 

The dish is small but works ok its an oval shape and plastic so I think its smaller than 50 cm. I have only used the dish a few times, once at home to test it and a couple of times camping once in France. Rain did lower the signal alright but the channels I wanted were fine. I still have the sky dish at home so I use that for the better reception.
 
Right now, back on track.

Another possibility to earn a few pennies, how about some call centre work from home? Its a relatively new concept in Ireland where you can set your hours to suit you and log in for say a few hours a night but its a few quid in the bank. The company could pay an allowance for broadband as all calls would use that medium so that would be another way to save your wallet.

Basically you log on using a internet page and hook up a headset.
 

What companies do this?
 
Hi,
Here are just some ideas, perhaps worth investigating...

On Magicmum.com and Rollercoaster.ie there are ladies who do this 'mystery shopping' thing. If you search under the words mystery shopper you'll probably find the threads. You are asked to go into a particular shop (during say a particular week) and buy something, or complain or ask a question. You then fill out a form in excel and email it back to the company. You need excel and I presume email, but if you don't have these at home perhaps you could do from work in your lunch hour?

The other one is you go into a bar or restaurant and buy 2 meals/2 drinks. Again you fill out the form afterwards. The expense is refunded and you get back an amount for doing this. Of course you need to factor in petrol etc - no point driving miles to do this, but worth investigating? This may not necessarily be at night, could be a free lunch for your daughter and you on a Saturday or Sunday?

Another one is the ladies receive post and they have to post it on. Bit odd but I think it's to check the efficiency of the postal system? You get paid per piece of post and you can just fit it into your daily routine (i.e. walk past a post box). Again, look on Magicmum and Rollercoaster, it's been discussed on these websites in length. The mums there seem to think it's easy pocket money?

Also proof reading. I know very little about this, but have heard of people proof reading for payment? If you research it on the web, you may find something?

Get a list of all the marketing companies around (in a wide area, they aren't necessarily near physically to the companies they work for) and contact them (from work, in your lunch hour perhaps, save the phone cost). They may want market research people do to surveys etc. My MIL used to go into big supermarkets and check prices. She did this to fit into her own shopping schedule so it wasn't so inconvenient.

Cleaning... If for example you did 2 hours each Saturday perhaps your little girl could even 'help'? As a child we often went to work with one or other of our parents to help them in their jobs. That seems strange these days but I remember enjoying it, it was just part of life.

Ironing (oh I'd hate this one), could you take in Ironing? It's good in that you can do it in your own home and wouldn't need anyone to mind your daughter?

Finally, if you have anything to sell, such as household stuff, toys, clothes, furniture etc, then both magicmum and rollercoaster have forums for this and while it's one off money not regular income, it may be worth decluttering. Remember to get payment before posting/deliverying and again, make sure you're not offering to drive 1 hour to deliver something for 10 Euros. Mostly people seem to collect the items or they get posted and they buyer pays for the postage. Of course Ebay is good for this too.

Have you taken everything you want from the house you had with your Ex? Is there anything you perhaps don't want to own, but may be able to sell?

Good luck, I hope things improve.
 
Hi ailbhe,

this is my first real post and when i say your post i thought i might be able to help. You can save 21 euros every month by switching off sky. If you have sky over 1 year you own the dish and receiver.
Sky will turn off your package, however you will still have your FTA channels (you dont need to waste money on lidl system your disk is aligned and ready to go).

The channels consist of

MAIN UK TV
Sky Channel Description
101 BBC ONE All regions BBC's entertainment channel
102 BBC TWO All Nations BBC's second channel, NI, Scot, Welsh, England versions.
115 BBC THREE Entertainment channel for young people (after 7pm, shares with CBBC)
116 BBC FOUR Dedicated arts and drama channel (after 7pm, shares with CBeebies)
103 ITV/UTV All Regions ITV's flagship entertainment channel
118 ITV2 Entertainment from ITV
119 ITV3 Entertainment from ITV
120 ITV4 Entertainment after 6pm. May share dayatime with CITV from Feb 06
Channel 4
Film 4
E4
E4 + 1
More 4
More 4 + 1
131 Men & Motors ITV's fifth channel
135 S4C~Digidol Welsh, English subtitles, Rugby
211 ITV2 +1 Timeshift of ITV2
212 ITV3 +1 Timeshift of ITV3
CHILDREN'S
Sky Station Description
616 CBBC Children's entertainment before 7pm (shares with BBC3)
617 CBeebies Pre-school programming before 7pm (shares with BBC4)
619 POP Pre-school entertainment (various times)
620 Tiny Pop Same as above
624 CITV Children's ITV
ENTERTAINMENT
Sky Channel Description
137 Life TV 'Safe' entertainment
138 Life TV +2 'As above but 2 hours later
139 Life Showcase More music
146 Sumo TV Misc chat/religion/shopping
148 B.E.N Entertainment for the African community
150 Zone Reality Entertainment channel
151 Zone Reality +1 Same as above but one hour later
152 Zone Reality X Entertainment
163 Hollywood TV
165 Bonanza
173 Open Access 2 ?
181 Information TV
183 Passion TV
193 Rapture TV Dance Music, misc.
195 Propeller
199 My Channel
203 Channel M
205 TTV2
215 Legal TV
217 Fame TV
219 Solent TV

Entertainment list last updated 20 Jan 07

LIFESTYLE & CULTURE
Sky Channel Desc
261 Travel Channel Travel
262 Travel Ch +1 Timeshift of above
271 Performance Arts
279 Real Estate TV Property
281 Wine TV
285 Baby Channel
287 Overseas Property
289 Wedding TV

MOVIES
Sky Station Description
315 Film4 Channel4's movie channel
316 Film4 +1 Timeshift of Film4
321 Zone Horror Horror films
322 Zone Thriller Thriller films
323 True Movies Films based on true events
324 True Movies 2 as above
325 Movies4Men
327 Movies4Men 2

NEWS
Sky Station Description
501 Sky News Sky's award winning news channel
502 Bloomberg Financial News
503 BBC News 24 24 hour news from the BBC
504 BBC Parliament Latest from Westminster
506 CNN Leading international news network
507 S4C2 Welsh parliament channel
509 Euronews News Non stop news from around Europe
511 CCTV-9 News direct from China
514 Al Jazeera English
515 France24 English version of French news channel
516 Russia Today

DOCUMENTARIES
Sky Channel Description
539 Community Channel
547 Business Channel

MUSIC
Sky Station Description
355 Chart Show TV Music charts of all genres 24/7
356 The Vault Classic songs from Chart Show TV
357 B4 New tracks before they're released from Chart Show TV
359 Classics FM TV Classic music channel from Classic FM
360 Channel U Interactive urban music jukebox
361 Fizz Interactive urban music jukebox
362 Bliss! Pop music
364 Scuzz Rock music
366 Flaunt Pop music
368 Rockworld TV Rock music
370 rmusic tv Gospel
372 Justfabulous
374 Bubble Hits Pop

781 B4U Music Asian / Indian Pop video

if you run into problems here's a handy post showing you how to configure the system, however you should have these channels already and not need this post ( i then set all the channels to my favourites, it hold about 30 favourites then to navigate i use the blue button).

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055038749
Now their are some channels which you will lose, some kids programs, but my kids like tiny pop etc.
Also note to receive RTE you will need an analog aerial, if you live in dublin an indoor aerial might suffice, but if you live down the country like where i am from Laois you need an aerial in the attic - costs about 40 euros and a long piece of cable, but you should try the dogs ears first(buy cheap ones).
Hope this helps and saves you a couple of euro, if you need any help just IM me.
Fergal.
 
See [broken link removed] for the reciever - You'd need to get a dish as well (afaik).
 
Ailbhe - have you or your ex been claiming back medical expenses every year on the med 1 ? If not you would be entitled to a good tax refund on your IVF (and all other medical) expenses. It's just a matter of completing the med 1 form (you don't have to send receipts but make sure you have them in case they're checked in the future) and sending it into revenue. You can get the form on revenue.ie.
 
qwertyuiop said:
What companies do this?
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Its not a scam, the company I am working for are doing this now. Its a way for for the call centre to save on costs. Call volumes are always busier in the mornings so we can save full time heads by having a flexible workforce.
 
ClubMan said:
Is that one of those earn money from home scams?
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No, its not a scam. I work for a leading global brand name with over 500,000 employees globally and 4500 in Ireland. As previously stated its a means of saving us money by having a flexible workforce who do not use expensive office space.
 
as per my post earlier, you dont need to buy a dish or receiver from lidl, she already has a sky dish and receiver which you own after one year. cancel your subscription and the channels are their that's FTA.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreaded
Tempus Fugit (time costs money)


...thought this meant "Time flies"......



Its probably a fuel surcharge!
 
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