My plan on how I am going to survive financially without a corporate job…

What Have I Done??!!  How am I going to survive financially without a corporate job?

I am 38 and have spent most of the past 16 years working for a range of big corporates. Okay so I have had 3 breaks of maternity leave with the boys (not exactly a holiday!)..but 16 years…that is a very long time! On the 30th June I ended my 5 years of employment with EE, handily just in time for the summer holidays. And everyone continues to ask “what am I going to do?”… how am I going to survive financially without a corporate job??

There is a look of shock/admiration/interest when I say I am going to set up my own company and run my own business. I am extremely well set up to do this. Mrs Mummypenny has been my hobby for 2 years now, set up whilst a bit bored on my last maternity leave. Whilst it has been a hobby it’s not been that lucrative. However I can now focus, spend time and write an amazing business plan to kick off Mrs MummyPenny. And I love doing it, I really believe that its a viable business model and I love the fact that I actually help people to save money.

One of biggest buzzes that I get every day is when I get a message from a liker or follower telling me how much money they have saved or sharing a money saving tip with me. And people love my blogs and ideas on things to cook, things to do with the children and creative activities. It can be a lonely job, which is not good for a person like me who loves to be around people. So I do spend a good amount of time out and about with the children, researching content for my website. Oh and I do call, email and whatsapp alot!

How I will Maximise My Income

Mrs Mummypenny Income – Website

In my new self employed world I need to make money, I have carefully worked out the household budget and need to make at least £1,800 per month to cover the essential bills such as mortgage, food, utilities, council tax etc. This all needs to come from Mrs Mummypenny and its offshoot businesses streams. To monetise my website I can do things like reviews, receive advertising revenue, recommendations income and selling things from the website. You will see the odd advert of great money saving companies on my website. I have partnered up with companies like Trip Advisor, M&S, Made.com, Topcashback and Money Dashboard so you may see the odd banner with information on offers. Sometimes I work closely with these companies. Money Dashboard have recently featured me as their guest blogger and I answered a few questions for them. There’s no payment of money going on here but they are helping me to build my traffic, and following on twitter/ facebook etc all in return for me writing some content for them. Money Dashboard Interview

I often recommend services and companies; I love Trussells the Butchers in Knebworth and Church Farm in Arderley and talk about these places often. Also I know several good builders, beauticians, cake makers, solicitors, accountants and have a wide network so will recommend people who are good. All my recommendations will have been bought/tried and tested and I will give you an honest review. Sometimes I review things where I have had a bad experience and have complained…one of my most popular blogs explains how I got a lot of compensation and a huge fruit basket from Npower who messed up my utility bills in 2014! Occasionally I earn revenue from these recommendations, if so this will be disclosed. I am also approached to review things for which I will do a write up on the product and if I think it is money saving and/or good value for money. For example I am off camping August bank holiday and I have been offered this for free in return for an honest and insightful blog with lots of photos for my website and for them to feature on their website. Blogs not yet published include a positive review of RAF Hendon to visit with the children (unpaid, they dont even know I am writing it) and a not so positive view of Ford and their service plan that I have paid £696 into since August 2013. Again they don’t know I’m writing it, but I will tweet them once its published.

Mrs Mummypenny Sales

I am also going to set up a selling page within my website for money saving items like the Mrs Mummypenny Pennies jar. This is my homemade jar..I’m going to work on a more neater version to sell with my creative partner in crime Red jellies and wellies. Watch this space.

I already admin & run Knebworth Items for Sale on Facebook. A local community site for buying & selling unwanted household gear. I have so much children’s stuff /toys/ clothes/electrical gear to sell on Facebook, Ebay, gumtree, direct to resellers. And I am working for a client who has lots to sell as well and earn a commission for sales. This is a great for the earlier days of Mrs Mummypenny, when the revenues are not high enough to pay the bills.

Mrs Mummypenny Cashback

I make full use of cashback websites when purchasing anything online, I am currently waiting on £180 to clear from a recent swop of Broadband from EE to BT and an energy company swop from First Utility to SSE. Topcashback – set up an account

Mrs Mummypenny Help & Support for Small Business Benefits

I am also fully aware of which benefits I can claim at the moment given my unemployed status.  Having spoken to the lovely guys at the Stevenage Job centre they are helping me to set up my own business properly.  I also have a business mentor from a company called Avanta to help me plan the business. They will aid with my business plan and the hundreds of questions I have. In the meantime I am approved to claim JSA. Thank you to my sister for advising me to go for an interview to understand what payments I am due.  I can now claim for child benefit again as my income drops below the tiers of non-payment into payment.

How I will Save Cash – And these are things you can all do!

Create a Realistic Budget

The first thing I needed to do was to write a budget, a realistic one. So my friend Excel, yes I love Excel, has helped me to create a list of everything I spend on.  This tells me that I need to earn atleast £1800 to ensure everything is covered.  From mortgage to life insurance to cash machine withdrawals; it’s all in there. Please mail me E-mail Address if you want a copy of the budget template.

Money Dashboard Helps me 🙂

Next step was to download a great tool called Money Dashboard to understand what I spend money on to double check if the above mentioned budget is realistic. Money Dashboard combines all your bank accounts/credit cards into one place and analyses your spend. It catagorises your spend and creates brilliant graphs/list/pie charts (my favourite graph). I know last month we overspent on dining & drinking, but then it was hubbys 40th birthday month;-)

Sign up to Money Dashboard here

Assess spends and reduce where neccessary

Next plan is to assess all my outgoings and work out if I have the best deal going. So far I have

1. reduced my utility spend by £15 per month by switching from First Utility to SSE.
2. saved £3 per month on my home broadband by moving from EE to BT.  Despite EE being a staff deal; BT still beat it with a cash back offering.
3. I have no credit cards with interest being paid.  All have been switched to interest free for at least the next 2 years.
4. Cancelled Ford Service plan as next service will be done by a mechanic friend for much cheaper cost. Theres a saving of £23 per month right there!
5. I changed the term on my mortgage from 16 years to 25 years. Just for the moment when I am not sure what my income will be. Payments reduced by £400 per month.

Spend less on days out with the children

I plan to spend as little as possible on days out with the boys over the summer holidays, check out this blog post for loads of great money saving/free ideas to keep the children amused.

So there it is…  my plan to pay the bills and keep my children fed over the next few months. And if it all goes wrong….well I will probably end up back in the corporate world.  Maybe on short-term contract..so I can quickly get back to the world of Mrs Mummypenny.

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Thanks Muchly.