paulwrxboro

I know 2 people who buy tat from car boot sales and sell on ebay one buys old bikes recons he makes £100+a week one buys branded clothes makes about £50 a week as a hobby
you can make money anywere if you want it
at your age i dident have a pot to p1ss in...you will do allright

MrJim

I know youv,e probably heard it many times but take it from me its true quality of life is more important than any amount of money, as long as you can pay your bills and you are healthy thats all you need

Deep Singh

At 22 I had no income, in fact I had no income until 24. You have a young family though so I understand the difference.

If working 50 hrs a week gives you an income that you are not happy with, then there is only one answer, you have to work smarter, as working longer is not viable.
By this I mean further education/training, either academically or learning a skill. Things will be tougher for a while, but its the only way. Most high/good earners start off on crap money until at least mid 20s, but then make up for lost time.

Go learn something that will increase your earning ability, you will never regret it, and its a good example to your kids.

Good luck

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

You are only 22 !

Your working life has only just started.

At 22 I earned next to nothing, and rightly so as I didn't have any qualifications to speak of, no really useful experience, and nothing that would make we worth paying a decent wage for - pretty much the same position you are in.

OK, it may be harder for you as you have a family, but that isnt anyone elses fault except your own, but at the moment at your age with no real financial commitments you are in an ideal position to pack in your job and go and train to get some skills that are worth something.

Not wanting to sound harsh, but you asked people on here to give you a job - but doing what ? you are only qualified to do minimum wage jobs at the moment, there is no reason anyone will take you on to do a job that pays higher as you dont have the skills required to do it.

Once you are a qualified plasterer, mechanic or brain surgeon THEN go out asking for better paid work as you may have some chance of getting it.

stilover

I'd suggest you write down everything you spend money on. Even down to a chocolate bar. At the end of the month you'll be supprised at just how much money you are spending on stuff.

Maybe once you've seen how much you're spending, you may be able to make cuts.

You may find you're spending £40 a week on takaways. Cut this back to 1 takaway a month as a treat.

You may be spending £50 a week on Booze. Only go out every other Friday night instead of every Friday night. Limit your spending when out.

Your wife might be spending too much on the kids. Do they really need every they get.

You'll be supprised at how much you can save, once you know just what you're spending.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Excellent advice, this is how me and the Mrs get by now on little imcomings. Our usual treat is a £10 takeaway on a Fri night now, when before it could have been £80-100 on a night out.

We both also love looking for a bargain, either to save money or make a few quid on

StickyMicky

I have been abused recently with a wage, it has done my head in, and i even had to give up drinking at home until recently trade has been pretty slow, so i cut right back, i had to sit down and work out all my costs, the biggest one for me was actually the fackin scoobys petrol bill, i had got used to filling up the tank every 2weeks and seeing it as a normal thing, so the plans were put in motion to get rid of that, i was also spending a huge amount of cash on things i did not even need, drink for the home was a massive one, sinking drinks every night, so that got dropped, i also seamed to spunk a huge amount of money on "car mods" more then i really realised at the time, wastefull really! Xbox games while i bought a few, i always tend to trade them in after a month or so unless they are "keepers" so i don't really tend to lose much on them, some slight cutbacks were in order but i have discovered a proper keen eye for a bargin now.
I have just bought the missus 2 new books from asda, they were on sale, they were 50p each

It is different for me as i still have a business to run, a wage bill to pay, and the accounted costs that go with them, i need more then 600quid per week just to cover wages and costs, so when the **** hits the fan, it really starts to stink
At one point, my staff were on a much better deal then me, a rainy week, meant i was making a tenner for myself

Trade has been really brisk for the past month, nearly back to pre recession days everybodys figures are flying back upwards, we are into our crazy busy season as soon as the road gritters come out, so it looks like we are swimming back upwards to the top i know of a few lads in my position who took on delivery jobs to make ends meet on a night time doing 8 till 6.30 shifts at work, and then doing 6.30 till late pizza delivery jobs to bring in some extra cash, 50 hours is a pusscake average in the grand scheme of things

wayne9t9

Cheer up, money doesn`t bring you happiness... YouTube - Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen

scoobyboi09

cheers for all the nice comment guys, going to start noting how much i spend and what, bet i can cut out an awful lot of stuff if i needed to. Going to keep my head down at work and try and work myself up a bit faster, ( tips on this would be good to)

Little things i have to do and save money is
Take pack up lunch to work because i think this is were i waste the most money
And i think the main thing is stop buying things because its on £30 etc, but it all adds up over time.
I would like to save up a bit of cash by xmas wht would be a good way to start.

paulwrxboro

i know a lad who works on the railways he is a big mouth ***** and has worked his way up pretty quickly, so theres a start
realy you need to act like a boss (lead shout take control) someone will spot this..my top tip

G-Man1982

iTrader: (7)

mate ill be honest i have not read the whole thread, but i know how you feel... im 27 i work my **** off, get a after tax salery of 1195 a month, have wife, 2 kids and a scoob!! im always skint rent is £725 a month! i cant get another part time job as im on call and cant say when my days off are... the way we get by is her good money skills, swaps e.g i had some spot lights off scoob donor car, i swapped for a better steering wheel, he gained, i gained, i didnt spend a fortune. prob a bad e.g but yo get the jist! initiative, common sense, deals here and there, lodgicly work out things, i.e, matey wants 1 thing, you know some 1 who wants what mateys got. make the deal and make a few quid. not ideal i know but it could make the difference like being able to take the missis n kids out 4 dinner 1 night etc etc. i know what ya feel dude... its hard. need to save to spend £25 on a oil pressure/temp sender splitter is embarresing!! but its just the way it is... your not alone matey, good luck to ya and keep ya chin up!!

chrisUK300

iTrader: (10)

50 hours average? I work for Network Rail (S&T Maintenance) you must be putting some overtime in to average that amount of hours?

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

You work for a MASSIVE company with a MASSIVE vacancy list...... If your not happy doing what you are then change your job it's a simple as that.

I work for Notwork Rail as well, I started on £20kish, (whilst at school). I now earn much more than that (take home pay sometimes up to £4k per 4 week period). By applying myself and gaining promotion. Nobody but yourself can do that and sitting on SNET moaning about it will not get you anywhere.

Andy-C

Gizza job - I can do that!

No, seriously I would love to work for Network Rail, but as a 40 y.o. HGV drive without a skillset, there are no hopes.

At 22, you really do have your whole future for you and your family ahead of you and at the moment you are finding it hard. I, like many others nearly twice your age are still struggling financially, however, I have the love and support of my wife and 2 kids, and that helps see me through.

HTH Andy

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

We take on people in their 40's all the time, one guy I'm thinking off right now started little over three months ago, he is now in a £50k P.A job.

dpb

Probably irrelevent but anyway,

My late stepdads son came out the army Nothern ireland maybe 12 years ago and got some kind of job labouring on the railways . Now hes somekind of ringmaster boss with 300 people under him on one of the london underground maintainence contract firms ..? i dunno ...
Anyway hes on 70k a year and its not hellish hours for him now i gather - on call most of the time tho.
Hes also into dodgier stuff aswell im told - maybe its his previous links that have helped him on his way

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I was on about 28 grand, skint all the time, was in a Caravan at Flamingoland with my mum, my wife and kids, my mum had kindly paid for the caravan and it got me thinking that really I should pay for my own holidays and not have to rely on handouts to take my kids away (not that I really saw it totally like that) so I had a moment of clarity, I decided I was going to leave the Police where I had been for ten years, had been overlooked for promotion a few weeks earlier and Ihad had enough of the pc atmosphere and the weird characters that managed the place (the higher ups in IT) so I made some plans, which involved completing my Oracle exams, boning up on current technologies and lookign for another job, found one at Woolworths which was ok but not much fun, long drive but it was another 5 grand, so job done, not really, I kept learning new stuff including SQL Server (Im a Database Administrator) and as I didnt really like the job at Woolies I decided to look for a contract job, went for one and aced the interview (all that learning paying off in one big visible hit) and got the contract, six months at £38.75 an hour, did about a year and they offered me perm and the office moved nearer home, they made an offer, I said no, I told them what I wanted to stop contracting, they went for it and have been here since, great company, great people and a nice atmosphere, I always try to remind myself when I am having a bad day (not often) that its what I have always been after, good job with a decent company, near home on decent money.


I am not claiming to be any shining example, it doesnt always pay off like it did for me but you need to keep plugging away, read noticeboards, trade journals, pick the brains of the higher ups and look for an "in" to something more lucrative, 22 is very young and I found at that age I thought I could have things happen big bang style but its all incremental small things towards a goal, nobody is going to give you 50k for nowt, you need to think about what you can do, not as much time on your situation, it may take five or ten years but altrnatively you can sit there despondent and do nothing, its not easy to compare your situation in ten years but there will be a marked difference between how you end up depending on how you play it, ten years you will still only be 32, it goes very quickly, ten years is long enough to do anything pretty much as long as you put the effort in and have the capability, only you can answer that one but striving makes a big difference. I know people from school who werent that academic but earn loads through sheer determination, I know people who do nothing and are all depressed, well boo hoo should get of your **** and sieze the day, this isnt a rehersal its the read deal, dont wait for things to drop in your lap, get out there and hunt them down, learn and as has been says talk the talk, you may have managers that are dicks, you can do better, find out how they got there.

Our society is full of people who cant be arsed or get put off to easily, you need to be resillient, at 22 nothing is set in stone, you are still a kid (not meant as an insult, its a good thing), still young enough to get on courses and stuff, dotn rule out night school, I was in airfrieght, went on a programming course at nightschool, got told by the tutor to try a full time course as I was good at it, that got me into computing,

If you dont understand something use the web, it is so easy nowadays to get information, nothing you learn is ever wasted, trust me on that one, you may not use it today, or even for twenty years but it makes the diference.

I wish I had been given more advice in my early twenties.

hodgy0_2

similar to JACKO

I had a business go belly up in 1999 -- I had a wife and 2 kids then and no income

Contracted in IT for while on pretty ****ty rates, but self studied Microsoft and Cisco and have done 20 odd exams since

I work (perm) for a very large company and take home well over 6k a month -- and even I can’t afford a decent car

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Take homw six plus grand a month perm, jesus, what do you do !!

Ste RB5138

There is some good advice on this thread

I would agree with the people who said look out for other positions with Network Rail.