Eager Elephant's Effective Everyday Excursion ...

longtermplanner · 5 January 2014 at 10:50AM

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Bankruptcy is definitely viable for DH - I help people go bankrupt all the time, seems odd to have to do it for DH. I keep hoping he will get a job and we can offer full and finals and then I think what is the point when for £700 he can be well rid of his debts.

We do want to buy, firstly we will buy our council house and then we are hoping to get a farm so he will need good credit but to be honest bankruptcy is not that much worse on a credit file than 10 defaults and a CCJ anyway.

Well they always say that doctors shouldn't diagnose their own family's ailments, and it sounds as though you are too close to your OH's problem to take the big decision.

You know the facts - that bankruptcy is not as scary as most people think and that having a secure tenancy means he is insulated from any problems on the rental front. Also that "keeping hoping" just postpones the day when you two can start again with your finances.

Eager_Elephant · 28 January 2014 at 9:03PM

Hellooooooooooooooo

Sorry been MIA - have been keeping track of spending but not always using the right card so need to transfer money between accounts etc.

What I do know as I come to the end of the month is that we can survive on not much money, we have not put anything on credit in Jan and just lived on the money in the accounts.

I am still behind with my rent and we have got a reminder

. I will pay £400 on Thurs which will clear the account but really we need to be in advance by that amount. I am hoping I will be able to make payments in Feb - DH's JSA has been used for bills and food and so there is nothing spare to pay rent with.

When DH asked for money and of course when he spent £35 on a stupid item we did not need that we had no money and I hadn't paid the rent but I am not sure he believed me.
Anyway yesterday morning I said to him that when he had interviews today (one am, one pm) he could go to a supermarket at lunch and get a coffee and a bite to eat, he was fine with this.
But when I got home last night he told me that he would take a flask and some sandwiches with him:eek:. I asked what had made him change his mind given he likes spending and he said he did not know. I asked whether it was the rent reminder and he said he had been worrying all day about it and now knows we don't have any money and we haven't paid the rent (bangs head against brick wall).
I said to him that I had been saying all month the rent had not been paid and he admitted that until he saw it in black and white he had pushed it to the back of his mind.

Is this what we call a lightbulb moment?:rotfl:

I got my credit card statement for my Halifax card and I went over the limit at Xmas by £73:mad:. And because of that I lost my promo rate of 6.95% meaning my interest jumped from £26pm to £41pm and my minimum payment jumped by £15 also:eek::mad:
I have just spent 20 mins grovelling to them:rotfl: and after paying £73 they have removed an overlimit charge and given me back my promo rate:T. Thank you Halifax. (I still have to pay min payment of £46 but that is fine as it means the balance will come down quicker)

I usually work my budget monthly and have a spreadsheet to show monthly outgoings and income and then highlight in green when the payment has gone but too be honest I rarely follow it. For the last 2 months I have split my money into accounts and when it's gone it's gone which I will do this month as it worked well and I knew even when I had no money in the main account I had petrol for work.

Now Elaines at MFi3 has produced a daily budget which shows when you will run out of money in the month etc (especially when you have more than 1 source of income paid on different days) so I am going to try that and see if I can keep on top of it - it makes sense because you plot in advance for the month how much each bill is and then at the bottom of the spreadsheet it will tell you if there is enough money in the account and then you know to either move the payment or transfer some money in from somewhere.

I am also trying to start an emergency fund £2 at a time - I have done a page in my diary broken down in to £2 squares and each time I put money in I will colour in a square until I get to £500.

I already save for Xmas and Oil and I will start one for the dreaded cats (who caused the whole Xmas on credit cards) and fingers crossed we manage next Xmas.

Also fingers crossed DH gets one of the jobs he interviewed for today :T

beanielou · 28 January 2014 at 10:36PM

Positive vibes for a job for your OH.

debtfreewannabe321 · 29 January 2014 at 12:33PM

Hope DH got one of the jobs too *fingers crossed*

You're doing really well if you managed not to put anything on credit this month as it's the longest month ever (well it feels like it to me anyway

) ....good luck with the savings plans it's great when you know you have a small contingency available in case of emergency. :T

Eager_Elephant · 25 March 2014 at 9:41PM

Wow - it's been nearly 2 months since I last posted.

DH didnt get any of the jobs he went for - he has applied for loads of jobs and not had any interviews. His JSA ends beginning of May.
I did wonder whether him not getting interviews was connected to when he went missing - the papers did a story on him and if you typed his name in Google it came up so he has asked the newspaper to remove it from their archives.

I am not sure what will happen in May apart from we will be £280 per month down.

I applied for HB and was awarded £25pw - from April we get £40pw (although my wages will go up due to changes in income tax so my award will reduce to about £30pw). Then from May when DH loses JSA my award will be about £80pw - which is most of the rent (plus I will get help with my council tax as well)

My Tax Credits are quite low because based on our income for last financial year we had a large income between us but from April our income for this year is a lot lower so we may get more Tax Credits but then of course we lose Housing Benefit.

DH and I are discussing him setting up as self-employed still. I was thinking he needs to run our smallholding and hopefully make a profit or (as mentioned before) start up as a handy man.
He has such good skills - he has just decorated my bathroom, he has boxed in all the pipes and made a new bath side and painted it and it looks amazing.
Yesterday he made me a new egg stall to go out the front to sell our eggs.

Then I thought could he make chicken runs etc but too be honest the cost of the wood would not be cheap - at the moment DH uses odds and sods he collects.

We have been managing fine on 1 income plus his benefits so why did we waste all DH's income before?? AArrgghhh!!

It willl be interesting from May when he has no income - he still has acupuncture every 2 weeks but he is thinking of giving this up as he has had it for a few years now and although it helps for a few days is it worth it??

My DS is being a royal pain in the bottom!! He is flunking his A-Levels because he is just so lazy and does no work at home.
I have tried to encourage/nag etc and it doesnt work, he bears grudges all the time so I have now taken to not even discussing college with him because the atmosphere in the house is awful and he storms around upsetting everyone.
Today I got a call from his teacher to tell me he has to drop a subject so he has more time on the other subjects but he has to pass all of them to be able to go back in September. I told the teacher that I would rather he gave up college as it is not worth the aggro I have at home. (Plus it costs me more than I get in benefits - which is not much!!)

I must try to sort my debts out - we do have some spare money because we have managed to decorate the bathroom so I need to start paying money over to the debts as well as saving some to get an emergency fund.
I started my emergency fund back in January and have not even added to it:eek:. Naughty EE - I think I will go and add to it now so I can at least colour in another square:rotfl:

I wont even bother saying I need to post more because it never works so I will just say 'See you all soon':rotfl:

debtfreewannabe321 · 26 March 2014 at 1:03PM

I wondered where you were

glad to see you back, even if it's only for another 3 months :rotfl: (hope not though!!) My ds1 works really hard at the moment at school, his main motivation....to not end up in carppy jobs like DH & myself (well I don't actually have a job at the moment lol) so if me and DH failing (according to DS1) is enough motivation i'm happy :rotfl:. I hope he continues though as I hear of lots of kids who do well up to gcse's then it all sort of goes to pot!

Good luck on paying more over to the debts and with DH starting up businesses. If he can make chicken/rabbit runs wouldn't the clients be paying for the materials? He could ask for half the fee up front and half on completion until he gets enough in the coffers to just make them outright to sell? What sort of things could you be selling/offering on the small holding side of things? I'm only being nosey as i'd love to do something similar one day

brizzledfw · 26 March 2014 at 11:07PM

Good to have you posting again EE..hope OH picks up something soon..the self employed route seems interesting and fills in the gap on the CV

Eager_Elephant · 27 March 2014 at 8:44AM

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

I wondered where you were glad to see you back, even if it's only for another 3 months :rotfl: (hope not though!!) My ds1 works really hard at the moment at school, his main motivation....to not end up in carppy jobs like DH & myself (well I don't actually have a job at the moment lol) so if me and DH failing (according to DS1) is enough motivation i'm happy :rotfl:. I hope he continues though as I hear of lots of kids who do well up to gcse's then it all sort of goes to pot!

The problem I think is that DS is at a college where it is very relaxed - the kids decide if they want to do the work or not. He only went to this College to do AStronomy and now he has been removed from that as well. He could have gone to a school with a 6th form and he would have had more structure - I so regret the decision now.

At the end of the day it is his choice where he ends up but he has to realise I can't keep supporting him.

His latest argument for not going to Uni was that I only wanted him to go so it looked good on me as I was a teenage mother and did not fufil my aspirations so am putting them on him:mad::eek:
I told him in no uncertain terms that I never wanted to do college and Uni so had no aspirations and actually I love my job and (most of) my life.

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Good luck on paying more over to the debts and with DH starting up businesses. If he can make chicken/rabbit runs wouldn't the clients be paying for the materials? He could ask for half the fee up front and half on completion until he gets enough in the coffers to just make them outright to sell? What sort of things could you be selling/offering on the small holding side of things? I'm only being nosey as i'd love to do something similar one day

We havent really talked about it but he has made some amazing chicken runs, we have an amazing dog run (from years ago when we had a dog) and cat run. The egg shelving looks amazing.

DH gets a vision in his head and makes it, he doesnt draw anything and gets on with things.
I think I mentioned before that we know a business who do wood and mainly sell to big businesses but occassionally they sell to us so we can get wood quite cheap.

Think we need to sit down and discuss things.

Eager_Elephant · 27 March 2014 at 8:49AM

brizzledfw wrote: »

Good to have you posting again EE..hope OH picks up something soon..the self employed route seems interesting and fills in the gap on the CV

He keeps applying for loads of jobs but really his disability puts people off - and the problem is he thinks he can do more than he can.
He can only really work part time but still applies for full time jobs:mad:

The problem is his head pain can flare up at any time so it makes regular work difficult.

A local events place want staff to work on events doing traffic management and stewarding which would be ideal because it would be 2 days every few weeks but at weekends and that is the only time we see each other but needs must.

This is why I think self-employment would be best for him as he can work at his own pace and if he is making stuff he can do it as and when and we only advertise once the item is complete.
We did think about a small holding market stall - there used to be one at a car boot near us but not any longer. I think there is a market for this and for people not to have to pay the prices of the big pet stores but we would have to buy in some stock to start with and I am not sure we have the money at the moment.

Hmm, lots to think about.

Eager_Elephant · 27 March 2014 at 8:50AM

Forgot to mention the brilliant news I have...

Remember some time last year when DH came home with some stupid goats and I disagreed and it nearly caused the end of my marriage?

Well they have been a nuisance since day one but now finally DH agrees they have to go:T:rotfl::T

So fingers crossed we can offload them to someone who actually wants them!!

Eager Elephant's Effective Everyday Excursion ...

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