A fresh start

beanielou

What Chev says from me too.

buddiebabe

Hey Seaxwyn thats great to see another big reduction in your debt you are doing so well especially with everything you do!

Just thought id pop in and see how your getting on. Its free listing on ebay this weekend so if you have anything to relist or list nows the chance to do it when it costs nothing. I've relisted all the stuff i had and am going to put a few thing on today.

Hope your having a nice weekend

Buddiebabe x

chevalier

I am guessing you are missing in action, trying to get round the council job, and getting rid of the old job. Hope it is all going well
chev

Seaxwyn

1st of July and my debt total is £23,471.69. That's £461.95 less than last month - or not much more than my loan payment, so for every other debt that's gone down, another one has gone up.

However, it is downward, and this was my first month of lower salary for working four days a week. I've got one more month of that and then I'm down to three. Unless I can find another job first, I hope I can. I've got one to apply for this weekend, which looks great in that the hours and location of work are flexible - and the job itself is much more up my street. But there will be a lot of competition so I've got to think about other options.

Otherwise, life goes on. We have a meeting on Tuesday with the builders who are going to rebuild our house. The provisional start date is 11 July, and I want to get rids of lots of clutter before then so there is less to move, cover up, etc. Trouble is, most of the clutter here is not mine. I'm rather dreading the idea of school holidays, builders in the house, and me out at work. I have no possibility of taking any time off in the next month as we have a big project on at work which is way behind schedule, all my fault.

hypno06

OK, take the positives from that post.

Debt is going down. Doesn't matter how slowly, it is going down, and that is nothing to be sneezed at in these economic times when prices of everything seem to be going up.

Building is always going to be stressful, chaotic, and with far more dust than anyone will ever imagine. That is nothing to do with you/your disorganisation/the amount you work/the amount you earn/ etc etc etc - show me someone who hasn't been in chaos to a certain extent whilst having work done to the house, whether a kitchen replacement, or (like I did) an out and out rebuild.....

There are jobs out there that you can apply for and have a good chance of getting. And you have freelance to fall back on if needed. You have the ability to earn, in a flexible way, whether part time, full time, patchwork, whatever.

Summer hols.......well, again, like the building work, that is something that can always have potential to be stressful/fraught/regretful that you are not about more. It does not make you a bad mother/bad person/inefficient. It is simply life in the 21st Century!

So, take the positives and run with them.....hope other stuff is all going as you want it to too x

taxi73

totally agree with Hypno....guess what I'm saying is to go easy on yourself

Wordsmith

I'm glad to see you posting, Seaxwyn. I hope the job application goes your way. I'm guessing nothing came of the freelance possibility of a month or so ago?

You are working fewer (paid) hours and your salary has gone down, yet the debt has still gone down ... what's not to be pleased about? The debt hasn't gone up - brilliant.

How are you mentally/emotionally?

Seaxwyn

Thanks, Hypno, for reminding me of the positives. There is a lot more right than wrong in my life, I know that.

I sent off the job application on Sunday. I had meant to put lots of effort into it, build myself a website to showcase my amazing talents, all that kind of thing, but I ran out of time and sent off a bog standard CV. We'll see. The freelance possibility didn't come off, as they wanted me to be able to start at a moment's notice, but they couldn't 100% guarantee the work would be there. I felt I couldn't give in my notice without more certainty, so then when they got the go-ahead, I wasn't available. I wish I'd taken the risk now.

My job is getting me down, but a lot of that is because I'm not really interested in it so every new task feels like a big chore. I've got too many responsibilities, and the worst thing is that the boss is very indecisive and changes his mind all the time and we have a couple of very stroppy staff who are alway pushing everyone to do things their way. It's just not enjoyable. So I will look out for other opportunities, but I do appreciate that I have a job and I don't like to moan.

Otherwise I'm OK. OH seems to be rallying a bit. I'm letting him project manage the building work about to start at our house (builders coming round this evening to plan the project so we should know the scale of the chaos then). Also there was a sad episode in our street on Sunday when a neighbour with a drink problem and mental health issues flipped out and was acting in a dangerous and violent way. OH went out and looked after her and kept things under control til the police came - it was a scary situation and he handled it really well.

hypno06

Seizing that, then.....could OH look to do some voluntary work with other such adults - if he handled the situation really well, then that is something that he could use going forward, maybe not until the building work has finished, but certainly he could look into it ahead of that and prepare with CRB checks and the like that take time to arrange?

Seaxwyn

Good idea, Hypno, I will suggest it. He has applied for a couple of jobs at the home for mentally ill people near our home and heard nothing - don't know if it's his application style or that he's in competition with younger people with more solid work experience. At 61, having barely ever had a proper job, I don't think OH would come across as the ideal employee.

However he is currently working for the local newsagent - marking up newspapers for the morning rounds and doing a couple of rounds too, so that's a few hours work each morning. It means he is just about managing to pay for all our food, which is a good step forward.

I've got a big problem this month as I am only £100 away from my overdraft limit and still have to pay council tax, train ticket and two credit card bills, so well over £500 before spending anything else. I've also got a £300 tax bill. On the upside, I sold a book on Amazon for £52 this morning.