A fresh start

hypno06

In which case I won't be - I am with T-mobile Good news for you though!

Karmacat

Excellent - fancy £1! Is that for PAYG, Seaxwyn?

taxi73

Great news..£1 for a phone..absolute bargain...

Seaxwyn

Yes, I'm pleased with the £1 phone, hope it lasts as long as the last one. I also got given a solar charger as a freebie at the conference last week, which should make a tiny difference to our electricity bill!

Seaxwyn

I had a letter from the tax office saying I owed them money, which I SO DON'T, so rang them up expecting a difficult conversation and the lady said a new statement has been sent out today saying they owe me money and a cheque is in the post today. Woo hoo!

Otherwise feeling rather gloomy. OH has only a few sessions booked at the college - it doesn't even add up to £400 worth this term. He says he has "applied" to three other colleges, but that only means he sent a CV, he hasn't actually phoned to find out who to send them to etc etc. So it's all down to me and I only earn enough for us to scrape by.

I know that we have the important things - health, family, etc - but at times I get really fed up with myself for paying so little attention to financial matters in the last ten years.

kissjenn

Woohoo on the cheque and pants on OH and jobs. It is so hard being "the one" all the bl00dy time but to be honest that's pretty much the story on this boards with very few exceptions.

How are the jobs going? Does it look like you'll have work for a good while to come?

Seaxwyn

Hi Jenn! It's good to know we're part of a community of breadwinners with troublesome spouses for one reason or another. Hope yours is bearing up!

My work position is far from secure. I have my temp job (3 days week) up til april presumably. The only way that could be extended is if the postholder decides not to come back from maternity leave but she'd be foolish as it's a cushy number. My freelance work is up til December, and they've just asked me to cut the budget for the project due to a funding reduction. Both are voluntary sector organisations. I had a dark night of the soul last night worrying about it all - no secure income, no pensions, no savings for kids' education.... it's a sorry picture.

But I've made a small decision today which has made me feel a tiny bit more in control. I have two current accounts, and one currently has £448/month more going into it than coming out. So I have put the card for that account away with my credit cards and will live out of the other account, meaning I am "saving" £448/month, which can be my tax savings.

kissjenn

Tax savings is a great idea. I'm still in the red so don't owe them anything yet.

To be honest I'm completely lost about where this recession and jobs are going. Allegedly we're starting to recover but unemployment in Edinburgh just hit 10,000 for the first time. So many aren't officially unemployed that the numbers are meaningless. The FTSE up and staying over 5000, but everyone I know is broke, jobs are rarer than hen's teeth and redundancies are still lomming.

Lost and Confused of Scotland

taxi73

That's a good idea for your tax savings as that's the thing that you usually struggle with most.

hypno06

One of the keys to dealing in all this is accepting the things which you can't control....and dealing with the things that you CAN do something about.

But that is easier said than done -it is very difficult to "let go" of the things that have to be down to someone else, especially when you feel the impact of those things.

So, hurrah for being in control of that current account! A decent sized step in the right direction!

:T