A fresh start

Wordsmith

Can't offer any advice, I'm afraid, but just wanted to wish you luck. If you took the job full-time, would you still have time to do any freelancing that came your way? Knowing you had that regular income would be very comforting.

Seaxwyn

OK, it's 1st of August and just one month after saying my debt will go down every month, guess what.. it has gone up!

Here's an update on 1st July figures

CCs [STRIKE]£16,333.65[/STRIKE] £17,653.01
Loan[STRIKE]6.5% £15,665.20[/STRIKE] £15,273.47
OD 0% [STRIKE]£2514.95[/STRIKE]£2,464.79
Total [STRIKE]£34,813.80[/STRIKE] £35,391.27

This is because once again, I had to borrow to pay my tax bill. And that happened because of OH not getting paid. I daren't make any predictions about what will happen this month.

Thanks for all the thoughts on taking a full-time job. I will continue to think about it - well they haven't actually offered me one, but there have been hints.

After some phone calls yesterday, I'm fairly confident that the freelance contract will continue to December, and that is a lot better paid, so I will stick to that one as long as I can. I can ring round my other freelance clients when that ends, but most of the work I've had in the last couple of years has been very short contracts - just a day or two here and there, or even just hours - and it's hard to earn enough in that way.

Buddiebabe, I'm lucky to have the many years of experience that I can get a high-ish salary - I hope you can get a promotion in your main job before long. I feel ashamed saying I can't live on 28 grand (that would be the full-time amount - part-time is £16,800) - but we do have a big mortgage and four kids to feed, clothe etc. Without being in any way lavish we can easily get through £3-4k in a month.

DD2 has just helped me photograph some more stuff on ebay. I made about £27 on the last batch, and OH has still to upload his. My latest batch includes some items I think might be collectable, it wll be interesting to see. And I've had an email from Quidco saying they've sent me £26, but I can't see any mention of this in my Quidco account. Mysterious.

buddiebabe

Hey Seaxwyn

Your debt has only gone up because of your tax bill both your loan and overdraft have decreased so you are still making some progress. There is always something that comes up and it will get better it has to for all of us!

There is no chance of a promotion at my work and they are even talking about making drastic cuts over the next few years so at the moment im just counting my blessings that i have a job.

I got an email from quidco last night telling me i was getting £65 in my account this month but nothing on quidco account page saying that..... would be good if they just paid me it tho!

Buddiebabe x

Seaxwyn

Oh maybe the Quidco emails are spam. I don't think I'm due to get £26. How disappointing.

Worrying news about the drastic cuts at work. Let's hope it doesn't happen.

hypno06

I got an email saying I had been paid £5.60 from quidco, but in my account was the correct amount due of £10........they obviously have some sort of problem at their end.

Anyway, onto more important things - did you enjoy the festival and what did you do with the eggs in the end

Seaxwyn

Oh yes the festival. Well it was either pretty lame or really fantastic depending on your age and experience! My DDs and their teenage friends had a great time. And luckily it was close enough to home that I could pop home for frequent breaks.

Most of the quails' eggs were hard-boiled and a few were fried (just for the comedy value of having a fried egg the size of a thumbnail! My friend who sent us the eggs talked me out of hatching any - apparently quails are pretty high maintenance.

Seaxwyn

Evening all. I listed 10 items on ebay this weekend, and 2 have watchers already.

It was my mum's birthday today and we went for lunch at a country pub nearby. It felt good to be celebrating with my parents as they've had a lot of ups and downs this past year. It's just over a year ago that my dad had his stroke and he's had a lot of health problems since then, not least a diagnosis of prostate cancer recently. But he was on good form, and enjoyed the lunch. I hope they both have a few more birthdays to come.

By chance, the pub had some books on a table for punters to read, and one of them was written by my dad!

DD is back from a week's scout camp so the usual domestic harmony has resumed. Though she and DS are happily playing with Ello at the moment.

taxi73

wow..ONE WRITTEN BY YOUR DAD...glad you enjoyed the celebrations as family are so important.Must be something wrong with quidco as I had an e-mail saying I was getting £28.66!!!..it's like a payment I had ages ago as though the computer has gone back 18 months.

Karmacat

Thats tres impressive, Seaxwyn! That must have bucked your dad up no end. Glad you had such a good day.

kissjenn

What a great day. I'm glad you had such a wonderful time after all the carppy stuff . Who was more chuffed - your dad or all you guys?