OberonSH's DFW Diary Thread - 1 Woman, 1 Toddler & A Whole Lotta Debt!

floss2

There's nothing worse than losing your comfy knickers when you're pregnant...i remember it well (and youngest DS is 19!)

Good luck with the packing & the move Obi, hope all goes well

Floss xx

Shineyhappy

Good luck for the move, I hope it goes smoothly.

Good news about the debts! I am sure you will knock ages off the debt free date.

OberonSH

Hoping so - done my snowball, set up my Direct debits. Just need to get through October, as all the money is going on the move. As of next month everything should be clean, clear and under control. As they say.

Just been pricing up self storage, as there's only a miracle that can keep us on track for exchange by next friday. £200 for a month (minimum term :-( ) and renting a van ourselves, or £400 for a removal company both ends and a week in their storage. I know which is cheaper, but having a professional copnay in to handle it would be lovely.......

So if I manage to sell the £120 mega knit auction on the Buy It Now price, I will get the removal company. I know it's not very DFW friendly, but I am 29 weeks, and want to make sure it happens without being let down at last minute by family or friends and end up hefting boxes myself!

What do you guys think?

mumoftwins

Oh wow OSH!! Just been reading your latest posts in your diary thread and apart from having me in stitches :rotfl: :rotfl: thank you, thank you, thank you - I read what you said about me and feel so humble that you think about me and my probs so :A !

Keep making us laugh - its great :rotfl:

Shineyhappy

I think you should be very careful and not lift anything, if you have to pay extra then dont fret about it. Somethings are more important that money!

You really need to relax and not get too stressed and heaving boxes about is not going to help at all!

OberonSH

I'm not too stressed - I'm floating in that calm pool on the other side of 'Arrgh arghh I owe money to laods of people what do I do argh argh argh'. I'm on stage 3 - calm acceptance of the slog.

Stage one being 'bailiffs are coming, I have no money OMG I'm going to be thrown to the lions', stage 2 being the incredibly active phase where everything you could sell (including the kids, OH and the dog) are on ebay, the insurance has been cut and the piggy points are rolling in.

I just want a nice calm move - the ideal situation would be 'Here you go Mr Removal Man, here's my keys, everything is in there. I'm off for the day with the family, everything's labelled, post the keys through the door at the other end when you're done....' in my own happy world where David Tennant is king, and Rossendales bailiffs are forced to clean the toilets with their tongues. But I'd also like £200 to clear of one of my debts. ..... choices choices

OliveOyl_2

Obe, can I bother you with a knitting question?

I used to knit, but haven't for years, but I followed your link yesterday for free knitting patterns and I think I've found one that I'd like to make for DD for Christmas. :T If she hates it (she may well do she's fussier than me) she could still wear it indoors so I can keep the heating turned down. (there's method in my madness, she'll want to please me by wearing it:D )

The pattern is on knitty.com in their fall collection and is called cherie amour.

My question is what sort of wool am I looking for? They have "handpaintedyarn Merino bulky". What is that? Looks like posh chunky knit.

Are you selling any that is right? I have no idea what is a trendy colour even I'm middle aged, she's 21.

suggestions on a postcard please......and thanks

OberonSH

NP Olive bother away!!

That's a great pattern!! She'll love it. As for colours, have a bob down to Jane Norman or the like, and see what colours are 'in'. Appears to be teal at the moment.

The tension is 12 st x 16 rows on 8mm, but that's over 10 inches (someone please tell America that we were here first, so they should use OUR needle size, yarn categories and tensions PLEASE!!) Doesn't help that it's a lacy pattern. Going on needle size, I reckon you could get away with a chunky, but do a tension square first. Tedious, but nessecary in this case, as it's an educated guess.

To give you a rough idea you'll be looking at Debbie Bliss Superchunky sort of size (expensive at £4 a ball, but my god is gorgeous with that cashmere). You'll need between 600 and 900 metres, so if buying on ebay make sure you find out how much is on a ball, and what needle size it's done on. Dependant on your tension, you could get away with a normal chunky if you're a tight knitter and tend to go up a needle size anyway. I'm the opposite, and have to do garments a size smller, or drop my needle size.

Let me kno how you get on, and if you need any more help - would love to see a pic when it's done.

hypno06

Hi Obi, did you have any luck with FiL taking over the car?

I hope you manage to get your feet up for a bit over the weekend, next weekend is going to be pretty stressful one way or another, so try and preserve some energy (even if your sanity HAS been packed) if you can xx

OberonSH

Yup, he's taking over the payments - only fair as he's using it, taxing and insuring it. So I've taken the debt off my 'working' total, leaving only a few small ex shop debts, and the whopping Barclays £19k. I'm pretty confident that once we move, a final Ebay push will bring in enoug to just leave me with the Barclays. It's a massive amount, and I'm still trying to get them to put half of it onto my ex husband (after all, part of it was used to buy a car - I don't even have a driving license!) but as it's in my name, I have to assume responsibility until then.

They've already old me they'll take a full payment of £13k on a 19k debt, so I'm confident in the future I'll be able to offer a settlement when it gets down a bit.

Hope you're all going o have a cheap day - DD has her first birthday party today - going to the local ball pit type place and then McDonalds - should be an experience as she's never been, last night I made my own version (T Rex burgers, as they were practically half a cow on a home made crusty bun) and they wentdown a storm (not to mention I knew exactly what as in there)

Received a cheque for ebay stuff, and my new TV license, and a letter from Virin telling me tehy're moving the DD dates. Actually feels pretty good to hav everything organised - I know when payments are going out, everythign's up to date, just waiting on the rest of my creditors to approve the payments and get the move out the way and we're away!

Trying tnot to think about the Move. We're in a good position, we've got a lot of options, just don;t know which one we're going to go for - going to have a word with nursery and see if I can take her holiday the week after next - that way if we have to go stay with FIL we won;t have to trek up the motorway to bring her to nursery. We are luck that we have a place to go until it's all sorted, just hope that whoever looks after me up there has a trick in their bag and we exchange on Friday. It's still doable if everyone pulls their fingers out.

So off I pop to make some homemade buns, put a pasta bake in my beloved slow cooker and bath the child ready for getting grubby again this afternoon. Want to get her a new winter coat, so no chance of a No Spender for me, but it's a necessary spend, so not too bad. Have a cheap day chicks!