2010: New Year, New Flat, New Plan.........

ehallett

Hi everyone

I hope you are all having a good weekend. So many posts to catch up on .

Firstly, Tinkerbell - thank you so much for posting :A. I am sorry to hear about your auntie. It sounds like she was a fighter, as I think all of us CFers are. I'm glad that she made sure that she enjoyed her life too.

I certainly don't think you are pathetic for what you did. You made an attempt to clear your debts. A lot of people who have no health problems to contend with don't even do that.

I'm not sure if I will get to the end of my DMP or not. I know that bankruptcy is an option and I haven't completely ruled it out. However, I would like to try to clear some of the debt before I go for bankruptcy. I will know when the time is right to go down that road and it's nice to know that people don't have to know when I decide to do it so thank you for telling me I have no fear in that respect.

I'm hoping that working from home will help in terms of my health. To be honest, I am quite a sad person and spend most of my time doing something on my laptop anyway so going self employed and sitting on my laptop all day isn't really going to be much of a hardship so I am going to give that a go for a bit to see how it goes. I promise that as soon as my health shows any signs of going downhill, I will quit any type of work and will hold my hands up and say that the debt has to go . I hope you are keeping well and would be good to keep in touch. xx


Ms London - I don't think I put anyone to shame, least of all you . You did so well to clear debt and save to go travelling. I seem to remember it was roughly the same amount I am in debt by altogether.

I work for Probation, just office work but our manager is such a nightmare. She is rude, offensive, sarcastic, so uncompassionate and she stresses me out so much. I can't wait for my 2 months off and will hopefully make it a permanent move into self-employment.


Right, off to watch TV Burp - best TV programme ever :rotfl:.

Emily xx

ehallett

22 working days left to go :T (18.5 when you take off my leave ). I am crossing the days off now as it's getting worse and worse there.

I am trying to build up my possible opportunities for when I am self-employed and have been accepted to 3 new mystery shopping companies. I have already applied for a couple of shops via one of them and have got another 2 from one of my usual ones.

I successfully got my £300 from AQA for my DMP payment so all is well there.

Emily x

beanielou

You could always go off sick if you really need too.

ehallett

beanielou wrote: »

You could always go off sick if you really need too.

It's very tempting, believe me. I think I will try and stick it out though. 6 hours a day isn't too bad and my boss doesn't work on Fridays so it's ok on those days.

xx

Tinkerbell3

ehallett wrote: »

Hi everyone

I hope you are all having a good weekend. So many posts to catch up on .

Firstly, Tinkerbell - thank you so much for posting :A. I am sorry to hear about your auntie. It sounds like she was a fighter, as I think all of us CFers are. I'm glad that she made sure that she enjoyed her life too.

I certainly don't think you are pathetic for what you did. You made an attempt to clear your debts. A lot of people who have no health problems to contend with don't even do that.

I'm not sure if I will get to the end of my DMP or not. I know that bankruptcy is an option and I haven't completely ruled it out. However, I would like to try to clear some of the debt before I go for bankruptcy. I will know when the time is right to go down that road and it's nice to know that people don't have to know when I decide to do it so thank you for telling me I have no fear in that respect.

I'm hoping that working from home will help in terms of my health. To be honest, I am quite a sad person and spend most of my time doing something on my laptop anyway so going self employed and sitting on my laptop all day isn't really going to be much of a hardship so I am going to give that a go for a bit to see how it goes. I promise that as soon as my health shows any signs of going downhill, I will quit any type of work and will hold my hands up and say that the debt has to go . I hope you are keeping well and would be good to keep in touch. xx


Ms London - I don't think I put anyone to shame, least of all you . You did so well to clear debt and save to go travelling. I seem to remember it was roughly the same amount I am in debt by altogether.

I work for Probation, just office work but our manager is such a nightmare. She is rude, offensive, sarcastic, so uncompassionate and she stresses me out so much. I can't wait for my 2 months off and will hopefully make it a permanent move into self-employment.


Right, off to watch TV Burp - best TV programme ever :rotfl:.

Emily xx

Glad you will consider bankruptcy in the future if you need to and really start to struggle or the stress all becomes too much.
Hope the working from home and being self employed works out for you, make sure you talk to someone (there used to be social workers at the hospital for advice) to see if you are entitled to any help from the goverment with costs of rent, council tax and even a bump up in money to what you earn. I think if you work less than 16 hours per week you are still entitled to incapacity of some sort.

Glad you haven't got long left at work now and enjoy your 2 months off from there

ehallett

Hi everyone

Realised that I hadn't posted for a while. Nothing much is happening at the moment. I am just kind of plodding on, counting down the days until I finish work.

I have been trying to get as many mystery shops as possible lined up, however a lot of the ones available now are for March so not many April ones around. However, so far I have:

01/04/10 - £15 worth of jobs
06/04/10 - £5
11/04/10 - £16
12/04/10 - £6
14/04/10 - £6

Plus all of them add up to £27 worth of free shopping too. Will hopefully be able to get a few more before the end of the month.

Emily x

ehallett

Hi everyone

Not long to go now :j. I am getting really excited. I only have 4 days at work next week and 3 days the week after and then that is it - maybe forever!!

My diary is filling up nicely with MS jobs. I am always on the look out for them and will hopefully get more as the dates move into April. I think that a sat nav would help me to get MS jobs that are a bit further afield as my sense of direction is awful. I have decided to save some Amazon vouchers for this and am aiming to get one by the end of April. I'm going to see if I can win one too.

I have a new way that I am trying to avoid buying unnecessary things. For example, I really want the new Twilight DVD, but I have very little money at the moment and can't really justify buying it. I therefore searched for competitions to win it and have entered around 15-20 comps. The thought that it might come through my letterbox any day now for free is stopping me from buying it 'just in case'. Anything I want from now on (non-essential items) are going on a list and I will be trying to enter as many comps as possible to win them.

Another way I am trying to save money is to get a monthly shop delivered to my flat. When I go into the supermarket, I get loads of stuff I don't really need and this should hopefully keep me out of the supermarkets. I am going to get my first shop in time for the beginning of April and I am allowing myself £50 a month which will include the delivery fee, food, drink and laundry/cleaning products. I have got a free Asda delivery to use so will begin with that.

My mum gets me a lot of little shopping bits (and never accepts any money for them!!) so that will help and I am going to start to get TMF offers too which won't count towards my £50.

Emily xx

beanielou

Was just thinking of you yesterday!
Not long to go now then

ehallett

Evening everyone.

Well, only 4.5 working days left :j:j:j:beer:

I have abandoned the £50 monthly shop idea and am instead going for a £10 a week shop. I will do this every Wednesday as that's the day I get my DLA.

My target was £10, I spent £9.55 . Not bad for the first go. I got some frozen stuff for my dinners (when I'm not eating round my mum's ), some orange and lemon squash (as I am trying to kick my terrible fizzy drink habit), some value ketchup, choccie biscuits, some crunchies as a treat for my OH, some face pads and I even got 2 Easter eggs for my sister with it . I was also a good girl and reused some carrier bags for extra points and obviously doing my bit for the planet. Spent £10 on petrol in Tesco too, hoping it will last me for the week.

OH is going to New York tomorrow until Monday next week. So I will have a cheap weekend. I will miss him but feel like I do need a weekend to myself.

I am trying to be really good with my money but there is temptation everywhere!! The new Twilight DVD is hard to avoid with adverts and massive displays in all the supermarkets. I even had a guy ring my buzzer today asking if I had ordered a pizza!! I was so close to ordering a pizza on Monday and it took all my willpower to resist it- it just felt like this guy was rubbing my nose in it :rotfl:.

Also, after giving up Avon, I had a woman put a book through my door. I have decided that I am going to allow myself £20 from there as my 1 treat, every book. In the last book, I only ordered £13.50 which included a cardigan and a couple of packs of face wipes. In the new book, I have ordered a nail varnish, some underwear and a nail buffer/file keyring all for £10.50.

Got a night out with my friend planned on Monday. This includes a meal at Slug & Lettuce (50% off so hoping to spend less than a tenner) and a free screening of the movie Whip It.

Off to enter a few comps for stuff I could give my niece for her birthday.

Emily xx

ehallett

Another day down....................only 3.5 to go :j.

My friend at work let slip that they have done a collection for me as they think that I am going to make a huge success of this self-employed business and won't ever go back (I am hoping she is right!!). She asked me what I wanted so I just said Argos vouchers. My other friend let slip that I had nearly £40 already . I am going to save those vouchers and use them for my niece's birthday present in May.

I am currently answering some questions towards my £300 for my DMP and playing Bingoport at the same time. Up to 4k at the moment which is good for the first day of the new 'redeem week'. I worked out I need around 3k a day to get the £10 Amazon voucher. My current target is definitely a sat nav as I think it will really help me with mystery shopping. I am going to get into Dooyoo again when I am self-employed. I am going to aim for 3 reviews a day which will get me around £40 worth of vouchers a month. If I could get £40 a month from BP too, then I could get a decent sat nav in 2-3 months time. I will see how it goes.

Best get on with the questions. I have to go into work earlier tomorrow so need to get an early night.

Emily x