Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly

pania

heya ben ben!!! thanks hon... really hope that things are looking up your way too... oh and ps, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

chevalier

sadly size 10 jeans wouldn't get over my hips, but there you go lol. I don't think even after i have lost the stone i want to, that i will be down to that size. But a size 14 or a 12 would be nice.

Red have been reading your diary just not got to the end yet, but will delurk soon

pania

hiya chev!!! hope you are doing ok? if you need a lodger just yell and i'll be there like a shot! will even hand deliver a pair of jeans and a shred dvd for you x

gilligansyle

Have de-lurked to say how much I enjoyed the early morning alcohol induced rambling.

:DWhats a size 10??? in jeans. I don't think I've ever been that, nearest I've ever got to a 10 was immediately post baby when I had been dieting for the first 6 months of the pregnancy.

Cheery_Daff

I did laugh at your drunken ramblings - especially as I read it wrong and thought it was lunchtime! :rotfl: Glad you enjoyed yourself though!

Tescodealqueen

Just got back after our lovely MSE mini break. Loved your ramblings Pania - glad you are having a good time. DH was SE for a while can be great but I had a regular income as a safety net, though I am sure you will think it through carefully before making a decision. Wish you well whenever you decide to make the leap.

redsquirrel80

Hello and belated happy new diary! I think the challenge you're planning for next year is absolutely amazing

Booo to shift allowance though, that is rubbish!

Edit - hmm I thought the bit about shift allowance was at the end of the thread and now I've just found another couple of pages.. I am really not with it today

Anyway, your weekend sounds fab!

Helen105

Its because of being S/E that I am now on DFW. Six years after we gave up on the business I have the debts down to £6000 and nearly have my unblemished credit rating back. I would say be very careful, RMC knows the misery of having to constantly rob Peter to pay Paul and the frustration of not having the money available to invest in good opportunities.

I did enjoy working for myself though, it was great fun and there were no bullying bosses or anyone to account to. I would suggest doing as much as you can whilst still FT employed and then going for PT S/E, PT Employed.

I don't know what market you're going in for but I would agree with Z that times are going to get hard which may impact on your customer base.

ZTD

pania wrote: »

unfortunately z i dont agree that the public sector employment is secure. especially not as secure as it once was.

Well, no...where do you think the extra (estimated) 1.3 million unemployed were coming from?

pania wrote: »

I am aware of the review in october and we were informed the other day that these pay cuts may not be the end and come october redundancies may follow.

It's virtually inevitable that we will have redundancies. I may or may not be one of them.

pania wrote: »

The pay cuts are being made to tempt the CC to look elsewhere and prove that a sufficient enough saving can be made from our department for us to be left alone (I'm paying for the privaledge in other words!!) therefore i need to start researching possibilities now to protect myself "if" redundancy happens and "when" the pay cut happens. I have no intention of giving this job up until such times as i have a secure and viable alternative. i'm not wreckless in that way and would only go self employed if I knew there was a very very good chance of it providing an income equal to or in excess of the the salary i earn currently.

Good - that's the entire point I was making. You may, or may not have a good enough parachute, but not leaving go of the plane until the last possible moment seems like a good plan at the moment. It's not a secure plane, but it's a plane and it beats flapping your arms yourself...

pania wrote: »

Centralisation has already happened to 2/3rds of our unit. it makes sense that we would follow to as it would then allow them to effectively "mothball" the upstairs of our station. The financial saving that would make the force goes withoiut saying.

The savings of having half a building empty are actually quite small. You still pay whatever charges are on the building, the heating is roundabout the same as you can't just let the pipes freeze, and upstairs is not insulated from downstairs. There's the costs of moving, and any transitionary payments on top.

The real savings are made from completely shuttering buildings and hopefully selling them for housing.

pania wrote: »

The money i am putting away isnt savings, and i am aware that it isnt good to save when you have debt. Martin has taught me well over the last 5 years. but i have had debt longer than i care to remember and i need to start getting some money behind me to get out of certain situations and to once again be and remain self sufficient. £30 out of my salary before i get paid means it isnt counted in my soa and in 10 years time is a lump sum for whatever situation i am in then.

I agree absolutely with emergency money. You can't beat having a little bit of money you can just pull out at short notice. Money you can't get to without a huge penalty is not emergency money.

pania wrote: »

The public sector pay cuts that have been predicted are currently worst case scenario, yes we have to prepare for the worst but if the worst happens then it is 99% likely that I will be one of the number they have quoted. If i dont plan ahead and look at alternatives including self employment then what do i do then? the businesses I am entertaining are quite niche in their market and to say i will have less customers without being aware of the market i am planning on working in, and the competition i will have also, feels a little sweeping.

If you are going to lose your job, then other people alongside you (potential customers of your business) will also lose their jobs and the people nearby such as pub workers etc (also potential customers of your business) who were customers of the first lot will also lose their jobs (called secondary job losses).

If any kind of business is successful, there will always be copy-cats who'll go "Giz a job - I can do that!", though not necessarily in a scouse accent...

I'm in the North remember - we know about mass unemployment.

pania wrote: »

Running a sucessful company is about knowing your customer, knowing your industry and adapting your pricing structure accordingly, along with effective marketing. there will ALWAYS be services that members of public need, no matter what the cash in their hands.

When it gets down to it, the only service people ALWAYS *need* is farming. As you move up the ladder getting less and less desperate, more services are wanted. But they are wants, rather than needs.

Just make sure you look very carefully before you leap, you don't want to pull that cord on your parachute and find out it's an anvil...

pania wrote: »

Hi all!! no reply from Z. hmmm. hope my words didnt come across wrongly.

I've been drinking champagne - it's tiring...

pania wrote: »

Free pair of monsoon jeans given to me by my sister fit like a glove!!!

What's the use in that? You want them to fit like trousers...

taxi73

I agree with Z on all points and it was what I was trying to saybut Z put it so much better.
Helen is also one to learn from as I can second where shes coming from as a lot of our debt was from business related stuff and trying to keep afloat a business.

It took a long time to get up front as roughly 18 months ago(after building up the business) our business dropped by at least £500 per week due to the recesssion and people losing their jobs...I am expecting more drops due to job losses in civil services as we have a lot of government service jobs here..

Thats all I wanted to say really...good luck whatever you decide to do