A Payment A Day - Part 10!

Little_bit_dizzy

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

I still have the same gas cooker that I bought just after moving in here in 1987. It only cost about £200 back then and I paid nearly £100 to fix it a couple of years back . Even now the igniter no longer works (battery change didn't fix it) so I bought a couple of those hand held igniters from Asda for a pound or so each.

Amazing stuff! That works out at a cost of about £1 per month by my reckoning. Excellent frugality

You sound really fed up at the moment, I hope you are ok. Life can sometimes make you feel like a hamster on a wheel - going absolutley bl00dy nowhere, but look at you sig and see what you have managed to date. You've paid off a huge chunk of your debt, which is really good going. It's never going to be a doddle, but it will be worth all the hard work. Hope things pick up for you

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Little_bit_dizzy wrote: »

Amazing stuff! That works out at a cost of about £1 per month by my reckoning. Excellent frugality

You sound really fed up at the moment, I hope you are ok. Life can sometimes make you feel like a hamster on a wheel - going absolutley bl00dy nowhere, but look at you sig and see what you have managed to date. You've paid off a huge chunk of your debt, which is really good going. It's never going to be a doddle, but it will be worth all the hard work. Hope things pick up for you

The sig is well out of date. My starting debt level was much higher than I first realised on there. I vowed that I would only make my sig visible again when my unsecured debt level went below £40k. That point will probably arrive around the back end of this year. However, I have since realised that sigs are accessible even if not on open display.
During the Winter just gone until the end of this month, my debt level has hardly shifted. I feel a bit stuck. However, I couldn't resist forking out for a half season ticket to watch my home football club - especially as it was the only way to be certain of seeing them play in the FA Cup at Manchester United. Also, my friend's son comes with me to the home games and I managed to get him some tickets where they cost 7 matches for the price of 5 (£25 as he is a minor). My friend can't afford it and I do have a good rapport.
Yes I am a little low but it's OK to feel that way.
I will also be forking out for 5000 or 10000 leaflets soon as I wish to take my business up another notch. Spring will be here soon and I want to be getting some new work. I also want to replace a few customers who have been messing me about. It's quite funny really. As soon as there is a sniff of economic hardship, some people think they can bully service providers into working for peanuts. This is fine with big suppliers because they have plenty of more profitable customers. However, when dealing with a sole trader (such as myself), they are effectively telling me to take a pay cut. They seem to be aware that they can replace me but blissfully UNaware that I can replace them. There are still plenty of people out there prepared to pay a bit extra for a decent standard of work.

But yes, that gas cooker has really earned its keep. £300 spent on it (including the repair) and it will have lasted 24 years if it keeps going until September/October time. So that's currently about 280 months for the £300. If you could see its condition you would laugh. I'm almost frightened to clean it properly in case it collapses . Bits and pieces are missing off it but it works perfectly - apart from needing the handheld igniter.

Little_bit_dizzy

Paul - a warning. Don't clean it! I really cleaned my old cooker about 6 years ago and that killed it. Honest. So don't clean it

I know what you mean about the customer thing too. Just yesterday someone haggled with me, comparing us to a big national company (25 miles away, if you please so hardly convenient for them), playing the 'well they can offer...' card.

I have to admit I was a bit cheesed off with the attitude they were giving so I just said 'Off you go then'. I really pride myself on giving really excellent customer service, but sometimes you just can't do it...

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Little_bit_dizzy wrote: »

Paul - a warning. Don't clean it! I really cleaned my old cooker about 6 years ago and that killed it. Honest. So don't clean it

I know what you mean about the customer thing too. Just yesterday someone haggled with me, comparing us to a big national company (25 miles away, if you please so hardly convenient for them), playing the 'well they can offer...' card.

I have to admit I was a bit cheesed off with the attitude they were giving so I just said 'Off you go then'. I really pride myself on giving really excellent customer service, but sometimes you just can't do it...

I started out giving excellent customer service. I had the time to do it because it took time to build up to a full work load. Then I started to realise something. The more I tried to please some people, the more hassle they gave me - so I started to change tack. It took me several years to become aware that there is a fine line between giving excellent customer service as opposed to sucking up to perennial moaners. Honestly, if I had given those early customers everything that they asked for, I would have gone out of business. Eventually, once I was more established, I gave them away. I passed on work that netted me well over £500 a month. I didn't have the cheek to sell it because it was underpriced to start with. I told the guy what they were like but he was happy to be getting a bit of work to start him off.
As the years went by, I became a bit more cynical about customers. Don't get me wrong. I have some great customers on my books. However, it has taken many years of pruning and weeding out the difficult ones.
When I go through a phase of freshening things up with new work, I am a lot pickier about what I will take on.

never_too_old

another small pad for me today and its to a new source.
94 pence

has been dropped into my sealed pot.

i have decided to see if can save money towards a new cooker which i know i will need before the year is out.

going to put all change under a pound in the tin and everything above will go to debt/ mortgage payments, :j

retiredandskint

Totted up what was left in my purse at the end of the week and another £9.05 towards OH's CC.

I also got a letter from DWP today and my state pension is going up by near a fiver a week :j.

kashton_2

Chucked another £2.70 in the currys pot today, change from shopping, hoping i can PAD at the weekend but i will just be taking it from my account that i am trying to keep nice and healthy?? Hmmmm, wondering if i should just bite the bullet and pay the rest off instead of messing about with small change daily? Maybe i am just having a fed up with my debts moment.....

Souk08

Hi all £1.30 into the fund today.

X

sophia-abigail-mummy

got my kitchen back yeah. I have had a washing machine sitting in the middle of it since yesterday morning (small kitchen) and it has just been removed by some lovely freecyclers.
PAD for today £8.00 from stairgate sold today.

slowlyfading

£81.81 for me today