New year, new start

clyndu

Hi Rachael, noticed your starting to ebay, could you list a few more things this week-end, as it's free listing. Good luck. Valerie

victoriaplum1

Do you sell alot on free listing weekends? I always think there is gonna be so much being sold on there on those weekends that you won't get a good a price as other times?!

RachelS

I was wondering the same thing. I do want to take advantage of the free listings, but I also know I have a tendency to overdo things and then throw in the towel, so I've decided as I'm so early on in this process just to keep to listing one thing a day for now.

RachelS

I have to say that this daily checking of my bank balance makes me feel sick. Empowered, yes. Less stressed on an all-day, background level, yes.

But really, really sick.

I am not sure how we are going to make it to next payday. We have hardly any money at all and we owe several hundred pounds for outstanding bills which are going to leave us really short. I think once we make it to next payday things might be a little better with the new budget, it's the next 3 weeks I'm really worried about. My hubby is thinking of selling his PS3. It doesn't make much sense to me because he will only end up wanting to buy another one in a year or two and we will probably end up the worse off in the long term...but without that I don't know how we're going to get through the next 3 weeks without borrowing more, which we are not willing to do.

I think we will be about £300 short though so not sure what else we're going to do. I intend to list my treadmill on eBay tomorrow, so if that sells quickly to someone who'll collect it might help...but I've heard that as a new seller it could take quite a while for me to be able to access the money on PayPal? Does anyone have any experience of this?

Thanks, Rach xxx

RachelS

Hello folks! Just after some help with ideas of whether we might be entitled to any benefits etc? I have been very lax sorting this out as we had savings and got into debt. Now those avenues are closed we are trying to rectify the situation.

I have barely worked since university due to ill health. My husband is from outside the UK but has worked in the UK for the last 5 years. Until a year and a half ago he was on £43,000 with lots of perks, so we had no financial problems whatsoever and bought a house.

He has had a career change and for the first six months earned almost nothing. Now he is bringing home about £1200 a month after tax etc. This will hopefully increase in the future but that's where we are at the moment.

I am at home with our 13 month old twins. We get £130 a month child benefit so a total of £1330 and that is it at the moment.

Our rent is £466 a month. We own a house an another area and rent it out, the rent doesn't quite cover the mortgage and agency management fees so we are paying another £98 a month out of pocket for that. There is about £20,000 equity in the house but we don't want to sell at the minute as getting back onto the ladder would be too hard.

I know we are entitled to some Child Tax Credit...can that be backdated at all?

Is there anything else you can think of that we might be entitled to?

And where's the best place we can go to get advice on what we might be able to get and how to claim?

Thanks very much xxx

RachelS

On a much lighter note, got to pluck my own eyebrows today in an attempt to save £9. Not done it myself since the Great Plucking Disaster of 1997...oh dear...someone heeeelp! : )

Amethyst68

Hello RachelS,
You could give tax credits a ring and make a claim,I think they are open on Saturdays.
Good luck.
Amethyst xx

RachelS

I am having a really down day today. I just didn't want to open my eyes this morning. I feel overwhelmed by everything I am trying to do...but I also feel I don't have any choice other than to do it.

I know a lot of other people are in the same boat. It feels as though there aren't enough hours in the day. I am trying to look after 13-month-old twins...a full time job in itself, sort out my house and garden which I didn't move into that long ago (the upstairs looks like an episode of Hoarders...well, sort of!), I'm trying to find time to cook everyone healthy meals which must now also be on a very tight budget, get a job I can somehow fit in around the home life (ie evenings), manage on a budget which is around £500 a month short AND pay of £1000s of debt.

I have a husband who works six days a week and who, when he gets home, not only gets in a bad mood if the evening isn't set aside for him to do nothing, but also gets annoyed with me when I am rushing around doing everything because it makes him feel like we're not having a relaxing night. He's an appalling procrastinator so I have ended up feeling like I've taken on everything and it's unfair, and that I don't have someone to share my stress with. The trouble is that he has looked after me in the past when I've been ill, and so that seems to mean I can't bring up that I'd like him to do more now.

I just feel like I'm in a hole I'm not going to manage to get out of, and I wish there was someone else to do it for me! I wake up with a start around 4.30 and just lie there worrying until I get up.

DebtfreeBY40_2

You definately have those days! OH and I had a huge row last night because I felt it was unfair. He'd been at work all day and I had been here, listing DVDs on Play.com, entering competitions, doing a sensible weekly shop and waiting for the Next Courier to arrive to take some returns back. All to make / save money. And what the hell was he doing about that? Not spending it, he told me! WELL!!!! When I said the figure out loud last night, that we owe, we both kind of took a minute because its huge. But we can't think about it ever day. Its just heads down and one thing at a time. You're here. You know you do have to sort things out. You have alluded in previous posts to how this will get better. I bet you can't believe how quickly the last 13 months have gone since your babies arrived. Time goes so quickly! So in no time it will be a little better. We said this last night. About two years ago we could barely get through the month. We used our Tesco club card vouchers to buy the last week of the months shopping. Credit cards to buy the last weeks fuel. It definately got easier than that now. We have made little changes and things are much easier. And they will just keep getting better because we have faced up not only to our debt but the reality of our finances.
Have a good day xxx

Helen105

Hi Rachel

Sorry things are so tough at the moment, it would make a huge difference if OH was supportive, but from reading these diaries I know it often takes a long time for the men to come on board. You can at least push the childcare on to him when he is around, tell him it is essential for proper bonding. As for having relaxing evenings, in my experience that won't happen until they are old enough to do their own thing,which brings it's own set of worries.

Here's another link for you
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/benefits-check
there is a calculator on there that you put your details in and it tells you how much you can expect to get. I'm pretty sure you should get a decent amount, when I was a single parent of three teens on around £28,000 we got around £250 a month if I remember rightly.