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Chair, Martin Lewis · Editor, Marcus Herbert
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Staying on the straight and narrow, and spending only the bear minimum :A . Had a big party for a friend to attend over the weekend :beer: and was pleased that the whole outfit came to exactly £50 - thats dress, shoes and jewllery. I am always in trousers so it was not possible to wear what I had. However I can wear the same outfit to two other functions I have to go to later, as no-one else will be there who attended the previous ones (well except OH - and that don't count!
Its an expensive year 2007 for me - two 21st _party_ , two 50th's :shhh:, a graduation, and still the threat of a new boiler said with fingers crossed
Byeee :wave: and Happy Easter :easter_ba
Thought I would write another entry to keep me focused - a bit like an on line diary of dealing with my spending and saving. Must admit it does help me stay aware of where its going when I sit down to actually write about it. Also makes me actually admit the truth of it - rather than pretend its not there, which is good.
I have kept a diary for years, but in the past never wrote much about my spending habits or my debt habits for that matter - except when it was really at its worst. I remember that quite clearly : sitting there wondering how I could afford the payments for the bedroom furniture I wanted from the catalogue. :question: I had actually ordered it and was told it would be 28 days delivery, and in the next few days started to work out the additional costs and realised it was an amount that would tip me over the edge. :undecided Then spent the next few days trying to justify to myself why I actually needed the furniture and how I could afford it. Still in denial. I continued down the path that it would work itself out until I finally accepted that this was my lightbulb moment :idea: - and I needed to do something quickly and positive about before it went any further and I needed to do something about the amount of debts I was covering on a week to week - month to month basis too.
I cancelled the furniture before it was delivered and was amazed by the attitue the catalogue representatives gave me - :silenced: real grief! Must have taken about two weeks - well past the actualy delivery date for them to accept it was not going to be accepted if they delivered it, and not to leave it with neighbours if I did not open the door to them. Even when I explained that if they delivered it I could not pay for it, they really didn't care - all they wanted was me to take it because of the amount of paperwork the cancellation would cause. Amazing!:exclamati :huh:
Thankfully - my lesson was learnt. The furniture never arrived. The catalogue was cancelled and banned from the house and since that date my debts have been my main priority and I have almost halved them. Still a long way to go - but its much easier now and very fullfilling to know that I am in control of my money.
Sorry to have waffled on .....
Byeee :wave: and hope you all get lots of nice :easter_ba
I have not written much lately, I have been job hunting.
The firm I had worked for :lipsrseal - for the last 17 years has restructured and now relocated and I was not part of the new plans.
They put out to grass not only my boss (the MD - I was his PA), but everyone else at that level
Most of the branches have been closed :sad: many of the head office functions have been moved to either call centres at the other end of the country, (well at least its not overseas!) or outsourced.:sad:
I think they only kept me on because to quote one of the newbies - out of the five top new people and me - I was the only one who knew anything :think: . Whats more he was basically right - but I didn't know the finiancial side, or the accounts side etc - only the management bits. :wall: Which did not add up to much in the long run....
I would have been due a nice redundancy having worked there for so long, :dance: but I was so miserable and depressed that my father persuaded me to leave them and go into the family business. "To hell with the redundancy" I believe his words were. "The time is right, I have just the job for you."
I knew the redundancy money would have paid off the debts once and for all,:T and I may have even had a little left over :j :beer: , but my health was suffering from my unhappiness and depression. Work was no longer a pleasure,
I decided father knew best and left them, with great ideas of where my future lay. How wrong I have been.... :doh:
Working with family - must be the equivalent of actors being told not to work with animals and children or something like that. The time was not right, there was no job for me,_pale_ even though I was lead to believe there was.
When he finally realised that I was more of a drain on resources than anything else, because there really was nothing much for me to do, not even make the numbers up on a regular basis. He cut me loose without so much of a bye or leave. Now the saying is "You will be better off elsewhere" so a year after leaving one job I am now made unemployed by my own family.:exclamati
Whats the saying - as one door closes another opens... I am opening doors to find the right path -:search: will keep you posted.....
Byeee :wave:
Gosh, that sucks!
Good Luck - hope you find another job soon.
I have been applying for jobs and application packs for the past few week, and two more applications have arrived today.
Will spend the afternoon doing them in draft and then get them sent off.
What really annoys me and I am sure everyone else in this position - is that firms don't even acknowledge receipt :mad: let alone let you know they are not going to call you for an interview.
My biggest dilema is do I say that I worked for my father for such just under a year or not! It raises the question why did he get rid of you - and will they then believe a father would get rid of his daughter because she was a drain on his income?
Byeeee :wave:
Tricky one, but I guess you will need to account for what you were doing for that year. I suspect it would look better that you left the original job to go somewhere.
Can you not just be honest and say that your Dad saw a role that would suit you in the family business but in the end it turned out that the role didn't develop as anticipated and, with hindsight, wasn't big enough to support you so you came to the mutual decision that, for the good of the family business, you would step down and find something else.
I am worying that prospective employers might expect a reference from him, because I do not want to have to ask him for one. I feel really hurt by the way he handled it all - tackless was his approach to say the least - just came around after work one night unexpectedly and said don't come in to work tonorow you are not needed or wanted there anymore, i will pay you for one month and then you're on your own, then left. I recon he was around my house no more than 10 mins tops.
Does sound insensitive but maybe he was embarassed and didn't know how to handle it.
Me thinks he owes you a decent reference - use a bit of emotional blackmail!
Swallow your pride - he dealt with it on a business footing so do the same.
Also don't know how a family ref would go down with a prospective employer. I think it would also be a good idea to get one from the previous company too if possible. When I was made redundant from one (small) firm about 15 years ago, I asked for an open reference "To whom it may concern". I still produce it now although I say "I know its old and a lot of things have changed in my life but I thought you might still like to see it". Could you ask someone from the old firm and your dad to do something similar?
I spent this morning doing an application for a job with our local council. They want to know absolutly everything and so in the additional info I wrote something along the lines that you suggested yesterday. That I had spend the last 11 months helping with the family business, but as the journey is an hour and 15 mins each way it was never meant to be permanent.
They have actually stated at the bottom of their application that family and friend references will not be taken up so I don't have to face that one.
I have today asked three people who I worked with before and they have all agreed to be a reference for me which is great. Two of them were higher management and were laid off on garden leave before I left, the other is working their redundancy as I type, so at least that will be on the headed paper - should they follow it up.
I then dashed to a nearby town because I saw an ad in the paper saying there was a job fair. Only to eventually get there and be told its next week. DER what a fool I felt - but at least I know where to go now.
Another application form was waiting when I got back home so will work on that one tomorrow. Seems they don't want just a cv anymore but your life history, as boring as it is.
Take care
You have been busy - good luck with the council application and the job fair.