Countdown to clean credit file...

wannabehermit

Thanks Marciek.

Well the job starts today. The £50 a week worse off is what it seems to be saying putting the figures into the entitledto site. That's because 1. They only pay the 1st 70% of childcare now not everything bar the 1st £10, plus travelling, which isn't too bad now, but school hols is going to be over £11 a day getting the boys to their holiday club, plus we will no longer be entitled to free prescriptions & dental care. A season ticket each (we both need a lot of medication) is going to be over £200 plus whatever we spend on dentists. So even though our income is going to be roughly the same as it was before taking into account changed to WTC & HB our outgoings are going to be a lot higher which is what's going to cause the problems. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the entitledto calculations are wildly inaccurate and we will actually be at least the same as we are now. Unfortunately as we get a lot of benefit top ups, any overtime will only come off of the benefits at a later date as overpayments. But yes, you are right, there are prospects in the company of moving up the 'ladder' and plus I need to get out to work, being at home is doing my head in!

I sorted the bank account, another poster mentioned a different account that Natwest do that they hadn't bothered telling me about so now I'm going to keep my current account for wages etc and DDs, but transfer everything else into a First Reserve account which has a debit and cash card on it so thankfully I will be able to access my money without having to transfer it all into DHs account and nick his card!

I'm another month down on my countdown now, it feels so good every month updating that sig to reflect it. Looking forward to the next milestone which will be 39, then it won't be long after that until the next one at 36 then I'll be halfway there.

I suppose I should stop putting this off any longer. Time to get ready for work, wish me luck, I'm scared!!!!!!!

wannabehermit

...so here I am sat crying, running to the toilet and wanting to be sick . Why can I not cope with having a job? Everybody else has to deal with it so why can't I? DH has a job he hates, but he still gets up 6 days a week and goes in. I've only got to do it 3 days a week and for half the amount of hours he does.

I can't stand this. I'm 32 !!!!!!, I need to get a grip. I can't stay at home for the rest of my life. We can't work for ourselves at the moment, so I just need to get on with it, but I hate it so much and know that I'm going to be like this for at least the next 3 months and judging by other jobs I've had, the entire time I'm there, unless I like it, which I sincerely doubt. I don't even need to do it for the money, we're probably going to be worse off that we are if I don't work, I just needed to get out of the house, it was doing my head, I was climbing the walls being at home and having this job also means that DH can get a part time job (not that there's any of those around) and then start doing a little bit of stuff for ourselves, but it just feels so wrong going to a job that makes me feel like this. And it's not necessarily this job that's doing it, I've only been once after all so not exactly had a chance to see if it's OK or not, it's the whole going out, having to interact with people (I'm fine talking to people I'm never going to see again, but not so much with people I'm going to see all the time), being told what to do, having to answer to someone, having to work my !!!! off for minimum wage while the company's making millions of ££££ profit.

Oh god, time to stop moaning and feeling sorry for myself, go and do what the rest of the world has to do everyday and get ready I suppose. How many more trips to the toilet before I have to leave?

wannabehermit

Home. All fine, all good. It's silly because I'm fine when I'm there, the other staff are really nice, supervisors are cool and so is my dept manager, so there's really no need for the stressing beforehand. I'm sure it'll be a few more months though until I can go to work without all the worry.

On an even better note, DH is going into see a manager of somewhere that he applied to some time ago. It's a 10 minute walk from our house, so there'll be no need for us to be saving for a second car. It's part time, o weekends and will give us the time to get our own thing going. Lets hope he gets this job as that will be so so good for us.

wannabehermit

We always seem to have something to pay out on. Car tyres this weekend - nearly £500, exhaust to get done before MOT - £120-£220 depending on whether they can split it or not, then MOT within the next fortnight and keep fingers very very crossed that the emissions pass as we're screwed if they don't (we don't think they will).

In an ideal world I'd have about £500 stashed away for any repairs etc to the car and keep that continually topped up, plus about the same for any other unexpected expenses, e.g. washing machine. I'm worried about my washing machine, it's 8 years old, it's never broken down, it's been fantastic, but it was the 2nd most expensive one in the shop and washing machines have gone up and up in price since I bought that, so for as close to like for like as I could get would be over £700 :eek: which is a lot more than what I paid in 2004.

Plus we are desperate to move. There are a lot of things that annoy me about where I live but I've really had enough of listening to my next door neighbour farting away! So to move we'd have to save about £2000 for deposit, first month rent and admin fees etc and it's just not feasible atm.

All the time we're having to put stuff on cards we're not able to save up, HB is still being sorted out from me starting work and will be another few weeks yet, so I can't overpay on anything at all until then so minimum payments only .

wannabehermit

Doh!

Ordered my £2 credit file the other day so that I could check that the M&S card has been sorted as it should have been, but what did I do? Oh yes, ordered it in my married name, so now have to wait a few more times while I get it in my maiden name.

Sometimes I really should have been born blonde.

wannabehermit

Correct credit report ordered this time. All present and correct. Funny how these companies 'forget' to put the correct info on your report until they're given a firm kick up the bum by the powers that be!

At least now though I know that after the 6 years is up there's nothing going to come back and haunt me. And tbh most of the defaults drop off long before then anyway.

wannabehermit

11th today, so one more month down. A few more payments to credit cards and catalogues paid yesterday and today. Not a lot over minimum payment unfortunately but hopefully our HB will soon be sorted and I'll be able to start that again.

I'm shocked actually how well we've got through the last month with no HB. We've got about the same amount of money coming in atm as we had before I started work but a lot more to pay out but we're doing ok. Juggling a little bit and having to 'borrow' money from some accounts for a couple of days, but overall keeping on top of everything. Rent money is still untouched which ultimately is the main thing we need to worry about. Plus I guess we've not had birthdays and Christmas for a few months which has helped a great deal.

Oh and only thing the car needed for MOT was a rear brake caliper so very happy with that indeed.

wannabehermit

Argh!!!! Can't keep track of things atm. Hate being paid 4-weekly, what's wrong with weekly or monthly? We're not allowed to do over contracted hours anyway so would be easy enough for them to just pay us monthly, would make things so much easier (well weekly would make things a lot easier but that would be asking waaaay too much!)

Plus I don't like using cash, 1. it's too easy to spend and 2. you can't see it going out like you can with a bank statement. But childcare needs paying for with cash so I'm going to have to learn to deal with it for the time being. I don't have to like it, but deal with it I must.

All the benefits are pretty much sorted out now since I started work, just waiting to finalise our HB entitlement, they need my 2nd wage slip and today was the 1st chance I had to get it down there, and there was a queue of 6 people, so I walked out. Will have to hope they are not that busy later as they need it by the 6th! Nice of them to give me time to get it to them.

And I've just found out my ex is working again, only been 3 and a half years since he deliberately got himself the sack so as to not pay me maintenance. Apparently it flagged up with the CSA so they've been in contact with him to get his wage slips to them, and guess what, he hasn't bothered. Apparently they wrote to him before Christmas and still have heard nothing, so why has it taken me phoning them to get them to chase it up? Surely they should have done that before now if he hasn't responded within a month or so. I'm not holding out much hope for anything as he'll work the minimum he needs to make a fresh claim and then not work again until he's pretty much forced to.

I just need to get it sorted when money is coming in so that I can get back on track, get the credit cards paid off. I know now that we will have plenty comig in to overpay on them, it's just figuring out when it's coming so that I can get those overpayments flowing.

wannabehermit

I've just set myself up a little long term plan (see sig). It's not a new thing, that's always been the goal, but I feel that having things written down on here helps me see it and gives me more of a boost towards that goal.

The debt figure is pretty frightening, hadn't realised that was how much we had :eek:. I know it's not a lot compared to what lots of people have, but still! It comes from - car loan, 2 years left on that, overdraft (least of our worries tbh, we're paying virtually no interest on that each month as I pay our rent into it on the day DH gets paid and it stays there until the rent is due almost a month later so the interest is minimal as it's only fully o/d for a few days each month), catalogue (0% interest on everything I buy for a year and only buy things from that that are the same price or cheaper than elsewhere, so not frittering money away paying over the odds for the convenience of a catalogue) and 2 CCs. These are the problems really, but I'm overpaying as much as I possibly can, I seem to plan my life around when I can make overpayments .

Then there's putting money aside each month for Christmas etc. I've always wanted to do that, it's just never happened. £150 a month looks a scary figure but we pay out £60 a month on insurance etc, so would only really be £90 a month to be find, which is about what the minimum payments on the CCs are currently at. £150 a month once that is all paid will be easy!

wannabehermit

I've not posted on here for a month! Believe me there's been times when I've needed to but I've not been near a computer when I've needed to get things off of my chest. It's the 11th today which means another month down, 41 to go! But that's nothing compared to the 'debt-free' date. I made up another spreadsheet yesterday with the credit cards on. Working on minimum payment only there's another 13 and a half years to go on the Vanquis, and 26 years to go on the Capital One. I don't think that's going to happen somehow. I can't believe there are people out there who would do just that though. Well actually I can, I lived with one, he'd have only paid the minimum payment if it was down to him. DH lets me have control over it all, he likes updates from time to time, but other than that he's happy to leave it to me and trusts me to get it sorted.

I had a big blip last week, feeling really down about never being able to buy a house etc and just went out and spent spent spent, so there's been no money this week or last for any overpayments, <slap on the wrist> but even in being naughty, I still really only bought stuff that was needed and I've still made sure that there's enough to cover the 2 DDs that come out this week, so even when I let myself go I still hold back a little bit which I suppose is a good thing.

Well I've got 2 at holiday club, 1 in bed with chicken pox (hence me not being at work today), housework done so going to sort some photos out on the other computer for our photo frame as still not got our wedding ones on there and we've been married nearly a year .