you know when all you lovely people give advice...

sophiesmum_2

Gemmzie wrote: »

Your only limits are the ones you set yourself PAP

Exactly, better to try and fail than never do anything in your life:rolleyes:

The OU courses are great, they give you lots of support and everything you need to be successful.Many of the courses also have on line conferences(forums) and you can get to know lots of people from all walks of life. The personal finance course is not bad to get you going if you are interested, a bit like mse with assignments:rotfl: I've just finished that and another, and signed up for two more for next year.(So now you know someone who has done it;) )
I think if your income is less than 14,500 you will get all the fees paid too and a grant for £250, not sure what you earn but they have a sliding scale of help.
I'm quite happy to give you some help, tips etc if you need it. Pm me if you like.:D but the people at the OU are happy to help.
Go for it PaP,

PS This is coming from someone who had no confidence after 15 years in an abusive marriage. I was almost 40:eek: when i passed my driving test and started my degree, learned to ride a horse and travelled the world - If I can do it anyone can:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

sophiesmum

Snaggles

Wow Sophiesmum - what a lucky girl Sophie must be having a Mum as inspirational as you! Well done on turning your life around.....urrgghh, that sounds so patronising, but i mean it genuinely.

sophiesmum_2

Thanks snaggles, and no it doesn't sound patronising.:D

I'm just enjoying doing all the things now that I should have been doing years ago:mad: . Just regret all that wasted time.
My advice now is to "just do it" you never know what you can achieve if you don't try, and you might just surprise yourself along the way.:D

sophiesmum

postingalwaysposting

thanks sophiesmums, snaggles and gem...

well done sm for turning your life around you are such an inspiration i have looked into many courses and the finance, the problem i think is what to take? i would like to work with older people (ie old persons homes) or in law somehow its really weird because what i trained in when i was 18ish i have no interest in now, unless i can run my own shop, which i am intrested in which would mean i need to do finance/business management see i am confusing... i looked at the finance one and i am tempteted to do that however it will mean more money used out of my savings, do you think this is a good thing or not?

gem... thats so true, i must admit i do limit myself all the time and its sad really but unfortunatly its a rut i have to get myself out of, anyway i am now on my way out... and fingers crossed i can get a better job off my new training

Shineyhappy

Hi,

Sorry to butt in, but I think there is a free careers advice service about somewhere. I think I saw something about this on the Freebies board but I could be wrong.

Good luck with your maths course, if you ever need a hand feel free to pm me!

I know what you mean about younger brothers! Mine lives with my mum, pays no rent earns 1k a month and is always skint and wont save! I dont think he is in debt but it does upset me that he just fritters away so much cash, but I guess you cant share LBMs

margaretclare

sophiesmum wrote: »

Thanks snaggles, and no it doesn't sound patronising.

I'm just enjoying doing all the things now that I should have been doing years ago. Just regret all that wasted time.
My advice now is to "just do it" you never know what you can achieve if you don't try, and you might just surprise yourself along the way.

sophiesmum

I completely agree, sophiesmum.

I'm waiting for GCSE Maths results at the end of this month and my 72nd birthday is next week.

My daughter works as a senior PA in a university and she is doing a part-time Classics degree. When asked 'why', she says 'the same reason that was given for climbing Everest - because it's there'. Her degree involves learning Ancient Greek and she's just started reading St John's Gospel in the original.

I was asked 'why' about my maths, quite recently when I was trying to convince a patronising b*stard of an eye surgeon, why I need cataract surgery even though the cataracts are 'early'. I explained that they cause difficulty when doing figures, looking at graphs etc. I explained to him about the television ads with the little gremlins saying 'oh you can't do that, you're no good at it' and being squashed under someone's shoe. He said 'So it's just to prove that you can'. I said 'Is there any better reason?' He laughed then, said 'No' and immediately put me down to get the first eye done probably October.

There are some of us who need a challenge, and when one challenge is achieved, that gives us the impetus to go on to another one.

Best wishes

Margaret

taka

Good for you Margaret! Well done! Why not indeed! Challenges can be no end of good as they "force" you to perhaps step outside of your comfort zone. Pass or fail it means you tried and not just went "what if..." ... that is a good way to be! Wish I was a bit mort like that but I am trying!
I'm sure you will have done well!

margaretclare

taka wrote: »

Good for you Margaret! Well done! Why not indeed! Challenges can be no end of good as they "force" you to perhaps step outside of your comfort zone. Pass or fail it means you tried and not just went "what if..." ... that is a good way to be! Wish I was a bit mort like that but I am trying!
I'm sure you will have done well!

Hi taka

Thanks for the good wishes. If I achieve a 'C' grade I'll be quite happy. I must admit, on the day of the last exam I sat there thinking 'I don't need to do this, why am I here, why do I have to put myself through this stress and agony when I needn't, when it is not going to be one shred of help to me in a future career, a job, another course...' But I still went ahead and did it.

My 'hate' relationship with maths goes back to an incident when I was 6, when I didn't know you had to use figures not words and I was cracked over the wrist with a heavy ruler, the first time in my life that any adult had ever shown me any violence at all. I've never forgotten it.

I enjoyed doing the year's evening class in maths, this followed on from the national certificate in numeracy which I achieved at Level 2. This was Wednesday afternoons. A lady at our church heard what I'd done and said 'oh, I've always wanted to do that'. I told her where to go, who to contact, time, place, teacher's name, everything. But she never did. Excuse was: 'I always play bridge on a Wednesday afternoon and I can't let my partner down'. Well, it's a matter of choice, isn't it - it's what you think is more important. As you said, it's moving outside your comfort zone, and for that lady, playing bridge was her comfort zone.

I enjoyed the evening class, of which I definitely was the granny, but most of the others were a lovely crowd of young people. 2 or 3 thirty-fortysomethings, the rest teenagers. Mostly they hadn't got the grade they needed the first time round while at school, and they needed it for work or for a course.

This phrase 'oh I've always wanted to...' is something I've heard a lot. I used to know an old lady who'd always wanted to visit her mother's grave in Ireland. I found out where the grave was (the opposite side of Ireland to where she thought!), I offered to go with her, arrange it all, fly Stansted - Dublin, and the grave wasn't far from Dublin. She made endless excuses, and in the end, she's never visited her mother's grave.

My response to anybody who says 'oh I've always wanted to....' is to say 'well, get on and do it then!' Travel has never been easier, there are more educational opportunities, a lot of things are possible, just get up off your a*se and do it!

Margaret

taka

I love your attitude to life! :T I guess you only live life once... so you may as well live it as much as you can. Unfortunately the challenge for me at the mo is to leave my flat and be around people. I'm having probs at the mo but I want to live my life and not just exist IYSWIM. I'm stubborn tho and up for a challenge so I'm not giving up. I was once told "You can't fly with one foot on the ground" ie you can't know whats out there if you don't even try to find it, take a chance... I'm just having a few too many crash landings at the mo :rolleyes:

Sorry PAP for hijacking your thread a bit...

postingalwaysposting

wow what great responces... huge thanks monster post coming up :rolleyes:

Margaret ~ wow you are fab... when i read your age i thought 'well done' i cant believe you have such a great outlook on life... and i love your last pargraph, i dont know if you have read the whole thead but people started talking me out of it, even my work collegues who didnt want me to have a set day off. Anyway throught the past few weeks i have thought no i want to do this, ok its £200 but at least i am not chucking it away gambling its something i wanted to do the day i opened my results when i was 16... 2007 i will do it and i will get my c

Taka ~ dont worry about taking up the thead everyones welcome, hijack away i must say i too love your little describtion of you wont fly with on foot on the ground... its also being prepared as margret says to step outside that comfort area... and as for your crash lands, i hope they get better and you find what you are looking for

confessions of a superpap

I have been a little naughty, well a lot really, i have got a lesson (driving) which isnt budgetted till after the 15th and no doubt i will have another one before the 15th ~ damage £40.00 I am going out tommorow and have taken £20.00 out for that but i hope that i can return £10 of that. I have also been colloured into going out next saturday before pay day so that will be (bowling and a drink after) in the region of £25.00 and i have brought a book off ebay £3.03 including postage, ok i could have got it new for 20p extra in asda but i am trying to buy second hand to save some trees :rotfl: so thats nearly £90.00 from my savings :eek: thats bad inst it? the problem is i cant really drop out of the bowling as i dropped out of nearly everything that has been orgainised through work... grrr so that will take my savings down to in the region of £470 now thats really bad isnt it? plus i havent included any spends for these coming weeks or my fish that i want to buy sunday now i am i just being tight or am i now frittering all my cash away because i know its there? am i heading down into the spiral of debt? man i am really scared why has this happened? why have i seemingly spent so much this month? my budget is obviously wrong

edit ~ opps and i just relised its my best friends sons birthday 10th and i havent got him a present or sent it... opps thats another at least £10 as i spent that on his sister and then there is £5 credit to keep in touch with said friend while shes back on the mainland and not at her pc :wall: