Angel’s Flight from the Kingdom of Debt – The Take Off

GreyhoundAngel

And now for the “POS” stuff ….

My redundancy package is only going to be around £800 – which will hopefully get me through remainder of Jan & at least some of Feb, mainly as I won’t be spending nearly half my income on travelling / parking for work. In reality…. That money needs to last me until the end of Feb minimum.

I’m focusing hard on finding another position to start asap or no later than beginning of Feb, and I’m concentrating on more local areas to home (to cut travel costs down) as well as higher paying ones !. I’ve already had some responses from my applications so far – a couple of thanks but not thanks, a couple of interviews (one never followed up to me, one wasn’t what was described so I shan’t be taking that any further myself & the other was a no thanks.
I’m still waiting to hear on others I’ve applied for in the last week or so (some deadlines were this weekend for applications) and I’ve applied to a few more over the weekend. My only worry, is that with Xmas rapidly coming – many places will be scaling down on this until after the festive period.

I will be re-registering with Agencies for both permanent & temp work, and I will try to get some mystery shops done whilst I have funds (for any purchases etc). I’ve signed up for some more internet work, freelance sites, surveys etc. I’m also going to be sending my CV out on spec to local businesses.

I’m trying to think of other ideas for getting income, I’d like to get some work that I can do from home in my “own” time (ie not office hours) in addition to normal work. This is kinda the last straw for me, I don’t ever want to be solely reliant on one form of income again – I’m really, really not sure how I’m going to cope with it this time if I don’t manage to get a replacement position straight away. I was so low the last time.

I’ve also started on the saving money side – I need to pare my outgoings to the bone wherever I can. I’ve joined the O/S board’s Monthly Grocery Challenge, this is one area that I will just need to grin and bear the cuts. I’ll be dropping by more than just the one brand band. Meal Planning is back with a vengeance, along with bulk cooking.

I’m gob-smacked that the other thing I’ve managed to do so far is switch my B’band/Tel provider. It will cut my monthly bill virtually in half (special deal for 12months). I was seriously expecting them to reject my application due to my non-existent credit score (defaults & at least one CCJ) - Pleased that that will save me £18 a month.

I already know I can’t yet switch utilities as I still owe them too much for them to release me, and I’d almost certainly wind up having to have a pre-pay meter with a new company because of it. So it will need to wait until I can clear some more down.

My Car Insurance is the only other real “biggie” that could do with being hacked. Unfortunately, I’m not due for renewal until June/July next year. But I did a “pretend” comparison just to get an idea, and just switching will almost half my current premium, and if I could by any chance pay it upfront in full - that would shave about another 5-10% off it. Same if I could pay the Road Tax upfront for a year, that would save me a little over the year too - Just not been able to put anything aside for it on my current budget/income.

I’m not going to do a new SOA yet, there’s not much point until I know what’s happening job-wise & Tax Credit wise (CTC) and then of course even if I’m working - it’s all likely to change again come March with renewals.
I’m trying to think of what else I can do to shave costs whilst also trying to replace my income, not a clue where to start right now.

Angel xx

beanielou

Sorry to heaqr your news Angel.
Hope you get something really soon.
Take care.

GreyhoundAngel

Thanks for dropping by with your words of support Beanie, really appreciated it

Well I have a few bits of news - though not really much on moving forward, but at least it's news !

I'll be back soon with a proper update.

Angel xx

elantan

Hi Angel just catching up again ... It really has been an up and down year for you, sorry to hear about the job situation, fingers crossed you get something soon

Did you manage to get that debt sorted with the lawyers letter?

Fingers crossed for you next year is a smoother ride

GreyhoundAngel

Good to see you El, and thanks for dropping by

No, unfortunately I wasn't able to come to an agreement for a full & final with them, but did reach a repayment schedule agreement - shame as I could've done with that one going completely

Angel xx

GreyhoundAngel

Wishing You All .....

A Very Happy New Year

May 2013 be good to you and bring you ; joy, happiness, love, health and of course wealth !

Angel xxx

beanielou

Back to you Angel~ in great abundance

elantan

Let's make 2013 our year angel xxx

Aesop

elantan wrote: »

Let's make 2013 our year angel xxx

What a lovely post, :A

Happy 2013 to you too Elantan, here's to a prosperous and healthy one to everybody including Greyhound Angel, and whoever reads her diary.

GreyhoundAngel

Hello Angelettes,

Thought I’d be starting the New Year with less than positive words

Fast approaching the big “R” day, and whilst I’ve been regularly sending app’s out (and have a few more job ad's that I’m going to apply to), not had much response from applications so far. It’s been very slow, I’m guessing as much due to Xmas as anything.

Nearly fell off my chair on seeing the balance left in my account to last until I get my final pay … hadn’t realised I’d spent so much (having been paid very early in December), and panicking as I need petrol, food, bills, car insurance, pet food etc before then

BUT ….

Having sat down and thought about / written things down -: I find it’s not as drastic as I first feared (though bad enough).

1) The broadband switch saves me £20 immediately this month (and of course every month for next 12 months) and hopefully will come out after payday.

2) I bought dog food in bulk in December, as PAH had the 17kg bags on a really good deal if you bought 3 bags – so I won’t need to buy any until at least march now.

3) With all the food I bought pre-christmas, lots of it was on reduced /specials, and I’ve worked out that we have enough food in the freezer & cupboard that will last for at least 45 meals … taking us well into February with only a few top up bits like bread & milk needed and maybe the odd bit of veg (reduced where possible of course).

Unfortunately not much I can do about the petrol, but I’ve managed so far to escape car parking fees – hopefully I can carry on doing this for remainder of “the month” left at work, even if it means leaving earlier to ensure I can nab one of the few, free road parking spaces.

A good friend has been really helpful in sending me lots more links & info for new things to check out & also some of these phone app things (which I need to get my head round), I’m hoping all these little things will start to add up.

I need to check out my old M/S & Survey site accounts, get back into doing them regularly for those I’m still “active” with and re-sign up (via cashback where poss of course) on those that are no longer active. Ditto for my Bingo accounts.

Back with more in a while !