~February 2012 Make £10 a day Challenge - everybody welcome ~

Milly-Ann-Molly

Hi all well done on the money earned It sure is nice to have a day off from ebaying lol :rotfl:

I managed to get £30 for extra work, £18.56 fleabay profit and a nice £1 from Mr Tesc@ (I told the CS woman that checkout wouldnt accept a voucher for £1 off...I bought the items required but last week and I had forgotten to use the till spit voucher then lol) so that puts me right up there with £754.18...I doubt very much it will increase by end of february but I will wait before declaring as there are a few ebay items to be paid for. Fingers Crossed (although they were small value items...) I have 5 hours overtime tomorrow too so heres hoping. I managed to wangle some free footie kit and some hats for my boys too.

I saw a homeless person by Mr T today and on the floor she had chalked 'Very Little Helps'...it seemed appropriate and a great slogan and location. I hope she raised some decent cash. Sadly I paid shopping by Amex today (saving the Avios and skint at the mo) and have literally no pennies in my purse Next time I will give her a bit and she is always there...

Nighty night all
C x

sallyann0856

Bit cheeky for a new person but hope nobody minds a long vent.
Today had been going really well. My Dad got up easily, cooperated with his carer and I got him to the day centre on time and happy. Morning dog walks went well and I picked up another couple of paid walks for later in the week. Used a £5 voucher in Tesco, got £80+ of goods (sale reductions) for £35. Got home to find my Ebay items (only 2 but still ...) had sold for more than I expected and I'd sold another $16 article to a writing website. Had dinner and settled down to write another article, do surveys etc when DD told me there were police at the door.
Allegedly, last Tuesday, my two dogs (who are regularly walked off lead in parks, on beaches etc and are always good with people and other dogs) had gone into next door's garden and "set about" my (male) neighbour. The report was made last Tuesday. I had noticed a hole in the fence at the weekend and blocked it but surely, if the dogs really had set about the guy he, having two young children and being a builder by trade, would have blocked the hole rather than leaving it possible for my dogs to get through while he waited for the police to respond. I told the policeman this and he raised his eyebrows - I also told the police I had been going to replace damaged fence panels (apart from the one the damage is not big enough for the dogs to get through) even though most of the damage has been caused by next door's balls constantly thudding against my fence and because they were forever moaning about the fencing. I said that now, however, I would run chicken wire along the bottom of the length of the fence to stop the dogs getting through but that would mean that I would not also be able to replace the broken panels and the neighbours would have to stare at an ugly fence for the whole summer. The policeman said he thought that was a very reasonable solution.
The reason I am venting is that they and the neighbours the other side of them have, over the last 6 months, reported me to:
Adult Services for neglect of my Dad
Age concern for the same reason
The LEA for not sending DD to school (she is registered as home educated and has been since 2008)
Children's Services for being an unfit mother (because, presumably, I let DD have two parties last summer)
The police (twice) for DDs parties (she is 15, I was in both times, both parties were on Saturday, the noise wasn't dreadful by any means and the police were called before 11.00 pm on both occasions)
Environmental Services for alleged rats (funny that -- my Collie chases any critter that moves, so I think I'd have noticed)
Environmental Services (again) for bin bags (tied up and not split) left in the front garden for a few days while I sorted out a flood caused by my poor old Dad (he has dementia and is 91) and a couple of other crises
The RSPCA about my cats
The police because I had a dodgy headlight.
None of the above parties took any action and were all satisfied with what they saw/what I said.

Apart from the above, they have sworn at me, insulted me, threatened to break DD and her friend's jaws, parked blocking my drive, threatened to put DD's CD player "over the (F word) fence", written "NO TAX" on my car window in black felt pen (I had taxed it but forgot to put the disc on - it was the 2nd of the month) -- oh, and once I came home to find my cat pens flooded when it hadn't rained for days.

This all started in April on DD's 15th birthday. She had friends for a sleepover and, unbeknown to me, they's set the alarm and got up to use the pool. I don't think they realised quite how far their voices would carry at night but the first thing I knew about it was when someone knocked the door. I realised it was the woman from next door but one but couldn't open the door as my Dad had moved the keys (he often loses things). It was only when I went into the kitchen to look for the keys that I heard the girls -- squealing and laughing but no music. I couldn't find the keys but thought it best to get the girls out of the pool first. I shouted towards the front door to say I was sorting it out and went down the garden to talk to the girls who got out of the pool straight away. As we walked back towards the house, the woman in question started screeching from her upstairs window, calling us "abnormal" and saying she was going to call the police. I told her there was no longer a problem, the girls were out of the pool and that if she wanted to continue to disturb the whole neighbourhood by arguing, I didn't and she could speak to me in the morning. Since then -- and because I refuse to keep replacing damaged fence panels while the footballing continues -- she and my immediate neighbours have taken every opportunity to complain and she has taken every opportunity also to be confrontational, telling me once "I've not finished with you yet, Sally -- I'll start with your Dad, move on to your daughter and finish with your animals".
The whole thing is getting beyond a joke. I work in the daytime (dog walking) when my Dad is being looked after, when my Dad is here I cannot leave him for a second unless he is asleep, I sleep in a chair every night as it's the only way of being sure I notice if my Dad gets up (he has been known to get up 38 times in one night and sometimes goes 48 hours without sleeping at all), I tutor my daughter (took her out of school due to bullying and her dyslexia, which has almost evaporated since we started the home ed, so may have been exacerbated by confidence issues) and try to write articles in the evenings so that we can afford to live. Because of this, I'll be the first to admit that my house and garden are not always perfect, repairs don't always get done straight away and I don't always get to the rubbish tip as soon as I'd like (but everything is always carefully bagged). BUT we all eat well, our clothes are clean, the animals are well cared for and everything that needs to be hygienic (kitchen, bathroom etc) is always top of my cleaning list. What I don't have is enough quality time with DD and I'm not about to sacrifice that to keep the neighbours happy.
Would you believe, both of these households include strapping men with their own vans -- one is a self employed builder and the other runs a cleaning business -- they know it's not easy caring for my Dad and if they had an ounce of compassion between them they would be offering to help me out a bit. Both the wives are at home all day but have never once offered to sit with my Dad for an hour (and yet they're concerned enough to report me to Adult Services because they were "so concerned" that his hair had got "long" (he'd refused to go to the barber's a couple of times and won't let a woman touch it) and that one day I literally nipped out to pick up DD and he managed to lock himself in the porch. Realistically, I have to leave Dad for short periods if I need to give my daughter a lift and he refuses to come in the car - what can I do? She is 15 and needs to have a life. The worst that has ever happened is the porch incident. Other than that he has broken things and caused floods but has never harmed himself (I take the knobs off the cooker when not in use).
So anyway -- another blow just when I thought I was getting a step forward with everything.

Sorry for such a long rant -- just needed to get things off my chest.

Sally x x x

sallyann0856

Sorry to have taken up so much space with the above post.

x x x

vixen1500

Hiya,

Just won my first ever refer a friend bonus - anyone know how long its active for? Is it a once only use?

And anyone want to use it? (pm me)

fracturedsun

vixen1500 wrote: »

Hiya,

Just won my first ever refer a friend bonus - anyone know how long its active for? Is it a once only use?

And anyone want to use it? (pm me)

They are usually valid for 2 days.

Kepp

£93.65 wages job 2 to add

Aesop

Aww Sally, things sound tough for you. Do you own your property, as in mortgage? About your neighbours, they may not realise yeou would appreciate some help with your Dad or other things. Also these days people are worried about.getting sued and offending people. In my area is something called timebank, google it. See if there is domething similiar in your area or skillswap. Maybe you could get someone to help with the fence and rubbish. Do you ever ask for respite care do you can have a good night's sleep once in a while?have you tried neighbour counsellin/mediation? Maybe your neighbours don't understand the pressure you are under. Hugs hun

sweetpeas_2

Morning all,

Firstly - hugs (((Sally))) don't apologise for coming on here to rant, I do it all the time

Only a day and half left and I need to make £18 to reach target, which I haven't done for months and months Got some bids on ebay all ending today/tomorrow so will hopefully be able to get to the post office tomo and add all them to my total just in the nick of time

Have a good day girlies xx

CountingPennies

Monkeynut wrote: »

'Cint' panels - most common is Crowdology

Thats the one! Thanks Monkey!

Sally, sorry to hear your having such a rough time. ((((HUGS))))

DedicatedDFW

Advice Please

Hi everyone - i know we are coming to the month end so hopefully lots of people are popping on with updates :T i would just really appreciate some advice please

Several years ago i took out a long term savings account. This requires i pay in a set amount each month during the term of the savings. When i took out the savings my situation was very different to the one i'm in now. I was not in debt, I had savings, i had a job paying more than double what i'm earning now and i didn't have a mortgage (at that time - got the house just before being made redundant) and the mortgage is higher than the rent i was paying. Following redundancy i am working but have been unable to find a job with the same salary i was on before - i know alot of us know how hard it is with jobs now. So when i took out the savings account i was paying 6% of my salary into this which means with my new job i am paying about 12% of my income into this. - Putting this a little more into perspective my mortgage is 43% of my salary :eek::eek::eek: - i know but i was earning more before and the rent would still be 29% if i hadn't moved.

I am now considering if it would be best to cash in these savings early and pay the money towards the debt.


Positives i can come up with for keeping the account going are:

I have no other savings and i have no pension - these savings were something for the future so that will be gone. I have used all my other savings meeting the mortgage and bills payments when i was scraping in £400month working part time.

I have kept up the payments so should still be able to do so.

Currently alot of my debt is 0% but that will end soon.

If i cash in early then i will lose some money - but as savings are linked to stuff that fluctuates i could save and still lose money - not sure if the is a plus or minus really


Reasons to [STRIKE]take the money and run[/STRIKE] cash in early:

The savings are not guaranteed - linked to things that fluctuate so i could carry on paying in over the next few years and lose alot of money (to me).

If i cancel this and use the money to pay towards debts i could set the same amount up to be paid into a more guaranteed account like a cash isa - so still have saving that are less risky.

The debt has been getting me down alot lately sleepless nights etc. am sure alot of us know what i mean so this would relieve some of that - i'd still have debt to clear but it would be less

Currently alot of my debt is 0% but that will end soon - as a negative as it will end soon.

Any advice would be really appreciated

The above i shamelessly copied and pasted from another thread i'm on But have also realised some other things to note:-

I have not used this account when i was really struggling because i can't instantly access the money - they are going to send me details of what its worth currently if i do finish the savings now.

Not only would i save the money i'm currently paying into this - which i *would* pay into another more secure savings account but by paying off debt - i am thinking of one nasty credit card balance in particular which is due to incur interest again in the next month or so - I would be freeing up £80 a month which i am repaying towards debt.

As i am currently due to pay off target 1 in my sig in the next few days *fingers crossed* i *think* depending on what the deductions are for taking the money sooner - i could reduce my debt by 1/3 so have 2/3rds left still to clear. Please note the £17,000 target in my sig isn't my debt balance its debt balance + hopeful mortgage overpayments.

Aesop - really hope hope you don't mind me putting this on here its just that there is alot of really helpful people on this thread. If you'd rather i delete this i will of course