Facing up to it, the OrangeProse way

Bambywamby

Well done for wanting to pay those Debts off Orange...if you can...it's always the right thing to do.

Good luck with a job in London x x x

Seaxwyn

HI OrangeProse and welcome to the Boards.

I'm delighted to see another freelance writer on here as I'm in the same game myself. It's very hard to budget with income that swings between very little and loads month to month. Another problem we face is the dreaded tax bill - I'm sure you know already but if not you must SAVE 22% OF EVERYTHING YOU EARN. It's largely tax bills that have got me into debt.

You're right to be optimistic about work, there's loads around.

Anyway best of luck, I'll look out for your threads and maybe we could organise a mini challenge for the freelance debtors among us.

Seaxwyn

less2303

Hi there orangeprose,

Firstly, only you can decide what is the best route for you too take.

What I would advise though is that you seek some professional advice, which should help to make the decision easier for you.

You can obtain free and impartial advice from the following organisations (Click on the name and it will take you to the relevant home page):

PayPlan

Consumer Credit Counselling Service

National Debt Line

Citizens Advice Bureaux - please make sure you book your appointment with the specialist money advisor as many of the volunteers don’t have the necessary experience and knowledge.

The key is listen to what advice these can give you, it will be good sound advice, and then make the decision you are happy with from there.

lynsayjane

OrangeProse wrote:

Hi lynsayjane
It all hangs on his job applications, at the moment. I'm working as much as I can, but I can't take on any permanent work at the moment, even part time, as I may have to leave it again in as little as a couple of weeks.

personally i'd take on the job anyway, even if you have to say 'sorry my oh's job came up in london quicker than expected, heres a weeks notice' if it's just bar work etc they only really ask for a week and since you'll still be in some form of probationary work you won't have a contract yet. just don't tell them about the impending move! even if it's only a month like you say thats £300 or so towards your debts and moving costs. plus a bit of a mral boost that you've done something positive.

looking at the aprs and limits there isn't really any room for manouvere unless you could get a 0% or low life of balance card, have you looked at your credit report/rating to see how your credit lies? you might be able to transfer one or two of your balances to help. if not it goes without saying that you kill off morgan stanley first!

good luck with it and keep us updated x

OrangeProse

Seaxwyn wrote:

I'm delighted to see another freelance writer on here as I'm in the same game myself

Right, I'd better watch my spelling and grammar then...

Only joking. Yes, the tax thing caught me out once before so I've been better prepared this time round.

To be honest with you, whilst I like the freelancing life, at this moment in time it's far from ideal. I took a full-time job in November which turned out to be a total pup - they'd misled me on contractual stuff like holiday allocation, sick pay, employee benefits, reporting lines, even salary and review procedure and I only found out about it when they handed me the contract on day #1.

Needless to say, the discrepancies were so considerable that there was never a day #2.

For the first couple of days I felt elated. Then the feeling sank in that I had just made myself unemployed.

Still, I've managed to make the best of it I think. I specialize in technical copywriting so there's plenty of work; many copywriters just want to do ad concepts for Porsche and Nike and nothing else, so consequently I'm in demand. I'm never happier than when buried in a product brochure for something!

I do like the idea of a freelancers' challenge, though.

lonely_2

I am thinking of a DMP, is it really the case that your credit rating is "shot to pieces" for the period of the DMP and then for an extra six years? I thought that a DMP was less damaging to your credit rating than an IVA - and that only last for 6 years from the moment it starts.

OrangeProse

In a revision to an earlier conversation, I would like to state that the worst thing about freelancing is not remembering to set aside money for tax, but dealing with bored payroll clerks in accounts departments when a company decides for reasons best known to itself to not pay its freelancers.

Grrrr.

As a result, a payment for over £2000 which I should have received by now hasn't landed and I am fuming. I spoke to the accounts department this morning and the level of disinterest was staggering.

Anyway, in other news the BF has a second interview for a pretty cool job this week, so hopefully the London move might be happening soon. I have also spoken to several recruitment agencies, and have discovered that I can bring in a salary of £5,000 more than I'd budgeted if I went to work in London.

Now going to have a celebratory jacket potato (genius lunch idea - costs pence and really healthy!) and start planning my novel.

Proper money stuff update soon.

OrangeProse

Hurrah, have finally been paid the £2000+ that I was owed over a week ago. Super contrite accounts personnel rang up to apologize as well, which was nice.

So have walloped £500 off overdraft already.

I've also been accepted to do AQA! That's hopefully going to mean a decent 2nd income, once I'm up and running. Soon the world will know my genius...

Annoyingly, have just spoken to my brother, who is 4 years younger than me. He's just got his first proper job and is immediately planning to spend £6,000 that he doesn't have on a 10-year old, group 18 insurance Japanese import sports car that he doesn't need. He seems to think that because it's Japanese, the thing will last forever, including tyres and clutch, without having to have any maintenance of any kind, ever. He hasn't even had an insurance quote or anything. Plonker.

Now don't get me wrong, I know Japanese cars are reliable. A couple of years ago I had an old Nissan Micra for a while, looked ridiculous (it was yellow) but it never let me down. What's more I used to help jump-start the woman next door's Land Rover Freelander pretty much every day for months on an eight year old battery.

But I reckon this plan is bonkers beyond belief.

I just don't want him falling down the same rabbit hole that I did when I first started working. Oh well, everyone has to make their own mistakes I suppose. I've given him advice; I guess that's all I can do.

bobbadog

Good on you, Orange Prose - I reckon you have the right attitude to be rid of everything supder duper quick!!
What sort of things do you write? x

OrangeProse

bobbadog wrote:

What sort of things do you write? x

Whatever someone will pay me for, really!

I tend to work for advertising agencies, either helping to come up with concepts for adverts, sales promotional material, direct mail or sponsorship messages; or writing copy for same.

I have a background in technical writing, so I get asked to do a lot of brochures for B2B (business to business) clients. I do loads of brochures for office print devices; also recently completed a load of product descriptions for call centre telephone software. That's the kind of stuff that pays the bills!

I love it, and I wouldn't do anything else (I couldn't do anything else - I'm qualified to do this and that's about it).

Long term though, I want to write fiction full time and retrain to be a HE lecturer in writing/English language.