So poor I can't even pay attention

Piquant_2

Morning [again] Pinot

Yes, the delurkers have made me feel better, as have you lovely long haulers. It is sunny here too and I hope to take the Captain out for a short [STRIKE]argument[/STRIKE] hack later.

I'm just about to write the letter to the mortgage insurers to get the money paid direct to the building society, but I just popped in here first oops...

I thought I might treat myself on Monday and take my laptop to a coffee shop and look for work and divine inspiration whilst sipping a designer coffee. No, I can't afford it and yes, I can have coffee here, but sometimes I feel that I'm going stir crazy not going anywhere. To be honest £2 is neither here nor there at the moment. It won't be going against the debts as I need the money to survive and not going crazy is part of survival in my book!

Piq

Baldybear

Morning, sorry to hear things are so carp, seriously benefits system suck, how do they work it out, grrr.

Re horse insurance is it worth spending that much and just not have him uninsured? I never had baldy insured, he got a thorn in fetlock joint, £2.5k and a 9 day hospital stint later, luckily parents helped pay the bill so thereafter decided to get him insured, they wouldnt insure his leg, even though it was a freak accident, no after effects, then he contracted COPD, claimed about £200 for that and then they wouldnt insure his lungs! It was ridiculous, I was paying around £18 a month for a 3 legged horse with no lungs and that was nearly 15 years ago. Thought sod it and got rid of insurance. Joined British Horse Society and with gold membership (used to be about £60 a year) got free public liability insurance so covered if had accident on roads etc and that was it. Intend to do the same with my new horse, try and save some money somehow for an emergency fund if it comes to it. Insurance just isnt worth it in my opinion.

Please feel free to ignore me

LAM2011

morning Piq,

I dont have any constructive advice but I do hope that things turn positive soon for you because as others have said you are trying so hard. Something gotta give soon xx

Enjoy your ride - sun is out here today which always lifts the spirits but I hear the rain is back later.

x

Piquant_2

It's good advice BB. I've just seen so many people down the yard pay out massive vet bills over and over again. I've never actually claimed on it, but as he gets older the chances are that he may need it. Once he is too old for the insurance, I think that might be next year, I will get him third party fire and theft insurance or go down the BHS route as you did.

It may be that I have to go without insurance altogether if I can't get the money together. I've got some more bits out for e*bay. Photoing later...

Piq

missrlr

Hello, so sorry the carpness of the JSA is bringing you down. Re insurance, I didn't have my boy insured and I also didn't get the jabs done. My boy had a horrific accident on the road tore his knee wide open and the first thing they did was jab him for tetanus there and then as no one could produce a certificate for the jabs at the scene! Don't get me wrong £1800 surgery fees was painful but I sat down and worked out through his life that if I had paid on insurance and then the accident occurred I would have been over £3k worse off still despite the pay out! So much they don't cover and get away from paying, and most of the injuries and so on with a little old school treatment and good old R&R recovers nicely. Might needs to get some antibiotics and the odd bit of bute occasionally but they are not so expensive. I always said if it's leg was hanging off and bleeding call the vet and have it shot, but of course when it came to it I didn't. I used to keep a bit of bute all the time, he got lymphangitis once, vet was already on site when he came up and all they did was suggest to bandage him up and then give it bute
Go have coffee, you may just get the perfect material for a blog piece!

brizzledfw

Piq

Just catching up on 3 pages!!!

SO SO sorry its been a carp few days....not much to add to the lovely comments from all the great posts on here, but to echo..you DO indeed write beautifully both here and on your blog and you have a great turn of phrase. Your day will come hon, am sure of it. Just keep on going....

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PinotGrigio41

Hello again,

Just posted this over on my diary after this morning chat, but thought I would quickly post it here for you jsut incase you dont see it.

Ok checking back in now Piq quickly.

Clothesfor cash.com, I have used them a few times. To be honest as long as you dont expect to get alot for what you sling in the sack and appreciate that they are incredibly picky over what they will and wont take, then its worth a shot. The sacks are absolutely huge and I think the max they pay is £18 a sack.By the time they have picked through it I usually only get about £9, but every little helps as they say. I use them ONLY for things that wouldnt sell on ebay and are cluttering the house. Its easy to use, you request a sack online and when its full ,go back on line and arrange a collection day and within a few days your cheque arrives. But, to reiterate only use them if you cant get rid of things anyother way xx

Oh, and I often take the laptop to a coffee shop jsut to get out of my "Broom Cupboard" to stop me going stir crazy. A change of scenery does wonders for the mood xx

suburbanwifey

Piquant wrote: »

Morning [again] Pinot

Yes, the delurkers have made me feel better, as have you lovely long haulers. It is sunny here too and I hope to take the Captain out for a short [STRIKE]argument[/STRIKE] hack later.

I'm just about to write the letter to the mortgage insurers to get the money paid direct to the building society, but I just popped in here first oops...

I thought I might treat myself on Monday and take my laptop to a coffee shop and look for work and divine inspiration whilst sipping a designer coffee. No, I can't afford it and yes, I can have coffee here, but sometimes I feel that I'm going stir crazy not going anywhere. To be honest £2 is neither here nor there at the moment. It won't be going against the debts as I need the money to survive and not going crazy is part of survival in my book!

Piq

I like your thought processes Missy (just checked in to see how you are doing, here is a dodgy hug from me too :grouphug:) Mindset is very important when facing a challenge, ensuring you keep yourself mentally healthy. Removing all treats from your life is bad in my opinion. I hope you go for that coffee and enjoy it

I don't think the best avenue for you to go down is glossy magazines aimed at the general market. Most use in-house and commissioned writers they have on their books, its very hard to break into that market unless you have a unique, topical article that just hasn't been done before. I would however, if I was you, look at your area of specialty - horses! Every man and his dog is writing over the last few years about recessions, money worries and also the family/relationship problems these issues are causing. But how many have written about how these issues affect a horse owner? Take a look at horse magazines and write to an editor with an idea (such as .... is insurance really viable nowadays? etc .. ) and see how they respond.

Have you ever considered a novel? 100,000 words is a good starting point. What's your area of interest in reading? Romances? Psycho Thrillers? Drama? take a look at what you read and think about what you would like to write. Its a lot easier for new writers to get a foothold in the market nowadays with e-books. When I started writing you had to send off a 3 chapter manuscript on paper to publishing houses. If they read it, you were in with a chance, if they didn't, you were in the bin. You needed an agent mostly to get established. Its much easier nowadays but the down side of that, is there is more competition.

You need to stand out. Be controversial maybe. Get noticed! My advice initially would be to try and write a novel. Get it proof read by a perfectionist so that its as near to perfect as it can be and self-publish on Amazon Kindle. Release your first novel for 2 days for free, get people downloading it, free of charge and those people will review you, which gets you a reputation and when you start to charge, buyers. Once you have something to offer by way of experience and reputation to a publishing house, you have a foot in the door, you have something to show them - then maybe, you offer an idea and they advance you to write it!

You put the effort in and write what we out here want to read and you can make a years income from one book. Three months to write, Three months to edit and polish, Six months enjoying life and your horse -that's just a jobbing writer (the one's most don't remember their names but their books are out there) get a bestseller, you are set for life. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Job searching every day, all day I see as potentially soul destroying. You need to focus your energies elsewhere too to keep healthy and happy and thus bring more opportunities to your table. Give it a go! but I wouldn't advise writing about horses if you write a novel as they are not the chosen reading subject of the masses. To write for a living, you need to appeal to the majority not the minority. Drama, psycho thrillers, that's what you should be looking at and there is so much scope there .... pick up a few books and read them, then ask yourself ... could I do that? could I do better? could I keep those readers turning those pages, losing sleep because they have to keep reading and give it your best! Writing is an art that needs nurturing. Your blog is good but it won't make you lots of money, just a bit from advertising on it in the future if you chose to go down that road. There are millions of blogs on the net. Few make it big. Use it to perfect your skill, to pull readers in, when you have that skill .... move forward etc.

Hope I've given some helpful advice. Hope your day goes well xx

Piquant_2

What can I say? I'm so touched by the help and advice you have offered me suburbanwifey. I don't think anyone has every given me that much guidance before and for a complete stranger. Thank you.

I haven't done very much of my to-do list today, a deliberate decision. In fact all I did was write to the insurance company who are handling the mortgage protection claim and asked them to pay the money straight to my building society. E*bay, chasing patio door man etc can wait until tomorrow.

What I've done is thought about what you've said, I read it earlier and wanted to think about it. Someone else also stepped in to help and my dd reiterated her offer to build me a website.

I have made a decision. I'm not getting anywhere looking for work and as you say making it a full time occupation is soul destroying. I don't want to go and work for one of the large corporations again. I'm going to give my best shot to setting myself up as a freelance writer.

I'll still spend an hour or so a day looking at the job market but start looking for something part time, giving me a small amount of income and time to write, hopefully for income. In the evenings I can concentrate on writing a novel, it will take a little time to come up with a plot, but I think I can do that. I agree that horses are not the way to go, but I can use a lot of the material I have written about the Captain as a book as well, I think it can work.

This weekend I will write a brief for dd, once I've got my head around what my website's objective is going to be. Any ideas gratefully received. I will also look into what I need to have in place to be self employed. In the meantime I will continue to go to the Job Centre, there may even be some help offered there, you never know!

There is lot more to think about, please all of you throw ideas at me, this is scary stuff and you don't want me whinging on here all the time, do you?

Piq

PinotGrigio41

Do you know what Piq, I read that post much earlier today from Suburban Housewifey , and I was nearly reduced to tears on your behalf !! What is wrong with me ?! I even began a post to thank her, but decided that would look a bit odd :eek:

I have to say though that I think that to have receive such wonderful advice is so amazing.

I havent the timeto read the rest of your reply and your plans at the moment as am rushing off. I will catch up later.

One quick thing though, your blogs have become the evenings bedtime story for the Pinot Household. The last four evenings the girls have asked me if I have received the days posting on my phone and I have read your stories to them. I hope you dont mind, but even at the ages of 11 and 14, they have found them entertaining, but they have also given them something to really think about ( the job centre for example ) and obviously for DD2 , the Captain and the Underpants once again caused much hilarity !! xx

Catch up tomorrow xx