Preparedness for when

mardatha

I've got a multi burner stove GQ running 7 radiators - but I tell you now I'd swap that in a minute for a real proper open fire! I can live without heating in the rooms as long as I have a good coal fire in the livroom, I did it for years.

craigywv

shtf today oh made redundant , planned for this so just going to enjoy christmas and get on with it after christmas, i not too worried i have job to start in january so a couple of weeks in the house together wont kill us ........will it!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

meme30

craigyw:-:grouphug:

esmf73

SHTF here yesterday. Have an electricity bill of over £400. Worst thing is I know its right so has to be paid. It's electricity and gas. So have gone round house unplugging stuff, but need to do more. Going to try and sell stuff too, hope people haven't got all their Christmas presents yet!! Will manage eventually!

vanoonoo

craigywv wrote: »

shtf today oh made redundant , planned for this so just going to enjoy christmas and get on with it after christmas, i not too worried i have job to start in january so a couple of weeks in the house together wont kill us ........will it!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

craigywv - we're with you all the way - what !!!!!!s they are to finalise this in this week but it's good that you have some time off together before you start your job - you'll be keen to get to it hahaha! lots of good wishes coming your way x

vanoonoo

esmf73 wrote: »

SHTF here yesterday. Have an electricity bill of over £400. Worst thing is I know its right so has to be paid. It's electricity and gas. So have gone round house unplugging stuff, but need to do more. Going to try and sell stuff too, hope people haven't got all their Christmas presents yet!! Will manage eventually!

oh dear lots of good wishes coming your way too - hope you manage to sort it

thriftwizard

Craigywv, well done for being so well-prepared for this situation; even knowing about it in advance, many people I know would have crossed their fingers, buried their heads in the sand & carried on as "normal". Esmf73 - ooooeeer! Do you know what's sent the bill so high, and is there anything you can do about it?

Minor SHTF situation here too. My beloved Mum is really unwell, and the NHS doesn't seem to be taking any notice at all. I know she's 86, and we all have to go sometime, but she's a tough old bird & otherwise as fit as a fiddle & sharp as a razor. The attitude seems to be, stop taking up a seat & just die quietly, there are people in real need here! It's heartbreaking, seeing her sick & in discomfort, quite literally dying rather than make a fuss, whilst the service she utterly believes in totally ignores her or just offers her telephone appointments. So far that's resulted in her being told to take more paracetamol, for a heart attack... So I'm racing up & down the county trying to to be of some practical use - and probably just getting underfoot & annoying the docs - whilst Christmas charges down towards us. Haven't even done my cards yet.

Really noticing the cost of fuel now, even though my little car does 60-odd to the gallon.

[Deleted User]

CRAIGY - So, it has finally happened and now all your carefully laid preparations will keep you from feeling either desparate or disparing, this is what you planned for and you will cope extremely well until you start your lovely new job (If you let the OH survive until then that is!!!!!) in January. You will make it in style little one, panache shall be your middle name!!!! Have a little stock take and see if there are any glaring gaps that you need to top up before the end of the week and then have a really lovely christmas and new year and go on from here when you start your new job, good luck!!!

ESMF - Rotten luck,especially at this time of year when there are so many other calls on your purse, good luck in selling your unwanteds and hope you can sort it out quickly and painlessly.

Cheers Lyn xxx.

GreyQueen

craigywv wrote: »

shtf today oh made redundant , planned for this so just going to enjoy christmas and get on with it after christmas, i not too worried i have job to start in january so a couple of weeks in the house together wont kill us ........will it!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

Oh pants, that's a lovely Xmas pressie from your OH's employer. The only blessing is that you had pre-warning and prepped and have lined up the new job for January. Thank goodness for being a savvy missus and sorting that all out.

As to managing two weeks of him underfoot, all I can say is that I recall several sardonic remarks from various women whose hubbies had newly-retired and started instructing them on the correct way to do housework etc............ twice as much husband on half as much money :rotfl:

esmf73 wrote: »

SHTF here yesterday. Have an electricity bill of over £400. Worst thing is I know its right so has to be paid. It's electricity and gas. So have gone round house unplugging stuff, but need to do more. Going to try and sell stuff too, hope people haven't got all their Christmas presents yet!! Will manage eventually!

:eek: OMG that's an evil bill. A mate had a gas bill once which was more than that month's mortgage as he'd let several quarters' worth of estimates go through on the low side.

Was reading somewhere that 1 in 10 have defaulted on their utility bills already. Think it'll only get worse. A lot of people are on key meters and will be self-disconnected until the pay or the benefits come in, so they will be the hidden sufferers. My blood is boiling for you, hun. All the best in getting thru this.

Noo, sorry to hear about you Mum. I see similar things with my Nan who is 89. Waiting months and months for a hospital appt. You feel like calling them up and saying that as she's 89.5 years old, are you hoping your delaying tactics will see her dead of old age before she gets some treatment for this cancer?! And she too is bright as a button and with all her faculties, a much-beloved mother, nan and great-nan.

All is quiet at Shoebox Towers as even the alkies seem to be too skint to par-tay at the moment. In my job, I field calls from all over the city and there's a lot of grim stuff going on in a lot of peoples' lives. Expect that by this time next year it'll be beyond grim for a lot of people.

Seems to me that there's never been a more relevent point to look out for hard times ahead, and to take care of yourselves and your families.

Right, I have tea. Many many boxes of tea, in date until 2014. All is well on that front at least.

Laters, GQ xx

maryb

So sorry for those losing their jobs at this time - not that there is ever a good time...

There are a few decent employers who try to minimise the impact of job cuts and who agonise over when to do it. It used to be the norm to do these things on a Friday so that people could have the weekend to start to come to terms with it. But not everyone has someone at home to talk to so it's increasingly common to make announcements on a Monday - that is what my firm used to do. It made for an immensely stressful weekend when you knew there would be an announcement at 8 am on Monday as to who would go and who wouldn't. But at least the employee reps had some input into the process.

But others are just calculating bar stewards. It's very common for bonuses to be dependent on not being under notice at the date of payment and bonuses are quite a big element of pay in financial services/banking even for low paid staff. So if there is a bonus payment coming up, it's not uncommon for redundancies to be timed just beforehand and they say that if the person signs to say they won't bring a claim at an employment tribunal they'll pay the bonus as an 'ex gratia'. Money they were going to pay anyway and which was earned by work already done but it looks like a sweetener to bare statutory redundancy