Putting My Life Into Order

catandy

ok work is going well and it feels like ive never been away and taken any time off development of the software is coming on apace and again figures are being 'rejigged' as i missed something again - gonna cost us some more but we've built in a cushion of 800 usd which is about £500 so again not too concerned there.

My mind is turning towards what I should be paying and in what order. I need to speak to landlord to see what my arrears stand at but im reluctant to do so because it means it will give them the impetus to jump regarding my suspended eviction order and putting it into process even though I'm doing my best to sort of the total mess of the HB situation. I'm now waiting on a bank statement which is the only piece of documentation I need now to prove that I had no income - I've ordered it from the bank and should be here end of the week/ monday next at the latest which means I contact them and open the lines of communication and get it sorted once and for all.

After that I need to look at the CC - I logged into Noddle yesterday to see what was going on, no defaults yet despite all the warnings I've been receiving. Just 3 late payment markers for the 3 highest interest cards which is a lot less than i had expected. had a letter from another of the CC today saying they will be issuing a default. I dont care one way or the other to be honest, my credit file is trashed anyway so that isnt a deciding factor anymore, if they do issue a default chances are they will pass it to a 3rd party for collections giving me a chance to do a reduced F&F but again all that is ifs and buts. just wish this was a bit more of an exact science.

the other part of this is i will never be touching credit again in my life once all this is paid off - never ever want to be in this position again:eek:

catandy

just got another contract for the business with the ex which is just fantastic news :T:T:T

well ive got no money to go and celebrate so its going to have to be a nice cup of tea and savour every drop!!

catandy

just spent some time menu planning for the week and ive set myself a budget of £50 to feed all of us (4) for a week - should be do-able and will be fairly healthy cos ive got good old fashioned home cooked meals planned that will fill us up and lots of veggies and fruit to boot - so all good there.

theres petrol enough in the car to last us 200 odd miles and neither me or ex have anything planned this week except local running about so no spend needed there either. leccie meter is fed for the week so doing ok there.... gosh this is getting scary everything is paid for/ accounted for and theres still money left in my bank account and purse! I cant remember the last time I managed to live like this without relying on credit which isnt 'real' money - its quite a liberating feeling actually and I like it!

only fly in the ointment now is HB for when I was out of work - I hope my bank account statement comes thru tomorrow so I can take it in and get my claim paid out for the time I was out of work. Without that being paid I need to find another 600 which I really dont want to have to do plus it would give my landlord reason enough to enforce me eviction notice which has been suspended for years just lurking in the background ready to jump up and bite me. with hindsight I should have paid it all off and cleared the fees for the notice then I wouldnt be living on a knife edge like this - but no point thinking that way, Im here in this position so I need to make the most of the circumstances and get it sorted out now

Ive also got the fun of contacting a DCA tomorrow for the first time for perhaps 15 years or so. its for mine and my sons gym membership and total amount owing was around 300 I dread to think how much its going to be by the time the DCA have added their fees on. Im thinking of offering to settle with them just to get it clear - can pay it in its entirety by mid next month when i get paid so that will be one less thing to worry about as well.

nothing else planned exciting for this week - just work, housework and normal everyday life stuff.

catandy

Ok just got post for the day and HB is in process just got to send one form back they dont need a bank statement which is good news as it hasnt arrived :cool: - other post is Aqua who have charged me £40 interest in a month so the balance on that is going up apace. That is number one priority to pay off now.

still waiting on the final development work on the software for company with ex to be totally finished off so we can get these companies into full time production and start making some decent money at last. hopefully the part that is holding everything up will be done by end of this week latest - i hope so I'm really rubbish at waiting for things to happen...

I've still not plucked up the courage to contact the DCA even though I know I need to do it to get it sorted once and for all. Perhaps I should do it whilst things are going well in the hope that the positive vibes will be felt down the fone - doubt it will have much of an impact but we can but live in hope

catandy

well business with ex had a shift last night that made £44 in just 2 hours so thats ticking over nicely. work for me is ticking over nicely - fallen back into it like i never took any time off (dont know if thats a good thing or not ) and just waiting for 15th when I get some money in so I can make some payments - now how sad is that??

we ended up 'lending' some money to ex's oldest daughter out of the business bank account - to be told now that it wont be paid back as per the agreement but will be 6 months later than promised. that makes us 1000 light to pay the software developers or we need to make an extra 1K in 8 weeks which again should not be a problem... just wish the demands on lending / giving money would stop a bit. the older son of ex is being evicted so has given hints that he may need some help with a deposit on a rental place, I just cant wait till im only responsible for my kids again:)

so what have i got planned for today - work, mums taxi service tonight for S1 and some housework - excitement just underwhelms me:D

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I plucked up the courage to fone the DCA and have settlement figures of £290 which is about 4quid more than I expected it to be - going to pay that on Friday this week if I get it in writing in time. Also foned my landlord ref a figure for my rent arrears with a view to paying it 15th March when I pick up my full paycheque again (not that I'm dreaming about it you understand...) and it looks like it stands at around 580 including the court fees - my estimates were anything from 200 up to 500 so not too surprised by this either. So all in all no nasty surprises which is all good!

catandy

so got a definite figure on rent arrears and slightly higher than i expected - to clear rent and suspended eviction will cost me 728.88 - still going to pay it though i want my peace of mind back so this month its clear rent arrears/ eviction notice fees and the debt from the DCA making a grand total of 1020 paid out ....:eek:

you know what wages dont last very long do they???

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so target for next months wages - clear aqua card in its entirety so need to find £1400 odd next month...

ive also decided to put in claims for PPI on all the cards that I had it on - thats 3 out of 6 of them so fingers crossed for that to work. im using the template letters off here and will be sending them out tomorrow - just a case of wait and see

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business has a shift scheduled for tonight and so far today we've made 29 quid without anyone doing anything.... gosh i want this to work so badly that i can almost taste it - all this effort and money and time is so close to paying off that its almost unbearable. i feel like a kid at christmas just itching for time to move on faster

catandy

well last nights shift for the business netted us £75 - should have been more but we had problems with the system which cut the time live by about 2 hours so unfortunate but at least the problem is solved moving forward.

waiting on tomorrow when i get paid :j so i can pay it straight out again on some bills :rotfl:

catandy

so quiet couple of day from me - working, housework etc nothing to set the world on fire

I spoke with my landlord on Friday and have decided to pay off just the arrears of my rent this month plus the DCA debt for me - the one in my sons name I'm going to have to wait for a letter to come thru till I can get it sorted out... the eviction notice Im going to clear the fees for that over the next 4 months and have arranged a payment plan with them already.

Other thing I'm going to do is pay off the arrears on Aqua card - partly cos they are hammering me with charges and also because they are owned by Halifax whom I have my 5K overdraft and the loan with - I need to start paying the OD down and I want to do it at my rate not have it pulled from beneath me with no warning hence the payment to the CC. Plan is to have it cleared completely by this time next month so that will be one less thing to worrry about. For now I've asked the bank to track down my overdraft by £100 per month and I plan to up that later in the year when I've cleared some of the CC's off totally.

plans for this week?

work (I'm really enjoying being able to say that ), send off forms for PPI claims on all cards (this is a throwaway I dont expect to get anything but who knows uh?) and keep unnecessary spending to the minimum.

catandy

I took the bull by the horns today and started the process of tracking my overdraft down - just by £100 a month for now but at least its going down and not up

also going to pay off my aqua card arrears tomorrow which in turn brings the balance down on that card by £200 - the whole balance on that will be cleared completely by 15th of next month and I will have paid off a huge 8+% off my original debt. the loan is back into payment by next month as well so that will start reducing ever so steadily again:)

feeling upbeat and positive about whats going on at the moment - no particular reason, i guess some of it is that I'm back at work and feeling like I'm starting to make a difference to things. may even yet get some work in next week to make for a bumper pay cheque for next paydate - I work out my budgets on 15 days freelancing a month so anything on top of that is really just a bonus.

business with ex has come to a standstill as software developers are away for a week and there are no shifts planned this week but im going to make the most of the downtime and chill

catandy

so whats going on in my debt busting world?

not a lot to be honest...

I have started to track my OD down each month

I have paid off my rent arrears in full

I have cleared my debt with the DCA

I have made an agreement with Aqua CC to clear the balance in full at end of month

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apart from that life is just carrying on as usual - DS1 and DS2 out at a gig last night so they are happy enough, ex is putting in an offer on a flat which he can take from 1st June - still being refurbished so that fits in with the timescale we both planned for everything.

business with the ex had a hiccup last night with one of the payment providers we use having 'gremlins' so us having to shut down for business for a night - not impressed as we should have 380 odd in usd which would have been 200 quid straight profit but hey these things are sent to try us...;)