Putting My Life Into Order

catandy

another cc co accepted revised offers and sold on debt to a dca who will be in touch with 'negotiated settlement terms' sounds all rather exciting mind you that would depend on me having something to settle with .... maybe one day

DS1 has a trial at a job this morning - he doesn't really want the job but knows he's better off with a job than none at all so fingers crossed for him - DS2 has been imparting his words of wisdom on the world of work

business with ex sold 388$ of business yesterday making running total for the week of 2218$ - next scheduled shift is sunday evening making it next weeks trading so not a bad figure to finish on just want to be doing that every week now

and nothing exciting planned by me for the weekend - infact nothing planned at all gonna sort of make it up as I go along

catandy

so what earth shattering news do I have....?

DS1 trial at work didn't happen on Saturday he went in to report to the named contact he had been given to find 3 other people there for exactly the same thing, the guy they were meant to be seeing was on a day off so they were invited to do a 'mock trial' for 4 hours each so they would know exactly what to do when invited back for their proper 4 hour trial.... sounds like a good way for that company to get work done for nothing to me. anyway DS1 and the other people there all asked them to reschedule and left, much to the persons chagrin apparently - he had the cheek to ask them if they really wanted a job?!?

anyway I've had some freelancing work come thru whilst I'm waiting for contract work to start - should have my log ins for their systems by now and be able to get started but still waiting (which is something I'm becoming good at). can manage all the bills this month ready for contract wages to kick in but I was hoping for the 2 to run seamlessly, all the best laid plans uh?

Food shop for this week should come in at about 30£ tops as I've menu planned to within an inch of the kitchen cupboards life but I'm determined to have a lean couple of weeks to run everything down again. bills are all paid for the month and there's enough cash left in my account to last till pay day so things settling down ok - just want to get onto revised income so I can up payments and start seeing some big drops in figures

feels like I've been at a standstill all year, balances on some debts have reduced but that's been offset by others going up with interest charges being added on so in the real scheme of things im just treading water. I think maybe I need to sit down with a pair of fresh eyes on the subject so I'm thinking of speaking to Stepchange or Payplan and see what they say. I knew the DMP route was going to be a long term commitment, I was also told that a DMP maybe wasn't the best solution for me - bankruptcy was the first recommendation from Stepchange followed by an IVA but I refused either. I don't know now if that was a mistake.. I think its let the new revised income kick in, give my revised offers a chance to take effect for a couple of months then really sit down and make some decisions..

catandy

I've actually read back on my musings from yesterday and ive decided im not willing to throw in the towel just yet.. March is when I started paying back these debts properly with a regular payment schedule and work settled down over the spring and summer so a regularlish income, the 6 months prior to that and between my lbm and being able to start paying regular amounts I was in and out of work and in receipt of jsa plus keeping an extended family that isn't my own and never had a spare penny left over.

so sum total is I am on the right track even if it doesn't feel like it - in the last 12 months I have:-

• moved ex out and got rid of my responsibility to pick up his and his daughters bills
• got a little runaround car on the road to make my life easier - all paid upfront
• had a regular payment schedule in place that was kept to and the balances on all but 2 debts have reduced.
• had success with one Ppi claim payout with another one due any day - the 3rd seems to have got lost in the abyss.
• got used to living on a budget infact my budget now is more generous than it was this time last year and I had other 'claims' on the money I earned.
• rejoined the business I set up with ex on my own terms which I am sticking to (which for me is quite an achievement!)
• jumped between freelance work, employed work and contract work but always sorted something out. it was this time last year that things started drying up completely so im scared witless that its going to happen again.

anyway - new positive head on.

• By Novembers salary I will have 500 spare disposable income each month that I can either throw at debts (aqua being number one target) or I can make mine and my kids life a bit more comfortable and pay a portion of it off debts.
• doesn't look like work is going to dry up this year with me taking this contract work so I need to stop worrying about 'what ifs'.
• business with ex is starting to pick up some of my household expenses that are higher than normal because of dealings with business - 95pm on a business class internet connection and fone line being the first in line.. which equates to more £ in my pocket again
• business with ex is on the up - its doing better and better all the time and has a new contract starting on Monday so should take another jump upwards again then.
• salary for me from the business is January time onwards - before then the plan is to take out 500 dividend from the company, ok its a drop in the ocean compared to what im owed from the co but its a start and it means that my kids and I can have a nice xmas/ new year plus I can treat myself and them and even throw some extra at some balances.

THIS WILL WORK - JUST STICK WITH IT A BIT LONGER!!

catandy

got some training work come in that I do ad hoc come in so a few extra hundred coming my way for doing that - will be paid out on it next month

all creditors now accepted revised payments - just waiting to see if aqua are still piling on the interest.... I can only live in hope now ive got a default from them that its stopped

Ive just been really brave and contacted aqua - who have just said they have issued a default, sold the debt on to a DCA and frozen all interest charges from last month!!! result - now I know I can get clear of all of this

Calling14

Well done positive head working can you get me one? lol

catandy

ok back at it again... working commission only for a couple of days which I really do not like doing but contract work is taking longer to start than I expected - cannot get me set up and able to login on their internal IT systems as I'm a security risk

first impression of this commission only work is im donating my time for nothing as it doesn't feel like im going to earn anything... but we shall see. perseverance pays (or so they say)..

DS1 is back to the Jobcentre today to sign on again - he hates it and wants to find a job, to be fair he's applying for absolutely everything but not even getting responses back so is getting a bit peeved with it all. Not a lot I can do to help him tbh I just feel awful for him, what sort of legacy have we left our kids (no jobs, education putting them into major debt) I think they've got a really bad deal of it all.

business with ex had a slow night last night just sold 200$ of business in 4 hours so not so good as it has been. we need to sell another 610$ to hit payout from one of the payment processors and have 3 days to do it in so should be easy (ive got my fingers crossed )

just the same old, same old ...

catandy

Ok all creditors finally accepted revised payment schedule so that's one less thing to worry about.

I'm also applying for an employed job on Monday - contract work is still up in the air with a problem with their infrastructure and my accessing remotely (for an IT company their systems are really out of the ark) so it seems like its going back and back... time to back myself up me thinks.

I think I gave the kiss of death to the business that I run with the ex - ever since I said it was going really well and picking up its died a death

catandy

co with ex is 308 short of hitting payout by end of trading week last week (8am this morning) which means its carried forward to next payout and should hit our bank account 14th - no major stress as we don't pay out on that till about a week later but it would have been nice to have a weeks worth of trading as a buffer.. that's the next aim to have a months worth of money for company set aside in co trading account... so that has a fail safe built in.

went to see my mom yesterday and ended up having a really good chat with my younger brother who is sort of the only real life confidante that I have. his opinion is ex is still taking advantage and that I should walk away from company and everything that I have pumped into it both money wise and effort wise as ex will never be straight with me or pay me back everything I am owed. he also said that part the reason I went back into the company was I wanted my son to get some of what he is entitled to (true) and that my son is totally selfish for wanting or expecting anything from it (absolutely not true). He also said that if the business starts to struggle again I am a ready bank account to plunder cos that's what I have been so far (I don't think this is true because I hope I'm stronger than that now).

one of the many sensible things he did say yesterday is that I need to know exactly how much money I have pumped into the business.. which makes sense so I'm starting to add up the figures and its making scary reading!

design work/ freelancers 5591.68usd/ 3494gbp
hosting fees 20542.62usd/ 12839gbp
software development 25600 usd/ 16000gbp

I make that a grand total of £32333 before I even start adding on advertising costs and incidental spends and money given to people / things bought for people.

and when I look at them they aren't paltry:-

car which was then put in ex's name £6000
deposit on flat for ex's daughter £550
washing machine for ex's daughter £399
pc for ex (before he was an ex) £499
donation to older daughter of ex when she got caught with a car loan she couldn't pay £1000

and then odd £100's here there and everywhere... so a conservative estimate is 40K over 4 years... probably more but that's the figure I am going to work to.:eek:

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now realistic to be paid back from the company ie how much is the company making and can afford to pay me back?

* business running at current capacity ie replicating what it has done this last week of trading is making enough to cover all running expenses plus pay ex a salary on NMW plus 500£ left over so potentially £500 paid back to me every month,, that only makes 80 months or 6.5 years.

mind you none of those figures include the 3 new contacts we have starting, or any sales of the software or any sales on our own websites. does that make me an eternal optimist or is that my wishful thinking again.

reality check needed please - on paper does this look like its even worth pursuing? profit margin for the company starts at 19% up to 45% dependant on payment processor and who makes the sale.

all opinions welcomed cos I don't know anymore if I'm just living in cloud cuckoo land and this will ever work (which is what my brother thinks)

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as a final note ex is owed 6K from the business and between us we have a personal loan to pay back of 3k to a member of his family...

catandy

and then yesterday evening co with ex does 1000$ of sales in just over 4 hours - there really is no rhyme or reason to it or any pattern for that matter. profit and lost forecast is virtually impossible cos it does vary so much

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got to do a menu plan later on when I wake up a bit as cupboards and freezers are virtually empty. also going to apply for an employed job which is walking distance away and is for maternity leave cover only so it works well to fill in the bits where my work life is shaky

and then its chase contract work to see if they have got it sorted/ then chase for freelance work to see if there's anything going/ do pay-outs to all users of co software system and bring accounts up to date, blitz the flat and other normal boring domesticated stuff

dawnybabes

It seems so close to making lots of money, I'd stay in and get the money out. Perhaps put some of it in an emergency account just n case,