Never rains but it pours...

krustylouise

I am having the worst week my car failed its mot on Tuesday epically by 26failures and mechanic said not to bother paying to I'd it given its so unsafe. I have NO money but have to have a car to get to work as work 3miles out of town (no buses and can't bike it as have no bike and have to get from school at 7:40am to work at 8am and again back again at home time) so need a new economical car.

Then I dropped my phone and smashed the screen. And I've just received a letter saying I've received an overpayment of £675 of council tax and housing benefit.

I literally have no money to save for a car or pay these bills. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I don't have any family and feel so lonely and up the creek.

I've already reduced my phone contract (tied in for another year) my sky account (tied in for another year) cancelled my car insurance (saving £39pm) and have made cuts wherever possible so I don't think there's much people can suggest. I just wanted to be amongst people who have been there and made it out the other side.

*sigh*

nicp60

Oh krusty!!! (Feels really wrong to call you that, so hope I'm not offending!!!)

I have been there - it is awful!! It's one thing for creditors not to be able to take what we've not got, but when things start going wrong and you need something extra it's the worst thing in the world!

I'm not sure I have any practical advice for you - hopefully someone will know an easy way out. Can you negotiate a temporary change in your work times and maybe get the little one into a club before/after school? It's not ideal but it would only be temporary? Or do you have any friends who could help out with the logistics of the school run? If you said 'my car's off the road, but this should only be for a few weeks', then you may be able to buy some time!!

As for the overpayment - they can't take what you haven't got!!

Smashed screen - happened to me in Asda car park and I nearly cried!! Check if it's included in your house insurance policy. Or, you can buy a screen on ebay and change it yourself - I did it, and it only cost a tenner (and a whole evening of painstaking care to replace it! - youtube clips showed me how!).

My ultra low came when I got home one day and my delightful ex had emptied the house of furniture (white goods included) and taken all my food with him (I'd just used some m&s vouchers for some nice food to cheer me up), it was 3 weeks til payday and I had nothing to eat, no way to wash my clothes and then the next day some complete tw*t ran my car off the road in a supermarket car park.

You will get through it. I don't look back at those times and laugh, but I do look back and think 'some people never appreciate how easy they have it, because they haven't seen the dark days'. Only those who've been there realise quite how awful it can be. Lots of hugs to you - do come here to vent, it keeps you sane!!!

sistafromanothermista

I know how you feel
So far in the last 3 weeks.....
DH has lost his job
My car has stopped working (dangerous to drive) and my car is a necessity to do my job which is field based
I dropped hair dye all over my cream carpet
My washing machine is fooked and has started to leak
DS has a school trip which is over 1k


All in all a poo few weeks.


Things do get better...
In the last 3 days....
I have bought a new car (££ borrowed)
DH has found a new job
The mat covers the hair dye in the bathroom
Carefully placed tissue under wm mops up the leak




(still haven't worked out a plan for DS trip......yet)


Chin up..

krustylouise

nicp60 wrote: »

Oh krusty!!! (Feels really wrong to call you that, so hope I'm not offending!!!)

I have been there - it is awful!! It's one thing for creditors not to be able to take what we've not got, but when things start going wrong and you need something extra it's the worst thing in the world!

I'm not sure I have any practical advice for you - hopefully someone will know an easy way out. Can you negotiate a temporary change in your work times and maybe get the little one into a club before/after school? It's not ideal but it would only be temporary? Or do you have any friends who could help out with the logistics of the school run? If you said 'my car's off the road, but this should only be for a few weeks', then you may be able to buy some time!!

As for the overpayment - they can't take what you haven't got!!

Smashed screen - happened to me in Asda car park and I nearly cried!! Check if it's included in your house insurance policy. Or, you can buy a screen on ebay and change it yourself - I did it, and it only cost a tenner (and a whole evening of painstaking care to replace it! - youtube clips showed me how!).

My ultra low came when I got home one day and my delightful ex had emptied the house of furniture (white goods included) and taken all my food with him (I'd just used some m&s vouchers for some nice food to cheer me up), it was 3 weeks til payday and I had nothing to eat, no way to wash my clothes and then the next day some complete tw*t ran my car off the road in a supermarket car park.

You will get through it. I don't look back at those times and laugh, but I do look back and think 'some people never appreciate how easy they have it, because they haven't seen the dark days'. Only those who've been there realise quite how awful it can be. Lots of hugs to you - do come here to vent, it keeps you sane!!!

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I currently work full time, I'm a single Mum and DD goes to breakfast club and after school club one night a week until 5:30 so can't work anymore.

I cannot believe your ex did that to you - that is utterly disgusting! Some people are unbelievable. I'm do glad you're out the other side, it gives me hope there's light at the end of the tunnel x

krustylouise

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

I know how you feel
So far in the last 3 weeks.....
DH has lost his job
My car has stopped working (dangerous to drive) and my car is a necessity to do my job which is field based
I dropped hair dye all over my cream carpet
My washing machine is fooked and has started to leak
DS has a school trip which is over 1k


All in all a poo few weeks.


Things do get better...
In the last 3 days....
I have bought a new car (££ borrowed)
DH has found a new job
The mat covers the hair dye in the bathroom
Carefully placed tissue under wm mops up the leak




(still haven't worked out a plan for DS trip......yet)


Chin up..

Oh no poor you!!! It always seems things all happen at once! I don't want to take out finance as I don't have any spare money to pay it. Where is your sons trip? I'd probably think twice about sending dd on a trip that costs so much as we could all go on a lovely family hol for that!

welshbea

I really feel for you, I know exactly what it's like. My heating has been broken since January, and I have no oil left either. To fix the heating i would have to top up the oil first, as it is completely empty. But I can't affort the oil, neither can I afford a plumber. So I have no heat and no hot water since January. And because I have to use the kettle to wash up and standing radiators to get a little bit of warmth in the kid's rooms, my electricity bill is now sky high. I needed two new tyres and a wheel allignment to pass this month's MOT..150 quid...MOT 55 quid. I have 60 left until the end of this month. I have two teenage kids. I am a single mum. I work 3 jobs at minimum wage. I live in the sticks. My house isn't selling, so I can't move into the town where I work. Yesterday a rooftile fell off in the storm we had. I have no ideahow I'm going to fix that. So you are not alone. I just hope that one day things will look up..And yeah,Nicp60, most people don't know how lucky they are. I haven't been out to a pub or Restaurant in years, never mind on a holiday. I work 10 hours a day just to pay my bills. I feel like my life is an endless wait for the next payday. It's just so frustrating. Krustylouise, I hope things work out for you. Good luck!

krustylouise

Welshbea - I really feel for you. Sometimes life really sucks, the only thing I find solace in is that my daughter and I are healthy and for the most part very happy. Things could be much worse I know.

Do you not have any friends or contacts who could look at your boiler and fix it as best they can just to get abit of warmth etc?

paulineb_2

Its a cliche, but theres always someone worse off than you. I wont go into detail about the year my family went through last year except to say it was awful and could have had massive legal consequences for someone in my family through no fault of their own. That took 7 months to sort out.

Just as we were getting back to some kind of normality, my horrible boss wrote me a letter telling me she was sacking me and sack me she did, a week before Christmas. I ended up ill, on anti depressants and in counselling.

But 6 months on, Im fine, Im off the medication, Im sleeping, I wasnt for months and thats why I ended up on medication. I still have no money but Im out teaching fitness classes in the community again and I get by.

And yes when you are down it always seems like theres someone or something waiting to kick you.

Even if you pay the arrears a pound at a time you are paying them. Try and see if theres anyway you can find a reasonably cheap car just to get you from A to B

And you can replace the cracked screen. My life is far from easy and Ive gone through lots of hard times, but you get through it one way or another. Chin up.

krustylouise

paulineb wrote: »

Its a cliche, but theres always someone worse off than you. I wont go into detail about the year my family went through last year except to say it was awful and could have had massive legal consequences for someone in my family through no fault of their own. That took 7 months to sort out.

Just as we were getting back to some kind of normality, my horrible boss wrote me a letter telling me she was sacking me and sack me she did, a week before Christmas. I ended up ill, on anti depressants and in counselling.

But 6 months on, Im fine, Im off the medication, Im sleeping, I wasnt for months and thats why I ended up on medication. I still have no money but Im out teaching fitness classes in the community again and I get by.

And yes when you are down it always seems like theres someone or something waiting to kick you.

Even if you pay the arrears a pound at a time you are paying them. Try and see if theres anyway you can find a reasonably cheap car just to get you from A to B

And you can replace the cracked screen. My life is far from easy and Ive gone through lots of hard times, but you get through it one way or another. Chin up.

The problem I find with a "cheap runaround" is tht they are far than cheap. My last car cost £500 and then it needed £100 for this £80 for that and £290 for its last mot. And petrol?! Oh the petrol and tax were extortion! So this time I'm looking for a Renault Clio 1.5 diesel. Cheap on fuel (700miles per tank) and £30 road tax a year. Just need to save approximately 2k for 1 whilst coming up against all these financial and emotional hurdles while I'm at it!

I do appreciate there are so many more people out there with problems but as I've grown up in pubs, ha an alcoholic mother who died when I was 18 and a father who remarried a woman 30years his junior and cut me out of his life, and then splitting from a violent ex who emotionally and verbally abused me an I have no family to support me and having postnatal depression and suffering anxiety and panic attacks as well as acrophobia, I personally would like to think that's my bad luck over with and somewhere round that corner is some good luck! But it just keeps on coming.....

paulineb_2

I have a friend who sees the positive in everything and some days I go on facebook and I think, not a bloody gain, but shes right in things she says

Heres something from her facebook wall

"When you find yourself cocooned in isolation and despair and cannot find your way to the light, remember: This is the place where caterpillars go, in order to grow their wings." - Sandra Kring, Raising Vibrations

Life isnt easy. Ive suffered from anxiety and stress for a very long time due to work related stuff. A close relative killed themselves when I was 21. Ive been through some really bleak times, but Ive always tried to cling onto the fact that there are better days ahead.

But I think of my gran who died two years ago. She lost her husband young, both her brothers, her son. She saw more tragedy in her life than many people see in a lifetime. But she still battled on. And sometimes thats all you can do, plod on, take life one day at a time, try not to look back, try not to look forward too much, just get through each day.

Newyorkdreams

Hi KL - I didn't want to read your post and not post a wee reply. I can't offer much in the way of solutions for you but I just wanted to offer a virtual hug and let you know in a weird cyber space way (because I don't actually know you) that I'm thinking of you! You sound like you have had a lot to deal with in your life and this will have made you stronger than you realise. Getting it out on the site is cathartic!!! I too suffered panic attacks and anxiety when I was in my early 20's and it was horrendous. I couldn't drive, go on public transport and hated being in crowds.

I hope tomorrow is a brighter day for you! God bless you.

NYD xxx