Bereft and Broken

Smolly

Thanks EM, Panicky and Thistle for popping in.

EM I never do the lottery - I would forget to check it!!!

Thistle I'm all mystery shopped out this weekend! I managed one this morning but ended up having a terrible coughing fit in the shop. The lovely lady went and got me a drink - top marks to them!!! Yes it is all a bit of a relief...wonder how long it will last?

Panicky - do you have any relatives or friends with whom you can talk to about it? Hopefully you will hear about the Trust Deed soon. Is it like a debt management plan? PM me anytime you want, or do you have a diary yourself? xx

Had a lovely day catching up with my friend - we only had about 5 hours together but neither of us stopped talking it seemed, and if I didn't have a sore throat before I've definitely got one now! I always have a laugh with her when I see her and it's so therapeutic. I need to see her more often and she has invited me up for a weekend before Christmas which I have already accepted!

By tomorrow (end of) I would really like to have achieved:

All letters to creditors with medical letters ready for posting.
Couple of reviews on Am@zon.
Three huge bags of summer 3Bay clothing which I have unearthed from the '3Bay Room' put into those vacuum bags and then a suitable place found to store them ready for next year.
[STRIKE]Walk with my reluctant pup.[/STRIKE] DONE IN A FASHION!!!
[STRIKE]All mystery shop reports up to date[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Invent a tea from the contents of the freezer as I do not want to go food shopping this week if I can help it.[/STRIKE] DONE
And one nice thing - finish watching a film I started the other day.

A friend of mine posted something on fb which she is thinking of doing for Christmas and I think it's a really good idea. For a while now I've thought about volunteering at the local foodbank but didn't want to volunteer and then find I couldn't help out. I've done something similar twice before.

Once I volunteered to be an unpaid advisor for the CAB. I did one session and then DS got called into Leeds that night for one of his major ops. I then couldn't do anything for several weeks whilst he recovered and other things took over. Two years ago I volunteered for the Samaritans. I managed one session and then dad passed away. I couldn't cope with it after that.

Anyway the idea my friend has had which she has taken from somewhere on fb is an alternative advent calendar. Everyday from 1st December to 24th put an item of food into a box and then drop it off at the local foodbank on Christmas Eve. I think this is a fantastic idea and I'm going to do it. I'll try and include a few festive bits.

Anyway that's me for today - got to finish my reports to earn some pennies so I can pay for the car insurance at the end of the month which I have totally forgotten about! Only happens every year but there you go.

Take care everyone and Panicky pm if you want xx

Thistle-down

I'm glad you had such a lovely day!

That's a really nice idea about the foodbank. I just looked and we have a local one as well, I might steal your idea.

There's always another bill waiting - the annual ones should not be a surprise but I always forget about them until they are due, car insurance included. I remembered reading somewhere about dividing the bill by 12 and making sure 1/12th of the money is put away so when the bill comes, you have the money ready to pay it. Of course I never managed so am still shocked when things like the MOT come up.

Not really a yearly bill but one of those things I never budget for - my son had a very old laptop that he took to uni - it's not suitable for his course and gave up the ghost last Wednesday. I'm not sure what to do, he is trying to catch up with his coursework on his old desktop computer but that is from about 2008, so he's having problems. My laptop is the newest in the family (the only one not running on Windows XP!) I think it's about 2 years old now. I am tempted to give it to him but that will leave me with only the ipad mini, which is difficult to record my music on. I feel like his need is greater than mine at the moment. I am trying to be positive but sometimes having no money available for this kind of thing is a pain in the !!!!.

Smolly

Hi Thistle

I keep trying to save money for things like the MOT, car insurance and breakdown cover but every month I find I have to use the money for something else!! I really need a system. I do put the money into a nominated account but then times get tough and I end up using it. In fairness my budget doesn't actually stretch to stuff like that so maybe I shouldn't even be running my car but as I've been getting a few bits of MS money through I've managed in a fashion.

Maybe after Christmas I need to sit down and work out a very rough average of what I am earning from outside sources such as MS and then do myself a new budget. I may find that I have enough money to pay my creditors back more than £1 a month.

I managed to earn roughly £120 this weekend after expenses from MS but I will need that for the car insurance unless I take on another monthly payment which I'm really loathe to do. I sold one thing on 3Bay last night - not bad to say I had two things ending! :rotfl: I still have about £100 Emergency Fund money sitting in my account but nothing else now until I'm paid on Friday. I might have a bash at some surveys later on Panelbase and Opinion Outpost and see if I can get to payout within the next few days. I may also stick a few bits on our local fb selling page but I tend not to have too much luck with that as there are so many listings - as soon as you list something it gets swallowed up and lost. I'm also going to see if there are any more MS sites worth applying to.

Anyway, feel like I've been sat writing reports all day. Am going to have a cuppa and then vacuum up some of those storage bags which make your clutter mysteriously disappear into a very stiff, very cumbersome and very heavy bit of plastic which is virtually impossible to manoeuvre into any kind of space....and at which point you wish you had never bothered and take all the !!!! to the charity shop!:rotfl:

Must go and hoover, and deal with a muddy dog and and an even grubbier child. What have they been doing?

Take care everyone xxx

Smolly

By the way Thistle I've responded on your thread about your computer. I've been getting confused. I was reading your thread just now and couldn't understand why I couldn't find certain parts of it I knew I had read. Thought I was losing the plot!! xx

Thistle-down

What have you got planned for today?

We can't really afford to run a car, but things would be dire without it. It's just like everything else in our lives, we keep praying nothing will go wrong because there is no money to fix it. Luckily the new car seems really dependable, and we'd like to keep it that way with regular servicing. Both DH and I need to sit down and go through our expenses and see where we can trim them back even more so when things go wrong we can get them sorted.

I still need to work out my goals, I am good at thinking of things I need to do but actually doing them (or even organising them) is a different matter!

I could use some of those vacuum bags, though I think they might make me more inclined to keep things that should really be given to charity.

EssexHebridean

Smolly you need to sort out your budget and work out budgeting ahead for things like the car stuff before you offer any more on your payments, I would suggest. I think you were going to do a full SOA when you start your diary thread, weren't you? That should help!

Fore breakdown cover check out the likes of Kwikfit and AXA - both of those have worked out very cheap for us - I seem to recall we currently pay £58 per car for cover and that includes Homestart and full recovery. I've had cause to use both of those and they've been excellent - AXA in particular actually manage to practice the "joined up thinking" that so few insurance companies achieve!

Thistle - I honestly believe that sticking to a regular service pattern with a car is the right way to prolong their lives. MrEH's last one went on until it passed 180k miles - and to be honest we could have wrung more out of it, we chose to bail out when we did due to advisories (purely age/miales related) on the MoT. Mine's now approaching 130k - I've had her from new and she's still running brilliantly (touch wood - she says as the MoT and Service are due next month!). There have been things that have needed doing but they've always been caught and dealt with before they've turned into major issues.

Smolly

Hello Ladies!

I've had a really nice day today. Thought the week was going to be 'one of those weeks' when the OH stormed in last night after one of his social do's and just started on me for no apparent reason. I ended up going straight to bed after I told him what he could do and unfortunately had loads of horrible dreams all night. He seems a little better today but he needs to take a chill pill before I clout him.:mad:

I took DS to a 'playdate' this morning at the local soft play centre. He had a really good time and I ended up having a good old chinwag with the other mummies. Ended up organising tea out with one friend on Sunday and breakfast next week with two others! Get me! I never do social arrangements like this. I will probably bail out before then.:rotfl:

Thistle I never did do all of the vacuum bag thingys yesterday but I did make a start and have finished the pile I got out this afternoon. Tomorrow I am going to pull everything out from the side of the wardrobe and see what tat I have there, and hopefully incorporate said vacuum bags in with it! I have a mountain of unused vacuum bags now Thistle - I need to store them in a vacuum bag!!:D

EH - lovely to hear from you. Where have you been hiding? You're very sensible - I do need to do a proper budget. At the moment I feel like I'm just winging it. I got up this morning wondering where I was going to rob money from to do some food shopping and when I looked in my account could see that the child benefit had been paid. Brilliant, only I need that for budgeting for next month. I had been paid some MS money though which I had forgotten about, but I do agree - I need a full list of all bills including those pesky annual ones before I start offering more money.

This evening I shall just potter about on the old pc. I had an idea that when I start my new diary (I keep promising this don't I!) I am going to try and find one new way each month to try and make an extra bit of cash. I was thinking each week but I've got to factor in returning to work and I don't want to fail before I start. So I will start in November. It's likely to be an online way of making money and I'll try it out for the month and see where I get. It could just be a new MS site or a new survey site - I will have to see.

Anyway am going to head over and have a nosey on some other diaries before I make a cuppa. Take care all. xx

Thistle-down

That's funny about the vacuum bags! :rotfl:

I'm glad you had a nice day, though sorry about your DH. Are things better now?

Good for you on being social. I used to make plans and then cancel because either I couldn't be bothered or I really didn't want to go in the first place. Lately though I have been making an effort to actually go and do the things I've said I would do. I will admit I have cut way back on committing to anything, but when I make the effort to go out, I am always glad I did. Plus it makes the cosy nights in feel a little more special.

DH and I have yet to formally make the budget, but reading EH's post has inspired me. I have band practice tonight and a folk club on Thurs. so maybe Friday night we can sit down and work out where every penny is going. What an exciting life we lead!

I hope you're having a good day x

Smolly

Thanks Thistle - OH is OH - doubt he'll ever change but yes thank you, things are a bit better today. I haven't strangled him anyway!!:rotfl:

Had a funny old sort of day - spent most of it down the side of the wardrobe.:eek: Amazing what you find. Found a brand new Christmas tree - a mini one mind but still new in its box. I found £7.35 plus £1.80 worth of stamps, and some lovely photos of DS when he was a baby. Plus all the usual tat. I had a really good go with my new vacuum bags and everything now is sucked to within an inch of its life. It looks all neat and tidy but heaven help me if I need to look for anything!

And then this afternoon fatigue hit me and I needed an hour's nanna nap. I felt fine though - not depressed or anything and felt much better afterwards. I really love being at home when DS is here. I'm so lucky to be able to take my holidays at the same time as him.

We're off to Mum's tomorrow afternoon and staying over until Friday morning. I'll probably be back with her on Saturday as I think it's my brother's weekend off, and then Sunday will just be spent catching up on everything before DS goes back to school and I go back to work.

I had a bit of a shock when I saw my mobile bill the other day. It had £18 worth of extra costs on which I can't afford. One quick look and some rogue text message has been coming through charging me £4.50 each time! I thought you were charged when you sent a text, not received one! Anyway, somewhere in the past probably when I've been signing up to some new money making venture I must have put my mobile number in on something and not read the small print and ended up receiving a weekly text message regarding entering a competition, but each time it comes through I have been charged £4.50.

Now I don't like stuff like this so got straight on it. Rang Virgin who gave me a number to call and unsubscribe which was the first thing. I found out over the weekend and on Monday morning got a text confirming I had been unsubscribed (I did check I hadn't been charged for that message!). I had also rung the number again and left a message that I wanted a refund.

After lots of googling I thought I had found the company responsible so sent them a message asking for a refund. Monday morning got another text saying send your details to this email address and we'll sort a refund. Seemed far too easy. It was however a completely different company to the one I'd complained to!

I sent the email and got a response saying I'll get a cheque within 28 days. We will see but until then I'm putting it down to experience and will have to find the extra £18 in a few days for the increased bill.

Anyway I am off now. I feel quite tired. Hope you have had a good day too Thistle. I will pop over to your diary now and have a quick look and see what you've been up to xx

EssexHebridean

Oh well done you for being so proactive on that - these sorts of stealth charges really annoy me - it's such a sneaky underhand way of making money! :T

You know what - reading back through that post, in comparison to your first one - you REA::Y need to start that new thread. The you that started this one simply isn't the same you as is dealing with things now. (Plus I keep forgetting to check your thread for updates - and I refuse to subscribe until you start your new one, so there!) :rotfl:

Fingers crossed you get that cheque through but yes, sensible to assume you may not, I would say. Of course thanks to the side of the wardrobe you already have £7.35 of it, don't you!