From debt to freedom...

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Spendless, Janb5, Cherryfudge & SH.

Cherryfudge - your post made me smile as it’s exactly what my brother does, let’s my mum know his adventures after the event!

 DD1 is in the midst of preparations both academic and practical. It’s tricky to know how best to help. It would seem she needs to have a Covid test prior to flying and hopefully, if negative, will mean no quarantine. 

Janb5 - no update on the mediation. It’s all very quiet, which is a reminder to email again and ask again  for the necessary court form to be sent.

This week has been somewhat of a challenging week. DS1 went to look for something in the very small, minute  room  that houses the central heating boiler. He  discovered that there was a pool of water lying on the floor and a hissing sound evident. It turned out that there was a tiny hole in the pipe which had been undetected, causing water to spray out under pressure resulting in the pool of water. It’s the exact same problem that was experienced in the bathroom, earlier this year.  The saving grace this time, is that the floor is a concrete one, so no carpets or floorboards have been ruined!  DS1 rang the ex 😒🥺 to tell him. I ended up having to call out the emergency plumbers on Monday to get the leaky pipe repaired. Thankfully they were able to do so. Unfortunately they checked another damp bit of floor elsewhere and discovered that the hot water tank needs replacing ASAP 😞😩. It’s really feeling like one step forward and 2 steps back at the moment.

To compound matters, the ex hovered around when the plumber came. It’s hard to explain or get across the household set up when that happens. The silver lining is that the little room was full of the ex’s stuff so quite a bit has now been sorted through / cleared out due to the water.

On Tuesday I went online to make a payment off a debt. It’s a process I have done for months but on Tuesday, having put in all the numbers, the message came up that there were errors and to try again later. I tried again 5 minutes later and it all went through as normal. I was somewhat shocked to get 2 emails later that evening, thanking me for my payment, it turns out that despite the error message, the payment had gone through so have paid twice. Money juggling continues!

janb5

Hi HSL,
Commiserations re the leak.  That's totally miserable as it's a repeat of the earlier misery.
You might try to get that 2nd payment back as it was a IT error(theirs)
You're doing fantastically..well done you!x
On a sad note my ex husband died  unexpectedly of cancer last week within 3 days of being admitted to hospital.  So strange after all this time to reflect on broken dreams.

MeandO

Sorry to hear of all your extra stress and expense HSL2, these things are sent to try us aren't they.
Sorry to hear about the death of your ex husband too Janb5. Must have been quite a shock by the sounds of it. Sending hugs. xx

Cherryfudge

You must be so sick of leaky pipes and the hovering ex...
Oh no! to the double payment - if you are on a schedule, might they allow a payment holiday next month?
@janb5, I'm sorry to hear about your ex. Yes, these times can bring back so many dreams, at a time when we need something hopeful to look forward to.

janb5

Thank you MeandO and Cherryfudge- I didnt mean to hijack HSL`s blog!
The worst thing is that my boys ( I`ll be saying that when they`re 50! ) are having to deal with everything themselves which is very hard for them...

Honeysucklelou2

Sorry to hear about your ex Janb5. Thinking of you and your boys...

Cherryfudge

janb5 said:

Thank you MeandO and Cherryfudge- I didnt mean to hijack HSL`s blog!
The worst thing is that my boys ( I`ll be saying that when they`re 50! ) are having to deal with everything themselves which is very hard for them...

I expect they can ring you if they need to, though. And yes, however grown up they are, Mum is always Mum.

Honeysucklelou2

It’s a stunning day here so hoping to get out for a decent walk shortly. DD2 and I managed a lovely new walk on Friday. It was one of those “ Let’s  explore a Public footpath sign”  type of walks. We had done about a third of it a couple of weeks ago and knew where we had to go. Unfortunately this time, I left my OS map at home so we really were dependent on being sharp eyed in spotting the next sign! The walk was in a nearby village that was on the way to the nearest big town and therefore on the school run.  There was free parking and we began by meandering down narrow lanes. We turned off through an old farm yard which led us onto a grassy track before opening out into fields. It was amazing to see the nearest big town from different angles.  We crossed a stile into a flatter field which presented us with a challenge. Running right through the middle of the field was a trench about 1.5 metres wide. The fields contain tributary streams that run into a minor river, that in turn feeds into the large river at the nearest big town. With the recent rain the trench was a soggy mass of weed, quite deceptive to the eye at first, as the colour matched the colour of the grass. What followed must have looked hilarious...we had to try and balance on a couple of strategically placed, wobbly stones, bits of piping sticking up and lastly a couple of planks of thin wood, in a bid to cross this trench. The wood kept sinking right into the water and although we tried to find another crossing place it was too wide and too deep to get across. In the end we were having to cross with hop, skip and a jump type manoeuvre! All good fun!
 Eventually we reached the minor river but couldn’t find the next sign so had to walk back via lanes. Although it was a bit of a route march to get back to the car and pick up the younger  children in time, it was marvellous to be outside. We saw young lambs recently born, a pair of buzzards that circled the surrounding fields. At one point the larger buzzard was sat in solitary splendour on a fence post scrutinising us quietly before flying off after we spotted him. I felt so relaxed on our return and in a bizarre way more energised and motivated.

Counting every penny money wise but pay day is tomorrow so next lot of bills should be paid by Tuesday. It feels like I’m waiting for bits of money to come in from the PPI payment and a return of tax paid out in union fees but hopefully it will come in soon. I should be back to job no 2 on Thursday which I’m looking forward to. It’s been a struggle to be in the house on the evenings the ex cooks for the children.

Have a good Sunday  everyone.

Sun_Addict

Lucky you with the good weather today. I think the best way to describe the weather where I am is murky but at least it’s dry. Your walk sounded very interesting.

Honeysucklelou2

I had a lovely day yesterday. DD2 and I had so enjoyed our walk on Friday that we decided to show the other DDs and DS3. This time I took a photo of the OS map and had in on my phone to navigate the second half of the walk, a little more successfully. The younger children were excited to find the trench that had to be crossed in the middle of the field. This time  I found  the corresponding parallel public footpath that I’d thought was there but couldn’t see on Friday. Turns out the sign was buried in the depths of an overgrown hedge.
We were doing well until the last field. We had crossed a stile which had led us into a marshy field. It was so marshy that a footbridge had been provided to cross the worst of it. We clambered onto the footbridge ( which was about 2- 3 metres long) and found it was quite rickety and sloped, not to mention slippery under our feet. We were heading across quite gingerly when, to our surprise a dozen boisterous cows raced up from a corner of the field. We had seen no other livestock at this point, so were taken completely off guard!  We looked at the path that was left ( in its muddy, marshy state) , the size and number of the cows, DD2’s  truly excitable dog and the fact that DS3 is not the fastest runner after he’d been on a couple of miles walk and bid  a retreat to the last field. We were able to divert across another field or 3 and eventually connect up with a lane. As we got back to the car, the sunset was stunning. The golden and pink hues of the sunset were reflected in the pools of water lying across the marshy fields. Along the walk, as the sun was getting lower, we had seen the finest of spider webs, spun across the swards  of grass which lit up in the sun’s rays. It was so beautiful.

Today, in contrast, has been a case of one step forward and 2 steps back. The washing machine started spurting out water from the bottom. We tried everything we could think of, but nothing worked. I have ordered a new filter screw cap and hope that that  is all that is needed.