From debt to freedom...

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Willowtree222 and Dakota_Rose.

Over the weekend we went to a local Forestry Commission woods. It has a variety of trails and is halfway between DD1 and us, so a useful place to meet up. Costs limited to parking costs and an ice cream for the children.

Unfortunately I’ve ended up with a horrible cold. I thought having been ill for the first 2 weeks of the summer holidays, I wouldn’t get anything for a while but a hazard of the job is children literally sneezing over me or in my face! Hoping for a speedy recovery because I can’t afford to miss shifts at Job 2 for paying DD4’s rent.

lucielle

Hope you feel better soon. I’ve started taking zinc to try and keep the lurgies at bay.
L

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Lucielle…hadn’t thought of zinc, will investigate forthwith!

A week off from Job 1 which I’m ready for! It’s been a busy few weeks both at school and home. DD4 has gone back to uni for her second year and one DSC has moved here full time.

At Job 2 they have introduced winter hours which we have never done before. From a business perspective it makes sense to keep costs low. On an employee level it means that we are all working at least 2 or 3 hours less a week which doesn’t sound much but has an impact on pay. I can see over the last 18 months or so that people just don’t have the money to go out as much as they used to. I am grateful that I still have work there. You hear of so many places that have closed 😟.

The knock on effect is trying to save for DD4 is harder 😞.

I’m looking forward to having time to walk, garden and bake this week. On Friday afternoon, I salvaged as many of our cooking apples as possible, as many were blown off the tree by Storm Austen. Having time to make a crumble from the apples and frozen blackberries picked in September, was blissful!

Almost forgot to add…one debt has finished 🥳. This one was due to HMRC saying I had been overpaid on tax credits. I haven’t been in receipt of them for 3 years and had updated details regularly but I had a letter saying I owed them money. It has taken me two years to clear so this was an unintentional debt. Glad that it has cleared and I gave an extra £100 a month to send to DD4.

Willowtree222

HMRC are often messing things up. I know my sister had a similar issue with them, and they are taking more money from me despite them owing me money.

Hopefully you get a rest for a week without having at least one job to do.

lucielle

Enjoy your week off. Love going blackberry picking, they don’t really grow here.
L

Dakota_Rose

That sounds like a lovely way to spend the week off. The weather is definitely lending itself to indoor activities!

Cherryfudge

I was thinking about you during storm Austen. I hope there wasn't any damage to your place? Cooking the apples sounds lovely, and I am sure the results were appreciated!

Very well done on getting rid of the HMRC bill. That will be a help to your daughter at Uni and help compensate for the reduced hours at Job 2. Is there a possibility of extra hours there over Christmas? Meanwhile at least it won't be so tiring for you.

Spendless

Well done on clearing the HMRC debt. Having that gone will help replace with the lost hours at job2. Some years ago I had an agency job where I should have done a 37.5 hr week, but we were too busy, so I always did 40 (hourly paid). Then the company sold off part of the business and I only needed to do 37.5, whilst grateful for not having to work as much, I really felt those 2.5 missing hours in my wages. I believe youre correct, years ago a take away was a once a week treat for us and we probably ate out every few weeks too. Nowadays its returned to more like my childhood, where eating out/ordering in is an occassional treat more reserved for special occassions.

Enjoy the week off from job1.