Dreaming of financial freedom!

sammy70

i know exactly how you feel bless you.

Youve done the right thing, lifes too short to be so unhappy

:grouphug:

themadvix

Oh Charly, that sounds awful. Agree with Sammy that you've definitely done the right thing. I hope you're feeling better soon (Saturday, I imagine!).

Well done with the Premium Bonds!

Jessy103

What a nightmare charly! I wish you the best of luck with the job hunt and I'm sure you'll find something that will make you much happier

ch4rly2002

Thanks for the support guys. It's a scary prospect, but I'm hoping it turns into a great opportunity.

ch4rly2002

So Friday was my last day at work. It was a surprisingly emotional day. I was relieved to be finishing, guilty for leaving my Manager in the lurch and apprehensive for what my future would bring. All kinds of thoughts were running through my head, like what if I never get another job, what are people going to think etc. I've now had a few days off and I'm feeling better about the situation. I've applied for a couple of jobs but I wanted to use this week to relax a bit and get some jobs done around the house. As it turns out, I haven't managed to get much done as DH had an op on his leg on Monday so I was sat with him in the hospital all day, Tuesday I drove his car for it's MOT and was sat in the garage all morning and spent the afternoon with our neighbour who turned up to see how he was. Wednesday I managed to get some jobs done but then the neighbour turned up again and time just seemed to fly past. Yesterday DH woke up with blood pouring from his leg! We went to A&E and spent 7 hours there After A&E we went home to have something to eat (we hadn't eaten since we had a bowl of cereal for breakfast) and the in-law's rang to confirm they were still coming down so they arrived around 9pm. The in-laws are staying over because they're going to the Place int he Sun show at the NEC and Nottingham isn't too far from Birmingham. They're considering buying a holiday home so they'll be able to learn more about the process etc. They're coming back later today to have dinner with us and then they'll head back to Yorkshire. so that, in a nutshell, is where my week has disappeared to.

Next week I plan to go into Nottingham and register with some agencies. My friend signed up with some professional agencies and that's how he found his current job so it's worth a shot. I also want to paint the bathrooms next week as they just have the standard builder's paint on and I don't think it's doing them any good so I'm going to use some Dulux bathroom paint. I've used Dulux before and it seemed to give a good finish that lasted well (when we got the rental house back from the tenants, the rooms with Dulux paint were the only ones that had stood up to their abuse and it wiped clean and looked almost like new again - shame we only did 2 rooms in it!).

I've cut my spending and I'm being more mindful now, so even when I go back to work, I think this experience has helped to focus me more on MSE ways, which is a good thing. I have definitely slipped since not posting in here regularly so I want to start posting more often again. It all changed when we went on our holiday to America and I never got back into regular posting, so I am going to make a real effort to post regularly and hold myself accountable for my money actions.

I've got back into my surveys. I've done a couple of Pinecone surveys recently and Prolific is up at £20.45, however I don't seem to be getting any OnePoll surveys through and I wonder if it's blocked because I haven't been on for a while. I will contact them to check.

I also got a call from London & Country this week. Our mortgage from the previous house, which we ported here, is up for renewal in December so he was ringing to see if he could get us a good deal. We have a second mortgage though, which was the delta between the old mortgage and the price of this house. That doesn't end until February and I had discussed renewing both at the same time to roll into one, however it means the larger mortgage would go onto standard variable rate for a couple of months, which would cost about £620 extra in interest, so I'm wondering if it's just worth keeping them separate again. I also wondered about going onto a tracker with no fee to join or leave, then we could align the two. I will speak to the mortgage advisor again and see what he says.

I think that's it for now. I'll be back soon to update

kaycastle

I'm so glad for you that you decided to escape that job quickly - its not worth it. And sad for you it turned out to be a complete dudd of a job.

Sounds like you're been very busy in your relaxing week!!

ch4rly2002

Thanks Kay, appreciate the kind words.

It was brother-in-law's birthday yesterday so we went up to Yorkshire to celebrate at the weekend. We went out for a meal and had some time with him. Unfortunately DH wasn't able to join him at the Arcade Club in Leeds so on Sunday while B-I-L was at the arcade, we went to see my Grandma. I printed off her energy bills, as they get sent to my email rather than by post, and also printed off the info about winter payments. So Energy have seasonal payments where you pay less during the summer and more during the winter so I wanted to make her aware that they will be going up. she was fine with it, but I took her some Thornton's Special Toffee to soften to blow, which might have helped She was showing us her new phones. She had a problem with her last ones (she has cordless as she struggles to walk about now) and she couldn't get a dial tone or anything so she was pretty much stranded with no communication. She pressed the button on her watch type thing that rings through to the falls team and a lovely woman on the other end rang me to let me know about the call, and sent the falls team round to check on her. When they saw the phones weren't working (they checked all the phones and the lines), they rang BT to come out and check the lines as well. They came the next day and said the problem was with the phones, not the line, hence the new phones. Grandma pays a fee every month for the watch and the falls team, but it's only really mean to cover falling, so I thought it was really good of them to check on my Grandma and her phones, and even contact BT. I'm going to find their address and send a thank you card as I think that's really going above and beyond.

So, The job hunting isn't going too great at the moment. I started with a cold when I left my job, probably from getting so run down, and DH had an operation so I've been trying to recover and also ferrying him round appointments. He then had 2 weeks of holiday already booked, which couldn't happen due to his op, but turns out that's probably a good thing as we'd planned to get a cheap last minute deal from Thomas Cook as we kept seeing amazing deals in their window, but you know how that would have turned out. Instead we've had a staycation, mostly watching films and doing jobs around the house. We've been out for a few meals but it's still a lot cheaper than a holiday would have been.

I've bought some new clothes for interviews/work as I didn't have much suitable with me mainly working from home. I've been trying to avoid spending, but I really was in need of a new work wardrobe and I ordered it online from some well priced shops so although it's an expense, it's not as bad as it could have been.

No more spending on the horizon for me. I have my car service due this month, but it's free as I have a 5 year service plan, so that's good.

I've started applying to jobs in earnest now.I'm going to give myself another week or two to really focus on applications, then I'll see about doing some temping work. Even though we're doing ok financially, it feels really rubbish to be out of work I'm used to working and I feel like people are looking down on me for not working. They're probably not, it's probably my imagination, but it feels a bit like that.

Had a bit of a win as well. I bought some flea foggers from amazon. I buy some every year and set them off round the house to kill any fleas and other bugs (I do use flea treatment on the cat, but I do it once a year, just in case). They cost £24 for 6, which is enough to do our house, but they've arrived and they're faulty. You are meant to push the cap down and it clicks in place to release all the product but these weren't staying open. I contacted the company through amazon and they have contacted Johnson's, who said it is a faulty batch. They've refunded the money and I don't have to return the foggers. So, my next challenge is to figure out a way to hold the cap down while it releases the product so I don't have to spend another £24. I'm thinking maybe strong elastic bands and tape. Fingers crossed it will work and save me some pennies

Not much in the way of surveys at the moment. I'm not getting anything from OnePoll and I haven't had much from Prolific either I do have £3 from Pinecone on the way though.

ch4rly2002

Fingers crossed for good news, I have an interview on Tuesday. I don't want to say too much about it right now in case I jinx it, but I have a good feeling about it It's nice to be feeling positive again after receiving a few rejections recently. Hopefully more on this later.

DH has finally healed after his surgery. It has been slow going and I've been playing nurse for a couple of months by changing his dressings daily, and often readjusting it throughout the day - perhaps another career choice to consider if my interview doesn't go well A few weeks ago we went to the nurse for a weekly check up and she cleaned some slough off the wound and noticed something in there. She grabbed a pair of tweezers and pulled on it and out came an inch long stitch! She said that was probably why the wound wasn't healing, because the stitch hadn't dissolved and his body was trying to reject it. within a couple of days of her removing it, the wound started to heal. I am so happy she noticed it and he's just about fully healed :T

I had a lucky day yesterday, money wise. I was out walking with DH and friends and found 40p on the floor - only a tiny win, but hey, free money is free money! I also cashed out another £3 from Pinecone and sold a pair of unused work boots for £15 on FB so no fees. I then logged onto the Premium Bonds app and found I'd won another £25. That makes £1100 wins in 7 months. I can't believe my luck!

Tonight's tea is a chicken casserole use-up meal ready for tomorrow's grocery order. Mum normally does the grocery order and she is an expert in finding deals and bargains so I always know we're getting good value from that

ch4rly2002

So, I had the big interview yesterday. Now it's a waiting game. I hate this part, especially as I really want the job. If I don't get it, it's back to square one, full on applications all day every day now to really try and get some traction. Fingers crossed I hear soon and it will be good news.

I am trying to pull back DH's coffee spending at the moment. It's hard enough at this time of year anyway as DH loves Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte, but also Costco recently gave out free coffee from their express machines to show that they use the same ingredients as in the shop, and since his free coffee he keeps buying them! I guess their marketing worked, but I'm not happy at forking out all that money, especially when we have 2 nespresso machines at home. So... I've dug out our reusable coffee mugs and when we're heading out somewhere, or like yesterday when he was travelling for work, I make fresh lattes and they stay warm for hours. We bought a couple when we over in America by the company Corkcicle and it keeps the latte boiling hot for hours. He took a couple of sips on his drive down (it's over an hour down to his customer's office) and forgot about it but when he left at the end of the day, the latte was still nice and warm so he drank it on the way home. They were fairly pricey but totally worth the money.

The in-laws are in America again looking after our nephew. We decided to get his birthday presents and Christmas presents in advance and send them across with the in-laws. We spoke to my brother-in-law and his wife to see what the little sprout would want and she suggested some Duplo stuff (a train with numbers and a couple of others). I checked on the Early Learning Centre and Smyths, and the exact same toys were so much cheaper at Smyths, so I'll definitely be checking there in future.

ch4rly2002

Well, I'm still waiting to hear about the job. Fingers crossed that I hear something soon, and that it's good news. I'll keep you posted.

We had friends round last night. Usually we go out for a meal or get a takeaway with them, but as DH's leg hasn't completely healed, we thought we'd stay in and my mum offered to make one of her lovely lasagnas. We had that with some garlic bread and salad (both on offer from Tesco). We also had a good catch up and played a few board games. It was a really fun evening.

Today I took mum to the dentist to get her filling repaired (it had fallen out and taken some of the tooth with it so she was in quite a bit of pain). The dentist fixed her tooth, so she feels a lot better, and he didn't even charge her for the repair, so she's happy now. We went for a quick look around the shops and market. We bought a big bag of peanuts in shells to take to the local churchyard and I fed the squirrels and pigeons. The squirrels were happy to take the full nut from me and then they ran off with them, opened the casing and buried the nut. The pigeons needed me to crack open the casing and through individual nuts at them. I was there quite a while and got a lot of entertainment from a £1.25 bag of nuts! Mum has bought a second bag so she can take the grandchildren up there tomorrow when my brother comes up with his kids for the day. We also bought some fat balls for the birds at home.

We went to ALDI and they had a great big halloween decoration for only 49p in the discounted section so I've got that for next year. The estate made a big effort this year so I don't want to let our street down and this will cover a good area.

We also had lunch out. There is a golf course near us that serves food and they have a carvery on Friday. You can buy a hot sandwich with roast potatoes for £3, so we did that. It was a lovely day out and didn't cost the earth

To top it off, I've just got home and done a Pinecone survey too :T