My journey to a debt free life

Onebrokelady

milann said:

I’m another who doesn’t think your diary is boring and think your strength of character has got you through an awful lot. I think  it would be worth contacting your NHS pension just to see how much you might get. I’d also ask how much it would be if you had to take early retirement through Ill health as it’s paid at an enhanced rate. I hadn’t paid mine anywhere near 22 years and for a fair bit of that was only working 16 hours a week. With the pension and ESA I’m £50 a week less than I was working (I was on a rubbish wage) Because Dh is taken into account, I don’t qualify for anything else. But you might as you’re on your own. It would definitely be worth getting in touch with your pension and maybe Citizens Advice. You’ve paid into the system for many years after all. You are genuinely struggling with a health condition.
Enjoy your time off work 👍

Awww thank you Milann I have emailed my pension provider to see if they can advise me and I also went on my staff portal because it gives you a statement on there of what you would receive at your pensions current value. I couldn't get it to print but I took photos of it  as I don't understand what any of it means 😟 I'm going to show it to my sister because she is good with that kind of thing.

Onebrokelady

My day at the beach was fun 😊we made a big sand castle and then collected lots of shells to decorate it,it reminded me of being little myself, the boys love the beach so they had a great time.

If I do it again I will make sure we take food though because it cost £27 for sausage and chips for two children and one adult and one portion of chips for me 🙀then I decided to treat us all to an ice cream so that was another £12 🙀 We went halves on the lunch but I paid for the ice creams as a treat ....oh and car parking was £8, the car parking and ice cream is equivalent  to my weekly food budget 🙀🙀 I don't  get to do things like this very often though so got a bit overexcited 😀

Today was another day haemorrhaging money as DD2 and I went to town but we were both really hungry so ended up going for lunch which came to £22 ( coffee each, a panini and a cake, yes we were greedy) I need to nip this in the bud because I really can't afford it, I just had one of those rebellious moments where I convinced myself I deserved it and I work hard so why shouldn't I have lunch out, but we all know that's a slippery slope and not a good argument when living on a strict budget. I don't have any tea though so will have that meal another day 

Im having the day at home tomorrow to catch up on jobs and so that B isn't on her own. I have DGs again on Thursday and DD has suggested taking him to Bristol aquarium on the train, he loves going on the train and also loves the aquarium so will enjoy that. DD2 has offered to pay for DGs so it will just be food again.

I also popped into one of our Aldi stores yesterday because I had run out of bread and deodorant, I bought their own brand deodorant which is 75p🙀🙀🙀a can and it's lovely. I'm going to investigate the one that's closer to me to see if they have improved their vegetarian selection and if so I will shop there,there is also an Iceland store next to it so between them I might be able to get my shopping. I won't buy fruit and veg from Aldi because it doesn't last long enough but Iceland's fruit and veg is usually ok 

Cherryfudge

I'm another who totally doesn't understand my pension! They set out a load of figures but give you no idea whether such and such would be per week or per year. (Sigh).

Your rebellious day sounded well deserved and something to think back to in the darker days of the year, or forward to for next summer. I hope the rest of your time off is both relaxing and productive.

SusieT

Onebrokelady said:

milann said:

I’m another who doesn’t think your diary is boring and think your strength of character has got you through an awful lot. I think  it would be worth contacting your NHS pension just to see how much you might get. I’d also ask how much it would be if you had to take early retirement through Ill health as it’s paid at an enhanced rate. I hadn’t paid mine anywhere near 22 years and for a fair bit of that was only working 16 hours a week. With the pension and ESA I’m £50 a week less than I was working (I was on a rubbish wage) Because Dh is taken into account, I don’t qualify for anything else. But you might as you’re on your own. It would definitely be worth getting in touch with your pension and maybe Citizens Advice. You’ve paid into the system for many years after all. You are genuinely struggling with a health condition.
Enjoy your time off work 👍

Awww thank you Milann I have emailed my pension provider to see if they can advise me and I also went on my staff portal because it gives you a statement on there of what you would receive at your pensions current value. I couldn't get it to print but I took photos of it  as I don't understand what any of it means 😟 I'm going to show it to my sister because she is good with that kind of thing.

You could also put a post on the pensions part of the forum, (pictures with and personal info tahen out) and they are very good at explaining things

milann

OBL - can you phone and actually speak to a person at the pensions providers. I found them really helpful and explained things in a way that was easy to understand. I’d gone through all the occupation health stuff at this stage though and knew they’d recommended the early retirement through ill health. I also phoned them and got help filling the forms in.

foxgloves

I agree that knowledge is power atm, @OBL. Whatever you find out about your exact pension situation is bound to be more useful than having no idea. I've been putting this off too, but I will be really cross with myself if I still haven't done anything by the end of September.
Big girl's pants on & let's see what you can find out!
F x

Onebrokelady

milann said:

OBL - can you phone and actually speak to a person at the pensions providers. I found them really helpful and explained things in a way that was easy to understand. I’d gone through all the occupation health stuff at this stage though and knew they’d recommended the early retirement through ill health. I also phoned them and got help filling the forms in.

I can but the management of our pensions have been outsourced to an outside company. I have emailed them but do have a very long phone number to call as well. I will have to wait now until I'm back at work because I can't access the info from home 😊

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

I agree that knowledge is power atm, @OBL. Whatever you find out about your exact pension situation is bound to be more useful than having no idea. I've been putting this off too, but I will be really cross with myself if I still haven't done anything by the end of September.
Big girl's pants on & let's see what you can find out!
F x

I'm going to chase it up when I get back to work because I can't access the info from home 😊

Onebrokelady

Today has been an at home day and it was also perfect washing drying day so two loads of washing have been done and hung out, I was also very annoyed to have to wash the rug from the landing again because one of the cats threw up on it, it's only been back on the floor for a couple of days 🙄 I'm thinking of taking them up but they do save the floor if the cat has an accident.

I also finally got round to putting up DD2s curtain rail so she can hang her curtains now, we did hang them but they are long and she has decided she doesn't like them so is going to shorten them.

Tomorrow we have DGs so we are off to Bristol for the day and on Friday I am baby and dad sitting 😊

Onebrokelady

Phew a busy few days have been done and I am now worn out. We did Bristol on Thursday and had a lovely day but we walked over 20 thousand steps (Dgs was brilliant with walking ) then I had DGs again on Friday but also had to sit with my dad while my mum went and had her nails done, it was quite cute to see DGs interacting with my dad, they got on like a house on fire and I think it cheered my dad up seeing him. We took some Lego with us and my dad thought it was the most amazing thing ever 😀

DD2 needed to go to the craft store to get fabric yesterday so I went with her and took B to the Pets At Home Store ,she loves going around sniffing everything and I also wanted to to buy her a harness ,she keeps falling over and I thought a harness might give me more chance of holding her up rather than her collar. She had a really nasty fall the other day and hurt her paw. I think I'm going to have to take her back to the vet because the new meds don't seem to be helping much, she is also displaying signs of anxiety overnight by pacing up and down the landing and sniffing at my door, so this week I have brought her bed into my room and let her sleep there, she has slept all night in my room so hopefully that has solved the problem 

It was national cinema day yesterday so all tickets were £3, we decided to take advantage of that offer and went to see Top Gun Maverick which was really good. We walked 13 thousand steps yesterday so today I have been doing nothing. I didn't feel too good late morning so had to go back to bed for a couple of hours and take some painkillers but I'm not too bad now 🤞🤞DD made a lovely roast dinner and did all the washing up too so I have relaxed all day. 

I'm knitting a jumper at the moment but they sent me the wrong pattern, I was determined to use this pattern and have had to undo it twice now, it needs concentrating on and I haven't got the concentration needed at the moment, it would also take me until next summer at least to finish it so I have undone it again and I'm going to change the middle part of the pattern to a more simple cable which will be quicker to knit and will require less use of my brain