My journey to a debt free life

Onebrokelady

milann said:

I’m another who would be very wary of taking any pension early. Look into it carefully before you do anything. I’d be tempted to go down the UC first as it seems to be the benefit that entitles other rebates on things. If you take some of the lump sum it could well effect the decision. Im sure Citizens Advice will put you right.

Ive decided not to do it now as it seems to be a mistake 🤷‍♀️ 

Onebrokelady

amber03 said:

I used to work in a pensions department but hated it, couldn’t get my head around all the information. Thankfully my DH is a trustee of his works pension board, so any info I get now regarding pensions I just hand to him. I knew he would come in handy one day.xx

There's no hope for me then 😀😀

Onebrokelady

What a coincidence.... today I got a letter from the pensions people letting me know about some changes that are happening to the way we can claim our pensions. There are quite a few changes happening in April so I'm not touching my pension now. I'm going to see how I manage for a while first. 

I didn't call CAB today because I went on the UC website to claim and it told me the info I would need to make a claim so I can't do anything until Monday when I go back to work. A lot of it is on my wage slip which is digital and I can't access it from home at the moment.
Im going to get all my info together on Monday then I will call them on Tuesday and get it sorted.

I have had a sore throat all day and a cough which is either a very delayed reaction to my Covid and flu jabs that I had on Monday or I've caught the cold my DD and SIL were suffering with last weekend when I was there.

I started my day with a dog walk through the fields which was lovely. B was full of energy and really enjoyed herself then I spent today at home and decided to start stripping some wallpaper from my bedroom walls. I'm glad I made a start today because it's proving difficult to get off so I think it's going to take a while to do it all.
I did three quarters of the window wall before calling it a day as I don't want to overdo it. Annoyingly it's pulled some of the paint off from underneath which has happened in all the rooms of my house. When I stripped my living room it took over three weeks and I took it right back to the plaster. I'm hoping not to do this in my bedroom but because I'm painting straight onto the walls they need to be smooth so I will see as I go on. There is a skimming product you can buy that we used in DD1s house so if I needed to I could use that but that will mean buying it and I don't want to spend money if I don't need to. Fingers crossed that if anymore paint comes off it will all be easy to remove 🤞🤞

I also hoovered everywhere today  and got two loads of washing done, frustratingly although it was windy again it kept on raining 😡so I couldn't peg it out. It will be dry by tomorrow so not a problem but I like the smell of washing dried outside .

Im supposed to be meeting some friends and ex colleagues for coffee tomorrow but I will see how I am in the morning. I do have to go into town to pick my prescription which will hopefully be ready for me to collect. I normally get a text and haven't had one yet. They will have to sort something out though as I need to take them tomorrow and I've run out. They were ordered on Tuesday so should be ready 🤞 I drop down to 10mgs a day tomorrow and I'm hoping it will still be ok. I do tend to get a few niggles for a day or two when the dose changes but it settles down after that. I joined a couple of support groups on FB but I had to leave because they were all doom and gloom, lots of the people on there were not doing well at all at tapering their steroids and it was worrying me that I would be the same. I feel better now I've left and will just do my thing and hope it works.

DD2 now has three pieces of furniture to paint so we are going to look for paint on Saturday so she can get going with them. She has a tall chest of drawers in her room that are basic pine which she wants to paint black and maybe get some brass handles of some sort, it will then match the matt black metal bed she is buying ,then there is the coffee table and I think she is going to paint the bottom black and then leave the top as wood but make it darker as it's currently orange pine . My friend gave her a pine blanket box and that's being done the same black on the bottom and wood on the lid. The coffee table is going to be used as a tv stand with plants on the bottom and the blanket box is going to be a coffee table. I've painted quite a bit of furniture over the years so I can help her if she needs me to 😊

Onebrokelady

Just checked to see if my £67 payment has come off my energy bill and it has so I'm glad I'm waiting until the last day to pay them. It's now £217.87 instead of £284.87 which means I now have enough money this month. I don't know what I'm going to do when it finishes but warmer weather will be here soon so I will be turning my heating off 

milann

Makes sense to wait until you have all the info before you apply for UC. I’m pleased you’ve decided not to cash your pension in yet.
Love the sound of the painted furniture. Bet it will look fab. 

Onebrokelady

I didn't go for a coffee today because I was coughing too much and don't feel quite right. I did go into town to get my prescription which took awhile. It was ordered on Tuesday and they hadn't even processed it so they told me it would take 20 minutes. I went off and got some shopping downstairs and then went to sit and wait. I was still waiting half an hour later when the man found it in the box where they put the orders ready for collection. When I got home I saw I had received a text while I was in the store doing my shopping to say my prescription was ready but my phone was in my bag so I didn't hear it 😀🙄

I thought I would only be out for an hour or so but it was three hours in the end. I made a pasta and veg bake for my tea it was nice and there are three more portions left 🎉🎉

I haven't done  much else today due to feeling a bit under the weather. 

Cherryfudge

Hope you feel better after a night's rest.

milann

Hope you’re feeling better.

Onebrokelady

Felt a bit rough this morning but I'm feeling slightly better now. I went to get paint with DD today. We walked into town and home again to save hanging around for a bus so I've got my exercise in for the day 😀

DD started painting the blanket box first and the paint stinks 😳 She has got it in the middle of the kitchen floor as that was the safest place to do it indoors so we had to have the window open for a while. It's going to need a few coats I think but the paint is not nice to work with at all. It does leave a nice finish though.

I have to do so many hours of child protection training for my job so have spent my evening watching two programmes that are relevant. The first was the Mo Farrah documentary about him being trafficked and second was about the girls who were abuse in Rochdale. I then have to write a reflection on what I learned and how it made me feel. It's made me feel really angry so I'm wasting time online because I won't get to sleep now. 
The attitude of the police towards those girls was unbelievable just because they were teenagers. No one chooses to be abused, it's very complex and to say it was a lifestyle choice is ridiculous and disturbing 😡

Cherryfudge

You have my sympathy over watching the videos - I'm just doing the Oliver McGowan training which is also not recommended late night viewing, though the handbook has some excellent resources. I hope all these things at least lead to better practice and can help someone.

Hope you sleep.