Life is a minestrone as the song says - my new diary

Karmacat

That's good to get those extra hours - and reassuring to know of 3 years funding, the year to year stuff is always horrible, I think.
Hope you enjoyed the cs shopping

beanielou

Hope that you got a nice top or two:)

teapot2

No tops bought in the charity shops, there were some nice shirts but I don't do ironing so they're were a no no. I'll keep looking though and will hopefully get something. I did manage to buy myself 3 books in one CS so that will keep me going for a wee while . I also bought some fruit in Tosco and had a coffee in Cost@lot. I was fancying one of those Portuguese custard tarts but they didn't have any so had a cookie which was really not very nice so won't be having that again. 'Bought' the coffee with card points though so not toooo spendy.

I spent about 45 minutes on the phone yesterday applying to get a credit limit increase of £1000 on one of my 0% CC. It was agreed in principle but I have to go into a branch with ID and proof of address. What a faff but hopefully it will be worth it. My plan is to do a balance transfer up to the new credit limit from my other 0% CC and then pay off the smaller one before it stops being 0% at the end of this year. I'm also not going to add any purchases on to those CCs and will use a different one to pay for things like food shops, vet costs, pet food etc and pay that off in full every month. I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone else but I'm hoping it will help me to be more focused and pay off this debt as soon as I can, its currently £3320 :eek::eek:

beanielou

That makes perfect sense.
I have one I chip away at & one I pay off whenever I use it.

teapot2

Gulp, have been knocked sideways this last couple of days. I discovered there are damp patches on the bedroom ceilings upstairs. They are dormer windows directly below a flat roof so its not exactly an unknown problem. I've contacted a local roofing firm who have a good reputation and they've had a look under the felt. We had the roof re-felted a few years ago as we knew there could be problems with a flat roof like that. Turns out the guy who did it made a real botch job and has made things much worse so its going to cost over 4k to sort out. Basically he sealed the damp in and all the wood has rotted etc.

Family have offered to lend me some money (for which I'm really grateful) and the rest is coming from my emergency fund and current account. This will bring my total owings up to nearly £6k including the CC debt. Am gutted :(:(

beanielou

teapot2 wrote: »

Gulp, have been knocked sideways this last couple of days. I discovered there are damp patches on the bedroom ceilings upstairs. They are dormer windows directly below a flat roof so its not exactly an unknown problem. I've contacted a local roofing firm who have a good reputation and they've had a look under the felt. We had the roof re-felted a few years ago as we knew there could be problems with a flat roof like that. Turns out the guy who did it made a real botch job and has made things much worse so its going to cost over 4k to sort out. Basically he sealed the damp in and all the wood has rotted etc.

Family have offered to lend me some money (for which I'm really grateful) and the rest is coming from my emergency fund and current account. This will bring my total owings up to nearly £6k including the CC debt. Am gutted :(:(

So sorry to read this.
This is dire.
Glad family can help out though.

teapot2

Not posted for a few days, just been really upset about the roof and money situation. However I need pull my big girl pants up [over my head] and get on with it and find ways to earn more.

One thing that occurs to me is matched betting so have been trying to get my head round that.

I think I need to put myself 'out there' more for work but that will involve spending money first in the hope that it attracts work. Will look into that.

There are quite a few things around that I could try to sell on ebay and I keep putting things aside HOWEVER, I never actually list anything so surprise, nothing sells . I don't really know what I'm doing on ebay so need to try and find a simple guide if such a thing exists.

I'll keep thinking to see if there is anything else I can do.

teapot2

Withdrew £20.25 from Prolific yesterday so stuck that in my CA as that is 1k lighter than it was :eek:

I'm starting a wee bit more work in the coming week, it just brings me back up to the hours I was doing before I had to take time off when OH got his terminal diagnosis but it will help a bit.

I went into an H S B C branch in the city yesterday to show them proof of address as the final step in getting a credit limit increase approved. I'm planning to move some of the H@lifax CC debt over to there but if I move the maximum it will be nearly £55 in fees so I need to think carefully about what I'm doing. I have until the end of June to move it so no rush.

I made some dahl and have frozen a few portions as I thought that would be cheap and filling. I have a few potatoes sprouting in the cupboard so I'll make and freeze fishcakes tomorrow.

Its been very wet here and cold today, bit of a shock after a few days of lovely warm weather. Was hoping to do some gardening today and get more weeds out but too wet

Karmacat

I'm so sorry to hear the news about the roof, teapot that's a big thing to suddenly *have* to do



Can you lay out the steps you might take, to find more work, on here? Writing it out can really help, though of course it might feel too identifying.


Matched betting can be amazing - I'm sorry, I can't remember if you saw Cheery's posts about it recently - I made about £1k in a year when I did it, and she's already made around £1.1k in just a few months. Really worth doing if you follow the rules.

teapot2

Karmacat wrote: »

I'm so sorry to hear the news about the roof, teapot that's a big thing to suddenly *have* to do

Can you lay out the steps you might take, to find more work, on here? Writing it out can really help, though of course it might feel too identifying.

Matched betting can be amazing - I'm sorry, I can't remember if you saw Cheery's posts about it recently - I made about £1k in a year when I did it, and she's already made around £1.1k in just a few months. Really worth doing if you follow the rules.

Thanks KC, its been shocking and I didn't have time to get several quotes as it needed sorting urgently before the ceilings came down :eek:

I was just thinking of putting my details on at least one website that I know attracts work for others in the field - there's a monthly charge but it might pay for itself if I get work from it.

I did see Cheery's posts about the MB which made me think of trying so am hoping I can work out how to do it. Thats great that you did so well with it.