We can do this

OnlyPariah

Completed the interview for UC. It was just more proof of who I am stuff. I should be able to login on the 10th and see if I'm due anything. Payment will be on the 17th.

I'm now up to £10 on PA and am 5 points shy of another £5 Amazon voucher from i-say.

Child benefit is now being paid directly to me so I can factor that into the funds. We get £34 a week which will definitely help.

OnlyPariah

Yesterday was another curve ball on this little journey called life. My OH was at the docs with a chest infection and had problems breathing and was close to collapse. Docs called the ambulance and so I left work slightly early to get to the hospital to see her. We didn't leave until 00:30 and it costs us £7.50 in parking.

OnlyPariah

I realised that I haven't explained a major change in our circumstances.

OH ended up quitting her job at McDonalds. Trying to work all evening and then look after our littlest during the day was not working. Her health was starting to suffer and she was tired and stressed all the time. Now, this does leave us short of her funds but she does also run an Online shop and used to do Face Painting some weekends. Her efforts have now just gone back into this and hopefully it'll prove worthwhile in the long run.

I have a slight confession. We got some bits for her business on a CC and we've also paid the final part of the wedding on the Barclaycard. Just so it's done. I feel bad but I can now concentrate on getting the EF fund together and then hammering down those debts. I will update the signature with the Barclaycard and Virgin cards new totals. After Christmas I'm going to do a new SOA to show where we are and looking into a decent plan of action in getting out of this mess.

I do feel like a bit of a fraud. Wanting to pay down the debt but then chucking a few grand on a card. It's happened now and I can only refocus and look at getting out of this.

In better news I've put some funds aside into what was the wedding fund. It's now really become the EF.

OnlyPariah

A couple of good things to report. I'm up to £12.38 on PA. Another £1.50 or so still to be approved. I also checked my Amazon account and noticed that Audible were offering another free trial. I quickly signed up. It gave me two free credits so a grabbed the last couple of Joe Abercrombie books I didn't have and downloaded them. I've then cancelled the membership. Gotta love a freebie.

My partner sold are broken Cricut machine for £110 on eBay. Listed as broken with all it's faults but apparently still worth something. A few months ago we'd have binned it. Not we're all about checking to see what we can get for things.

TravelGirl84

Hi OnlyPariah!

Have found your diary and caught up.

In spite of everything that has been thrown at you recently you seem really motivated. Having that EF must have really helped so a great start. Keep it up and you will smash this!

OnlyPariah

So, I have some rather bizarre news. I just checked the UC site in to see what payment, if any, we were due on the 17th. Imagine my shock when I went to the payment page and found it said £1,246. That's right, just over a grand. I checked the details and could see they hadn't shown me as earning anything. Only my partner's salary. I gave them a call and they explained that they hadn't received info yet from HMRC. Once they get this the figure will be corrected for next month. I said should I keep the funds aside as they may want it back. Apparently not. She said that it just means I'll receive fewer funds next month. They won't expect me to pay it back.

The funds will go straight into my emergency funds.

OnlyPariah

Just checked out £15 from PA which is cool. I also forgot to say that yesterday, when I cancelled Audible it popped up asking if I wanted another credit instead of cancelling. I agreed and then cancelled anyway. So three audio books for nothing. Sweet.

just_trying

Think you should reconsider you receiving the child benefit as that goes towards your partners state pension if the children are under a certain age and as she's not working that's important.

OnlyPariah

I believe it's still her claiming it and it just comes into my bank account. I will check with her later and double-check this. Thanks for the heads up.

OnlyPariah

Got my first payment from Intellizoom. £3.25 for what was only a few minutes of survey. Not bad. Hopefully should have a few more of those coming although with intellizoom there is no way of knowing what payments are due.

We've got bikes for our three kids. All told we've paid out £64 for all three. Two of them were free and just needed a clean up. We're really trying to be cleverer with the money. Any eBay or Amazon purchases have gone out through Topcashback.

I hope we're all doing well.