Teetering on the brink

cbsexec

You could ask on freecycle for a tent or olio    You may be lucky 

EatingBeans

Back on the Olio trail this evening. 

Not quite so much volume but still some delicious FREE food. 😁

Cherryfudge

Missing you - hoping your face isn't as painful and the medication is helping.

missymoo81

Hope you’re on the mend @EatingBeans. Keep your chin up.

northAthenian

a wee wave to say howdy, hope you are able to hibernate & mend x

EatingBeans

Bless you all for checking in. I am ok, well much better than I have been, but life got a bit busy and off track as my dd2 has had a really bad ear infection. It sounds like such a simple thing but she has been beside herself with the pain despite taking buckets full of tablets and drops from three different doctors. The good news is she is now on the mend and back at college now, so life is returning to normal. 

Other than that, I’ve mostly just been getting better. I am still off work until 1st December and I am slowly backing off the tablets so I can hopefully be fully functional by then. 

The Student Finance refund money came in so the van went to the garage for an initial assessment. The central locking needs looking at by an auto electrician, the suspension looks ok so the interesting knocking sound is something to just get used to, the airbag issue is going to be a few hundred pounds, and we have not identified why it wont always start but need to get a new key to rule that out first. They were more successful than I was at getting the bolts out to remove the back seats but were still unable to actually remove the seats because the last three bolts need the fuel tank dropping to get sufficient access. 🤦‍♀️ Honestly, what should be such a simple job is turning out to be a right headache! To make matters worse I happen to have a full tank of fuel and the van is really economical so that will last me ages (normally a bonus obviously!), but the garage has asked me to drive it around then book it back in once the tank is near empty so they can finish the job! Bless them, despite all the time they spent on the van they didn’t charge me a penny, and they even saved me all the rusty old bolts and plates in case I planned to sell the seats! I mean I might but they’d probably only go for parts at best as they are nasty looking and seem to be going moldy! 🤢 I need to get them out asap before that spreads to the front seats (which are currently in very good condition at the moment). 

Rather more of the refund money has already been spent as dd1’s birthday turned out to be rather more expensive than planned. She got baptised the week before and it so happens that the presents I bought off her wish list for her birthday she actually intended to buy for her baptism so she ended up with way more for her baptism than I had planned and I had to buy new gifts for her birthday. To top it off she decided she really wanted to go to the Harvester for her birthday and I couldn’t find a suitable deal so that ended up being another £70! 😳 And that was after the birthday McDs breakfast for everyone including her bf who stayed over. It was worth it to have a good last living at home birthday memory but crikey, there are going to be a lot of ‘lasts’ between now and when she leaves next September! 

In the same vein, Christmas is looking like it will be more expensive than first hoped. The girl’s are both saving so they can chip in and make this one special, thinking through everything from gifts, decorations, food and dd1 has even said she will source the crackers. So, I now plan to buy each of them one of their bigger ticket items on their wish list (each about £100) rather than just token gifts. I am still aiming not to add to the debt but equally I may not end up paying much off either.

EatingBeans

Oh, and I almost forgot the biggest news of all! Work has started a voluntary leavers scheme where they will effectively pay you 30weeks salary up front if you leave - and I am thinking of applying! 😬 Part of me thinks I must be absolutely crackers to give up a stable well paid job when my health is so dicey, but at the same time that comfortable bubble is why I have never left despite not being promoted after so many attempts. Currently my notice period is 3 months long so trying to get a new job externally has always been a pain as people generally want people to start sooner if they have a choice. This way I have over 6months to find a new job and in that time I can offer an immediate start. What’s the worst that can happen? I don’t find something, I can’t pay my debts and I end up on a DMP. Well, let’s be honest, that might end up happening either way. If I am lucky and I find a job quickly then any of that lump sum that I haven’t spent on living costs can just pay off a big chunk of the debt. Risky, yes, potential pay off, significant. Do nothing option, more of the same scrabbling around trying to pay down the debt a tiny bit at a time with no end in sight. 

Thoughts? Have I gone mad? 🤣

daisy_1571

My thoughts are: very exciting opportunity. 

Pros: may not come up again and you will leave with nothing.   You might not grab another work opportunity as you are in your bubble, this will force the issue. 

Cons:  its going to be very easy to blast through that money thinking oh its last Xmas let's get x y and z, oh its last January let's do a b and c etc etc.

I would say go for it only if you will be incredibly disciplined,  allocate the money into a separate account,  set up standing order for your normal take home salary to go into your normal account.  Live on that as you normally would. That way you genuinely will have the 6 months.   Remember you won't be getting ni paid so 2 years will have an underpayment, you might want to allocate money to pay this at some point in future,  maybe it won't matter but maybe these 2 years will be needed. (An ni year is either full or not, even 1 week short means it is not full so won't be counted.)

Its also easy to give yourself 'a little holiday' before looking for work, 2 weeks turns into 3, turns into 4 and thats a month lost.

Thats all things you don't need to answer but you know yourself best, will you be able to be disciplined with time, effort and money?  (To use an example in your last post, you bought for birthday,  daughter wanted those things for baptism so you gave her them then along with (it appears) what you'd allocated to baptism.  Had to get more birthday presents. Then overspent again on a meal because you decided to go to a particular restaurant.  This suggests a lump sum might be gone through very quickly.   Apologies if I've got completely the wrong end of the stick about what you wrote, its completely your decision,  I'm just trying to get you to think honestly before you take the plunge)

Thats the downsides.  The upside is of course new beginning,  new adventure,  new work.  Perhaps new training for this time is a good use of time?  

(I speak from my own experience, I grabbed an opportunity to leave work with a lump sum after a great deal of thought)

Dxxxx

ellenvan

My thoughts, I think Daisy's post is really good common sense.
You would have to be really disciplined with the pay off.
Really good to hear you are feeling a little better, was worried the cold weather was affecting you.
Any Olio or other money saving planned?

oceanspirit

Questions I would be asking are:

1. How easy is it to get another job in your chosen field?
2. Is this an opportunity to do something completely different?

3. Would it be sensible if you were to take it, to use the lump sum to immediately pay off your interest bearing debts and get a job in any field immediately to keep the flow of money in whilst you look for something in your chosen field?
4. Is there something you could do self employed that would enable you to take time off/work more flexibly when your health is not so good?
5. Can you look into applying for PIP for your trigeminal neuralgia as this benefit is place to help people with the extra cost of their health issue eg you have bought a dishwasher, you pay for takeaways when in pain etc?  Some areas have Disability Advice charities who can help apply for this, and Citizens advice can also help.