Teetering on the brink

daisy_1571

Big Cat sounds just about as fussy as can be 😆 🤣   glad he's got you well trained 😉 👍 👏 😀 

Dxx

EatingBeans

Well, I got paid today and I finally learnt how short I am for the next month. Just £788 to find. 😭 And that’s only part month on half pay so next month will be lower still! I mean I know I am a master juggler but omg how on earth am I supposed to find that! And to make matters worse I know that even if I do get signed off for the leavers package I have to survive 3months of half pay to cover my notice period. Seriously, with the best will in the world, I don’t know how I am going to do it. 

But try I will, at least until I get a decision over the leavers package. If they give me the ok then I will fight like hell to pay everything on time as it is the last hope of coming out of this without destroying my credit record, but if the answer is no I will throw in the towel, cancel all the direct debits for the credit cards and see what happens from there. They have to give me an answer before the end of February at the very latest so it’s time to cut spending to the bone and scrabble together all bits of cash I have to find the £788. I am not looking forward to this. 😞

EatingBeans

Step 1 has been to apply for a bank account switch offer from Santander. Hopefully that will be £200 heading my way even if it does take a little while to arrive. 🤞

daisy_1571

I'd highly recommend you have a listen to the Martin Lewis website, questions episode released on Monday of this week. 2 very interesting bits especially, 1 at start, 1 at end 

ellenvan

Surveys, Selling on Vinted , Olio for food.
More bank switch deals.
You can do it!
Cheering you on from the sidelines.
Just try and keep your head above water and hope you get the leaving package.

Cherryfudge

We're behind you - Team Beans has got your back!

Great idea to do the bank switch, that knocks a hole in the deficit straight away.

SuzeQStan

2nd here for the bank switch - great idea!  We did the Lloyds one and had the money within 10 days of switching to the account.

been thinking about the 1/2 pay situation - and I know you want to protect your credit rating/move home.  Do you know when you will find out about the leaving package?  

Is there a chance they might forgo the 3 month notice period?  I’d be careful though about how you look into this - I’ve known people to miss out on their golden handshakes because their employer found out they intended to go.  

EatingBeans

Thanks everyone! I honestly don’t know if this is going to be possible, especially given how ill I am atm, but I am going to try. 

I expect to find out about the leavers package in the next couple of weeks - they have a deadline of the end of Feb at the latest but HR lady gave the impression it will come sooner. 

The 3 month period is already set due to the rules of the scheme and decision I opted for at the point of application due to tax implications. At the time I felt sure I would be back at work before the half pay kicked in but there is just no way I could even if I wanted to. It is what it is. 

The reason I will throw in the towel if the answer comes back as ‘no’ is because it is expected that redundancies will follow the Leavers scheme and any payment I would get from that would be tiny in comparison. Whilst I couldn’t see how they could turn down my Leavers request and then make me redundant, the other option is even worse - leave me on half pay for 6 months then sack me on the grounds of not being able to perform my job (after dragging me through all the formal review process). I am really hoping for them to approve the Leavers package for so many reasons! 

I am glad to say I at least ticked the box as not showing any indication of leaving before the date that they drew in the sand between those eligible for leaving with payment and those that miss out. I know a few that were in the process of working their notice as it was announced and I really felt for them. It’s bad enough for those that had jobs lined up but for those who had just burnt out and couldn’t take it any more so were leaving to nothing, I don’t know how they still showed up each day. It’s such a cruel way of doing it.

Anyway, fingers crossed it all goes through and I at least get the payout. If I do I suspect I will try to pay a lump some off my debt (the money I owe my brother and then the highest interest rate down). I didn’t plan to do this initially but given how ill I am I just need to be realistic about being able to get another job. The money would be classed as capital and if I have over £6000 capital I would become ineligible for benefits, but paying off debt does not count as deprivation of assets so it probably makes more sense to pay of the debt and be eligible for benefits than just pay the minimums, still have most of the debt and still end up on benefits down the line. Just something I’ve been pondering. 

At this point the house/move/remortgage issue is currently on hold in my head because until I know if I can even work again it’s all pretty much outside of my control. 

So, operation “cobble-together-every-penny” begins! With a very heavy heart I had to have a dreaded conversation with dd2 about the money I had been saving for her birthday. I always planned to give the kids one thousand pounds each for their 18th birthday. dd1 had hers but I was still saving for dd2’s and I have £720 in the account. Push comes to shove I have explained that I need to use that money and she will have to get an iou if necessary on her 18th. Thankfully her birthday isn’t until July so I have time to pinch it and put it back all being well. If the worst happens I know she wont hold it against me. She knows I wouldn’t be using it unless I absolutely needed to and honestly I think she would rather me use it than not atm. She also said she assumes this means she (as the ‘Friday fairy’) has now been fired. The sad reality is I still cannot take the jobs back on myself so I said we will look at the job list and see if we can come to a compromise. I know she is going to need the extra cash as I won’t be able to fill in the blanks when she runs out of stuff, but £10pw might have to be my limit. It’s just not fair to ask her to do as much as she does for free. £40pm really is nothing for what she does. I’ll just have to find it from somewhere else. 😬

Cherryfudge

It's a tough time but I'm sure your DD will understand - and there will be opportunities later to do something for her. My three are all grown up now and in various ways - not necessarily financial - I've been able to offer them help as needed.

Meanwhile we are all holding out for the best outcome from your employment.

ellenvan

I think setting things out financially with your daughter's will be a life lesson to them.
They will be ahead of their peers in relation to budgeting, interest rates and money management.