Teetering on the brink

EatingBeans

Thanks all. The biggest problem I have is I don’t know what my income will be on half pay. It is not as simple as dividing by two as it changes tax, NI and student loan repayments. On top of that I am expecting Universal Credit will top up some of the wages I have lost but I don’t know by how much, only that the earliest payment will be towards the end of Feb. For now there is almost too many unknowns outside of my control to even make a plan. I am sure I will have less than a normal month but that’s about all I can say for now. 

My plan therefore remains to pay everything on time this month even if that means using the savings. Then, once I find out if the Leavers Payment has been approved I will make a plan from there. The estimated payout is ~£25k so it is a lot to consider. 

ellenvan

Ok I get that your income will be difficult to calculate at the moment.
Obviously you don't have to share on here, but if you have an updated cards, loans, mortgage owing spreadsheet I am sure that would be useful.
Here's hoping you hear that you are getting the leavers package soon.

badmemory

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

I hope that worked properly.  Please look no need to actually post it here.

Cherryfudge

Would it make a difference to pause your student loan repayments?

Baldybear

Can you apply for breathing space from your creditors, know it will affext your credit rating a bit.but may help in the short term?

EatingBeans

Morning all, 
Sorry, I am not ignoring your comments, I do really appreciate them all, it’s just that yesterday was a nightmare and I spent most of the night in hospital. 

The first issue was that I started smelling burning in the downstairs toilet. I knew this was bad because I have very little sense of smell since Covid so I knew if I could smell it then it must be strong. A toilet isn’t the obvious place to smell burning so I asked dd2 and she agreed, noting that she thought she smelt burning in there earlier but also thought she was going mad. 

Now, since the light in the bathroom is permanently left on (due to a very awkward light placement), it seemed like the only thing that could be the culprit. So, I turned the light off and waited a while to see if it made a difference. The burning smell got stronger. Getting rather concerned at this point (and wondering at what point 999 becomes the best option) I decided to locate the correct switch on the fuse box and flip that. To do that I had to move a lot of dd1’s stuff in her room, then the guinea cage and the solid wood furniture he sits on. Not ideal but necessary. Initially the smell got worse, but then it started to dissipate and disaster was averted.  Unfortunately that now means all the lights downstairs have to stay switched off until I can afford an electrician - yet another thing I won’t be spending money on until i have a decision on the VLS. For the most part this will just mean using lamps but for the toilet, (which is the only place in the house with a function toilet thanks to the upstairs bathroom issues), plug in lamps are obviously not possible. There is also no window in that room so even in the middle of the day the room goes pitched black. So for now, we are all using our phones flashlight to pee and I am going to dig out a camping lantern and we will just have to use that until I know where I stand money-wise. 

So how did I end up in A&E? 

EatingBeans

Well, the lovely A&E trip was all thanks to me falling down the stairs. I don’t recall how, or from what height but I do remember finding myself in a crumpled heap at the bottom in a lot of pain. dd2, bless her, was the only other person in the house at the time and had to get out of the shower to come rescue me. 

To start with I really struggled to move - I was rather wedged and felt like I was in shock. Eventually though, I managed to winkle myself out, dd1 arrived home and as I was still in substantial pain after 10minutes I agreed that A&E seemed like a good plan. dd1 helped me into the car and very carefully drove me to hospital, taking me by wheelchair the rest of the way. No waiting in the waiting room for me, they whisked me strain in for triage and I found myself in a bed within a couple of minutes (much to the annoyance of the many in the waiting room I am sure). Blood tests, an ECG, xray and two CT scans quickly followed, as did the first shot of morphine and anti-sickness medication that barely touched the pain. Nothing serious found so they gave me another shot of morphine for the pain and told me the plan was to get me up as soon as I felt ready. I laughed at that suggestion! 

I slowly made progress to sitting up and as the morphine kicked in (or tiredness set in as it was 3am at this point) I started feeling like going home would be a good plan. I asked them to call my daughter to come pick me up (I had sent her home for some rest as I had thought I would probably be in for the rest of the night waiting for test results), but bless her, by the time she got back to the hospital I had got as far as the chair, instantly felt dreadful, and had returned to bed. 😬 Not sure why I could sit in the bed ok but doing anything that made the pain worse made me start sweating, feeling dizzy and nauseous. By this point though I was determined to go home. 

So, once I had regained my composure I tried again, one tiny step at a time. And, with a bit of help from the nurse and dd1, I made it to the car. No sleeping upstairs for me last night. dd1 offered her bed but I opted for the sofa. Seems like an odd thing to choose but it would prevent me from rolling over which is when it hurts the most.

And now it is a brand new day! I won’t be running marathons any time soon but the pain is starting ease thank god. Still no idea why I fell in the first place but hey, at least I am home. 😁

ellenvan

Oh gosh. Rest and recuperate today.
Don't try the stairs!!
Some sort of camping lantern sounds worthwhile expenditure for the bathroom.
Thinking of you today.

daisy_1571

wow, what a night!  I think once I'd got to bed I'd have tried to sleep and see what moved in the morning 💤 😴 😆

I hope it continues to ease today, take it easy

D xx

Heatherweed

Stick on recharable lights from amazon not expensive.  Used them all over the house when husband would get up during night with Alzhiimeras.