Teetering on the brink

joedenise

One of my cards asked if I wanted an increase in my limit - it's already £11,500 and I'm on a pension, state plus small work pension so no way do I want any further increase. I've never been anywhere near the limit thankfully and I pay it off in full every month which is why I don't want any more increases and I've told them that.

EatingBeans

It’s probably because they can see you use your credit card but are a good payer. They donn’t seem to care if you might get yourself into trouble so long as you previously paid on time.

Honestly, I am ok with them upping my limits (mine are set to auto accept), I just see it as a way to lower my usage % and potentially get better deals to help pay off what I currently owe. I would much rather it be my choice to take on debt than be refused but I know for sure this past few years have gone from a manageable debt burden to debt spiral. It is a lesson learned but if I can get a job I am sure I will be able to sort it. 🤞

After a bit of a nudge from UC asking me to declare my change in savings, I finally got around to finding my debit card, making a £2500 payment to Barclaycard and declaring my current account balances to UC both on the day I got paid and today. I thought I had to do it on the final day of the period but since they specifically asked for it, I have done it now. I also got paid a first payment of ESA today 🎉 - nice to have at least a bit of money coming in again even if it is a fraction of what I was on previously. Anything that will help stretch the cash out and pay the mortgage while I am getting a new job is very welcome!

In other job news, dd1 has had a confirmed offer of a job for when she is at uni! 🎉 That takes a big weight off the shoulders (assuming she gets the grades and ends up at her preferred uni!)!! 🤞I think she will be fine. 😁 Now though we have to live with the smugness that is dd1 and her current longest period of unemployment now being 4 DAYS since getting her first job! Yes, it took her a year to get the first role but since then she does seem to have a knack for getting the next job. I am not complaining and I am genuinely pleased for her (very relieved in fact), but it does mean her ability to empathise with dd2 and I at the moment is a little lacking. Poor dd2 is still putting in applications and hearing nothing. It must be so disheartening. 😕

ellenvan

Perhaps DD1 might give you both a few interview tips?

She has done very well as lots of competition for jobs whilst at uni. It will also save you worrying.

But perhaps she could not gloat.

Good luck with interview results.

Even a bit of ESA is better than nothing.

EatingBeans

Oh dd1 didn’t need to worry about a small thing like interviewing! She works at a bowling alley and is simply being given a job at one of the other sites during term time. Her current manager was pushing for her so much I thought they were going to say no on principle. He insisted the managers at the new place call dd1 and just offer her a job rather than dd1 even having to apply and when they were taking too long he complained to the Head Office! 😬 Honestly, she is rather loved at her place as she can do everything on all of the stations and works hard without being asked. They’ve even said she can pick up shifts at her current place if she comes back for the holidays. So yeah, I am not worried about her in the slightest. 🙂

Cherryfudge

Clever thinking on the Credit cards - perhaps the second raised limit was triggered by the first?

Well done to your DD1, though I think the first job is the hardest to get so I feel for your DD2 as well. Could DD1 see if there are term time hours at her present place that DD2 could fill while DD1 is away?

EatingBeans

Another weekend is upon us, and that can only mean one thing… it’s van build time! My long suffering brother has again agreed to let me come and be a nuisance despite having to wfh from 4:30am this morning! His working hours are very weird imo. I mean he earns a good wage and all but they seem to expect him to work at any point in the 24hours of a day with no real pattern and often no notice. When he is on call he has to be working within 10minutes (day or night for a week straight) or they call his manager. Honestly, I don’t know how he does it.

Today’s goal is get the floor finished! I need to go back to B&Q and reluctantly buy Yacht varnish to do the job after waiting a week for the stuff I really should use to turn up (I could only order online), and realising I’d ordered the tiniest pot in history. 🙄 Since yacht varnish protects better against water but has potentially more fumes, I’ve decided to use that for the floor (which has more chance of getting wet and me not being able to get in to dry it), then I will use the other stuff for the wood I will actually be sleeping next to (hopefully reducing fume risk). I’ve since found other people just use yacht varnish everywhere so I think it should be fine.

Then, once I have taken everything out and varnished the floor I need to stick it down, fit the lino, put everything back and continue with the framing and seat/bed making. I have promised everyone that I will take a break after this weekend so I really need to crack on! My power station and tents have now arrived so as soon as the floor is down, camping is a go! It would however be super nice if I could also have a bed platform built because then I could stay away in it on my own too. I REALLY want to do this before starting a new job. But, this weekend is all I have for a while and at the end of tomorrow I also need to take all of my stuff out of my brother’s garage as he has people coming to fit batteries in it for solar panels. Bless him, I think they were supposed to come weeks ago but he’s been delaying them so I could do my van building. 😬 So yeah, LOTS to crack on with over the next two days. No doubt I will be flattened again next week but it will be worth it I am sure. 🤞

EatingBeans

Today is Day two of operation ‘Make van useable’. Hopefully it will go a bit better than yesterday! My no.1, most important priority is get the floor finished. How difficult can that one job be?! Seriously, I feel like I have spent a week of my life building just the floor. 🤦‍♀️ Yesterday I managed two coats of varnish (which gave off such strong fumes it made me feel sick and my brother could smell it down the other end of the garden!). I concluded that I absolutely detest yacht varnish and vowed to never use the stuff ever again, to the point that on finishing I just threw the remaining bit, brushes, roller, etc all straight in the bin. Never again! Worse than gloss imo and both drippy and sticky as hell. I left the wood in his garden for the night so hopefully it will be more approachable when I go back. 🤞

‘We’ tried (aka my brother tried and I watched and held stuff 😬) sadly unsuccessfully, to do a bit of electrics (I’m slightly scared of doing electrics given my brain’s ability to wander off and do its own thing sometimes). Unfortunately I need some kind of adapter to help secure the cables to the car battery so that’s turned into a problem for another day.

We then had a long discussion about how to design the bed/seat/toilet/electrical storage/table top thing! Yes, one little area that is less than a single metre cubed is doing all of that! 🤣 I had already got a fair idea of what I wanted but when it came to build it I hit a few snags. A single inch one way or the other made something or other not work. Too far back, the seat would be too upright, too high, i’d bump my head, too low and the stuff wouldn’t fit in the storage, etc etc. We both spent ages fine tuning the concept and by the time we found a design that seemed to tick all the boxes it was 7pm. So I wrote a step by step set of notes for what we decided and my brother quickly sketched up a picture so when we go back today we have a clear plan of what we are building. Bless him he has work again today (I think it is a 5am start today 😱), but he should be finished by 10am so I will be heading over soon. If we manage to actually get the floor down and build my multipurpose little unit thing I will be amazed, but with the two of us working together you never know! 🤞Whatever state it is in by the end of the day, that will be it for a while. So, best get cracking! 🏃‍♀️

ellenvan

It will all be worth it when you can go camping in the van whenever you like.

joedenise

I'm finding it really hard to visualise how you're going to fit a bed, yet alone the rest of what you want, into a 1 meter cubed area! That's going to be an extremely small bed if it's only 3' wide and long!!! Are you going to curl up like a cat on it, LOL!

EatingBeans

lol pretty much! Well not quite. When in bed mode the meter square is for the top half of my body and I get to squeeze the rest of me into a gap that is only about 50cm wide between the side of the van on one side, the dog crate on the other, storage cupboards above me and a fridge underneath me! 🤣 When I said my van is small I wasn’t kidding! The whole of the cargo area is max 2m long x 1.5m at its widest point, and it is not even tall enough to stand up in! lol I love it though.

We worked super hard and despite not managing to finish the multipurpose unit due to having a nightmare trying to get things to line up square around the crazy angles, we did at least fully finish the floor! 🎉 We had a good giggle as we learnt the hard way that contact adhesive really does stick together on contact and it is a really bad idea to spray the whole of the lino outside the van and then try and put it in. Omg, trying to get it to line up straight when you have to put the whole sheet down in one movement is so difficult! As soon as even one tiny edge touched the floor it stuck like its life depended on it! Then whilst you are busy peeling that bit back up you have to hold the rest of it all in the air or another bit sticks. Oh it was a laugh… and a lesson learnt!

We were finished the floor by 1pm so we had lots of time to spend building the unit but by 6pm I realised it just wasn’t going to get finished. Rather than leave with nothing to sit on, I made to call to use some of the pieces we had and bodge a seat to the rough size and shape using off cuts. I kept the good ply wood back so we can have another go making it fit properly at another time, but I was determined that whatever state the van was in at the end of today, that would be it for at least a few weeks. We both need a break and I need to get the dogs out and the girls camping. So, bodged as it may be, that is what we are going to do! I need to make some temporary seat cushions, blinds and throw up a curtain here at home, other than that I shall just make do. It if functional (just), so that is good enough for me! 😁 At some point I will have to take more pictures so I can show you all but since videoing it for Youtube all went a bit by the wayside due to some technical issues, I haven’t really taken any pictures either. I’ll probably kick myself for that later but hey, ho, the important thing is, we can now start using it! Yippee!

Now though? Sleepy time. 🥱😴

I hope you all had lovely weekends too x