Becoming a taxi driver to pay off all my debts and avoid bankruptcy, my diary

lamarsi

hiya, just wanted to say good luck with the new job, i started 2 and a half years ago and have never looked back... mainly due to the 3 whiplash injures I've had in that time lol you may want to try BP Insurance Brokers, they insure me and I've had all sort of bumps and 6 points for under £1900, if you need more details let me know. When i started I drove for someone else but I've gone from that 2 buying a skoda Octavia with 200,000 miles on the clock last year to last Friday taking delivery of my brand spanking new Skoda Roomster, why it's called that is in itself is a mystery as there is f all room in it! By the way if i can give you one piece of advice it would be invest in GOOD seat covers, wee soaks in don't ya know..urrr

JPS29

Hi all,

Not much to add today. Was peeing down so couldn't get the stuff out to photo for ebay (its huge exhibition stands):mad:

However did do one money saving thing. I had a data card for my business laptop (the first versions of the broadband dongles) which was in my personal name. Managed to cancel that today as it was out of contract. Saved £15 per month/ £180 a year:j

Tomorrow I will get the gardens done, wash the cars and van and put the stuff on ebay!!!!!!

Have a good weekend all.

JPS29

BTW lamarsi,

I have leather seats so hopefully any "incidents" won't soak through;)

Tinka21

You might still need some seat covers as my OH had a family get in that had been decorating at a house and they were covered in paint, which they then got all over the seats, it made a right mess, but as you can imagine they weren't bothered and couldn't understand why my OH wasn't happy!!!

JPS29

The snow put a stop to my gardening today, and couldn't put the stuff on ebay as it's huge and needed to set it up in the garden. Oh well, can sort it later in the week.

Took DD to beach donned in wellies and hat/ear muffles, gloves. She has been a asking us to take her there for ages so finally gave in. She loved it!!!! We were freezing and she was like "look daddy, another shell, and another one, and another" Now have roughly 50 shells in sink upstairs:rolleyes:

Don't fish and chips from the seaside taste better than anywhere else:p

Anyway on to the moneysaving.....

As we were far away from home and no one would recognise me I finally decided to try LIDL. (before anyone calls me a snob wait til the end of the post)

We usually shop at tesco's or morrisons and spend easily £125 a shop, roughly every 10-14 days. I was expecting a stack him high sell em cheap shop selling no frills this, no frills that. OMG, how wrong was I:eek: :eek: :eek:

Got to the till and packed 10 bags full of shopping, nescafe coffee, utterly butterly, heinz beans, robinsons juice etc. At Morris/Tesco easily the £100 plus.

£52.08 nearly PMSL (look at me now I know what this means;) ) even more funny was the image of us loading it into the back of my X5:rotfl: :rotfl: I'm sure people were thinking "fur coat and no knickers" as they passed by but do you know what, I couldn't care less.

Can't believe I ever felt ashamed about shopping here before. I am now a truly reformed DFW. I will be shopping at my local one and if anyone passes comment I will point out how much I saved (and then point to the X5 sarcastically:D )

I have just looked in my cupboards and they are rammed, along with my chest freezer:j , glad I braved the beach now.

Managed to throw together some sort of signature and cant wait to start the ball rolling with PPI, should be a few grand there.

On Taxi course again tomorrow, this is the second to last time (is that penultimate?) then on Thursday is the last exam:j

Right, thats me, done, dusted, reformed and feeling mighty good about myself.

Catch you all tomorrow, hope everyone else had a good day...

JPS29

Evenin All.

Another day closer to getting my taxi qualifications. Last lesson today followed by final exam on Thursday, then all I need is my criminal record check to come back ok, get a medical and get my car tested and licensed.:j

Positive things i have done today are:

1) Went to auctions and got forms to enter my van in next Tuesday's auction (If this brings me in at least £3k Im happy)

2)Managed to get my loansdirect (Lloydstsb) loan account number from old bank statements. I'm off to the bank tomorrow to ask them to reduce my payments while I'm skint and also update them with my new address. When this is amended then I will hit them with my PPI reclaim:rotfl: )

3) Spoke to the car finance company to ask could payments be halved for at least next 6 months. They said as you've been a good customer, blah blah we can refinance it for you for another four years. I told them this wasn't acceptable as then I would have to pay half of the "new" loan agreement before i could voluntarily hand back the car. They tried to back me in a corner saying this was the only way they could do it. I asked them when they would like to pick the car up as i would rather voluntarily terminate the agreement and owe them the shortfall between paid so far, and half the agreement than refinance. Sure I heard a "gulp" on the other end of the phone:D As I have been suuuuucccccchhhh a good customer (or could it possibly be they know they will find it extremely hard selling my 3 litre sports injection fuel guzzling beast:rolleyes: )she will have a word with her manager to see if we can re adjust my payments for the next 6 months WITHOUT refinancing. Will keep you posted..

So.........

Tomorrow, off to the bank to try and sort loan payments out
Get back in touch with car finance to get a definite answer
Sell more gear on Ebay.

Hope everyone else had a good day

busy_today_mate

Not be long till you are on the road now,

kimlisa66

Hi there

As a lurker of many months, I just wanted to say I was drawn to your diary and have found your story fascinating, heartbreaking and uplifting all at the same time.

How you have remained to stay so focussed is a lesson to us all and I for one will draw on your tenacity and fortitude. I hope things work out well for you and your family in the future, and remember, its only money !!

I myself am not hugely in debt now, just a couple of grand lurking on various credit cards and a loan but i'm more than able to put that right , but until 3 weeks ago, I was looking at a £20,000 overpayment from HMRC Tax Credit Department. This has been going on for 5 years now, has been a constant source of worry and I dealt with it by burying my head in the sand until last november, when, after splitting up with my husband and then succumbing to physical health problems that will need major surgery, I had a letter from HMRC saying they were sending the bailiffs in.

It was the proverbial lightbulb moment, and I took the bull by the horns and fought back. I received a letter in March to say they were wrong, they were writing the whole amount off (not that I had actually received 20k anyway, ) and that was the end of the matter.

Well, that's what they think, there is the small matter of compensation methinks, so that's the next battle to be won.

Anyway, I digress, thank you for sharing your story, its truly insprational.

Kim x:j

kimlisa66

And i've done a signature, hope its not too OTT !

Don't things seem clearer and more manageable when written down, if a bit of a shock to the system at first?

Kim

kimlisa66

B*****r, signature didn't work, too many lines apparently, lets try again !