Social Media Hiatus

I have put myself on one (blogging excepted) due to being a horrible, hyperactive, nasty piece of work. I know it's stress that is doing this - I have been quite unhappy in my job and am busy waiting on my test results - but there is no excuse for taking it out on others, which I did. An absolute black cloud attitude was hovering over my head and I needed to put myself in the naughty chair. It's so tempting to open it all up "just for a peek" but so far I am staying strong.

Connells Estate Agents. Thumbs down.

A nice-ish side effect is that I got a few things done. I phoned the estate agent and by a sheer stroke of luck got someone more useful than their receptionist-bouncer who usually blocks me getting to anyone who actually works in property. Somehow I got the actual sales guy who came out to take the photos two months ago. I gave him a polite bollocking for the entire office having zero contact with me, their client, for more than eight weeks. I extracted a very hasty and desperate promise that he'd drop the price immediately as I had asked for weeks ago. We'll see. My confidence in them is already in the toilet. No phone calls, no contact, and not responding to my messages, not even after I got head office involved on three separate occasions and appealed directly to their branch manager (all calls and emails got me nothing but empty promises). Their contact centre even called me after a month to do a satisfaction survey - the lady was shocked I'd heard nothing - but her kind promises to get a listing upgrade were also empty ones, so apparently their entire company can't business their way out of a paper bag. Usually I'd avoid mentioning the business as their punishment, but they have truly excelled in being absolutely terrible, so here you go - avoid Connells Estate Agents like the plague, their customer service is not just bad, it's non-existent. I don't understand how they have any clients at all.

I also went for a job interview today and got the job. I will be working in a bar and restaurant, doing a bit of everything, barista, bartender, waitress, food preparation. I can't wait, they seem really lovely. The work is quite seasonal, so they are busy over the summer then the work drops off a little, but I sensed my interview was going incredibly well and I managed to extract a promise of minimum contracted hours. I drove home fist-pumping and immediately put in my notice on the cleaning job.

Did a couple more one-off days as a temp, this time for a small festival in Cornwall. It was a nice change and not difficult work. It pays the bills, so they say!

Big naughty spend: basic tablet £109 pounds, something I have had my eye on for a while. I can't afford it and can't excuse it, so another skint month is coming.

Good: I have finally, officially, gotten to the half-way point in my weight loss journey.

Chicken and Mushroom Pasta - No Cook

I have a few longggg days of work coming up, and realised in annoyance that I don't have much in the house for meals if I need to eat them out of the house. Salad is great, but after 13 hours with only a salad and some snacks, I would probably have ended up a heap on the floor.

It wasn't this pretty, but was still delish

So here's a recipe I threw together. It serves four and is rather nice.

1 can of chicken & mushroom soup (if it's the condensed kind, add the liquids as stated on the tin, then use half in this recipe and put half in the fridge for another time)
1 can of canned carrots
about 200g dry spaghetti
3 cooked chicken breasts, shredded

Shred the chicken.
Drain the carrots and fill the tin back up with boiling water. Leave to sit.
Break the spaghetti into small pieces, place in a container or saucepan, add a pinch of salt and cover with boiling water. Stir, cover and stir again after five minutes. Leave to sit ten minutes. There is no need to cook or heat at this point, just let the boiling water do the job.
Drain the pasta and carrots and mix everything together. Heat the whole lot in the microwave or saucepan until the mix is hot, but not boiling. Stir regularly.

Enjoy. Cost per serving is around 75p if you use fresh steamed carrots.

You could of course use a tin of spam or different vegetables. You can make this without cooking if you have a kettle and swap the tin of soup for 2 packs of soup in a cup plus 300mL boiling water.

The Mental Speed Hump

I am seeing more and more how Universal Credit serves as not just a mental speed hump, but an actual barrier to work.

At the moment I have around five weeks' worth of expenses in the bank. I will get paid in a week or so, meaning my emergency fund is only a month. This feels really uncomfortable (this has been my life for about six months) but it is a cushion of sorts, and that means I'm in a better position than many people. At the same time, it renders me pretty unable to make any sacrifices in order to improve my situation.

I have already had to decline the extra shifts from my own employer, as they're just not worthwhile unless they are at least a few hours. And if I say yes to the longer ones, I'm literally working well past midnight - this is a problem as one of my jobs' alarm systems would wake the neighbours just from unlocking & relocking the building... and secondly, do I want to be out at my remote job at 4am? No I do not. If I take a couple of those shifts, I lose my tiny council tax subsidy.

In the above examples it's only a small difference of income that I'm unable to accept the work. But I know parents forced out of work completely because the upfront fees for childcare are impossible. It doesn't matter that it'll get reimbursed later. It is the simple fact that the bill can't be paid with air.

This crock of absolute shit that people are better off in work just doesn't hold true. No rich politician would be happy with a 63% tax rate. But that's the effective tax rate if you find extra work while employed part-time but also on Universal Credit. Did you just take on some extra work, and earn 100 pounds? Great, but you're only keeping 37 of it. £3.04 per hour sounds good, doesn't it? Do you think that wage would entice any politician to do some extra work? And remember, you have to pay the bus fare, or fuel your car, long before you get paid. You can't put an IOU into the petrol tank. You can't buy work clothing on a promise.

An agency has given me some work for a local event coming up. As I missed a day of work for my recent medical thang, it's actually worthwhile doing. How ridiculous that I had to calculate that before accepting the job.

So this is all a major speed hump. I would like to be on a bigger income, but I'd like to do it in a big jump so I no longer need to even think about Universal Credit or my council tax, so that the income limit is a long way behind my income.

The most frustrating part is that I actually earn enough for a mortgage - which would lower my housing costs - and I have seen suitable properties. But it would require I pay out my interest-free credit cards. I could do that, but there goes my emergency fund. If I had an extra 10 hours of work per week, I'd feel safe to do that, and the caravan sale will cover deposit and solicitor fees.

Ho hum more job applications need to go in.

Shopping Trolleys - The Work Of Satan

I really should know better but I stupidly used one of these in a moment of laziness. It got me thinking about the time they were first invented. Someone must have noticed that people stopped shopping when the basket got heavy and inconvenient, and decided that adding wheels would mean people merrily trundled it around the shop for longer, adding more things.

Which is what I did. The total was breathtaking.

I mean, I did need to stock up as I'll be stuck at home for a few days due to a minor health thing later in the week. But I also bought several bigger-ticket items, which I didn't strictly need (mistake #1 right there) and I was shocked and disgusted with the total. Poor effort, me!

Included was a small budget frozen pizza. Definitely not part of a low calorie diet (but most assuredly delicious). Same with the frozen cheesecake. Surprisingly, I am still not losing weight... I cannot imagine why not...

I am feeling a bit antsy, I keep looking at property websites and thinking: Hey, that property is only X pounds, that's totally doable! And then I realise they hey, living below the poverty line means I cannot possibly qualify for a loan right now until I increase my earnings.

I am reminded of the adage that "being poor is very expensive". It's not as obvious as it seems, it means that when you have little in the way of earnings, you lose the ability to choose, and are forced to live in quite expensive ways.

You can't buy in bulk if there is only £10 for your groceries, meaning that poor people's groceries are more expensive.
You can end up with late payment fees on bills, meaning utilities cost more.
You risk disconnection fees, meaning your services are flaky and cost double.
You can't get a home loan, so you pay more for your housing as you're forced to rent.
Poor households are more likely to opt for pawn shops or payday loans, which are eye-wateringly expensive compared with nice, tidy, cheap personal loans from a bank.

There are many more examples but you get the idea. I have been very fortunate, I am reasonably financially-literate and haven't got payday loans, late payment fees, interest-bearing credit card debt or utility disconnections. But it is quite sobering to read some peoples' stories and see how they end up in a spiral of debt which realistically is not always their own fault. We simply do not teach personal finance in school.

Why not, again?

Just Something

Nature. Warm. Unhurried.

Pugsley Lives!

Turns out the problem was in fact what I had hoped - a very cheap fix done while I waited. Brickbat to the previous mechanic who had apparently left things in a silly state and had also not done all the things he should have. Lesson learned and I have found a lovely new mechanic to look after my baby from here on.

Side effect of him doing things while I waited was that I didn't go out shopping for the planned new jeans I had in mind (well, it saves money).

Glasses have arrived from Zenni and I am over the moon with them! The prescription sunglasses in particular are amazing. I am still getting used to the new prescription and it's a little bit odd to drive with specs on, but that's just a teething problem.

Still no new job. I am a bit meh about the low number of replies I'm getting. I should increase the effort I'm putting in, and hopefully that will help. I did get one reply thanking me but advising that I'm not successful for the position of apprentice butcher (I definitely did not apply to become an apprentice butcher, so I think I'm ok with this).

New credit card approved and arrived. They have reneged and told me I can't have a balance transfer because I haven't lived in this flat long enough to satisfy their credit check (long enough to be trusted, really, for another five months). What a waste of time. Oh well, it still helps my credit rating, a £0 balance on a decent limit just decreases the overall % of my available credit that's in use.

Wise Words From A Banker

Since the ones who work for high street banks rarely speak out, this person's comments are gold. To protect his anonymity I am not going to quote him directly, but explain what he had to say about credit cards and the big fat commissions he receives for encouraging people to live on credit.

...The clients we love best are the ones who love their credit cards. The ones who spend almost up to the limit and keep it there. They will raise the limit as high as it will go and always accept the increases that we offer. They use, use, use their cards. They never pay it all off, or they take a very long time to pay it off. They go through their lives thinking they have their credit "under control" because even if sometimes they only make the minimum payment, they catch up a little bit now and then and keep themselves in good standing with the bank.

We rake in the fees and interest charges. They get used to a life where having a credit balance is normal.

We see patterns in these types of clients. They take a summer holiday then battle against that balance for the rest of the year. They spend up big for Christmas, amounts they can't afford, then struggle to pay a little bit off over the following six months, just in time to max it all over again for another summer holiday. And the cycle repeats. They are never in trouble really, but obviously throwing money to us hand over fist in credit charges, because maintaining a high credit burden is not cheap.

These people are not all stupid but banks are very good at not making it obvious what this credit is costing them. They pay attention to the balance, they pay attention to the minimum repayments, and everything else is lost in the busy routine of just getting through life from day to day. And thirty or forty quid in charges for the month doesn't seem like very much money, because they aren't really noticing the fact that they will be paying it again next month too and for the foreseeable future. It's just another bill to them, part of living life.

He goes on to name a few "rules" when it comes to debt and credit:

1. If you are struggling to manage, pay off or even just understand your loans or credit, GET HELP. You can get free and impartial assistance from many places. It is nothing to be embarrassed about, millions of people are in debt, and remember that banks spend a lot of money fooling people smarter than you. Get your revenge by getting financially well. You're not alone and people are paid to help you. Let them.

2. Read up on online debt and money saving communities. Find and join a good one that gives advice in your own country since things differ depending on where you live.

3. Credit cards are not for luxury purchases. Don't use them for a bigger TV, for buying gifts, for an expensive Christmas, or for a holiday. People who have had large credit card balances for a long time need to learn not to spend on luxuries, and all these things are luxuries. No treating yourself - or anyone else - on credit.

4. Bankruptcy is not usually the way out. In most cases it will haunt you longer than doing things the usual way. Don't be tempted with this unless an independent advisor tells you it is your best option - and even then, get a second opinion.

5. If you regularly can't get your card down to zero each month then cut it up - and don't apply for more cards. Pay as much as you can each month until it is gone, even just a fiver extra will save you interest and help you move away from being your bank's favourite client.