Hi strangers! I have been a naughty blogger and IVA-er. On the day we shut the shop Paul from Reviva told me to take time for myself – Ha! Ha! Very funny. Excuse me while I hold my sides in case they split. I swear I am busier now than when I had the shop. Anyhow, on the money front.

• We’re about to pay DH’s second IVA contribution. If I am honest I don’t know if we’ve a hope in hell of paying it for 5 or 6 years. On  a joint income we offered £500. DH’s sole IVA is costing us £400 and I’m only working part-time atm. But we’ll do our best, that’s all we can do.
• I won the survivor of the month blog award for last month. It really was a tough month. I’m not a quitter and DH isn’t argumentative, but we managed both in buckets in October. I plan to spoil myself with the vouchers.
• Phone’s very quiet. Did I really say that out loud?
• As I mentioned last time we had decided to cancel Sky. What a hassle that turned out to be. We were 2 weeks late paying the bill so Sky disconnected the extras. I phoned and asked to pay the 2 weeks we owed and to cancel the account. Of course not, nothing tht simple. We had to pay the £54 from last month, even though it was turned off for a week. Then when the next payment was due we should pay another £54 and at the same time give a months notice. £108 to stop it – seriously. Luckily I have a smart DH. We paid the £54 and on the same day reverted to the basic £17 package, which can be done instantly. Now we are in credit as we paid £54 so won’t owe anything next payment. Gotta love that man!
• Still not sorted out Paypal, so they still have £150 of my money. Grrrr.
•  I have a job! Okay, don’t get excited, it’s only part-time (20 hours a week) and maternity cover, so only temporary. But still, it is till next July and is regular and stressfree!
• Paul is visiting Friday to go through the paperwork for the BR. Not so looking forward to that.
• DH has Christmas week off this year – first time in 5 years and my jobs term time only – so yay to that
• Both the boiler and DH’s exhaust went on Sunday. Not so long ago those repairs would have gone straight onto the cards. But because we have our budgets each month now, we had saved enough in the ‘car repairs’ and the ‘household emergencies’ envelopes over the past few month to pay for both. Well, sort of. DH is going to do the repairs because paying for them to be done is going to be a few years down the line!

And that’s where we are. Despite everything I’m not feeling anywhere near as bad as I did a few weeks ago. Although fully expecting a relapse as D-Day draws near. But I am determined to have a fab Christmas. Between what we bought in France, Boots points and M & S Vouchers I have bought nearly all the Christmas presents. They are wrapped up, cards are written and on the 1st December decorations will be up!

Had a fright this morning. Our computer ‘lost’ 100′s and 100′s of photographs. Every folder was empty. I was gutted – felt sick – we’ve not printed them out. Restarted the computer…….and there they were! So all being copied this morning to an old spare hard drive. My DH has like an Aladdins cave in his garage. Whatever I need he can find in there! You see, priorities. My heritage is far more important than a stroppy individual hassling me for money.

 Email from Reviva – court date booked – gulp.

Lloyds TSB Credit Card – I spoke to a human bean yesterday! At last. Have blocked all calls for 2 weeks. And logged that I’m having to go bankrupt. So, hopefully a bit of p & q from them.

The mortgage company have agreed much reduced payments for the next 3 months and then to go back up and to discuss how to clear the arrears. Although charges were a bit excessive. First £35 for bounced payment. Fair enough. Well, not fair enough, goes back to the arguement that there’s no way it costs £35 for an item to be returned. But that’s a whole different issue! So, phone and explain the situation. They offer to send out an I & E. Yes please, then charge £35. Then within a week we get another £35. I phoned and had a moan. I mean really. They offer to send the I & E on the Thursday. I receive it on the Saturday. Get it back in the post on Monday, and they slap the charge on Tuesday. Bit too free and easy with the charges methinks. So, thumbs up for Birmingham Midshires for agreeing reduced payments, and thumbs down for the excessive charges.

Our bank account has been fun. They were on DH’s IVA proposal. Although we’ve moved most things to our Cashminder accounts, there’s a couple of odd payments that we didn’t catch in time. So half an hour has been spent in the bank while they make various phone calls to allow us access to our money!

Have been budgeting in earnest recently. I have about 20 baggies where I put each allowance in and then we live off of them. It’s taking a bit of getting used to, but so far, so good.

 So that’s where I am. Good days and bad days. Todays a good day – after the photo scare - and I plan to spend the afternoon watching the footy on Sky. Will be the last chance as Sky’s being cancelled on Monday. Think about it. We pay £55.00 a month for Sky; Sky Plus; and Sky Sports. That’s over £600 a year. Which could fund a week away. I shall miss UK Living; Sky 1 and Hallmark channel, but not enough to warrant £600 a year.