29th May - I'm still here

And I've kept the house for another month!

But that's only after talking to the lenders who declined an initial offer - and referred it to their solicitors - who accepted it and referred it back to the lenders who, eventually accepted it as well.


As that new TV ad goes, today's a new day. Forget about yesterday. So, we start over again.


Thanks to Bluerhino for his reply to my previous post. Nice to "meet" you. What you suggest is what I'm sort of trying to do. But the house will never be sold - firstly because it would break the wife's heart, and secondly, being selfish, I really couldn't face dealing with mortgages again. Ever.


My wife does work part time, and it's in a factory, but she can only do one day at a time because of her severe back problems. Ideally, she shouldn't be working at all. I've looked at HGV training for working my days off - I've worked out that I can earn a weeks wages if I was to go "tramping" - staying out on the road from Friday afternoons to Monday mornings. But, like everything else, I have to pay for training. And the cost of this, two week course, is £2,100 + accommodation + food.


A pipedream.


Especially as I can't get vocational funding from the Government - the only grant I could get is £30 a week. So that idea's shot through as well. Don't get me wrong - I hate driving, as anyone who knows me will tell you - but I'd have done HGV agency work for a couple a couple of years to help pull us straight. I'm still £12,000 short on running the household every year. And that's got to change.


The car nows uses £8.00 petrol a day - up from £5.00 three or four months ago - and the heating oil has now doubled, literally, in 6 months. So now I'm paying close on £400 for 500 litres - last October it was under £200.


So, once again it's back to the business to survive. I'm partially qualified in PC repairs, and going back to Bluerhino's reply, I guess this is what I'm going to have to use, on a physical basis, to bring in extra cash. The ebay business is still taking off, fortunately, though it's not making a lot at the moment - so the plan - or structure (thanks for that excellent word Bluerhino) is to work really hard on building the business up as well as doing as much overtime as I can as well.


Talking of overtime, my company's complained because they say I'm working too much - I've recently done 9 x 12 hour nights, two off, now in the middle of another 7 nights, I've got 24 hours off from Thursday morning at 7am, back at work for a day shift on Friday, then nights again for 5 shifts starting from Saturday.


For the last four weeks, I've worked a minumum of 84 hours (plus travelling)every week - I think I've actually topped 102 hours one week. No prizes for guessing why I'm so tired and worn out then, is there?


But, it will get better. Especially now that repo order for the house isn't going to happen. Well, not just yet, anyway!