Life goes on...

Was it really 15th June when I last Blogged? Unemployment theory suggests it should feel like a lifetime, as my eighteen 'waking' hour days are filled with nothing more than working out how many grains of salt there are in one level teaspoon. However, for reasons best known to all you time/space aficionados, the last seven weeks seem to have flown by.

I have decided to give a general update of what's been happening in this post, but there will follow another post fairly quickly dedicated solely to a recent visit to the 'Benefits Agency' which I know you'll enjoy as much as I did.

So I here's the general update as promised.

Let's start on the 'Debtors' front. As revealed in my last post, I have engaged the services of the Citizens Advice Bureau in the first instance to approach my debtors. All of my debtors have been contacted and informed of our Dickensian levels of poverty and to date one of the five have responded offering to suspend all charges and interest for the foreseeable future and have asked that we make a token payment of £0.00 per month. They have asked that this be reviewed after six months and stressed the importance of making sure that we send them £0.00 per month. After reviewing our current income and expenditure, both my wife and I agreed we could afford £0.00 per month and have set up a standing order accordingly. On a serious note, well done MBNA for responding so quickly and actioning our request. We keep getting threatening letters through the post on an almost daily basis from our other debtors, but as requested by our CAB advisor, we simply collect them all together and deliver them to her office on a Monday morning when she will read through everything and respond to them accordingly. She then provides my wife and I with an update where necessary and any action she requires us to take. So far the service we have received from CAB has been impeccable and they deserve some kudos.

Some of our Blog followers may remember an earlier post that talked about the fun I was having with Virgin mobile who have consistently failed to respond to my written requests to try and find a resolution to my outstanding contract which I can no longer afford. Well unsurprisingly, a couple of days ago I received a letter from a 'debt collection agency (DCA)' demanding money on behalf of Virgin mobile for the remainder of the original contract. I have since drafted a complaint to Virgin mobile for the appalling way in which they ignored my attempts to resolve this issue, I have sent a complaint to Ofcom about the appalling way Virgin have dealt with my attempts to resolve this issue and finally I have written to the DCA telling them in a most professional and polite way where they can stick their demands for money and that I intend to use some of the monotonous hours I have at my disposal every day, ironing my best shirt and trousers for my day in court.

Our benefits seem to have stabilised for the time being, but I've experienced too much in such a short time to get complacent and always expect changes to be just around the corner. The benefits agency truly are 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma' On a positive note, we have been granted support for mortgage interest which means that providing I can get my mortgage company to agree to allow us to go onto an interest only mortgage for a while, we will be able to pay our mortgage with just a small 'top up' from our meagre earnings. Discussions have begun with my mortgage company, but it's not going quite as smoothly as I'd have liked. I will keep you updated on that particular issue when I know more.

On the jobs front it's not good news I'm sad to say. I won't bore you with the details of every job I've applied for in the past three months, sufficed to say I'm still unemployed. I had an interview the other day for a job which I proclaimed to my wonderful wife I would get providing I got an interview, only to find my confidence was misplaced and the job went to some graduate with a degree in 'Horse Psychology' and 'Raising Chickens for Meat and Eggs'. The job incidentally was for a case worker with a Youth Offending Team, but it seemed my 15 years working with youth offenders whilst the manager of two childrens homes counted for nothing. I have subsequently visited the local college and made enquiries about enrolling on their very popular 'Diploma in the Completely Irrelevant' All I have to do now is find the £2500 course fee. Maybe the Benefits Agency could help?

There is only one postive I can take out of my present predicament and that is being an armchair sports fan, I can vegetate in front of the TV and watch the Olympics. Every cloud and all that...

Emotionally we're bearing up quite well. We seemed to have settled into a state of ambivalence, being neither negative or positive about anything. It's maybe not the perfect state to be in, but it's some respite from the constant highs and lows we had been experiencing in the first few weeks of the journey. My wife continues with her part time job which gives her a sense of worth and a break from my curmudgeoning. I feel sorry for her somewhat as she never really knows which husband she's going to be greeted with when she walks through the front door. Mr Happy or Mr grumpy? Actually I'm much more talented than that and find I can take on the characteristics of nearly all of the 'Mr Men' with the possible exception of Mr Tall and there's not much I can do about that one

As you can see, not much has happened in the past seven weeks. We haven't traveled very far on our Journey to Financial Freedom, but we have started to map out the route. Until I find some work, I suspect the status quo will remain and we won't actually be able to cross the start line and begin the long slog.

Look out for my next post which should be up in the next couple of days. It deals specifically with a recent trip to the Benefits Agency and to be honest, they do deserve their very own post.

That's all for now folks!

Money... Money... Money

It's been a strangely serine couple of weeks where one of the few things of note are several occurrences where people want to give us money...

Now before you all get too excited and start putting up the bunting and celebrating our financial freedom, I must point out that it hasn't been life changing amounts of money, but money none the less.

First to arrive was a letter from my motor insurance company explaining that I had more no claims bonus than I had originally declared and therefore my premium was less than quoted and they would like to refund £10.15 into my account. A welcome gesture as our evening meal that night was looking decidedly grim. There are only so many ways of cooking beans on toast afterall.

Next, but not without two weeks on continuing battles with the Benefits Agency, we received some Jobseekers Allowance. Not as much as I'd been led to believe we would be receiving, but it was a start. It turns out, unbeknownst to me, that despite informing HMRC on the day we became unemployed that we no longer wished to claim 'Working Tax Credit', we were entitled to something they call 'over run' and we would still be receiving working tax credit for a few more weeks. Clearly the benefits agency, as inept as they are, managed to get this information and subsequently deducted the amount from our JSA. So what's the problem, our JSA plus our tax credit over run should equal the total amount we're entitled to, shouldn't it? Unfortunately we weren't that lucky. Our working tax credit goes into the account of a bank with whom we have defaulted on a personal loan and they were quick to grab everything that went in there. So there's lesson one for today. If you claim JSA and cancel working tax credit, make sure you can still access any over run.

Finally, I contacted the local council to enquire about our council tax benefit claim and was informed that we were to receive FULL benefit and had nothing to pay for the rest of the year providing our circumstances didn't change of course. Whilst this was good news, the even better news was that we had already overpaid by £210 and where would I like the refund sending.

Woo Hoo! We're positively rich...

So what else is there to report? My battle with Virgin Mobile continues. They refuse to communicate with me in writing, whilst I refuse to communicate with them by phone because they suspended my service and therefore technically I have no phone with which to communicate with them. Just fired off yet another letter pointing this out and asking if they could find their way to responding to my requests in writing, but I hold little hope for this to happen and suspect it will be in the hands of a Debt Collection Agency before long.

My wife and I also made the decision last week to work with the local Citizens Advice Bureau in the first instance regarding our debt crisis. We have looked at all the alternative ways of tackling the debt issues and there may be some out there that raise an eyebrow at using CAB, so let me qualify our reasoning.

The internet generally is a wonderful thing as we all know. Having spent many, many hours during the past few months trawling a whole variety of resources, it came down to one of the following options.

1. Just go it alone with no help from anyone.
2. Use the experience and knowledge of one or more debt forums, getting help and advice from people who had been there, done it and bought the rather tacky t shirt.
3. Use one of the few respected debt charities that exist.
4. Use the Citizens Advice Bureau.

So why our decision to go with CAB? After all, I had read in many forums how useless CAB had been in certain areas. I had read real world experiences of others who had felt let down by CAB's knowledge and aptitude. Well there were two reasons to be honest. When I had to approach CAB about another issue a few weeks back, the service I received was impeccable. They were clearly knowledgeable on the subject at hand, they were professional in the way they dealt with it, they didn't judge either myself or my wife and they showed genuine interest and sympathy for our situation. But I hear you cry, that doesn't mean they're any use when it comes to dealing with debt matters. You're quite correct it doesn't except that by a strange coincidence I happened upon a friend who I hadn't seen in a while who has been using CAB as his preferred source of support for a couple of years now and genuinely believes they have changed his life after spending the previous seven years sinking deeper and deeper into the brown smelly stuff. He couldn't speak more highly of the service he has received, but he did have one caveat. It was important that we got hooked up with the right debt counsellor. It turns out there are three counsellors in our local bureau and one in particular has a bit of a reputation, and I mean a GOOD reputation, for tackling creditors. I thought this may cause a problem if I asked for a specific person to deal with our case, but not at all. They were more than happy to team us up. Maybe we've made the wrong decision, maybe we haven't, only time will tell. I feel safe in the knowledge that if it doesn't work out with CAB I have other options to fall back on and hopefully not too much damage will have been done. Our first meeting with our debt counsellor is on 19th June and I'll let you all know how we got on.

Things are still bleak on the job front. In the last two weeks I have applied for a job as a key cutter, a job on the parts counter for a motorbike shop, a job as a sessional worker for the local Youth Offending Team and a job as a driver moving new cars from ferries to compounds ready for distribution around the country. Net result so far? Nothing, not a letter, not a phone call, not a 'thank you for your application but you're to old as we only want to employ 16 year olds to whom we can pay £3.50 an hour'. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but after working continuously for 32 years you do tend to think you're maybe worth something to someone, alas it would seem not.

We are progressing with our application to become professional foster carers and had our first assessment session yesterday. Despite my being professionally involved with fostering agencies for many years, actually being assessed to be a carer is quite a daunting prospect. The assessment at times gets very personal, though what the size of my 'manhood' has got to do with anything I don't exactly know. It's a slow old process though and realistically I can't see it becoming an income stream for at least another six months.

Generally speaking we're both fairly contented at the moment. Closing the shop, as sad as it was, lifted a huge weight off our shoulders and we've only just come to realise how much of a stress it was causing us. Of course we have a whole bunch of new stresses to contend with now, but they say change is as good as a rest. My biggest enemy at the moment is the mind numbing boredom I suffer everyday from being unemployed. I try to keep busy, but when you get up at 5am every day, you soon run out of things to keep you occupied. On a positive note, I clearly still have all my sensibilities as I have yet to succumb to the banality and cringworthy SHITE that is 'Jeremy Kyle'


Well that's all folks! 

Let's see what the coming days bring in the rather mundane lives of a couple on their 'Journey to Financial Freedom'

Being ignored...

To quote a catchphrase from the hilariously funny Fast Show, "this week I mostly be getting ignored"

Firstly having defaulted on my mobile phone contract, I have written three letters to Virgin Mobile seeking a resolution but all to no avail. All I've had in return are two letters, exactly the same informing me they've had a problem collecting the direct debit and that I should phone them. My second letter included the fact that as they have disconnected me and I have no home phone, then telephoning them is not an option.

Secondly I have written two more letters to my landlords solicitor, that's four in total, informing him that whilst I do not dispute my legal obligations with regard my lease, the reality of the situation is that I have no money to pay any further rent, I have mounting unmanageable debt with a variety of institutions and that I am not able to market the property myself as I'm "SKINT". I am now in default with my rent and still I hear nothing.

Thirdly it has been twenty two days since we made our claim for jobseekers allowance and they seem more than happy to ignore me. On three occasions now I have had to walk on crutches to the local benefits office to use their telephones to contact the 'benefits helpline' as their 0845 number is prohibitively expensive when you've only got a PAYG mobile. On all three occasions I've been promised a call back, you can guess the rest. During one conversation I was asked, for security reasons, to give a previous address where we had claimed benefits. I informed them that my wife and I have worked continuously for the past thirty two years and have never claimed a single penny in benefits and as such I was unable to give them the required information. This answer was clearly not catered for in their system. I had a sense of the 'customer services' representative having a mild break down. I could hear the sweat dripping off his brow onto his keyboard. He began to stumble over his words and babble incoherently. Clearly we had gone off script and he was panciking, his computer was working over time and clearly overheating as I could just get the faintest whiff of smoke drifting through the phone ear piece. In desperation he told me someone would phone me back and put the phone down.

As a slightly amusing addition to the benefits debacle, I decided after my third unsuccessful phone call to ask someone in the benefits office I was stood in, if they might be able to help find out what had happened to my claim. Of course the answer to that particularly difficult question was that I had to phone the 'benefits helpline'. I explained that I had just got off the phone with the 'benefits helpline' for the third time and was still none the wiser. They suggested I might wish to make an official complaint as the situation in their view appeared completely unacceptable. I said I would like to take them up on their suggestion and did they have the relevant complaint forms? Yep you guessed it, I have to telephone the 'benefits helpline' if I wished to make a complaint and that I was welcome to use the phone in the benefits office to save on my own phone bill. For the sake of my own sanity, I chose to leave at this point and take a slow wander home in the sunshine avoiding any potential suicide opportunities.

To add to this weeks woes, we have just received a late filing penalty from Companies House. Basically because we had no money to pay our accountant this year, we were unable to get our accounts into Companies House on time and have been stung to the tune of £1500. Of course this will simply be added to the ever growing mountain of debt and dealt with in the same way. I will attempt to appeal to their better nature by explaining the reasons for the 'late filing' but I don't hold out much hope.

So is there any good news to bring you this week. Well actually there is... Nothing earth shattering but good news none the less.

My wife started work a couple of days ago at a local mini market. It's only twelve hours per week and we don't know if or how it will affect our benefits, but she was determined to get straight back into work and who am I to stop her.

Also this week, we made an inquiry with regard to applying to become professional foster carers. Aside from the last seven years, most of my working life has involved working with children in the care system so it's something I'm comfortable with and something I always felt I was good at. It will be alien to my wife, but after several long discussions we agreed to at least look at the idea in more detail.

My knee injury is healing fairly well, though unnecessary walks to the benefits office haven't helped the situation. I'm off the crutches for the most part and awaiting a physiotherapist appointment. I won't hold my breath on that one either.

Through brute force and ignorance, we managed to gain access to the shop through the broken shutter and with the exception of a few personal items, it is now empty. We intend returning the keys to my landlords solicitor on Friday, so it should be interesting to see if that provokes any kind of response.

All in all then a mixed kind of week. Some good, some bad, some indifferent. We are both strangely 'up' at the moment. I don't know why as not much has changed and my debts just got worse, but we've found time and reason to have a bit of a laugh, particularly at the ridiculousness of the benefits system.

That's all for now and I look forward to updating you all in due course...

How low can you go?

I believe the saying goes something like 'It never rains but it pours'...


As explained in my last post, we eventually closed the shop but there were a couple of rays of sunshine in the guise of someone wanting to look around the shop with a view to renting it and my wife being offered some part time work. Well fate loves giving with one hand and taking away with the other.

We did indeed show someone around the shop and it the gentleman appeared fairly positive. He left saying he would be in touch after the weekend. That of course was last weekend and eight days later we've heard nothing. I did say I wouldn't get over excited and I didn't.

However what made the viewing even less palatable was the fact that when the gentleman had left and we locked up the shop, the electric security shutter closed to about a foot from the floor before the motor created a large bang, sparks, flames and lots of smoke. Now I'm no electrician, but I was pretty sure there was a problem and a terminal problem at that. After several phone calls, the best I could do was arrange for someone to look at it after the weekend. Monday duly arrived and basically for £450 I could gain access to the shop in the shape of a new motor. Yeah right... Like I've got £450 spare.

So we're presently locked out of the shop with the rest of our stock and personal belongings trapped inside. I've yet to come up with a plan to solve this latest crisis.

Things can't get any worse surely?

Of course they can... On Friday 12th May my wife and I had to go to the benefits office to complete our claim for Jobseekers Allowance. Our 2pm appointment eventually took place at 3pm and we then had to endure forty five minutes of being treat like imbeciles, whilst at the same time being patronised and lectured to by a 16 year old work experience idiot. I can only assume they use these degrading tactics to make you try harder to get work so you don't have to visit these moronic uncivil servants any more than is absolutely necessary. After being dismissed with a cheery 'You should know within two weeks if your claim has been successful,' we headed back to my van and upon climbing into my seat, I felt what can only be described as something snapping in the back of my knee.

The pain was excruciating and I knew instantly something wasn't right. Somehow I managed to drive home without incident main duly to my ability to brake with my left foot, a skill learned from my days racing karts when I was younger. Back home I packed my knee with ice and kept it raised for several hours before it became clear I was in need of some medical attention. A quick call to NHS direct and Accident & Emergency here I come. I won't bore you with the gory details, but after a week of hospital and doctor visits, the diagnosis is a ruptured Anterior Cruciate Ligament. For those of a non medical background, it's a fairly bad injury. Please feel free to look it up if you need to know more. I'm back at the doctors on Monday to find out if they intend to refer me for an exploratory operation. My doctors optimistic view is that I could be up and about with crutches in a couple of weeks and crutch free in about six weeks depending on how I react to treatment.

This latest set back caused me to miss a couple of important meetings with a solicitor and CAB and has severely affected my ability to get out there and try and find work.

My wife has been absolutely fantastic throughout and is not only supporting my emotional needs, but my physical needs too. I don't know how long she can keep going though, she must be reaching breaking point.

So is there any good news to bring you? Well the part time job for my wife looks like it's going ahead and I have learned what a complete and utter twat Jeremy Kyle is, but apart from that, we still seem to be on a downward spiral at the moment which leads me to repeat my question "How low can you go"


I'm conscious that this whole Blog is supposed to be about our journey to financial freedom and that the debt issues don't seem to be getting much coverage, but trust me they will when they raise their ugly heads. I'm including all the other stuff as it's part of the journey and inextricably linked. I'm sorry if it's not much help to anyone else in debt at the moment, but it is very cathartic for me and I do feel sense of calm when I've written down everything that's happened to me.

I hope the next installment contains some cheery news to balance the crap that's become my daily existence.

As one door closes...

... Does another one open?

Well the deed is done. At 5:30pm last night, we closed our shop door for the final time. After seven difficult but at times thoroughly enjoyable years our hopes and dreams disappeared into the cool damp evening air with the turn of a key.

I'm not sure how I feel about it at the moment. My immediate emotion is one of great sadness. Not just sad that the business failed, but sad at the service we have withdrawn from a very tight knit community. Sad at the thought of not spending time chewing the fat with our regulars. Sad that our small row of village shops now has more closed than open. Of course all these feelings of sadness and nostalgia will quickly evaporate when the creditors start closing in, but for now I'm allowing myself a few melancholy blues.

Unfortunately we were unable to liquidate all of our stock, so over the next few days we're going to have to return to the shop and load up my van with what's left. I sense more than my fair share of car boot sales coming on in the next few months.

On a positive note, though the past few years have taught me to not get over excited too quickly, the owner of an established shop in another part of town has asked to arrange a viewing of the shop as he's looking at downsizing his business and would like to relocate it to the village as that's where he lives. I didn't have the time to show him around today, but we're meeting tomorrow afternoon. For those of you who have been following my blog and my journey on some of the debt forums, you'll realise how significant finding someone to take over the lease is at this present moment in time. As I said, I won't get too excited as we're not accustomed to anything going right for us in the past couple of years.

I also contacted the benefits agency today to make our claim for jobseekers allowance. All in all a fairly painless exercise and the young man I spoke to was most helpful, very pleasant and extremely patient. You have to remember he was dealing with a man who had never claimed benefits since he left school 32 years ago. My wife and I have an appointment with the benefits office on Friday afternoon to complete the claim, so hopefully we will be somewhat better informed as to what we may be entitled to.

Another slim ray of sunshine in an otherwise dull kind of day was the offer of a job for my wife from one of the few remaining shops on our block. It's only for 12 hours per week, but with the possibility for more to cover holidays etc. Of course the immediate problem with this is the effect it may have on our benefits, something we won't know until Friday. I guess it's too much too ask that my wife could work part time and us not be penalised regarding our council tax benefit and our 'support for mortgage interest' benefit.

Finally for today, I've been a little naughty and need to confess my sins. My wife and I have experienced a very frugal way of life for the last few years and in particular the last 18 months where we've pretty much lived hand to mouth without enjoying any of lifes little luxuries such as new clothes or the occasional Indian take a away etc. So with willful abandonment I took my wife to Matalan and with the remaining £200 left on our one and only credit card which will go into default very shortly, we treat ourselves to some new togs and a slap up meal at Mrs Miggins pie shop on our way home.

I know it was irresponsible, I know I'll feel bad about it in the days to come, but for just one brief moment while we were trying on different clothes and tucking into a lamb balti, the world seemed a better place. I'd forgotten how therapeutic retail therapy can be...

Is this a sign?

When my wife and I decided to close down our business, we chose Wednesday 9th May 2012 as our last day of trading. This holds no significance other than our current rent period finishes on that date.

Today I was checking my calendar and noticed that the 9th May is 'LIBERATION DAY' on the islands of Guernsey and Jersey. Is this a sign? Is this going to be the day we become liberated? I'll let you know in a weeks time.

Things have again been fairly quiet over the past week. The only point of interest being a letter from my landlords solicitor pointing out to me my obligations regarding the lease on our business premises and advising I take legal advice. So, nothing I didn't already know. I did manage to find a solicitor who kindly gave me an hour of his time for free (Yep I did say for FREE.) He confirmed I was pretty much screwed regarding the lease in terms of not being able to get out of it unless the landlord takes pity and releases me from it. He did advise however that the landlord does have something called 'a duty to mitigate his losses' which basically means he can't just leave the property empty without making efforts to either sell it or rent it back out and then expect a court to order me to stump up eleven years more rent. I'm not sure this makes much difference to our position or not, but it's useful to know.

I have had some mixed advice on what happens to the lease if I filed for bankruptcy. One train of thought suggests that the bankruptcy will only take into account any monies owed in rent arrears at the date of proving and therefore the landlord could still chase me for any future monies owing, whilst someone else believes that the bankruptcy will take into account all monies owed and all monies that could be owed for the remainder of the lease. This small point could prove important if I eventually decide to go down the route of bankruptcy.

I decided to forego my weekly back, sack and crack wax this week to join the Bankruptcy Association in the hope that they can answer the lease question for me.

All my creditors will get paid in May and then we will begin defaulting on them all in June. Someone suggested that if I know I'm going to default then why wait until June. Why not keep a few more quid in my pocket and default in May? Well it just doesn't sit right with me I'm afraid. I have the money to pay them in May and pay them I will. When all is said and done, I owe all these institutions money and they deserve to be paid what they're owed if I can afford to pay it.  This will give me approximately a month to get my act together and sort out a plan for tackling my creditors initial contact. Also by that time I should have a firm idea of our benefits based income and should have in place a completed Income/Expenditure form.

Emotionally we're both a bit up and down, myself more so than my wife. I have a taste of what it must be like to be bi polar, as when we're up it's like we've been taking illicit substances and find ourselves in fits of laughter at the silliest things. But when we're down, we're searching the back of the sofa looking for enough change to buy a bottle of Jack Daniels and packet of paracetamols.

Maybe these feelings are normal, maybe they aren't...

On a final positive note, my blog has hit the 1000 views mark. So thank you to all of you who are following our 'Journey' and if just one person gains any benefit from it then it's all been worth the effort.

Small Steps...

Things progress slowly... Another pretty fruitless weekend all in all, but here are the highlights.

The closing down sale at the shop is going pretty well, though I suspect all the decent stock has now been pillaged and what we have left will probably still be there when we close in a couple of weeks time. Looks like I'll be car booting for most of the spring and summer... Oh well, there are worse ways to spend your weekends I guess.

I have good reason to believe my landlord will be back in the country today and has an appointment tomorrow with his solicitor. Hopefully by the end of the week I might have a better idea of his line of attack. I've decided to speak with CAB today to ask if they can somehow support me with any of the letters I receive from the landlords solicitor, as I don't want to be writing back and inadvertently dropping myself further in the mire to due my lack of knowledge on contractual issues. My 'shoulder to lean on' David has kindly offered some help in this matter and I intend to take him up on his offer very shortly.

Had my first letter from one of my debtors on Saturday. It was from Virgin Mobile Collections who wanted me to contact them to pay this months invoice as the direct debit had been cancelled. I chose to write back to them rather than call them and ask them if they would consider reducing my monthly tariff from £20 to £10 as this was all I could realistically afford in the short term. I wasn't asking for the same package, just a way of keeping my current number live whilst honouring the remainder of my contract. I also suggested that if they could come up with a sensible full and final settlement figure I would see if I could raise the funds to pay it. Posted recorded delivery Saturday morning, so let's see what transpires.

As a contingency plan to Virgin not playing ball and because they've barred my number, I discovered what appears to be a fantastic PAYG deal. The company are called Giffgaff. They use the 02 network and I'm led to believe are in fact a subsidiary of 02, but that needs confirming. They offer a £10 a month deal that includes 250 minutes to all the usual suspects, unlimited texts and unlimited data. Free texts and calls to other GiffGaff users. Freephone numbers are FREE. No contract, simply top up after a month if you want to continue. If you don't want the package you can simply top up and use you credit as a normal PAYG. Their basic PAYG rates are by far the cheapest available in the UK. So is there a downside? Of course there is. Where they struggle is customer service. Basically the support is provided in the first instance by other users. They do not have contact telephone numbers and all help requests have to go through the internet. If you read the forums you could easily be put off trying them, but you pays your money you takes your chances as they say. I've been with them for about a week and so far no issues. You can also earn a few quid in a variety of ways by being active in the community. For anyone out there looking for a great PAYG deal rather than getting tied up in a contract, Giffgaff are certainly worth a look. If you decide to use them, let me know and if I refer you, you get £5 free credit when you activate your sim. Here's a link:

Giffgaff

I would like to make it clear that I will NOT endorse anything in this Blog that I do not have personal experience of and I will always give an honest and fair review.

My project for today is to source cheaper Gas, Electricity and Home insurance and put my van up for sale. I may for the first time in 31 years be forced to use public transport if the van sells. That should be a laugh. The last bus I remember using was a journey from my home to our local shopping centre and if memory serves me right it cost 2p. I suspect it may be different now.

Well that'll do for now... If your boredom threshold is anything like mine, you probably stopped reading ten minutes ago anyway.