Previously, on Squish Pages

I had got my dream job. Ideal location in East London's Victoria Park. A 30-40 minute journey to work. I had lucked into use of a company car which I managed to end up with it 95% of the time. The company itself suited my personality and style; it was professional, catered to the mid to top end range of properties, and preferred a more laid back style over a pushy, aggressive style of some other estate agents.

But sadly 2 weeks ago I became victim to the credit crunch and was made redundant. A case of last in, first out. I am still coming to terms with losing such a perfect job. In one swoop my salary had improved by 1/3 over my previous job and money worries were soon to be just a distant memory as I now had a wage which was to give me choices with my pipeline of business due to me over the next few months. With the loss of the job I lost my pipeline too, and if I was to tell you there was over £2000 in my pipeline at the time (and growing), you would see how much I've lost.

I'm now in the worst financial position of my life now, from flying high to crash and burn. With no job, no pay, but still £800 worth of financial commitment still to make each month!

I had started to go out socially again as I had money in my pocket. I hadn't been to a nightclub in some 4 1/2 months and actually had a worry attack whether my clothes would look out of date, or if I had fallen behind in social etiquette and would come off like Encino Man.

Now I'm stuck back indoors trying to find a job as well paid as my last, in a industry which is struggling to sustain itself at the moment, and in a company that is not some shyster, spiky hair, pinstripe suit, agent. Plans to buy a car, a bicycle, a summer filled with music festivals and a paid off credit card have all been shelved. My only means of travel right now are my feet and my Oyster card, which I've now found that even a trip to the bank in nearby town of Ilford requires over half the day!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

As of April 1st I had just £50 left in my account. Just £50 to get through to my next payday on April 28th. The bad news was (if that wasn't disastrous enough), that I still had a £45 mobile phone, £43 gym membership and £55 Sky subscription still to come out!!!!
As off today, though, things were looking far rosier. The mobile phone company had already had their money, so its just the gym and Sky to worry about. Down to £30 too.

My March credit card payment is still AWOL, however, Barclays are communication with the credit card company to find out where it went. In the mean time I have been told that I wont have to pay the penalty fines as I made the original payment in good time and in good faith.

Gotta laugh otherwise I'd cry.

Another month, Another money malady!

Is it just me or do you guys get financial mishaps as well? Shesh!

Listen to this one...

Like most folks who have a credit card, I get a statement through every month with a 'payment due' slip at the bottom, which when I pay it keeps 'the man' happy for another month. Having got behind with my credit cards once before a few years ago, I am at great pains not to let this happen again, and make my payment each month like a good little boy. I do then have to 'borrow' it back again, just to squeak through to the end of the month. Only in the last 6 months though.

Thing is, when I checked my balance mid-month to see how much I could 'lean' on the card this time, the automated voice told me that I was now over my credit limit and my last payment had been at the beginning of February.
"Ok", you say, "and what?"
Well, I had made my monthly payment, on time, at the beginning of March!
With my new job I had to pay over-the-counter at a different branch of Barclays Bank; and they had LOST my money. The immediate ramification was I now had the credit card chasing their money, plus I had been charged late-payment, and over-limit charges! Moreover, I now couldn't 'lean' on the card basically wiping out my budget for the last 2 weeks of this month!

Despite having a 4 day weekend this Easter, I went nowhere, as I had no money in my pocket and no fuel in the car. My saving grace has been, 4 days doing nothing, and raiding my penny jar yesterday. I now have £8 to live on till Friday; All food, travel and socializing!

There has to be a light at the end of this tunnel!

N.B. Barclays still don't know where my money went and I now have to make a double payment in April to cover the payment the credit card didn't get this month, further eating into the money I ain't got in the bloody first place..............

Mothaf**ka.

'Merry' Easter

Cold enough for you! Snow at Easter, whatever next.

I hope you boys and girls are having a pleasant Easter; better than my miserable weekend! With no money in my pocket and no petrol in the car, I've confined to the house, with the gogglebox as company. Not a major problem seeing as my Sky+ box was rammed full of unwatched shows. But with just £5 to get me through to this coming Friday and the fact that I enter the last month of my probation period at work, with me effectively not selling a thing during February I'm fearful that I have not done enough to keep my job! :(


At least Kimi Raikkonen provided a ray of sunshine on a dull weekend by storming to win the Malaysian Grand Prix early Sunday morning. It was well worth getting up at 6.30am for. It would of been a Ferrari 1-2 if Felipe Massa hadn't spun off the track whilst running in a comfortable 2nd place, next time. In further good news. the BBC acquired the rights to broadcast Formula One from 2009. ITV coverage has been dire from day one and I'm so happy they won't be showing it anymore. Hopefully ex-drivers Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell and Louise Goodman will be retained as the only ones on ITV at the moment who know what they're talking about!

The great payday debacle

Now those of you that know me, know that I am always banging on about how I am short of money 'this' month. Blah, blah! I know! Hopefully I will pass my probation and keep my new job, which if I bring in the same about of business in 2008 as I did in 2007 I can expect a 30% pay increase in '08 over '07. Fingers crossed!

Right now, I am out of money! Lol! But it was January's pay that wiped me out.......

Like most folks I was paid early in December, on the 21th in fact. I had to pay off for the France trip, buy Xmas presents and leave enough in the tanks to make my financial commitments in January. January is always a tough ole month for everybody, and for me it was to be 6 weeks without money coming in. So obvious I was quite desperate by the end, and it was with glee that I went to the ATM Jan 31st, only to find no money there!

I hastily rang my old company and was told that the last pay is made out in a cheque! Not a problem, 'If I had known!', but I have all of my direct debts set up to come out within the first 7 days of each month and with my bank needing 7 days to clear a cheque I was in deep doo-doo! Facing £200 in bank charges and my credit rating being thrown back into the dark ages, I was not happy! After half a day ringing around trying to find a solution, my brother, thankfully, stepped in and bailed me out, taking time out of his day to deposit enough money in my account to cover the bills. The cheque itself didn't ultimately clear until February 11th; 8 days after I took it to the bank, meaning I went 7 1/2 weeks between pay days!!!

I still incurred 2 bank charges; £60 down the crapper! Even worst still, I'm on flat pay till May, meaning I can't dig myself out of this hole till then. However back to my first paragraph; the future is looking bright!

Guess who's back? (Well sort of)

Hello! I'm still alive!

While the rest of the world works on reducing its carbon footprint I've working on reducing my 'cash' footprint. December's pay, paid for my ultimately expensive trip to France. January's pay covered Christmas (and there's a story behind that which come in a future post); and as I didn't work all of January (new job) I didn't get a full month's pay. And with February, March and April being my probation; I am/will be on on a wage equivalent to a semi-bad month in my old job. So not a lot of cash around for the first half of this year.

The other reason for me dropping off the radar is me, unashamedly, still struggling with the '5 day' run at work. Apart from a handful of times, I have always had a day off during the week. Only working 3 days then getting my day off and a lay-in, then working just 2 days before another rest day. Bliss! After *cough cough* years working that way, since school, I now have to adapt to doing 5 in a row! My body still feels like it needs its lay-in every Wednesday/Thursday, but instead I get up and go to work again for another 2/1 days. By the weekend I'm so overtired that the weekend is spent sleeping, and evenings, having dinner, then early night.

Its getting better though, no more headache or stars!

Tee Hee! In fact I've blown out Jason and John at badminton tonight because I was out till midnight last night, and today I was in bits.

However, the main reason I've blogged tonight is because the London Freewheel is back!; the free biking day where the roads of London are closed to all but bikes. Its on Sunday 21th September and you can sign up here. I know a lot of people missed out last year so sign up early.

Thanks Sarah for the heads up.

Until next time!

The long, long road

This is my 250th post! Wowzers! Yay me!

I start my new job tomorrow and I am a little apprehensive. I did the journey run for the first time on Friday morning and took a lil look around my new 'patch'. Despite it being a little bit more 'inner city' than where I've been used to working, there is definitely an insular village feel to the area. In fact I been told by someone who lives around there that it is now known as Hackney Village.

This past month I've not been able to go out as my cash flow is lower than I've ever known it. I've not one penny in my bank (I lie really - I actually have 17 pennies!), my credit card is totally maxed out, so no leaning on it as I have been in recent months. I've actually squeaked through so far this month by spending my Christmas and birthday money, but even that's all gone now! I'm gonna have to go bowl in hand to somebody....

Also in both good and bad news, giving up my job has meant giving up my car which is good because I wouldn't even be able to put petrol in the bugger right now, also having no car helps to keep me 'hermit-fied' and conserve money over the next 6 months whilst I build a pipeline in my new job which will hopefully translate into an improved pay packet come June. The downside of having no car means I'm now 'hermit-fied'!! (with no money to boot!). The internet and my PS3 are likely to become my new best friends.

the space my car used to go in

I recently bought 2 Hedkandi albums seeing as I've now gotta do all my raving indoors; Hedkandi - The Mix:2008 (I've got Axwell's, I Found You, on constant repeat (choonage!)) then when I need the chill-out room and some mellow vibes I slap on Hedkandi - Kandi Lounge.

choonage

Last night I was out for my and fellow colleague Neil's leaving drink. He arranged it all so I can't really claim it to be mine, its just that any leaving drink I would of arranged, would of been on the same night and featured the same people. We went for dinner in the fish restaurant 'Ark' in South Woodford. I had a tasty bit of salmon. We finished of the night in Switch bar, formerly Jets. I'd never been either before but Switch is defiantly worth going to again. I lost my wallet last night and had to walk home (no money) but luckily I had left in someone car and I have it back now. I was worried for a bit there and couldn't sleep soundly.

The end of an era...

3 weeks ago I quit my job....

...and today was my very last day with my current employer. Although, it didn't blooming feel like my last day. The phone still rang just as much, the problems still spewing out of the earpiece with their everyday regularity. Seriously you would not believe the amount of ways buying a property can go, and does go wrong. The slogan 'Same shit, different day' really does apply in my job. Most folks will move twice, maybe 3 times in their lives, so every problem they encounter during a sale becomes very real and a mini disaster as the experience is either new to them or long forgotten since the last time. However, with me selling 8 properties a month on average, and with the gestation period for an agreed sale being 3-4 months, it can mean that I could be problem-solving for some 30 odd transactions at varying stages, all with vendors and purchasers with little or no experience in the conveyancing process but seem to feel they know more than me just because its their property that's involved. All whilst I'm trying to sell my next 8 properties!! Being an estate agent is more like being a counselor!

It was also with a very heavy heart that I had to say 'goodbye' to my car. And I'm not sad because I no longer have a car and will have to take public transport, but because I got attached to my little car. My little Corsa that I'd had since new last March. I'm gonna miss the little tike!

I start my new job on Monday, and its more of the same! I'll be working for a much smaller company, but in a more upmarket area so I will sell less, but with property prices being higher, I can make more per unit. Put it this way, moneywise, 1 sale in my new office is equivalent to 7 sales in my old office!!

So 'goodbye' and 'thanks' to the five years with my old company and 'hello' to my new job and new challenges.

A lil bit of this, a lil bit of that!

Last Tuesday afternoon I got a call from my music teacher from school, Mr Garner, its concert time again and he wants me to help his chior out in the 'Christmas with the Stars' concert again, plus the Caterham Christmas concert.

Last Wednesday day I got paid. Woo-hoo! By Friday after all the bills I only had £150 left. D'oh!!

Also on Wednesday I passed up on going body pump (as I felt too tired for the body pump/badminton double), took a lil nap instead but failed to wake in time to go badminton, Oops.

On Thursday evening Gregg invited me to join him for an 'invite only', Ted Baker sale evening, with complimentary drinks and 20% off everything. As you know I'm never one to pass up a new experience, so went along. I did buy something. A black shirt; £75 (before discount)!!

Saturday was firework night and as usual my brother, Shaun, hosted the fireworks but at a new venue; my other brother, Brian, had the night at his new house (only bought 2 months before). Brian laid on the barbecue while Shaun handled the light show. Shaun always gets professional fireworks and it took a few attempts to find the balance between spectacle and life saving body swerves! To close the night he brought a firework named 'When Roswell Attacks!'. It cost £75 and was 3' across and 1' deep! This monster started off sane enough with gentle spiralling whizzes, but about a minute in the was an almighty scream as the main body of the firework ignited. The UFO shaped disc shot up into the air, leaving behind a smoke trail, and when it reached a point higher in the sky than I've seen any firework, it exploded and lit up the sky. Very impressive. My spiritual sister, Sarah, come along for the night too.

Sunday I went shopping down Bluewater with work friend Melissa. I wanted to get a cardigan as I've decided to jump on that bandwagon. I also ended up buying an Armani jumper and a Reiss top as well. I only spend a quarter of what Melissa spent thou; she bought 2 suits, a black skirt, a pair of boots and a Calvin Klein overcoat (that even with a 10% discount for a missing button, still cost over £200).

Monday at circuit training I wanted to give 100% to each minute of the 13 exercises we have to perform but 4 from the end of the 2nd set I ran out of steam and didn't have the energy to lift my arm, let alone do a minute of squat thrusts! The instructor also made us do deadlifts. My back is still hurting from it now! Also met up with Channa in the gym afterward but had no energy still to work out, so chatted instead.

Thanks wikipedia.org

Me, myself and I!

I hate having no money! It makes me feel worthless (which I suppose is the whole point). All I can do is sit as still as possible and conserve. Every action will spend money I don't have. Eat, watch TV. Use the phone or the internet, go out! I've now spent the last 4 nights (including tonight) at home, and I do feel lately that even if I had money it wouldn't of made much of a difference. Most folks these days seemed to be coupled up, so much so that they can't even be seen without partner. You can't have one without the other. But that only then dilutes the original to a pastiche. I can't get to enjoy the individual for who they are, but have to take the whole diluted package.

Why does it feel like individualism is just for kids, only to be cast away as one gets older; with life trying to force us into narrow preset channels. It feels like we have to be like everybody else, like cardboard cutouts. Why does life have to be a set of markers that you have to pass by a certain point in life, just because that's what everybody else has does before? Why does the world push us to follow the same path?

On tick

Thursday 18th October. This was the day that I spent my last earned penny of the month. My September pay packet contained my efforts from August, which was the month had 2 weeks off work; one of them being in Barbados. So I was unable to hit my monthly targets (and no, they are never adjusted by market treads or annual leave) meaning no target bonuses, also I was unable to progress any sales into an exchange of contract situation (the source of my commission pay) due to a multitude of conveyancing mumbo-jumbo. This resulted in my first ever flat month. I received so little that even the Student Loan Company took no cash off me this month. I think I was doing a paper route the last time I took home so little pay for a month's work.

So, for two weeks till October 31st, every single cent I spend will not be a penny earned, but a penny borrowed as I turn to my credit card to buy lunch, petrol even a newspaper! :(

CLAMPED!!

Wednesday is usually my day off but last week I had to change my day off because my company wanted to do a 'leaflet drop' day. Everyone in all the regions offices could come to work in civilian clothes and would spend the whole day pounding the streets canvassing, delivering leaflets to all our area rooftops to drum up business.

Myself and new guy Alex went out first and had the task of tackling all the purpose built flats in the town centre. On our very last development we parked up and hit the letterboxes. As with most new build the letterboxes were outside so it made things very quick and easy. However, in the 5 odd minutes it took us to return to the car, I had been clamped for parking in a resident's bay. Actually the clamp guy was just getting off his knees when we got back to the car.

I announced to him that I was the driver but told me he had already logged the registration number and I had to call the office. On doing so they told me that the release charge was £150 plus (get this) £50 to cancel a tow truck ordered to remove my car! I pointed out that my car was clamped not 2 minutes ago so the tow truck (if really ordered) had not even left the yard yet. The lady told me that the charge still stands even if cancelled!

Sadly I seldom have £200 of disposable cash so my Manager and Sharon had to dig into their own pockets, and bring the cash to pay the clamp guy. It took the guy about 7 seconds to remove the clamp, and for that he got £200! I felt so sick at the waste of money. My company have reimbursed Sharon and Alan their money, but have arranged to take £66.66 out of my pay over the next 3 months to cover the cost. What a total rip!

The bank card fiasco!

Let me take you back to July and the start of this story. In July I had taken a lot of cash out of my account in one go, what with my 2 weekends away (Ibiza and T4), and for the most part after that I lived on my credit card having blown all of my meager wages by week 3. Hence, my pin number slipped from memory from lack of use. I ordered a new pin in time for August, but then came the Barbados trip. I hadn't had enough time to memorize the number so when I returned I proceeded to input the wrong pin code into ATMs over the following weeks. "Why not just look again at the new given pin number?" you ask, because I'd blooming lost the slip!

My 3rd and final strike came last Friday morning; payday. 'No big issue, I thought. 'I'll just pop into the bank, draw a weeks worth of cash out, and order a new card and pin'. To my horror I learnt that without a card I could only withdrawn £50 per day. Which did me no good as I had a credit card bill and BT (phone) bill to pay that day. Luckily Sunny at work borrowed me some money to save me from defaulting on my bills. Each day now I've had to journey to Gants Hill just to get my £50 pocket money. Hopefully my card will arrive soon because the car is running out of petrol and the bills have taken priorty! Eek!!

The mighty field mouse!

At the moment I am like the mighty field mouse. With funds low I've had to hunker down and weather the storm. Pleasure/pain; I've enjoyed me holiday and now in the turbulent air behind it comes the pain. Firstly, and most obvious, the diversion of funds has left my pockets skinny at the tail end of the month and secondly, having a targeted sales job means that I have not hit target due to being away but also the knock on, is losing ground within the office, having to play catch up! But while the mighty field mouse fills his nest with all the food he'll need whilst holed up I've not been spared the same luxuries, no comfort food! D'oh!

Another similarity is both of us are well cute, with those big eyes and button nose!

I did however venture out Friday night down the Fairlop Oak for drinks. Cat had put the word out, initially for the purpose of seeing Vicky M and her baby, but it was not to be. Anyways there were plenty of folks out some it was a nice night out, all be it short, as Cat was feeling tired and had a wedding to go to on Saturday. Channa had come out too! The first time I had seen her out since the new year! We've been promised more of her over the coming months.

'All hail the poker King'

Friday evening was the second poker night attended by myself, Chris, Jason and David. The format was the same as before; a £5 buy-in with a winner-takes-all after a set period. Jason had to but himself back in after losing all of his chips about halfway through, raising the winnings to £22. When the flag dropped the general consensus was that Chris had won the evening, but a count up of the chips revealed that I won by 7 chips! Woo-hahahaha!



Friday was also the Playstation 3 launch day here in the UK and across Europe, and it was the first Playstation console that I have not bought on launch day. And I certainly do feel hollow for it. There were many moments of weakness during March when I wanted to run into the shops with my credit card in hand, but I stayed my hand. Ain't I a good boy. 'You will be mine soon PS3!'

Daylight thievery

So there I was £90 odd in credit to Sky TV with another £67 due back to me now my (Sky) equipment was in working order, I assumed that it would be a good 3 months before Sky would come a-knocking on my door for another month's payment. I mean, I clearly had enough with them already to cover this month's bill of £53.

Imagine my surprise then when Sky cleaned £186! out of my account this month leaving me with £8 till April.

I called them up and asked 'What the hell is going on?' Apparently the money was taken in error (really? You don't say!) and would be returned to me..... in two weeks time! So now I have to get through the next 2 weeks on £8.

Thanks Sky, for f**king up once more. You're getting good at it!

2 for 2!

2007 at work is still going well (second month all 3 targets hit), and the month of February gave me another home run; 7 sales, 3 solicitor sign ups and 11 mortgage appointments (I was gifted 2, but, had 4 not counted for the month). The upside was a healthier pay packet this month, the downside, the taxman took a big bite out of it. Damn!

All my debts are now one, and with all the old ones paid off it should cut down on the bounced direct debits all which should help shore up my credit scoring.

Take note people, 'Don't get a credit card. If you can't afford it, don't buy it!'. Scratch that, because you can't have a credit score without a credit card. 'Get one, then cut it up!'.

The Sky saga resolved?

The Sky engineer came and went yesterday, and our system apparently now functioning normally; but he didn't 'fix' anything.

I seems to me that Sky believed I was fraudulently claiming their 'multiroom' subscription (full price for the 1st box, then only £10 for the 2nd box), the engineer simply ran a diagnostic through the menu system then rang Sky to confirm the box's location (address), then left. No screwdrivers, no ladders, no replacement parts. I wasn't there at the time, but my Mom pulled him up, "£65 for 5 mins work?".
To which the engineer responded, "I only get £7 of it, plus you son could have moved out and was still trying to get 'multiroom.'"

As it turns out I finally found my repair policy with Sky that very morning, so at work I called them and they refunded my £65 callout charge and with the equipment 'fixed' Sky should also return another £100 of over charges!

Now the fun begins. I'm gonna write a letter of complaint. I've had 3x £20 bank charges, had my viewing cut off for a week, had to shell out £165 over the odds (which I've not been able to afford, only to get it all back!) and had a knock on my credit rating! And for what?...

My day off: The results!

Well, I almost got everything I needed done on my day off. I didn't manage to pay off all the debts, cause one needs the giro slips to accompany the cheques, and with my next bills to be issued imminently, there would have been and overlap in the post and I'd still have to make the next payment as well!

I got a wheel for my car from the breakers yard: £25 including tyre. That's cheap! Put it this way, the average price I hear for a tyre down Kwik Fit is £40-60. God knows how much a new wheel costs on top of that! However, Vauxhall called me up the same day and said they had been given authorisation from the lease company to fit a new wheel, but I'm not gonna go pick it up because that might trigger the £150 fine. Hopefully the authorisation doesn't mean its already paid for!

I ran out of petrol on the way to the petrol station! Had to walk a mile there and back with me fuel can, and my nephew in tow who struggled to keep up with my pace. Doubly so because he was wearing them 'wheelies'. Bless him!

Paid Sky their £187, but because giro slips take 3-5 day to clear I've got a blue screen till next week, Monday or Tuesday! And in case you didn't know, Sky+ records onto an internal hard drive. That gets locked down too, so I can't even watch the hours of TV I've already recorded!! Grrrrrrrr!

Shouting at the Sky.

GRRRRRR! Yesterday I went to bed with my blood boiling.
I came home from work to find that my satellite TV at been switched off, so I called up Sky to see why. Turns out I owed them money. The money they didn't take from my account because their computer needs 14 days in which to process a direct debt. So my payment date sailed by without them taking their money, so now now I've gotta stare at a blank blue screen till at least next week, by which time their computer should have caught up!

AND, to cap it all off; they are charging me an extra £33 a month more because one of my Sky+ decoders is still not ringing them back. I've had to book an engineer to come take a look at it next week at a cost of £65!

Excuse my French but right now I'm f**king p***ed off with Sky!