pandy's story

Yes we are 25% through our IVA, it does  feel like a milestone reached, a quarter of the way there without too many hiccups.
So what has been happening in Pandy’s world, well we are all waiting for the new little grand bump to finally make an appearance. She is due to enter the world at the end of this month, my wonderful DIL has her panic bag packed and everything is ready, son finished painting the nursery last weekend and put the cot up etc it look fantastic with little nursery pictures on the wall etc. It was something I never did when I had mine, finances and time were not available.

My sister from Derbyshire came to stay with us for a 2nd time a couple of weekends ago which was brilliant, she is like a London bus not been near my house since I had one (nearly 30 years) then visits twice in a year. It was fantastic to see her and we went on a walk around central Bristol , not a thing I normally do, all the touristy things but we walked down to the harbourside and sat in a cafe watching the world go by. This sister does know about our IVA, she thinks we are amazing to be able to cope on such little money LOL. She retired at 55 and has never had to worry about money since her children were little her husband owns a pub and they just live off the profits, they put managers in and just go and do what they want all year now. It’s a life I would love to get used to

Not a lot else is happening we are gearing up for Christmas each month I have been getting a few things, we have been saving the Sun Perks tokens and have a turkey ordered from them, the voucher should be arriving any day now, got a few little presents for the grandson and generally just buying the minimum we can this year food and drink wise. Hubby and I dont drink too much and foodwise as long as we have Christmas day meal and a roast meal for when the family visist, the rest of the time is normal meals so we are not going overboard which we probably would have done 5 years ago. This is our 3rd Christmas either in the IVA, and  previous to that the DMP, so we are getting used to doing it on the cheap now.

Well onwards and upwards to next month  hopefully I will be telling you all about our new little grand daughter and plaguing everyone on fb who is on my friends list with photos of her. only a little excited…

I did do a previous update but is disappeared into the ether so here is another ramble from the world of me.
My bike cost me £140+ to MOT ,new back tyre and oil change we had budgeted approx £70 so that was a bit of a shock but managed, using up all our cupboard supplies and freezer contents. Had some very strange meals!
Not a lot else is happening, just plodding on really hoping nothing major breaks down or needs replacing. It is strange how paranoid you get over every little noise from the washing machine or dryer.
The one good thing is I have managed to fix my Gas and Electric prices until 2014, that will help at least we know how much we will be paying for the next 3 years, that will help with the budget.
Onwards and upward to next month hopefully life will get more interesting and I will have more to write about

I am doing two entries this month as I was late with my last one, and even this one is late as another payment is due to go out in 8 days, oh well never mind I will get back to normal eventually…
So what has happened this month, My Son texted me last Friday after the 2nd scan to tell me it is a Girl, so I will have a granddaughter at last, I have been waiting 30 years to have a little girl , when I was pregnant with both of my sons I wanted girls, then the first grand child was a boy as well I was beginning to think I was fated never to have a girl. They are going to call her Chloe , they haven’t decided on a middle name yet. Everyone in the family has decided it is going to be the most spoilt child alive as I have waited so long for a girl, they could be right

We eventually got an email reply from GT, apologising for the delay in sending the wage slips back, and that there was nothing to worry about now etc,  and then the next day another copy of the annual report was sent to us. I rang them as it was no different to the previous one and still did not mention  if our payments were to remain the same, I was told that they were staying the same, I did make the comment that it would have been nice to have that in writing. So I hope at next years review they do not suddenly decide they were wrong as I have nothing proving it.

We claimed Housing benefit which we had been told we were entitled to, we got a letter one day telling us we were entitled to approx half of our rent paid and they were going to pay a lump sum in as it was backdated to Jan, Great… the next day we received another letter telling us that the first assessment was wrong and that we were only entitled to just over £1 per week, fantastic our rent is over £75 pw that is really going to help. Still £5 a month is better than nothing. As it’s under the 10% limit I don’t think I will be bothering my IP with it.

Not a lot else has happened, with it being a 5 week month things are really tight this week, we have everything in, just a case of getting through till a week on Thursday.

Hopefully next month my bike will pass it’s MOT, so everyone keep their fingers crossed, I don’t know why I am saying that it is working fine, it’s just that you never know what is around the corner and just because it’s working fine now doesn’t mean it will be next month. for me.

Well this month has been full of suprises, we went down to Sainsbury’s at the end of April for the normal shopping and while we were passing the travel agents noticed a holiday on the window to Tunisia, it was an all inclusive deal at such a low price we couldn’t not do it, as I have said last month we have been saving like made and fore-going lots of things on the hope we could afford something.
So it was a bit of a mad rush to get everything organised as we had to get the insurance sorted with the extra medical because of hubby’s heart attack, got a really good bargain from a company in the newspaper, single trip with the extra medical only £46. We were expecting it to be nearer £80.

We flew out on 7th May, and had am amazing week, we had quite low expectations of the hotel becase of it being so cheap but it was fantastic, the only slight issue was the restaurant they had birds flying around inside and landing on the food, We were very careful on what we ate after seeing that, and we watched the queues form each morning to see the hotel doctor at the infirmary. Luckily we were OK I am certain it was because we were picky on what we ate and only ate from covered dishes etc. We did put in an official complaint to the Thomas Cook rep as we mentioned it to the restaurant that it was a health hazard etc but they did nothing about it, Apart from that I cannot fault the hotel. The temperatures were over 33ºC in the daytime, although it did get quite cool at night. It was wonderful just to lay by the pool with waiters bringing me cocktails all the time , its a hard life but someone has to do it
The other thing that I am now allowed to say is that my son and his partner are expecting a baby, due 29th October so I am going to have another grandchild I can spoil rotten.

I am not at all happy with Grant Thornton this month, I sent my wage slips of as soon as I received my April one, so that would be April 28th / 29th (I am always paid on the last Thursday of the month) I sent it to BE as although GT had taken over BE by then we were told to still keep using the BE address until given different envelopes for GT. Because I had waited to get my wage slip instead of photocopying them etc I just put them all in the envelope and sent them off. It now seems they haven’t received them and they seem to be lost in the transfer, when we received out Annual Report to the creditors it stated there was a possibel breach identified and they had not received all the wage slips. I am furious about this as I sent them off and did everything I was supposed to and then they say there is a possible breach because they seemed to have mislaid them. My own fault for not sending them photocopies, it is a lesson well learnt and from now on I will scan them in and email them, that way there can be no confusion. We have been advised to put in a claim for Housing Benefit as although we were told previously we were not entitled because of the amount I earn apparently the rules have changed slightly and we now might be allowed , that is the reason I am so angry about my wage slips as I need to send them to the council and if GT have lost them it is really difficult to get copies as our wages are done by an outside company. You live and learn. I haven’t really done a lot else the month has been hectic which is nice for one, we are now madly saving again to give us a contingency fund as we used every last penny for the holiday, if anything breaks now we are in the muck well and truly.

In a few days time another payment to GT will leave my bank, I still have not heard if the payments are remaining the same etc, but they have till the 21st of next month so I am sure I will hear before then. Onwards and upwards…

Well another month has passed and because we were up in Derbyshire at my sister’s wedding reception, I didn’t even notice my countdown go down. It feels good when I look at it now though knowing we have got 20% done. I did get a bonus in February and again in March this allowed me to pay over an extra £178 each month which is nearly the same as my monthly payment (£180) so hopefully the creditors will be happier, at least they have had an extra £356. I felt good as well knowing I am paying as much as I can back, I do feel a little guilty sometimes that we are giving the creditors such a low return but I justify it to myself by thinking it is more than they would have got if we had gone BR.

My sisters wedding reception was fantastic she had hired a farmhouse / arts centre for the weekend on a self catering basis and we all pitched in with food etc , because my BIL is in a folk band they had a jamming session  on Friday night and then they played at the actual party on Saturday evening, including a song he had written for my sister which brought a lump to everyone’s throat it was a nice romantic interlude, before we all got back to the serious drinking. It was great just to go up there chill out, see all the family and have a nice time. Hubby loved getting out of Bristol he hasn’t gotten away since last June and he was feeling a little hemmed in. My sister from the US came over and that was brilliant, she and her hubby took us on a drive around the Derbyshire countryside on the Saturday afternoon, I haven’t really been to Derbyshire before so it was great to see it, and right on cue the sun came out and bathed everything in sunlight so it all looked very pretty. We will  go back and see my sister up there again especially as we now know how reasonable it is on the train. Would love to have a proper look round without the pressure of the party etc.

So what else will we be doing this month , not a lot really,  we are finding that life in an IVA is very quiet we don’t have any spare money to do anything so we just stay in and wade through the tv channels. In saying that our staying in is self inflicted we could probably afford to go out occasionally but we are trying to put any spare cash away on the hope we can afford a 1 week break in Turkey later in the year, we are doing really well and hopefully within the next couple of months should have enough together fingers crossed nothing breaks so that we need to use it.

We are still waiting to hear about our review we sent everything off ages ago, I am a little concerned regarding GT taking over from BE but as long as everything stays the same I will be happy, only time will tell.

Well we reached the end of February and on the 1st March our 11th payment left my account, just over a year since we first made the decision to change from an DMP to an IVA, we received the I & E form for our first annual review during February which I filled in immediately and sent back, I was suprised they didn’t want more wage slips or P60 sending but we send wage slips every 6 months anyway, last sent in October so they only wanted 3. I am not really expecting our payment to change as I haven’t had a pay rise or any other extra money, in fact our I & E was the same as it was when we started it apart from the extra on Gas and Electric.
I haven’t really done a lot else this month been really busy at work, and just staying in a watching the tv in the evening, there are times when it would be really nice to go out for an evening, but we stay in knowing we are saving every last penny we can so hopefully providing nothing major breaks we should be able to have a week away later in the year, was checking prices today and we might even be able to manage a week in Turkey, nothing extravagant like we would have done pre IVA but a 3*. SO fingers crossed nothing breaks.

I am feeling quietly confident about the next 4 years that we are going to survive it, when we first had the IVA it was as if the world had turned upside down for us, I did wonder if we would be able to manage with such a restricted income but we are finding it is even easier than before the DMP (Aug 2009 – March 2010) / IVA (April 2010 – present)  as we know exactly what we have and there are no hidden surprises lurking, we get quite a thrill paying cash for everything and not having to worry about bills arriving.

We bought the train tickets for going to my sisters wedding, cost us £83 for 2 of us to go from Bristol to Matlock return, I expected them to be more so I was pleasantly surprised,we are really  looking forward to  2nd April, and getting away from Bristol,  getting quite excited  about seeing all the family especially my sister who is flying over form the US we haven’t seen her since 2006 so that will be good, I used some voucher I had left to go towards their wedding present so it wasn’t horrendously expensive. Bought my 50′s outfit a black and white polka dot halter neck, circular dress end of last summer so we are just about set.  Counting the days down now, anyone who has me as a friend on facebook will be able to see the picture afterwards.

Well my trip to Shanghai to collect my award was fantastic, the only sad bit was hubby couldn’t come with me, the Logistics manager came with me as he had to the opportunity to see some Chinese suppliers while he was there,  I was taken to Heathrow by chauffeur driver Mercedes which was great, I flew out on the Saturday lunchtime but with the 8 hour time difference we landed on Sunday morning in the fog. The fog was that thick we couldn’t even see the ground till we were about 10 foot above it. They were moving all the planes one at a time by radar so it took ages for us to get into the disembarking place.
The hotel was great all decorated for Chinese New Year, first thing was to have a shower and a few hours rest, I woke up scratching the end of my nose like mad to find I had a bite mark on it, I am a magnet for biting insects, my blood must be really sweet on something but all I could think was I was going to meet our CEO with this bite on my nose. Luckily because I didn’t have the Award ceremony and dinner till the Wednesday it was just a red mark by then easily covered with make up. We then went for a walk down to The Bund and up the Nanjing road looking at all the Neon lights and Chinese New Year decorations, it was fantastic. On the Monday and Tuesday we went into the local Norgren site and on the Monday I gave a presentation regarding all the EHS work I do and why I had been given this award etc, it went down really well, it was suposed to last for about 45 minutes an hour and a half later I am still getting asked questions etc. they were really excited about my disaster simulations and wanted to know everything about doing one.

In the afternoon the board members visited the local site so I was introduced to them , my boss had sent my presentation the them so they all knew who I was which was a little disconcerting as half of them I didn’t know, but they all greeted me like they knew me. Tuesday we just went into the local site again and I did a training session with them on emergency planning.

Wednesday was the big day, my driver picked me up and I arrived at the Award ceremony hotel (The Westin) about 45 minutes earlier that I needed to be so I thought I would sit downstairs in the cafe and get a coffee and compose myself , try and stop the nerves etc.  That cup of coffee was £8.60 I nearly fell off my 3 inch heels when she gave me the bill, thank god it was on expenses and not my money. The Westin is a really posh hotel and although the hotel I was in was supposed to be a 5 star this made it look like a guest house.

The Award ceremony itself was great , the CEO gave me a kiss on both cheeks (face not other cheeks, get your minds out of the gutter) which as far as I am concerned that is a full blown snog LOL. The only annoying thing was for some reason he had been told I was frightened of flying so he was saying I was so good going over when I am nervous about flying etc , it is news to me, I love flying. I think it all stems to my boss in the UK asking various people to keep and eye out for me while I am there as I am nervous etc and like chinese whispers it translated into nervous about flying. I just went along with it as you do .

The gala dinner in the evening was amazing, it was on the 93rd floor of the Park Hyatt at the World Financial Centre, it is the tallest building in Shanghai, there are floor to ceiling glass walls so you have a fantastic view all over Shanghai, although I was too busy to look while eating as I was trying not to flick food at all the bosses as I was eating with chop sticks for a lot of the courses. . The dinner itself was like an episode of Masterchef, 10 courses, more plate than food,but it all tasted superb, Everyone was given a  glass of Champagne when they arrived and I had a glass of wine with my food the rest of the time I stuck to water to keep a clear head. Again when the CEO did his speech at the end of the meal he was telling them all,  about me being frightened of flying, when it came to the bit where he was saying about the award winners, I am going to give my boss such grief when I get a chance to speak to him.

On Thursday mornig I flew home again a Chauffeur was there to pick me up and bring me back to Bristol which was lovely, although I slept most of the way and although it was only 6 in the evening my body clock was saying it was 2 in the morning. I took the friday off work and went back in on the Monday to find a message on my voicemail from the  PA to the European Manager inviting me to the Dinner in the European Conference on 7th Feb in Birmingham. So tomorrow I am going to Birmingham for dinner. Seems like life has decided I need a bit of pampering for a change. I am just enjoying the ride I did get told by one of the bosses in Shanghai that this year they would use me a lot. I intend to take advantage of anything and everything that is offered.

Well I think that is just about all I can write, this one has been a long blog for me but an exciting month i hardly noticed another payment going from my bank so was are in double figures now, 10 payments made 50 to go. Lets hope the next 50 months are as exciting and as quick LOL

I found out today that I have won the Group Health and Safety award for a yearly mock incident which I devised 6 years ago at work, it involves simulating a disaster, I have work colleagues who are into pyrotechnics etc so we have real explosions, I have a smoke machine and have become a dab hand with fake blood and special FX wax. It is very realistic, most of the people I work with are a bunch of nutters and when I first suggested this they jumped at it getting paid overtime rates to lie on the floor pretending to be injured, They are such a blood thirsty lot though the worse the injuries the better The first aiders use this as a practice to treat injuries they do not normally deal with amputations etc, we have a CPR training dummy so someone always deteriorates and needs CPR. It is great fun as well and having a serious side. The managers use it to see if the Disaster recovery plan works.
I am being presented with the award at the senior managers conference in CHINA on 26th Jan all expenses paid.
I am so pleased we have learnt the budgeting lesson as I have still enough money over from Christmas to pay to have my hair done etc. My one posh frock will do for the dinner. SO excited just waiting to hear if hubby can come with me or not, it would be the icing on the cake if he can.

Well Christmas arrived I think we must have been one of the few that wasn’t bothered by the snow, apart from the veg and last minute stuff we had everything in since the beginning of Dec, it helped that we started Christmas shopping in August. The only annoying thing about the snow was having to walk to work, although I did feel as I had been so good with the walking I could indulge a little more over the festivities A good time was had by all and each present was gratefully received, Hubby had even managed to get me the Ereader I wanted so I am one happy lady, I got him a watch he wanted , nothing fancy, from Argos but he was happy with it and Andy’s vouchers that I won a few months ago came in handy towards the cost of it.

Our 9th payment will leave my bank account in 2 days and then it is the countdown to our first review in April. I am hoping our payments will be around the same amount as our income has not changed significantly although Hubby did get a letter yesterday saying his work pension was rising by £3 from Jan 1st. That makes it a grand total of his income £86 per month. The VAT increase and cost of living increase it going to eat that up plus more. Not sure whether I will be getting a rise next year we always find out in the 1st week of Feb. The Company has not had a bad year ended it in profit so we might get a little rise again it will only be a cost of living rise, they have not done any promotion pay rises for over 2 years now. Still I can’t complain there are a lot of people not getting anything.

I am getting a little anxious that I keep reading on the forum about IP’s increasing IVA’s from 60 months to 70+. I know this is often because an expected dividend was not reached but it seems to be people who have made all payments as asked, are suddenly getting told it has to be made longer. I do not want this to happen to me we just want to get this over, it feels like my life is on hold for the next 4+ years, I do not want it extended, I will be devastated if that happens, I only hope when Hubby’s State pension kicks in in 3 years and we are paying more it will defiantly meet the dividend.

Finally I would like to wish all those that read this a Happy, Healthy and Contented 2011. May all your potholes along the IVA road be little ones.

Well another payment is about to leave my bank, that will be 8 payments made, 52 to go. Still seems a long time, hopefully once we have this first year over it will seem to go quicker, I keep reading people on the forum saying how quick it is going but to me this first year has been slow.
We are finding coping with the budget not too much of a problem, Most weeks we manage to have a few pounds over we are putting it away and saving it up for a break next year. Even the Christmas shopping hasn’t been too much of a problem, we did start shopping for Christmas in August / September though so it has been spread out over many months. We are lucky that we do not have too many presents to buy, just the 2 sons, and the younger ones partner plus the grandson. we are only buying each other token presents so it was do-able without too much stress. I have even managed to treat myself to a bottle of Bailey’s, think this Christmas is going to be a really good one,

Next year we have my sisters wedding, and my other sister is travelling over from the states for it we haven’t seen her since our wedding four years ago although we do chat on Skype all the time,  so there are lots of good things to look forward to. Cant wait till then it will be good to catch up with everyone. We are not a close family we all live so far apart but we do all make the effort whenever there is an event.

I have started making my own bread this month as well , my sons partner bought me a bread making machine and it is wonderful, seem to be making loaves for them as well as they tried the first loaf and loved it and want one each week. It’s not a problem I just put the ingredients in press start and walk away for 3 hours. works out so much cheaper than the shop prices for an uncut loaf, and tastes wonderful, I worked out each 2lb loaf is costing approx 30p what we do need to do though is find away of cutting it straight I have had some very strange sized slices.