There has been times especially towards the end of last year when money really was a big worry of mine. I had to stop working when Elizabeth became ill and we were not entitled to any benefits until three months after her initial diagnosis.
At the time I was a childminder and we were used to getting paid in cash every week from the parents of the children I cared for. By not working each week became harder and harder. I was quite lucky because I was thinking very clearly at the beginning and one of the first things I did when I found out she was ill was to cancel all direct debits and standing orders from our bank accounts apart from our rent.
I decided that gas and electricity, council tax, tv and all the other bills could wait until we knew what we were facing. At that time I couldn’t imagine being where we are now. September wasn’t too bad, hubby and Alison ate from the freezer and apart from a few meals from the canteen I wasn’t spending that much money in the hospital.
October came and with it came all the transport costs, Elizabeth’s huge appetite and lots of trips to McDonald’s to fatten her up. Soon money with tight, the car was due to be taxed and MOT’d and we just couldn’t afford to keep paying for it. We sold our car to buy food and to allow us to continue to have money in our pockets. Things were touch and go for a few weeks before Elizabeth’s benefits came through at the end of November.
At one point I was online searching for ways to get money. I looked at some of the pay day lenders but the extremely high APRs put me off. One well known one has an APR of 4214% I also didn’t know when the money would come through to allow me to pay it back. Our only option looked to be a doorstop lender and we were about 5 days away from using one when all our money came through.
We are now in no way well off but we have enough to get by and pay the bills and having a motability car really helps us with Elizabeth and we don’t have to worry about the unexpected bills. The blog helps to pay for the good things in life and is there to help with any added extras. I don’t need to worry about how to get money quickly now but if I ever do in the future I know where to look.
This is a paid post.