I'm Free!!!!

Just got news today... I am officially discharged from Bankruptcy as of the 3rd September!

That is a hell of a weight off my mind knowing what is happening in a matter of a couple of weeks' time...

I Love The Co-op!

and a big "thank you" to Piggy's Bankruptcy Site for the information that made this possible:

I'VE GOT A BANK ACCOUNT! Or, at least, I will have in about a week!

I read on Piggy's Blog that he had got a Cashminder account from The Co-operative Bank as a declared bankrupt. So, I gave them a ring this morning, and a very nice guy called Chris took me through the application... and then told me, "Yes, your application has been successful."

So I can get my wages! Whether I'll be able to keep them or not is another matter! And I'll even be able to have a standing order to pay my rent & council tax!

The only downside is that we don't have a branch of the Co-op Bank here, but Chris told me that pay-ins, etc, can all be done through the Post Office... and we've got one of them.

Why am I telling you this in such detail? Because I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't found Piggy's site, and I'm a believer in "Paying It Forward" - meaning that if you are in the same position (declared bankrupt, but still needing an account for your wages to be paid into), and find this post while doing a search with Google or something, then maybe you'll read it and give the Co-op a shot.

I don't guarantee that they'll say "Yes", but it's got to be worth a try!

This Isn't Fucking Funny Anymore!

Not that my life has been funny for a long time, but at the moment it is going down the toilet fast!

Let's see, some of the pertinent events for the last week and a half:

Sep. 4th - My auntie dies, and my bankruptcy is approved.

Around about the same date, I get a cheque for my share of Dad's estate... which (as I've already mentioned) will now go straight to my Trustees as part of my sequestration.

I've also discovered today that as soon as my bank is officially informed of my bankruptcy, my account will be frozen, and I won't be able to get another bank account (not even one without an overdraft)... Fine - except my wages are paid directly into my bank account! So, some day I'm going to go to the cash machine, and it will swallow my card and say "No, you can't have any money"... and what about my rent which is paid by standing order? No bank account, no standing order...

My bank have told me that I can get my wages paid into someone else's account, and there is someone who will let me do that, but what if my Trustees see that as me being "dishonest"? As it is, I don't know how much of my wages I'm going to get to keep!

Then there's my "assets"... Anything that is deemed a "luxury" can be taken and sold. I don't own property or a car or anything high value, but I don't know how far down the line they're going to go!

On the up-side, they won't take anything that's not mine, and the computer I've got at home is actually my brother's... and it's not exactly state-of-the-art anyway... I don't imagine it would raise too much money in a Warrant Sale!

And that was the final kick in the teeth last night... I had been playing Spider Solitaire, trying to take my mind off the shittness of my life, and then I went off to wash my hair. Was bent over the sink, and suddenly was aware I could hear a high-pitched sort of wail. Once I got my hair rinsed, I went to investigate, and there was my monitor... no power light, black screen, and making a really, really horrible high-pitched "wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" sound! And, of course, now I'm bankrupt I can't replace it! Even if I could afford to buy one, it would be repossessed. My only hope is to see if my brother has one I can borrow to go with the borrowed computer, or to see if the Orkney branch of Freecycle has anyone with one that they're giving away.

And then today I had a visit to the nurse with my leg (for which I'm back on anti-biotics) and they tell me that, if it doesn't start to improve soon, they'll start looking at a compression bandage because it looks like the blood supply isn't good enough for the tissue to heal itself. And compression bandages make it harder to get shoes on... Oh, joy(!)

And yesterday I got a phonecall to say that there had possibly been a sighting of my cat (that's a month she's been missing now). Not too far away from me. Headed up there a couple of times, but no sign.

So, I don't know what I've done in a previous life to deserve this, but it must have been really, really bad.

Cheque It In, Cheque It Out...

Today should have been a bit exciting, and a relief to me... I got a text from my brother this morning to say that he had got a cheque from the lawyers for his share of Dad's estate, and that mine would probably be waiting at home for me.

Now, it's not a HUGE inheritance, but it would have been enough to buy a new cooker to replace my 15-odd-year-old one that trips out my entire fuseboard if I turn on the small ring at the front, and to allow a cushion for emergencies while my bankruptcy (which is in progress) means that I can't get credit of any form... But I still had to report it to the Trustees over-seeing my application... which I did almost as soon as I heard.

And what did they say?

"We'll have that, thank you very much!"

So, in short, I won't get a penny.

Poor Dad... He would be so disappointed. He was so careful with his money, not treating himself to anything apart from a rifle among the books in the second-hand shops for so many years so that he had some money put aside to make sure his children were taken care of when he was no longer around (although none of us are "children" anymore)... and now it's all been such a waste. I wish he and Mum had spent the money on themselves and enjoyed it, and not this. I would rather have been left nothing but a couple of ornaments or a book of Dad's to remember them by.

I'm sorry, Dad.