Had a bad day?

I have.

 

This morning I had a rottweiler from the bank trying to frighten me into upping the repayments on a £23,000 loan I have been saddled with since leaving my ex. After going through my monthly income and expenditure (bills, petrol, food etc), and talking to me like a naughty child, we established that I had a whopping great 64 Euros to spare. Eager to get her salivating chops round this tasty, little titbit, she went in for the kill:

 

“SO WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THAT THEN?”

“Oh nothing much…fritter it away on expensive make-up or the odd Gucci handbag if the mood takes me. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU SILLY *****? IT’s 64 EUROS. AREN’T I ALLOWED ANY KIND OF A LIFE?” is what I should have said. What actually came out of my mouth was: “As I am a single mum, I try to put a bit aside for when I need to buy clothes or Christmas presents for my 6-yr-old son. And sometimes I use it to buy birthday presents for his friends, or to repair my car should it happen to break down. Oh, and the odd stamp now and again too. Just little things like that.”

 “So you don’t have anything to spare then?” (Not the brightest dog in the pack are we then?)

“Well, it would seem not – not unless you want to take the clothes off our backs?”

“ I see…” cue jingly music. “Ok, it would seem that we can extend your current payment policy for another 6 months, but we will have to call at the end of it to review your situation again.”

 

“I’ll look forward to that. Thanks.”

 

Do you know what annoys me the most? I took the loan out to renovate a house I no longer live in. I had to move out because of difficulties with my partner (the person who pressurised me into getting the loan in the first place), who continues to live there and doesn’t want to sell. I think he believes that if I get my hands on half the money I will disappear with his son – which I won’t. As it is impossible to prove that I have no intention of fleeing the country (I really do feel my son should spend time with his Father), we have reached stalemate. 

 

On a lighter note, I don’t have to worry about repairs to my car anymore. My boyfriend wrote it off on a bend last night. The damage is about 2,800 Euros (about the price of the car itself) and my insurance company will only pay out for a new windscreen – the only bit that didn’t break! As my boyfriend has even less money than me, it would seem that I am now without wheels for the foreseeable future.

 

So how am I feeling right now? Well… let’s just say…if someone told me I was going to get run over by a bus tomorrow I would probably let out a big sigh of relief, don my cleanest underwear, then go and sit in the road and wait for the bugger to come along.

 

 Roll on tomorrow!