A frugal life is an easy life!

The transformation in the past week or so, in sprog2 has been nothing short of amazing.
All those times we have encouraged hand clapping, standing, walking, dancing, talking, etc, which led to nothing happening and left us being looked at as if we were from another planet , finally showed its benefit!

In the past week, sprog2 can now stand, clap hands, walk whilst holding on to things, sit down on her own, etc.
We always knew it would come, but all at once within a week I did not expect.
The latest game she likes to play is called, lets take our own pants off!

A proper wriggler she is, but great fun. We can definately see the benefits of having a parent with her everyday, instead of palming her off to clubs and baby minding places, with their YTS staff.
As if to emphasise how valuable parents can be, I have linked a wonderful story here, about the mother who cuddled her baby back to life maybe mother nature saw the love they showed towards their son and intervened?

I have some of the best friends in the world, ever. I don't have many of them, but they are the best.
People I have worked with, drank with, etc, in the past, in real life and via the internet, who have helped me no end of times. So when I got the chance to help one of those good friends yesterday, I jumped at the chance.
Some people question why I would do this for no financial reward, they say I am stupid.
I'm not interested in making money off the back of my friends, it's because they are my FRIENDS that I help them.
I know each and everyone of them would do exactly the same for me if I needed them to or asked for help, so when I get the chance to help them, I do not hesitate if I am able to do so.
J - you owe me a bacon butty hehe

Another example of the knock on effects, of helping family and friends also came up yesterday.
In a small way, I had the chance to help someone else out. I of course checked I was okays to do it, then gave them the help they needed.
They were delighted and got everything sorted at their end.
Now comes the good bit. Partly because of my help, not only did they get sorted what they wanted to do, but they also found employment because of what they had got done - how cool is that!
I had yet another opportunity to help someone yesterday as well, although they chose not to take my offer of help, it gave them an extra option, so were thankful for it.

Yesterday was a great day... and sprog2 hit me in the eye with her bottle!

This is how Shoosmiths (debt collection) treat clients of companies, when attempting to recover an outstanding debt from them, via their debt collection office. (Details of course have been removed to protect our friend of the site):

"We are instructed by our client in relation to the above liability and we have taken action against you for recovery of the outstanding sum."
- They did indeed, it went to court after 11 months of threats to take it to court and Shoosmiths tried to force through a charging order on my friend's property, causing severe distress to my friend.
Shoosmith's said that they would accept the payment offered, only with a charging order in place as security, if this was challenged, Shoosmith's stated that it would claim via the court, for an extra £3000 expenses. As you can imagine, my friend was even more stressed at this.

On meeting Shoosmith's solicitor outside my friend's local court, immediately prior to a district judge ruling on the case, Shoosmith's solicitor stated that the charging order was "just a formality" and added that "once in place, it won't be enforced until the account fell into arrears or the house was sold." - Shoosmith's solicitor lied to my friend!

Once in front of the district judge, Shoosmith's told the judge that he was instructed to action the charging order with immediate effect and would seek payment of the full amount or enforce the selling of my friend's home.
Luckily, my friend defended against the charging order and provided a good case for it being refused, the district judge found in favour of my friend, did not grant a charging order and instructed Shoosmith's that they had to accept the minimal payment offered by my friend. Shoosmith's also lost their claim for expenses and were instructed to remove unenforceable charges for reminder letters from the balance.

This was more than a year ago and still my friend is trying to have the court costs and solicitor's fees removed from the overall balance. Apparently, Shoosmith's ignore court orders/rulings issued by district judges?
Either that or they haven't told their client that they lost the case in court?

"We note that you have been paying £xx per month for some time now and this offer is now open to review."
- No, there is no "offer" and any payments made are subject to a court ruling. Unless of course Shoosmiths don't take any notice of court rulings issued by district judges?
There will be no "review," understand that Shoosmiths?

"Our client now requires that you increase the sum of your monthly payment."
- Is that right?
To increase the monthly payment, Shoosmith's would be required to apply to the court for a district judge to review the "final order" that the district judge issued.
You would think that Shoosmiths, a "well respected legal company representing businesses" would already be aware of this?
You would also think that Shoosmiths were aware that without good reason, questioning a judge's decision is a serious matter indeed and could, in extreme cases, lead to the entire case being thrown out. This would leave my friend with nothing further to pay at all!

I don't care what your "client requires" my friend will not be paying a penny more than the court's ruling, until they choose to do so. Do you understand that Shoosmiths?

The letter then goes on to "urge" my friend to call their offices within the next seven days to discuss the matter.
To add to the unprofessionalism of the letter, it is signed with a signature of "Shoosmiths" as if Shoosmiths is a real person.

Options:
- Report the matter to Shoosmiths directly, in which case they would explain it away as a standard template letter and/or "training issue"
- Report the matter to the district judge who made the ruling, in which case it would waste more of the court's time.
- Or highlight on the internet, how Shoosmith's treat clients that have a debt, so that others can see for themselves

We can only hope that Shoosmiths show the same vigour in reporting to their "client" that their attempts to force a charging order on my friend's home, to pay off a minimal debt, failed and that they were also NOT awarded costs and solicitor's fees. Shoosmiths should also insist that these fees be removed from my friend's total debt.

Debt companies are always communicating in this way. Factually inaccurate information and asking things of the individual that are not legally required.
Some things to remember when dealing with a debt collection company;

• ALL dealings with them should be in writing only
• Only promise a payment you can afford - there is no point promising a higher payment, if it is beyond your means.
• Keep up all payments that you have promised, regardless of how many times you are told "your payment is too low" - the old "we can only accept a minimum payment of [insert any amount here]" is rubbish. (If you are in any doubt, SEEK HELP/ADVICE!)
• Ask for the company's account number and sort code, then pay your promised payment in each month without fail. By law, they cannot refuse any payment of any amount (NOTE: this may not stop the company bringing civil proceedings against you, but it will help your case should it come before a district judge!) By law they have to provide their information to allow you to make payments.
• Give the debt collection company no information about your personal circumstances. They send you a form to fill in or question you on the phone, tell them nothing!
  I have yet to come across a single debt collection company that doesn't use the information given to push up monthly repayments.
• Some debt collection companies, will tell you "their client wants..." in truth, many have bought your debt (Often paying only about 10% of it's worth) so try to collect the full amount as quickly as possible and will try everything to get you to pay more!

I should really do a seperate post about this, please be aware that frugalways cannot accept any responsibility for this post, in that, it is a post about my experiences and what I have been told.
If in any doubt you should SEEK HELP/LEGAL ADVICE!
These experiences ONLY refer to unsecured debts - for debts secured against your home I would always advise seeking legal advice.

Be careful out there friends....

Wood, boards, lengths of 3 x 2, plyboard, triple plyboards, etc, are a valuable commodity.
All this wood is available for free, if you know where to look for it!

When a builder works on an house extension, he builds around the house, then cuts the walls out between the new build and the existing building.
Whilst the windows and doors are waiting to be fitted, any good builder nips down to a local woodyard and picks up triple plyboards, cuts them to fit the windows and doors and boards them up. This stops the weather and burgulars and secures the property.

When the new windows and doors are fitted, the plyboards are removed and then broken up and thrown into a skip. This involves more cost for the home owner who is having the work done and takes up more time for the builder.

Triple plyboards (triple being the thickness) are very handy things to have around.
Picking them up for free involves just a simple word with the builder/home owner, and storing them.
I lean them against the side of our house, where there is a small patch of waste ground, where we will eventually be putting a drive/garden.
As soon as I get some new boards, the neighbours, friends and even the odd passing person, knocks on asking if they can use some or all of it.

I trade these boards/wood, for other things or just to help someone out.
The wood I collect for free has been used for the following:

• Panelling out a friend's garage - after it was broken into
• Building a shed - no expensive, flimsy DIY store shed for me, mine's much more sturdy and secure
• Garden panelling - around the base of our "lats" fence, so I can have raised soil borders
• Raised growing boxes - alongside the shed, but not touching it, on an otherwise useless patch of grass, currently it's full of potatoes!
• Panelling out the interior of a friend's volkswagon camper van - using some single plyboard sheets of wood I got for free
• Cut into templates for a friend who was building a curved stone wall
• Chopped up for our bonfire night, bonfire!
• A table top/bench, running the full length of the shed (triple ply) - using old 3x2 and hinges for fold up legs

Add to this numerous uses around the house both now and during the extension build.
Not just helpful for others, saving them money, but helpful for me.

The friend with the camper van who pannelled his van out with the spare boards I got for free, took 3 tonnes of my topsoil and weeds for his sloped garden, doing us both a favour, I wanted rid of the mound of earth and he got a good base to put his turf on.

Swings and roundabouts it is, all for free without it costing me a single penny piece. Now that's what I call living frugal!

I have been teaching sprog2 little bits of baby sign language since she could open her eyes, in the same way I taught sprog1 to play chess when he was two years old, I figure if I get them young enough they'll find it easier to pick up.
Imagine my total delight when sprog2 woke up in her chair from a snooze, saying "yes" whilst clenching her fist and making it nod!

I checked again to make sure and sure enough. she says yes by using her fist to nod!
Ok, it's not a major event, but it's a start, at 11 months old, I think it's cool.
I hope as she gets older, sign language is a skill she will have instictively.

Things have settled down here at hoovertowers, visitors have all gone home, no more driving jobs lined up for a while, we've been chilling out doing odd jobs.
The two wall cupboards, that I obtained for free, are now up and have stayed up so far. The 6 foot tall, wonder fridge that my better half wanted (to replace our 15 year old electric showrooms broken one) was so tall, it had to have a restraining bracket drilled into the concrete floor to stop it falling over when you open the door!
Then I managed to melt the entire plug of our dryer and fused out both the washing machine and the dryer, which of course came without warning, until I "checked" the plug by touching it and burning my finger!
All my expensive tools are now stored away, not thrown away as was suggested by the wife.

Sprog2 has leaned how to strop... refusing to be fed without a remote control to push buttons, but it has to be a working one, she has already sussed out that the ones we give her to play with don't work, so now ignores them.
Thanks to her intelligence we have now gone forward to the year 2034 by way of the video clock settings (yes, we still have a video).

Now the hosepipe ban has been lifted (It has rained everyday for six weeks since it was introduced) we had a much needed glorius sunny afternoon, which allowed me to finish cutting down the overgrown grass borders around tomato plants etc.
As I am an amateur potterer around the garden, on my way to empty the grass cuttings and weeds into the recycle bin out front, I spotted the now huge purple and pink flowered weeds that frequent my border in the front garden. I know, I'll pull them up I thought... unbeknown to me, there was a huge nettle plant right in the middle of it.. OUCH!
I am very proud of the fact that I have never been stung in my life (Mum tells me that my grandad used to rub pollen on the palm of his hand and stroke bees when they landed on it) I have been bitten by dogs more than any insects, as indistructable as I am, nettle stings, my super powers cannot fight off.
Luckily, there are doc leaves also growing alongside the nettles which provide the antidote (why is that?)
I buried the nettles in the recycle bin - another reason why you should never buy council made compost, everything I put in the recycle bin for the garden is weeds and slug guts - so that someone else could share my pain.

Today is the first day back at work for the wife, as life gets back to normal, the never ending cycle of feeding baby, washing, changing baby, entertaining baby and communicating with the wife on the phone.
Some weeks I can go almost a full week without having face to face contact with an adult, sometimes that's a good thing though.

Summer holiday tasks completed:

• Flown a kite - In the street, can you believe that some kids have never flown one!
• Climbed a tree - After being laughed at by other adults because I was slow getting back out of the tree, they tried it and failed to even get off the ground!
• Picked conkers, apples, peaches, strawberries and onions - with potatoes, blackberries and tomatoes to come, yum.
• Danced in the rain - great fun, if a tad damp!

Little acorns and all that...
Of course we have been to the countryside, the seaside, cheered at the world cup (and shouted at the tv), spent time with the family and welcomed the birth of my little nephew Ian. Sadly we have said goodbye to one of our family friends.
There is still a week of the holidays left, who knows what's around the corner...

Regular readers of my rants will know, that I cannot stand Direct line car insurance.
I was insured with direct line for 14 years, as well as 13 years for my better half and 2 years for sprog1.

In all that time and with just four changes of vehicle, my direct line insurance costs went UP, every single year (sometimes more than once a year if I changed a vehicle).
Even when the value and engine size of my vehicle was lowered, the price that direct line charged me INCREASED.

A few years back, for some bizarre reason, several direct line staff refused to price match their own website prices (for new customers only they told me!)
Direct line staff thought it acceptable for me to have to cancel my insurance policy and start up as a new customer, instead of just price matching what they were offering new customers and making sure of keeping my custom.

Yesterday, it became clear to me, why they chose to do this!
I had to prove to my new insurance company that I had 14 years no claims bonus - I rang direct line to get a letter sent out with proof on, as on my renewal notice, they had conveniently lost 6 years of my no claims bonus entitlement.
When the letter arrived yesterday, again, they ommitted 6 years of my no claims bonus.

My direct line insurance renewal quote this year has more than doubled, despite speaking to "customer service" and "customer loyalty" departments, nothing further could be done. I left them and went with another company. In two months, my better half will also take her insurance policy and go somewhere else.
Now what do you suppose my new insurer will do, when they see less no claims bonus than stated when I took out my new policy?

Of course, they will remove some of the discount given and the price will become the same or slightly higher than the price direct line quoted.

So how does this show Direct line are hiding negative feedback?
I googled to see if anyone else has posted online about the same problem... not a single result, very unusual!
I tried a few different terms for the same issue, once again I got nothing!
I checked the keywords that people have searched for when visiting this website via search engines, strangely, almost all references to "direct line" in search engine visits to this website have disappeared in the past ten days.
I ran a search engine search for just the term "Direct line" and went through the first ten pages of results, viewing all the links listed in them, to posts on websites.

In ten pages of links, there was not one single negative link/post, that referred to direct line!
Only promoted links to direct line were listed.
Three weeks ago I searched for the term "direct line double my insurance" and got well over four pages of links to websites where people have posted about their insurance being doubled.

It is clear from this, that google or yahoo search results, etc, are not the most relevant to what a person is searching for information about.
There are ways (I do not know how it's done, either by paid methods, buying keywords, or other underhand ways?) to remove negative posts by people all over the internet, about a business or business practice! (I didn't know this could be done!)

What is evident is that my website posts and comments, about my experience of being a direct line customer, are amongst those being "hidden" on search engine results - not a problem for me as I don't rely on huge numbers of website traffic visiting my website.

It just shows you what lengths direct line will go to, to cover up their appalling customer service and the way that they treat their customers.

UPDATE:
At long last a letter of confirmation has come through from direct line, regarding my "full" no claims bonus, that I currently have.
It's another failure though, as I have 14 years no claims bonus (as confirmed by the advisor I spoke to) yet direct line have only credited me with 12 years.
Any ideas what direct line have done with the other two years? Neither have I...

Other Direct line posts:
Direct line double the cost of my car insurance
Direct line motor insurance
Companies I wish never existed - Direct line