Personal bankruptcy next? September 19, 2009

I think I’ve reached some kind of end point today, or perhaps the beginning of an end. I don’t really know what to do anymore. Yesterday we had 3 flats that we were interested in. We had ranked them in order of interest and were ready to call the agents and start making offers. We called the first one. She wanted 12 months upfront, was rude and we’ve been going back and forth with this agent for ages… I felt fed up and I told the BF to give up on her. There’s only so much you can take, I don’t understand why these people think they can be rude to their clients. Do they want to make money, or do they want to think highly of themselves?

Anyway, we called the second one and made arrangements to come into the office to make an offer. We paid £6 to get there, and took the time to travel for an hour to get to their office out of town. Once we get there the agent starts taking out details. When she realised that we don’t have any guarantors in UK, and that my contract is only a 6-month one, then she starts speaking about how that’s a big problem. She also has the nerve to mention that this is the reason why they take all of our details before the viewing, not to waste anybody’s time. Excuse me? Am I wasting their time by wanting to rent a flat? By being willing to pay 6 months upfront and giving them every detail of my financial situation? Is it my fault that they clearly didn’t ask enough questions if I’m such a waste for them? What about them wasting MY time! I spent the most of the day preparing for a meeting with them, and then they tell me that I waste their time? I could’ve spent the day making arrangements with another agent, that actually wants both my, and my BF money. I just can’t believe how rude people can be. I don’t care if it’s Friday afternoon, that’s still not reason enough to be rude to people who are trying to start a new life. F them!

So anyway, we go home, feeling beat down. Pick up some food on the way and I start cooking. Chopping potatoes and parsnips, was going to put them into the oven and make something really yummy. All of a sudden a tiiiiiny bit of smoke comes out of the oven (I think it’s because it hasn’t been cleaned properly) and the smoke alarm sets off. Why do you put a smoke alarm in the kitchen? Right over the oven? We manage to silence it after quite a while, but as we didn’t know how it works we didn’t dare to cook the food anyway. Turns out that after a while the alarm would’ve spread to the whole building.

So fine. No flat. No food. It’s 9pm. Friday night. 9 pm. So terribly depressing. Finally we make something quickly, just to get some food. Spend the rest of the evening in front of the TV and go to bed.

Woke up today. New day. New beginning. We’re gonna call another agent and make an offer. The last one on our list. The BF calls. No answer. Hm. He calls again. Someone picks up. The flat has been taken by somebody else. It’s gone. We’ve got nothing.

In fact, we were closer to finding a flat the first day we arrived here than what we are now. We been here for 17 days and still not even close to finding a flat. BF starts uni on Monday. I have my first day of work tomorrow. Oh yeah, forgot to tell you… I worked a trial shift a couple of days ago and I got that job. Minimum salary. £5.73/hour. I make less money now, than what I did when I graduated from high school. I need to make a minimum of £6.90/hour just to be able to pay my bills.

So here I am. Sitting in a beautiful apartment that we have to move out from soon. I’ve got a job that pays less than what I earned 5 years ago. I’m up til my neck in student debt that I need to start paying back in January. I’ve got no flat. And even if I find one it’s too expensive. It’s madness. It really, really is. Maybe I should just get the BF into a flat share, make sure he’s fine and then go back to Sweden. This is really how I feel today. Everything feels like shit. Yeah, yeah… I’m sure it will work out somehow.

But what if it doesn’t?