This week has been particularly difficult for both Pen and I.

Having completed on our house and been paid, the next job was to pay off the hungry creditors and after gathering the relevant information, I set about paying my debts. The thing was, after me owing the bank for so long, as soon as I started using my debit card, they shut down, refusing to honour the payments. I ended up having a lengthy conversation with the bank's fraud squad before they'd let me continue. It was a hair-raising moment I can tell you. I wasn't alone though as Pen had similar issues and they even went so far as to make her go to a bank and change the pin number on her card before they'd let her use it again.

Anyway, with panic averted, we set about paying all and sundry and sat back to see a healthy balance reduced to well, not much really.

I also got straight on to the training company and asked about their training packages, hoping to get qualified up the whizz-wang, but it transpires that the quote was for the course only, not the exams that may be involved. Those were an extra  £88 each on top and with what I had selected, would have added another  £1500 taking the training well out of our reach. I could have settled for a single course, but even so, not one of them had just one exam, oh no. They all had at least three and with travelling, the cost of the exams and everything else, it still meant that I would have been dipping into our already severely dwindled nest-egg with no guarantees of anything in return.

So yesterday I discovered a company who specialises in freelance working and have signed up as a writer.

I haven't found anything yet, but the it's the first day and new projects come all the time, so I'm hoping to get something soon.

I know it sounds like pie in the sky, but hopefully I will get to write a few articles at least or maybe some website content - and be paid for them too.

If that doesn't come off, there are a few other things I have signed up for, some of which is pretty mind-numbing, but it will help to pay the rent and take some of the weight of running the household off of Pen's delicate shoulders.

Wish me luck.

Please.