If things get tougher?

happytails

Hi loopylou, your only a week and a bit behind me ! How exciting!

Well everyone, i start my new christmas temp job to see us through today at 21+2 weeks pregnant - oh this will be fun They dont know im expecting yet so ill be the talk of the shop no doubt - oh well.

Think ive gotten a cold with all this bad weather and lack of heating - got my tissues and my olbas oil and im good to go!

Sarah

P.s. My pink bump has been named : Amber Louise Hindle :T

xxx

mumoftwo

Yeah the Working Tax credit is calculated over the year but we will have to wait until April when we declare our income for this past tax year. The other fear is that we get an extra element to it for working 30 hours or more so if my OH working hours drop to 3 days a week we lose that as well. I have noticed that things are a bit tense in the household, we have snapped at each other for the last 2 days over silly things, I think it is getting at both of us.
I am just so glad we don't have credit card debt, it must be so worrying for people and cause sleepness nights and depression and with Christmas coming up people feel desperate. Long live our Old Style Community and I hope lots more people will find us

ceridwen

kittie wrote: »

my dh worked a structural engineer and all work was obtained by the company on an as needed basis. Incoming work dried up to a trickle each time we had a recession. The first one my dh had to give up 2 days and 2 days pay per week but doing that kept everyone in work. Then next time there was a sudden request to halve salaries. Both were awful times but of course, were character forming. We got together with other people and formed a suma wholefood cooperative, sharing the weighing of goods etc

reading `austerity Britain` at the moment is bringing it all back

It is difficult if people have a "choice" like that put to them. Could be where the phrase "between the devil and the deep blue sea" comes in. I guess if one is on reasonable level income to start with and some way from retirement - then its possible to accept a paycut for the sake of others keeping their jobs. I would hate to be faced with that choice - as I am on such a low income and have all the extra expenses of being single that I just couldnt do that. I would have no option but to say "I'm not taking a paycut" and hope I was one of the ones that kept their job. It all depends on our personal circumstances - I would have to say "its the job, the whole job and nothing but the whole job - or no job at all" - as I just couldnt manage with only part of my job.

ceridwen

mumoftwo wrote: »

Yeah the Working Tax credit is calculated over the year but we will have to wait until April when we declare our income for this past tax year. The other fear is that we get an extra element to it for working 30 hours or more so if my OH working hours drop to 3 days a week we lose that as well. I have noticed that things are a bit tense in the household, we have snapped at each other for the last 2 days over silly things, I think it is getting at both of us.
I am just so glad we don't have credit card debt, it must be so worrying for people and cause sleepness nights and depression and with Christmas coming up people feel desperate. Long live our Old Style Community and I hope lots more people will find us

Hmmm....I'm with you on the 30 hour element. So - in other words your O.H. HAS to work at least 4 days per week or there's problems with that. I'm now wondering if his workplace is physically shut on the days he's likely to be told not to come in. Just my mind is wandering along lines of whether he could swap around "days cut out" at all - ie rather than say working 5 days one week and 3 days the next (due to employer saying "tough - its a short week") whether he could arrange to work 4 days per week on both weeks - so he has done the minimum 30 hours every week? The employer would still "save" the same amount of O.H.'s pay - but it wouldnt affect O.H. so badly.

[Deleted User]

ahhh two pregnant mums to be. Congratulations :kisses:

when I think back to all the worries in my lifetime, most have been needless but we all have empathy on this thread so worries come with the job I suppose. I always found that offloading worries helped but not offloading to dh as he would worry bigtime.

lol. Women are so STRONG in comparison :dance:

we are off for a few days foraging soon. This year I have made a precise list of foods for each meal, no eating out I am afraid. It was booked ages ago and is only costing £50 a night for self catering. All in all a big difference even to last year, when the belt tightening began but my waist is a good 6" tighter since our savings got locked away by icesave. Really tight belt at the moment

Primrose

With times getting harder, I wonder if we'll see econmy measures like this making a comback?

Tacking "blakies" onto shoes and heels to make them last longer?

The toes cut off sandals and plimsoles to allow childrens feet to grow

Woollen jumpers being unravelled and reknitted into something else (except that there are few home knitted 100% woollen items around these days)

Adult garments being cut down to make clothes for kids.

Somehow all the memories of my mum's wartime econonmies are resurfacing. Perhaps it's true that we never really understand how hard our mothers laboured during those days until we were mature enough to see history repeating itself.

catznine

Those of us that remember our parents wartime and austerity years economies, will be able to tackle this fairly comfortably but we may have to also teach it to the younger generation. Some of it, I think, will seem a bit extreme after the "Have it all now, pay later" years.

My Mum once made our winter coats from old army blankets! Most of our clothing was re-purposed clothing, an aunties old skirt became a dress for me, our old jumpers were unwound, wool washed and re knitted into mittens or toys (we had a much loved, lovely old knitted from string, teddy bear in our family which was passed on from child to child through a couple of generations, I still have it now!)

I am already starting to re-purpose items rather than buy new so I guess it could happen.

mardatha

Grow your own veg. I think that's the first and is already back.

Essex-girl_2

I think a lot of stuff will come back and thats no bad thing.

However I really hope I dont have to make fake bananas out of parsnips!!

We have a little museum locally and they have a war time front room with the weeks rations on the dining table - that is really scary.

Bunny200

Just out of interest how bad do most people think things are going to get? The other week when the stockmarkets were in meltdown I was getting a bit depressed having watched too much news! I'm not someone who gets depressed easily and although we're not rolling in it, we've been prudent in the good times so should see out the bad times but even with these things I got really scared. All I could see was doom and gloom and I know thats what sells papers and tv news time but I find it hard to get a realistic view of how bad it will be. I grew up in 70s and have a vague recollection of power cuts and candles and being told we can't afford that but it seems so long ago now. Theres a chap on the BBC News website who was on Andrew Marrs programme today saying that things won't be as bad as they were in the '70s. What do OS MSEs think?