Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 2

cha97michelle

Thanks Cheryl

It all changed when i was off with DS1, then i went back and did 2 terms before i was off for the year with DS2 and it has all changed some more. Plus lots of stress over redundancies. :eek:

It just scares me as i know i am doing my absolute best, and it used to be good enough and now its not. I have no idea really what i would do instead with my life, although the childminding route would be a possibility.

I think i need to go back in September and see how i cope at the start of the year. The kids have been messed around a lot this year with staff changes, so not receptive to yet another new teacher.

The head is telling me it has got to get easier and it would be bad for my family if i stop doing a job where i only earn £4k a year less than DH when i only do 3 days. My heart wants to be with my boys and not spending all of my time dealing with paperwork. Some serious thinking to do i think. They will only be this age once, and i don't want to regret anything.

Anyway, enough self pity. I have a lovely bank holiday and half term to look forward to. We are hoping the weather picks up so we can get in the garden and do some stuff, but also catch up on some much deserved rest. Speaking of which i need to get to bed soon as DH won't be in till 1ish, so morning shift with the boys will be mine. :rolleyes:

liloandstitch

Good luck with your decisions cha97michelle - there is no right or wrong answer just what is best for you and your family. I am sure if you take your time, you will know in your heart what to do.

Congratulations aeb, Treble trouble, that will keep you occupied for a while! I am not surprised you need your mum after info like that. You sound like a really strong person and I am sure that once you get your head around it all, you will cope really well.

The steak and kidney pie was nice, and I am pleased that I stuck with cooking, its one of those days that I would usually have said we'll go out to eat. So go me.

DS1 has a friend for tea tomorrow and they want fish fingers and chips for tea, not something that usually lives in my freezer so I will have to go out and buy some. Just got to think what DH and I can have - I may cook the chicken thats lurking in the freezer and have that for a couple of days - decisions decisions.
lilo

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Wow aeb, how fantastic is that:j. 3 more lots of love for you and and 3 lots to you from me. Keep us all updated as I'm sure everybody is as interested as I am and being a retired Midwife and Health Visitor I still cant get enough of babies and young children. Gosh three though! (sorry Nyk:D)

scrooge2008

WOW AEB, I wasn't expecting that. I'd be looking for all the help I can get ... is there some support that the health visitor/children and families can organise from about 30 weeks onwards? Good thing you are a teacher and are used to coping with lots of little ones. :A.

Still very exciting news :beer:. Ooops no beer for you.

Well the good news here is that we will not be having lamb for tea tonight. Got a lovely big leg of scottish, organic lamb on Saturday and had roast lamb and yorkshires, next day lamb curry with homemade korma sauce and nan bread. Monday was bar-b-q lamb stew, Tuesday Lamb broth and Wednesday curried lamb broth. All quite delicious I might add, but time for a change. Funny thing is I hardly ever cooked a year ago, when I started my frugal ways. I really enjoy cooking now. Only got £16.00 to last me until the end of the month now and a huge free range chicken, so next week will be a chicken week. :rolleyes:

Frugaldom

SPAM REPORTED!

Good morning, frugaltonians

It's looking like it could be a beautiful day here today so let's hope it stretches throughout the bank holiday weekend

Aeb, I'm glad you seem happy with your news, hope everything goes well for you.

Cha97, I hope you can make the right decision about your work. I've never had maternity leave so can't imagine what it must be like going back to the '9 til 5' after being home having babies. I'd rather live on bread and water than attempt to run a household, care for children and do a job that made me miserable. (Please don't shoot me down in flames )

Siannelaz, welcome back. Hope everything is going well for you and that you get loads of veggies from the allotment. Well done But a 14k drop in wages? :eek: That's about double my income! :rotfl:

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins
Just a quick visit from sunny Malta, hugs, congratulations and welcome backs as appropriate:D not had a chance to catch up on the thread properly yet but have treated myself to a couple of euro's worth of internet:p I have really missed being in touch with everyone on here whilst we have been away - sad isn't it:rolleyes:

Off to spend the day with our Maltese friends shortly which will find me in a better frame of mind than yesterday when we spent the morning zipping around the islands in a hired motor boat with OH driving:eek: I am a strong swimmer but unfortunately I would rather be in the water than travelling on it so mostly spent the morning gripping onto the side of the boat whilst feeling terrified. I was very relieved to get back onto land:o

Off to catch up with my favourite blogs etc and check my online banking while I have the chance.
Enjoy your day everyone

Brighton_belle

nykmedia wrote: »

Cha97, I hope you can make the right decision about your work. I've never had maternity leave so can't imagine what it must be like going back to the '9 til 5' after being home having babies. I'd rather live on bread and water than attempt to run a household, care for children and do a job that made me miserable. (Please don't shoot me down in flames )

/QUOTE]
I feel the same as Nyk on this one and really feel for you Michelle. Just a thought: if you leave teaching now, that doesn't rule out ever returning does it? And your Head seems pretty keen to keep you giving the guilt pressure he is putting on. Lots of hugs re the obs report: not easy stuff to hear and I would have been down too.
It's that old thing isn't it - this is not a dress rehersal, this is life. I wonder ,when you are 80 and look back, what you might have wished you had done? Having lost large chunks of my life to ill health and missed out on loads, including the chance to have my own family, nothing, absolutely nothing is worth being miserable for, or risking your own health through stress and chronic exhaustion.
But that's just my perspective Michelle - I would totally support any decision you came to as the best one for you. Only you know all the factors to way up. Hope you have a great half term that gives you respite.
aeb - rather gobsmacking news. I appreciate this must bring very mixed emotions of possibly joy, sadness and apprehension. The lovely peeps on the forum will do all they can to support you during this time.

Bigmamma: thanks you for your knd words. Glad you loved the birdseye view analogy. I have found it so helpful at times.

Well OH have given the thumbs up for us to do a big room switch around and turn our bedsit and seperate study in to more of a 1 bed flat.
Study will be mainly filled with bed but I've done measurements and drawings and we should be able to get stuff in ok. I'l need to get rid of a few bits of furniture and get hold of a single wardrobe(posted request on freecycle). Got to paint a few bits of stuff that we'll be bringing into our front room.
Also need a metal rail to create clothes hanging space in 'bedroom' alcove to double OH's clothes space as he has far more than me and can't yet grasp the art of de-cluttering. But one step at a time. For a man who hates change, agreeing to a room change around is a total result.

Someone collecting a spare videoplayer today I offered on freecycle yesterday.

redglass_2

I'm sorry but it's been so frantic here that I've gone back to lurking and haven't caught up, so hugs and congratulations to all that need them or deserve them (from what I can see there's quite a bit of angst at the moment - you have my sympathies, Michelle, you really do....)
A friend in distress has contacted me. She inherited part of her mother's estate some years back. She put the money into stocks and shares ISAs and until recently was using the interest to supplement her low wage. The ISAs are now dropping like flies. I want to help her but I don't have any of these shares ISAs and don't know about them. I can't find anything on the MSE site about transfers to stocks and shares ISAs, only transfers to cash ones. Please can anyone tell me how you find out good stocks and shares ISAs to transfer to? Is there a list anywhere on the site that I've missed?

cw18

Stocks and Shares ISAs will be like any investment in those products (inlcuding endowments - which I still have one of) and many pension schemes.

I don't think there's a lot you can do about it -- the only choices available, that I know of, are to sell up (and lose money due to the crash) or ride it out until the stock market starts to recover.

ETA: I'm not sure about the availability of transfers under the ISA umbrella - but when I worked on a Unit Trust computer system (which included that part of the ISAs sold by the company), I'm sure there was a code for 'Transfer In' and 'Transfer Out' that operated within the ISA parts. I think that company has since stopped selling that type of ISA though, so no way of getting anyone I can still contact (who's still there) to check

Shares have always been (and will always be) a big gamble. Great to buy into at times like now, and CAN (if you time it right) give a great return - but unfortunatley also very open to huge losses in just minutes. And with endowments and pensions, if the market crashes just before maturity date you're stuck with the loss :eek:

mama67

Pleased to hear it is good news AEB:T albeit a little scary:eek: