Originalmiscellany's MF dreams

Lois_E

Congratulations OM! :beer:

How old is your older one now?

originalmiscellany

Thank you one and all.
No 1 is 2 and an absolute delight to be around (most of the time).
It's amazing how quickly they grow up (every person has said this!) and also what joy they bring to your life, even if it's when they're not sleeping too well.

Anyway, things that I'm aware of - I'd like a job which lets me have weekends free and I'd also like a larger house due to expanding family (not waistline I must add!).

However, changing job would probably mean no house move. Decisions.

Haven't made any notable sayings recently (Zopa is up to £255 profit) other than a small saving scheme where I save for the future children (again something that everyone tells us we must do)

originalmiscellany

And we're now back to square 1.
Options: Move to a bigger house (forever house) or stay where we are?
And consider job options?

Oh so many decisions. So unsure what the right thing to do is!

LydiaJ

Hi originalmiscellany. Hope it's OK to drop in and join the conversation. :hello:

Reading back through your thread, I gather you're a teacher. Is that right?

I do know how badly teaching eats up weekends - I'm a teacher myself, and although I'm part-time now, I remember being full-time. I can understand why it would grind you down not to be able to spend as much time as you'd like with your two little ones. However, before you decide to change jobs, just remember that if you do some other kind of work, you won't get school holidays to spend with them, which becomes even more significant when they get older than when they're little.

My kids (admittedly quite a bit older than yours) sometimes moan about how much school work I bring home, especially when I have reports to write. I tell them they've been teacher's kids for as long as they can remember, and they should know by now that they have to put up with me marking and report writing in term time, but they get me off work all through the school holidays, and kids whose parents have "normal" jobs have to spend the school holidays in childcare. They usually decide that it's worth it, and leave me to get on with it.

originalmiscellany

So then, life goes on. Easter break, spending it with the family and not working. No desire to do intervention or cramming with students so I haven't.
However, there are some jobs coming up which are appealing so I might go for them. Some in teaching, some outside. This stuff is about to get real! Ugh

Lois_E

Spending it with family sounds good. There's more to life than work. And you've done so amazingly well paying off your mortgage already that you deserve to enjoy your kids while they are little and not slave away all the time.

Alchemilla

Happy for you OM.
I imagine you living more fearlessly now.

originalmiscellany

Fearless is the word However, we were chatting today about moving onto the bigger house, and we've decided that we will stick where we are...
I've started using a program called money dashboard to analyse my finances, which is key to work out what we can cope with/what will happen in the future. I wouldn't recommend you all sign up but it gives me some interesting financial breakdowns and highlights a "real" financial monthly situation rather than a theoretical one which has shown I spend more money than I thought on stuff like apps for my phone! It's probably £15-20 a month which I had no idea it was so much. That's been useful - not a huge amount but over a year if someone gave me £240 instead of odd apps and in game purchases, I know what I would prefer

originalmiscellany

Update: End of October 2014 - New job, love it. pays less but thoroughly enjoyable. Therefore staying where we are, with the hope of promotions. However the real benefit has been in terms of quality of life and less stress. Beautiful!

originalmiscellany

And having looked back at this previous week, I've spent a fortune - so much so that despite being paid at the end of the month, I've already spent or accounted 100% of the November budget - just one of those things that has hit me - house and car insurance, we had to get a locksmith out, joining a professional union (for my career etc) all has meant over 1k has been spent. It's going to be a challenge for sure.