Week 2 - There's so much we can do.

RubySewSew

Ah, thanks Cheery x

I find being employed hard partly because I haven't done it for 10 years, partly because of early mornings and structure and routine but mostly because I'm used to being autonomous and not being deferential to other people. I'm not really very conventional (one of the reasons I work so well with the naughty kids ) and I don't feel like my skills and experience are being used to the full. I'm used to working as a reflective practitioner - what can I do differently/better/more effectively/more engagingly? And the thing I hate about being employed is not being able to prioritise your own needs. I've been referred to occupational health as my sickness is untenable. Now, that in itself is fair enough but I've had 4 days sick, signed off by my doctor. The real problem is that I've had another 2 days off with the kids. I ended up taking DS3 in today even though he wasn't feeling well. There is no flexibility in policy!!

I like the idea of patchwork living. I have far too many interests to commit to any one thing. It's just that I have to make such a vast amount of money to even keep things ticking over. And cash flow is always a problem. The job does give me some security at the moment, I'm not going to make any rash decisions. If I could make corsets and knickers for a living I would be happy, happy, happy!

I'm exploring options at the moment. I've also approached my Mum to see if she can lend me some money so that I can get straight enough to start managing again. No pressure but I can't borrow from anywhere else.

Quick dash off to finish making dinner. Back later x

RubySewSew

I've been mulling over Cheery's comment about patchwork living and thinking about how I can maximise my income from doing the things I'm good at and the things I enjoy. I thought I would lay it all out for you to see what you make of it.

Skills:

Teaching - I'm a trained and experienced antenatal teacher (diploma qualified in adult education). I currently earn £26.50 an hour but don't usually teach more than 2-5 hours per week. Clients prefer evenings and weekends which is difficult to fit in as it compromises family life. This has also become unreliable with courses cancelling at short notice due to poor administration by the charity that manages my contracts. I also train midwives at the university which earns me £18-40 an hour but at a maximum of 18 hours per academic year. Service User Representative work can earn me up to £200 a day at national level but this is few and far between and not really compatible with my current employment (last had this work in 2008).

Doula - I'm experienced in supporting women and their families during childbirth and in the postnatal period. As an educator, supporter and home help. I can earn £15 an hour for postnatal work and £500 per birth although being on call does not fit in with a young family (it means being on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a minimum of 5 weeks and leaving the house with no notice potentially for 2 days or more at any time of day or night).

Writing - I used to work in editorial and have written for pregnancy websites and written a pilot online antenatal course for an established website. I think I have a unique enough perspective to potentially write a book version of the antenatal course.

Sign language - I have a foundation level in Deaf Studies including level 1 British Sign Language. Despite loving it, I never use it.

Full time mum - I pick my boys up from primary school every day and drop them off most days. We have to squeeze in dinner, homework, friends and extra curricular activities. My current working arrangements mean I'm grumpy and tired and not a very nice mummy I'm a single parent and whilst their Dad is reliable at meeting his commitments he is not all supportive or flexible.

Teaching assistant - I work part time as teaching assistant (16.5 hours per week) which is most of my child free days. I earn £8.51 per hour. I prefer working one to one and in small groups with children with additional and special educational needs. I have thought about tutoring dyslexic children after school (DS1 is severely dyslexic) but don't know what would be involved.

Baking - I make rather lovely cakes. I have a cake stall booked for a Christmas Fayre in central Brighton

Making - I'm pretty creative and have a passion and eye for vintage, circus, pin up girls, crockery, fabric amongst others. I have recycled, reused and rescued a number of saleable items which are cluttering up my house (although have 2 fayres booked).

Sewing - I used to sew and customise clothes. As a curvy 1950's kind of gal I really want to learn dressmaking and would love to develop into corsetry, knickers and bags. I currently have a fear of my sewing machine.

Volunteering - I am currently doing a couple of hours a week work experience at a Special Educational Needs school. I also volunteer at a circus skills club for kids and am in the process of setting up a gardening and cooking club at a local school.

I think that's it. At the moment I am slogging my guts out and failing to make ends meet. Because of the unreliability and politics of the charity, myself and the other teachers would like to set up a co-operative, diversify and work for ourselves.

I know how fantastic and creative you lot are so would really like some suggestions about how I can maximise my earning potential and job satisfaction whilst protecting and prioritising my family.

Going to deploy the help of Memory Girl's Matrix to...

lisawaters

RubySewSew wrote: »

I've been mulling over Cheery's comment about patchwork living and thinking about how I can maximise my income from doing the things I'm good at and the things I enjoy. I thought I would lay it all out for you to see what you make of it.

Skills:

Teaching - I'm a trained and experienced antenatal teacher (diploma qualified in adult education). I currently earn £26.50 an hour but don't usually teach more than 2-5 hours per week. Clients prefer evenings and weekends which is difficult to fit in as it compromises family life. This has also become unreliable with courses cancelling at short notice due to poor administration by the charity that manages my contracts. I also train midwives at the university which earns me £18-40 an hour but at a maximum of 18 hours per academic year. Service User Representative work can earn me up to £200 a day at national level but this is few and far between and not really compatible with my current employment (last had this work in 2008).

Doula - I'm experienced in supporting women and their families during childbirth and in the postnatal period. As an educator, supporter and home help. I can earn £15 an hour for postnatal work and £500 per birth although being on call does not fit in with a young family (it means being on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a minimum of 5 weeks and leaving the house with no notice potentially for 2 days or more at any time of day or night).

Writing - I used to work in editorial and have written for pregnancy websites and written a pilot online antenatal course for an established website. I think I have a unique enough perspective to potentially write a book version of the antenatal course.

Sign language - I have a foundation level in Deaf Studies including level 1 British Sign Language. Despite loving it, I never use it.

Full time mum - I pick my boys up from primary school every day and drop them off most days. We have to squeeze in dinner, homework, friends and extra curricular activities. My current working arrangements mean I'm grumpy and tired and not a very nice mummy I'm a single parent and whilst their Dad is reliable at meeting his commitments he is not all supportive or flexible.

Teaching assistant - I work part time as teaching assistant (16.5 hours per week) which is most of my child free days. I earn £8.51 per hour. I prefer working one to one and in small groups with children with additional and special educational needs. I have thought about tutoring dyslexic children after school (DS1 is severely dyslexic) but don't know what would be involved.

Baking - I make rather lovely cakes. I have a cake stall booked for a Christmas Fayre in central Brighton

Making - I'm pretty creative and have a passion and eye for vintage, circus, pin up girls, crockery, fabric amongst others. I have recycled, reused and rescued a number of saleable items which are cluttering up my house (although have 2 fayres booked).

Sewing - I used to sew and customise clothes. As a curvy 1950's kind of gal I really want to learn dressmaking and would love to develop into corsetry, knickers and bags. I currently have a fear of my sewing machine.

Volunteering - I am currently doing a couple of hours a week work experience at a Special Educational Needs school. I also volunteer at a circus skills club for kids and am in the process of setting up a gardening and cooking club at a local school.

I think that's it. At the moment I am slogging my guts out and failing to make ends meet. Because of the unreliability and politics of the charity, myself and the other teachers would like to set up a co-operative, diversify and work for ourselves.

I know how fantastic and creative you lot are so would really like some suggestions about how I can maximise my earning potential and job satisfaction whilst protecting and prioritising my family.

Going to deploy the help of Memory Girl's Matrix to...

Nobody I have ever known who works for a charity has anything good to say about it. They seem to be very unpleasant environments, many run by very unpleasant people.

x

Cheery_Daff

Gosh Ruby, how skilled you are! :T

Sounds like you're not in a very good place right now I had a quick look at your SOA, and it looks like you've been relying (not unreasonably!) on some non-guaranteed income to pay things like car insurance etc - which is causing a real problem now they've dried up. What an absolute pain

It must be really difficult to put your finances out there for all to see and comment on - I've never done it properly really And it must be really difficult to see what people write! Everyone prioritises differently, of course. I reckon people are right about a spending diary though - see exactly where those £150 slush fund is going, and the £60 on childcare, etc. And itemise your food too - absolute pain the bottom, but it'll show you exactly what you're using.

I think someone else said on the other thread, but what you might have to do for the time being, however much it stings, is assume that you're not going to get the rest of the money from your exOH. Now, I don't know much about it, and it seems from what you've said that he shouldn't be reducing your payments, but I'm a strong believer that you have to deal with the world how it *is*, not how it should be. I don't mean you should just accept it meekly lying down - go through the legal motions that you need to to get it sorted out. However, in the meantime, that's not going to put food on the table, so you need to find a way of coping without that money for now.

Looking at your list of skills... it looks to me like you need to sit down and do a bit of ruthless prioritising. You're tired, fed up, and by your own admission, grumpy and snappy with your partner and children, and this is *not* how you want to be. So you NEED to get yourself back into a strong position again, or your health is going to get worse, and the situation certainly won't get any better then.

(hang on, I'm flitting backwards and forwards between posts, I'll go and quote your other one and comment on each bit if you don't mind!)

RubySewSew

Thanks Cheery x

PS Did feel a little bit secretly proud of myself writing down all the stuff I'm capable of

Cheery_Daff

Right then, I'll make a few comments - hope you take them in the cheery spirit they're meant! And remember I'm no expert, but sometimes it's easier to see a bit more clearly in someone else's situation than your own

RubySewSew wrote: »

Teaching - I'm a trained and experienced antenatal teacher (diploma qualified in adult education). I currently earn £26.50 an hour but don't usually teach more than 2-5 hours per week. Clients prefer evenings and weekends which is difficult to fit in as it compromises family life. This has also become unreliable with courses cancelling at short notice due to poor administration by the charity that manages my contracts.

This sounds like it's sapping your energy at the minute. If courses are being cancelled, it's taking time and effort, and the return isn't good, and you can't rely on it. I think you need something more reliable - and that might mean that short term your plans to set up an alternative have to go on the backburner in favour of something more secure temporarily

I also train midwives at the university which earns me £18-40 an hour but at a maximum of 18 hours per academic year.
Is this guaranteed? How much effort does it cause you? Is it convenient? It earns you between £324-720 a year - this isn't much, but it's worth it IF it doesn't take too much time or energy. If it DOES take lots of effort (chasing invoice, messing around, unreliability etc) then I say possibly drop it for now. If it works well, are there any other universities within travelling distance you could do it at? Or any other courses etc you could get involved with?

Service User Representative work can earn me up to £200 a day at national level but this is few and far between and not really compatible with my current employment (last had this work in 2008).

[COLOR="rgb(153, 50, 204)"]Sounds like this is out of the running for the time being.
[/COLOR]
Doula - I'm experienced in supporting women and their families during childbirth and in the postnatal period. As an educator, supporter and home help. I can earn £15 an hour for postnatal work and £500 per birth although being on call does not fit in with a young family (it means being on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a minimum of 5 weeks and leaving the house with no notice potentially for 2 days or more at any time of day or night).
Can you do the postnatal work without the being on call, or is that not the idea? Sounds like that won't work at all for you without short term, on call childcare (parents? Your partner?). If you don't have that, then perhaps this is something to shelve until the children are older?

Writing - I used to work in editorial and have written for pregnancy websites and written a pilot online antenatal course for an established website. I think I have a unique enough perspective to potentially write a book version of the antenatal course.

This sounds like it has potential, although might it be more of a long term thing? Can you market your skills and do some writing for magazines? It might not be exactly what you want to do, but it might be a relatively quick turnaround for some income? (I don't know how these things work really). Is there anywhere you can pick up some editorial work?

Sign language - I have a foundation level in Deaf Studies including level 1 British Sign Language. Despite loving it, I never use it.

I used to do some support working at a university - they had interpreters for deaf students who were paid quite well - perhaps something to think about? (not sure what level of sign language you might need though)

Full time mum - I pick my boys up from primary school every day and drop them off most days. We have to squeeze in dinner, homework, friends and extra curricular activities. My current working arrangements mean I'm grumpy and tired and not a very nice mummy I'm a single parent and whilst their Dad is reliable at meeting his commitments he is not all supportive or flexible.

Need to work on your own emotional and health state! For the time being you need to ignore what their dad should be doing (difficult I know) and work with what you have. Are all these extra curriculum activities REALLY necessary? Sounds like they're costing you money, and also giving you a lot of running around What about limiting it to one activity per child per term? That's not deprivation, and might give you a bit of a rest, and also them too, and cut your costs a little?

Teaching assistant - I work part time as teaching assistant (16.5 hours per week) which is most of my child free days. I earn £8.51 per hour. I prefer working one to one and in small groups with children with additional and special educational needs.
This sounds like your most reliable income for the time being, even if it's not completely ideal

I have thought about tutoring dyslexic children after school (DS1 is severely dyslexic) but don't know what would be involved.
Right - this might be something specific to look into

Baking - I make rather lovely cakes. I have a cake stall booked for a Christmas Fayre in central Brighton
This sounds like it has potential! :T But make sure it's not costing you money or making you even more stressed!

Making - I'm pretty creative and have a passion and eye for vintage, circus, pin up girls, crockery, fabric amongst others. I have recycled, reused and rescued a number of saleable items which are cluttering up my house (although have 2 fayres booked).
Excellent :T Again, make sure it's not costing you money though!

Sewing - I used to sew and customise clothes. As a curvy 1950's kind of gal I really want to learn dressmaking and would love to develop into corsetry, knickers and bags. I currently have a fear of my sewing machine.

Pah to fear of sewing machines! Could you perhaps make/customise a few clothes for yourself, woudl that give you a little bit of a lift?

Volunteering - I am currently doing a couple of hours a week work experience at a Special Educational Needs school. I also volunteer at a circus skills club for kids and am in the process of setting up a gardening and cooking club at a local school.

Now, you might not like me for this, and you might stick your fingers in your ears and shout LA LA LA LA. But I'm going to say it anyway Your priority right now is YOU and YOUR FAMILY. Your health is suffering, and you're being grouchy with your loved ones because you're running out of time and money. Could you possibly consider dropping this voluntary work for the time being? You need to work on income - especially in the short term. I know voluntary work stands you in good stead - if you don't want to drop it entirely could you keep at the school, and put the other things on hold for now - just for now?

I think that's it. At the moment I am slogging my guts out and failing to make ends meet. Because of the unreliability and politics of the charity, myself and the other teachers would like to set up a co-operative, diversify and work for ourselves.
Is this likely to be able to happen quickly? If not then I'd say temporarily you need to concentrate on something else for now.

I know how fantastic and creative you lot are so would really like some suggestions about how I can maximise my earning potential and job satisfaction whilst protecting and prioritising my family.

Ok, final comments in one more post - and then I'll shut up, honest!

Cheery_Daff

Oh dear, sorry, that was dreadfully waffly of me!

Good on you for feeling good about writing about your skills!

My overall feeling (and this might sound weird coming from someone who was extolling the virtues of a patchwork lifestyle) is that you're spreading yourself too thin. You need to sort out your exact priorities, and for now it seems to me that they are:

(1) YOU - your physical and mental health
(2) your family and partner - which links to your physical and mental health
(3) enough RELIABLE income to meet your needs.

Sounds like there's some things which should be kept, some which should be dropped (even if just for now) to give you more time, and some which should be pursued as potential further income streams. And remember this is just the opinion of someone who doesn't know you and who might know nothing!

KEEP
- Your work in the school is reliable - even if it's not the most enjoyable.

DROP
- Your teaching is unreliable and taking far more time and energy than you have spare right now - I would think seriously about getting out of it.
- your voluntary work is fun - but given that one thing you're lacking right now is TIME, could you drop some of this?
- after school activities? Perhaps one per child per term? Would that solve some of your running around problems?

PURSUE
- potential other steady income - another job temporarily for some guaranteed income?
- magazine writing?
- selling cakes - possibly for Christmas?
- selling some of the vintage stuff that you already have
- clubbing together with the other staff from your charity

I think I'm starting to repeat myself now! Just wanted you to know I think you've got lots of potential, good on you for being able to write down all your skills, and you need to focus on your sanity or else you won't be able to look after anybody else!

Just realised how late it is - I've got to be on a train at 7.12am - best go to bed! :eek:
xxxx

RubySewSew

7.12am? Ew! Thank you so much for your time and effort especially at this late hour. You are right about a lot of things. Particularly health and family. And time. I think writing is probably the most lucrative and flexible to pursue. I just don't know how to go about finding work. It's always landed in my lap before!

lisawaters

RubySewSew wrote: »

7.12am? Ew! Thank you so much for your time and effort especially at this late hour. You are right about a lot of things. Particularly health and family. And time. I think writing is probably the most lucrative and flexible to pursue. I just don't know how to go about finding work. It's always landed in my lap before!

Ring the people you worked for before and let them know you're back..?

moo2moo

Do you have a Country Market co-operative near you? Its a place for selling homemade produce and crafts and theres good money to be made. As a bonus you don't have to be at every market, just do your share at the stalls to fit in with your life so you could stand behind a stall in the school hols and just drop your stuff off the rest of the time. My friend bakes for one and averages £50 a week doing something she enjoys. Theres no limit to what you can make and the general rule of thumb is you charge 3-4 times what it costs you to produce... unless its all stuff you've foraged for free in which case the profit is even greater. Might be worth a thought. Theres no cash commitment before you start either.