Pavlovs_dog starting as she means to go on...

pavlovs_dog

originalmiscellany wrote: »

I too work in education and like you am thinking of the 15 days till half term - boy do I feel I need it!

I have water at school in a big 2 litre shape, and drink one per day during normal teaching. I find having it on my desk means it's easy to drink and keep everything lubricated as it should be - much better than tea and coffee anway

i'm not a big tea or coffee drinker. although that said, i'm not a thirsty person generally and I know I probably don't drink half as much as i should without taking the constant talk that teaching brings into the equation.

as for drinking during the school day, I have the obvious problem that the more I drink the more I want to wee.

still, in the name of helath and happiness, i have a 500ml bottle, and my aim is to make sure that i drink at least one full bottle worth of water each school day this week whilst i am on school premises.

pavlovs_dog

kazwookie wrote: »

Have you looked at your local freecycle / freegle group for the odd bits of funriture you need, till you have the budget to buy what you want?

Good luck with it.

Hi Kaz,

not ventured onto my local freecycle for a good few years, i had a gutsful of how clique-y and argumentative it became. I've never gone back since :eek:

like I said, there's nothing we don't have that we cannot live without so i'm more inclined to leave freecycle for those who genuinely cannot do without the things on offer.

Brallaqueen

Ooohh how exciting, a brand new home! I hope you have a long and happy time there

knithappens

another school teacher here, trying to over pay too, looks liek you are off to a great start

pavlovs_dog

what's your mortgage story knithappens?

cha97michelle

The water debate is a hard one when you are in the classroom. I nearly wrecked my voice after a couple of years, and had to have speech therapy and see an ENT specialist, and one of the things i was told was to constantly sip liquid while teaching to keep my throat well lubricated.

The kids used to take the mic at my herbal teas.

Then i would never have enough time for the visits to the loo.

Sorry you were disappointed in your pay rise. I was thinking back to when i went from M1 to M2, and it was about £150 but i also got a management point for that. It doesn't work out a lot, but it will get easier each year as it goes up. I always found i could spend whatever came in particularly in the earlier years. You are doing well to have got your head around overpaying and stuff so early.

Glad to hear you are settled anyway and all seems to be going ok. You will soon get your budget tied down.

LilacPixie

PD good luck with it. Small steps and all that.

knithappens

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

what's your mortgage story knithappens?

My Mortgage is a total £65000 left to pay only took it out 5 years ago and my house is just a bog standard terraced, which I bought for £73000, decided to buy what i could afford and needed for me and the kids, I now work part time to spendmuch needed time with the kids, as I am single again, so decided I needed to be at home more with the kids,especially my teen, than spend all day looking after others kids, so I work mon , tue, wed now. Big drop in salary, but i find i dont waste money now, so am managing, being as frugal as possible.

I am only over paying £100 per month, and then as much as I can is being saved into a seperate account, form ebay sales, car boots etc to make extra payments as and when i can.

I have just applied for threshold and should hear back in a day or 2 whether i have got it or not, it will be alittl eextra each month, which i am going to use to pay more off my CC debt.

Getting there slow and steady.

katsu

Pavlov - looking at your bills post I had two thoughts.

1 - I borrowed an OWL meter from the library for free. You can enter your electricity costs into it and watch your usage go up. Might help you get a fix easier and sooner on your consumption and costs there (and help you identify what eats the electric so you can reduce consumption!)

2 - Have you thought of a water meter? We have one and use less than £20 pcm for 2 adults, no kids. Have a washing machine but shower not take baths.

Hope these ideas are some help.

pavlovs_dog

Katsu - phoned the local library about the energy monitors and they don't do them. Apparently the Cardiff library does though, and that's not too far away so I may borrow one next time i'm in town. In the mean time i've chanced my arm to win one through a competition tesco is running at the moment.

with regard to the water meter, we do plan on filling the house with kids eventually so i'm not sure if it would be the wisest move long term. We're not wasteful with the water we use but I do like a nice soak in the tub, not sure if i'd be prepared to compromise on that :cool:

phoned the mortgage company. it's not possible to see the balance online but we can phone up anytime for a balance enquiry. We can overpay just over £13k penalty free this year (don't think there's much danger of that happening), via cheque or a more regular direct debit.

lots to do today -going to bake a cake as my mum is coming over this afternoon. got to catch up because i'm behind with my flyladying. need to do a food shop, and then of course there is the mountain of school work. only 10 more days of work until the much needed half term break!