Floozie banishes the evil elves in eleven.........

Intergalactic_Floozie

Thank you, I think the interview went well but I found out I was first candidate out of 25 (!!!!!!?) so I feel considerably less confident about getting the job than I would have done if I was up against 10. I wont be crushingly disappointed if I don't get it but if I do get it then I will accept it due to the location, hours, flexi time etc etc

I'm a bit worried that the company I am presently working for might be having money troubles. Managers were asked to ask their staff if they would take a reduction in hours, think of ways to save money and even offered to grant unpaid leave (which they have done anyway, but only in case of emergencies in the past). The manager of the hospital wants to see all the consultants tomorrow for an emergency meeting so Lord knows what that is about. My immediate colleagues are worried sick. It'll be just my luck to have left previous employer because of imminent redundancy (with a guaranteed payout) only to be made redundant from this job and get no pay out as I haven't been there long enough

Setback number 456 of the year occurred in the form of DH losing his crown (front tooth) meaning he's looking like a nesbit and if / when Dentist can get a replacement made, we'll be £200 lighter.

Also, cheapest car insurance I could find for big car was £701. Obviously I have no money to pay it, and the interest on a CC is actually less than the interest for paying by installments, so we paid for it on a CC which I will try to PAD to.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Well I didn't get the job :-(

Not too depressed about it because the job turned out to be nothing like I was expecting it to be, and instead of typing letter myself, it turns out I would have been proofreading letters typed by people in an outsourcing company in another country where English isn't the first language!

Another setback yesterday, everyone in the company has had 2 - 3 hours slashed off their hours, so I have gone from 36 to 34. To be honest I saw it coming and it's not as bad as it could have been although I could do with not losing £55 from my wages every month. On the poisitive side, I do get Monday afternoons off from 1st April.

natsplatnat

Sorry to hear your news about the new job - but, if it wasn't as you thought, then maybe it's for the best!

Are you going to formulate a plan for your new time off on a Monday? Day for house-work or making money another way? (no smutty ideas - I know what some of you can be like! I meant like ebaying etc)

Keep your eyes peeled, I am sure something is just round the corner that will be ideal for you!

Nats x

Intergalactic_Floozie

I was actually planning on making Monday afternoons my new grocery shopping days. I've put in a request to work 0800-1200 on a Monday instead of 0930-1330, so that gives me 3 hours after finishing work to go round the cheaper supermarkets with a list and I don't have to rush / throw things in the trolley. I'm sure most of the £55 I will be down can be shaved off my grocery budget,

natsplatnat

Now that sounds like a plan!

Verbatim

Sure does Floozie

EssexHebridean

Excellent plan! If you have an Asda nearby - they often cut bread products down to 5p in the mid evenings though - I popped in last night and got a pack of 6 small bread rolls for 5p, and a honey & spelt loaf for 10p. The loaf is lovely too - we had it for tea last night with scrambled eggs, and I've had some toasted with cheese on for lunch today!

I've certainly found that with the ability to shop around more I've been able to cut back on our spend.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Ah, sadly Asda is a bit of a trek just for reduced prices in the evenings. My nearest supermarket is Morrisons (5 mins by car) followed by Tesco (15 mins). I also shop at Farmfoods (15 mins) which has an Aldi next to it. We have a Farm Shop 15 minutes away too. I'm also 5 minutes away from Lidl but admittedly I don't go there a lot. Because of the time I get home from work (6pm) I need evening meals that I don't have to spend ages preparing and cooking, so we tend to have convenience food that I can just whack in the oven and serve up with chips and a side salad..

Intergalactic_Floozie

Another payday, and marginally more successful than the last one! I have tracked my bank accounts on a spreadsheet on a daily basis which has helped.

Spends account: £33.74 less overdrawn than I was last month. Whoop, whoop, back of the net!!!

Bills account: £246.03 less overdrawn than I was last month. Whoop indeedy. However it's not as good as it sounds because I banked DH expenses cheque (£223.51) and DH also got another cheque for some work he did on someone else's computer for £100 so without those babies, I'd be actually overspent by £43.

DH also, as per usual, despite it only being an exact 4 week month, overspent again. I think I am going to start doling his pocket money out to him weekly. I wish he would cut down on his smoking and drinking.

New reduced hours kick in on 1st April so next month's wage will be lighter. I'm still on the lookout for a new job at local hospital but there's nothing being advertised. Hopefully April will yield new jobs. Don't think I can stand it here for much longer. Also took a week's unpaid leave for the summer, which they said they will take out of my wage over the year, so that will lose me another £20 per month after tax.

Unfortunately I have also got into the bad habit of going to the supermarket in the morning before I go to work, so I need to curb this next month.

Insurance cover man (who I first instructed back in June last year!) finally got back to me to tell me our insurance cover had been approved. To be honest I didn't even know it was still ongoing. I told him I didn't want it now, which really peed him off, but come on pal, you're 9 months and a new job too late! Also the cover he quoted me at £30.87 had shot up to £37.88.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Feeling really down at the moment. As I said previously the new hours came into force on Friday. It had been agreed that people could take their reduction as a block (which is what I wanted to do on a Monday) but on Friday the hospital manager decided that they now couldn't be taken as a block as too many people wanted to finish early on a Friday and if he allowed it there would be no one in after 2pm so he decided they had to be used to start later / finish early each day. It would be okay if my manager let me finish earlier, I wouldn't mind that, but I can't see her allowing that hence she will want me to start later which will be a pain in the bum. It will mean me dropping kids at school then going home for 45 minutes before setting off to work. I now have to wait until Monday to see what she wants me to do.

Secondly I'm fed up of not having any money to do anything. I often joke if I didn't have football (local team on Saturday, junior football on Sunday) I wouldn't leave the house. So in less than a month the football season will finish and I have a whole summer stretching out in front of me of sheer boredom. I opened my big gob and suggested we have a day out in Blackpool the first Saturday of football-freeness but even a tank of petrol would be £66 so most of my £193 spare would be gone.

Thirdly - making no inroads into paying off debts because the cost of living is so expensive. I'm left with £193 per month after all the shopping, petrol, bus fares, kids activities, school dinners etc are paid for, which sounds loads but of course it never is. DH has to have a new crown this week, which will be £200, so overspent this month as per usual.

Fourthly, having paid out nearly £1k for DH's college course which he has been doing for a year, he's now decided he can't face doing the second year. Basically he thought it would be a breeze, and the first few parts of it were, but now the going has got tough, he wants out. Typically he asks me what I think he should do. On one hand it'll do me no end of a favour because I wont have to fork out £120 for the months he is in college, but it's been such a waste of money on the other hand.

Fifthly, a job has come up that I feel he would be ideal for. It's back in IT doing installations for the NHS so good holidays, sick pay and pension, and it's £18100 to £21500. Will he apply for it? No. It's far too much of an effort you see. The job he is doing now, he is underpaid for, but he likes his boss, the work and the atmosphere so he wants to stay put.

Have a work related dilemma. The exact same job as mine has come up in our sister hospital. However the wage for 37.5 hours is what I was getting for 36 hours (so 30p per hour less). But the hours are negotiable. It's internal only so I can't see who would be applying for it, so I think I am in with a good chance, and it's slightly closer to home for me (5 miles instead of 8) BUT as it's on a main road the difference in petrol / time is obliterated by having to do a lot more queuing in traffic. Most attractive point of the job is not having a line manager, and being directly answerable to the assistant manager. However I really do like the girls in my office and it'd be a shame not to work with them anymore.

So there you go, sorry for whingeing but thanks if you got this far.