How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

jediteacher

Not been on for a week as have struggled to do anything this week - only eight weeks to go before little one makes an appearance. I have my scan today to see how the amniotic fluid is doing and how baby is growing. Consultant on Wednesday and physio on Thursday. Might as well move into hospital at this rate!

Wasn't overly spoilt yesterday - my hubby is not great with these events and I have to say it use to upset me but not anymore. It was the way he was raised by his own parents so sees nothing wrong. I did get a card and some flowers but most importantly I managed to spend a lovely day with hubby and my little girl with no arguments and a very chilled out day.

Anxiously waiting for this evening as today is primary school allocation day. I have applied as first place the school at which I work as we do go to church there (I teach in a CofE school) but do not live in the catchment area. Unfortunately in these cases (as my hubby says) I know too much about the primary education system and I can see behind the jargon and the front that is presented and I've been very picking as to where I want my little girl to go. I know not everyone has this advantage and I have to say the majority of schools are great but not where I actually live. Anyway, we will just have to wait and see.

Mrs VG our neighbours from hell eldest child kept coming into our garden whilst we were out and it really freaked me out. That was until the day I actually caught him at it (he was checking out what we had and we have learnt he does this before he breaks in to sheds etc and steals stuff) and putting on my scariest teacher voice told him in no uncertain terms that I would not tolerate this behaviour and I would be taking it further. I then marched him to his house and confronted his father and told him that if I ever saw or heard about his son anywhere near my property I would take the matter much further - funnily we've not had trouble with him again. However, we have also put up a fence and blocked the entrance to the garden. It is a horrible feeling knowing someone has been snooping around on your property and I really feel for you.

Enough rambling. Going to try and get some laundary sorted and tidy my bedroom as it looks like a bomb site!

Hugs to all who need them.

GettingItRight

My mother is teaching me how to sew, as I always need to hem my trousers by one inch for work. This should save me about £21 in total every year or at least £7 each time with a tailor.

mardatha

I'm lucky too Ilona, I just scraped in, being born in the last week of 1949. I stopped work at 55 and cannot imagine working on further. And it makes me so bloody mad that people with ME will now be forced to work on too. I know for a fact that people will die because of this, who otherwise would've had a long and happy retirement. Never heard anything about MP's pensions or retirement age though eh ?
Things are certainly getting tougher all the time - thank god for this forum :A You're all providing a much-needed lifeline :T

kidcat

BIg day here today - we are told that today we will finally get a decision rom the mortgage company - its killing me waiting to hear though. Patience was never a strong point for me.

Got stuff to do though - going to start the packing and have some seedlings planted last week that need moving up to small containers already (they have pushed the lids off the container!!)

Retirement age I am ignoring - its already 68 I think for me and I do believe that will rise before I get there. My mum was lucky enough to be able to retire at 61 - she could have retired at 60 but chose to work one more year. I am telling my kids to choose jobs they want to do - and to get as many skills as they can - I figure that if they can transfer jobs at least they wont get too bored/fed up. BUt realistically the way jobs are - I can see my kids being thirty odd before they manage to get a job - thereby shortening their working lives. An unfortunate byproduct of lengthening retirement is that there are less jobs for the younger of society - so effectively we will be working less in youth and more into old age - which seems slightly skewed to me.

Winged_one

Arghhh, I have just done my accounts for the first time in a cuple of months (I knew I was in the red, just afraid to look at it). I still have a bunch of bills to pay, and running forwards, really shouldn't spend anything on food for the next month. I'm going to put my med insurance refund straight into the credit card, which will reduce the balance on that somewhat (I used to pay it off in full every month until last autumn, when DH's accident and the building work combined to put me overdrawn).

It could be worse, and I know I WILL pay it off, but it's annoying and worrying me at the minute. And I needed to spend more in the garden centre at the weekend on compost and garlic, but I know that those little spends will result in a lot less spending later in the year when I start harvesting (I am putting a lot of effort into the veg plot this year). Luckily, DD has stopped growing again for a little bit (so doesn't need loads more clothes again), and I must get my medical expenses tax back (found all the paperwork this weekend and will do that this week).

*Chattie*

ceridwen wrote: »

Actually GreyQueen - I am convinced the only reason there IS still a fixed State Pension Age that is set for us all (at whatever age) - rather than that "work till you are too ill to do so" scenario is because the powers-that-be know that even those of us who are responsible/prepared to work to "pay our way" would put our foot down and simply refuse to "be responsible" any longer and would join the F*ckless Minority and said powers-that-be certainly don't want more intelligent/articulate/presentable type people joining forces with the F*ckless Minority - because the whole of Society would come pretty promptly to a crashing halt if we refused to "Be Responsible" anymore and had the articulacy/determination to use the law if need be/presentableness that we would come over pretty darn well if up against the authorities;):D

and those who are responsible/articulate and presentable but not able to work, they are all the f eckless minority are they?

There is nothing articulate about the above post you really need to stop watching Jeremy Kyle and put your prejudices to one side.

reet

maryb

I've been whingeing gently about the pension age thing for months because I realised straight-away that I would be affected because I used to work in a field where I needed to understand pensions. I wrote to my MP last October complaining and got an anodyne letter back which was a cut and paste job from the press releases. I felt like writing back and saying I was as capable as he was of reading the Treasury press releases.

What really irked me was that it was announced at the same time as a deal for civil servants whereby in return for giving up rights to massive redundancy payments they would be entitled to retire from 50 onwards and take their accrued pensions with no reduction for early payment. Now, in itself, I can see that it was better value for the taxpayer. But I was infuriated when a Treasury spokesman justified it on the grounds that older employees should be protected because they would not have sufficient time to make good any changes.

How they could make a statement like that in the same week they announced the change which would hit women aged 56/57 with a double whammy I just don't know. It makes you think the Cabinet either don't know what they are doing or they do know and don't care. And on the basis that I believe the Treasury is as well staffed with highly intelligent and capable civil servants as ever it was I'm rather inclined towards the second

mardatha

"they do know and don't care."
**************
Abso bloody lutely... that's the one !

BitterAndTwisted

Yep! They will be able to make any swingeing cuts to anything they like and pass it off as more of that "we're all in it together" crud. Just watch and weep

Larumbelle

I can see both sides. The pension system was never designed to cope with people living 5 years past their retirement age, let alone 20 or 30 years. I'm not saying the raising of the age is a good thing, but I don't really know what alternative there is? I know it sucks to have your retirement age changed when you're close to it. I fully expect the state pension to have disappeared entirely by the time I am supposedly able to claim it at 68. At the end of the day all you can really do is carry on as you were, hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

The thing that bothers me the most is that they're on a constant mission to get people off benefits into NON-EXISTENT jobs. With the retirement age raised that means there will be fewer vacancies. But at the same time the government is neurotic about getting incapacity claimants back in to jobs and lone parents back into jobs. I don't like the idea of people scrounging, but WHERE ARE ALL OF THESE JOBS? If there aren't enough jobs for those actively looking for work already, and there won't be enough for all of the civil servants who are being 'downsized' then there certainly aren't enough for all the people being transferred to JSA from other benefits.
The groups being cracked down on most are those already facing the biggest 'barriers to employment' which I believe is the buzz term. The disabled and long term sick, the young, the old, the inexperienced, the poorly skilled... who wants to give these people jobs?
I have a disability, though I admittedly haven't claimed benefits, and even though it 'usually' has no effect on my ability to work, I still find it hard to find an understanding employer who'll take a chance. In fact, I used to work for DWP and they forced me out!!! So when I see about incapacity crackdowns it really makes me laugh. Who are all these mythical employers with loads of vacancies and no prejudices against people who are disabled or long-term sick? Even DWP themselves decided it was too much of a faff to employ me!

Do you want to know something depressing? My place recently took on part-time summer temps at around £7.50 per hour. We had well over 100 applications per vacancy, including from people from over 50 miles away. And we only placed one tiny advertisement in one local paper.