monday 8th January 2007

twink

afternoon all,

sorry to hear of so many people feeling unwell and hugs to penny-pincher shingles can be very painful, i have never had them but my stepmother had them in her face
got my haircut, a new jersey for eight pound and each time they had to phone about my card, when i went to pay for my slow cooker recipe book the card was declined so had to leave the book, phoned the bank, nothing wrong with my account :mad: looked a good book too, slow cooking for yourself by catherine atkinson anyway kyle has a five pound voucher from amazon and she will have a look for the book tonight
was really slippy walking in the car park but its the only free one in town

love to all xx

dlb

Roz_V wrote:

please tell me how you manage this?! how can't you afford to work IYSWIM?

I soooo want to be a housewife (eventually a stay-at-home mum). Everyone thinks I'm loopy as I've spent the last 3 years paying for a degree - i think it's the thought of having to go out into the big wide world that's scaring me!! I have been looking at jobs today (anything to get out of writing this silly report that's due tomorrow :rotfl: ) and I feel vastly underqualified for any of the jobs I want to do as they all want "experience" :mad: how am I supposed to get this experience?

I too can`t afford to go back to work, i would need a job in school hours that paid over £200 a week after tax for me to be even slightly better off.
And i think even if i did find a job that paid this, the house and quality time with the kids would suffer, as i wouldnt get done in the day stuff i do now so would have to fit it in around evenings and weekend.

That sounds really bad when i read it back, i hope you understand what i mean.

Pooky

Roz_V wrote:

please tell me how you manage this?! how can't you afford to work IYSWIM?

I soooo want to be a housewife (eventually a stay-at-home mum). Everyone thinks I'm loopy as I've spent the last 3 years paying for a degree - i think it's the thought of having to go out into the big wide world that's scaring me!! I have been looking at jobs today (anything to get out of writing this silly report that's due tomorrow :rotfl: ) and I feel vastly underqualified for any of the jobs I want to do as they all want "experience" :mad: how am I supposed to get this experience?

It's the same for me - I'd have to earn £15k a year to have an extra £30 a week in the kitty.....by the time I'd paid for childcare before and after school and holidays, paid for transport to and from the village and allowed for clothes to work in (lets face it there's a hell of a lot you can do in your pjs but going to the office isn't one of them). I'd loose some if not all of the maintenance from my ex husband for DD's and we'd loose our child tax credits.

The worse loss of all though would be the time I'm able to devote to my family and house, I've always wanted to be at home for my children for as long as they needed me - my mother did it for me. I went without material things as a child but never lacked love or someone to play with/cook with etc...my kids have that too - I'd hate to work full time and loose all that precious time - just for the sake of £30 a week.

Incidently - that's one of the reasons we rent our house too - aside from knowing that all repairs will be undertaken by the landlord so our ourgoings per month are fixed, trying to get a mortgage on one wage now adays is pretty hopeless. I've had to make sacriifices to stay at home, but I don't regret one of them.

Roz_V

dlb wrote:

I too can`t afford to go back to work, i would need a job in school hours that paid over £200 a week after tax for me to be even slightly better off.
And i think even if i did find a job that paid this, the house and quality time with the kids would suffer, as i wouldnt get done in the day stuff i do now so would have to fit it in around evenings and weekend.

That sounds really bad when i read it back, i hope you understand what i mean.

Yeah I understand what you mean I guess it's the cost of childcare that prevents working out of school hours?

I guess I'll have to get a job and work for a bit then have kids before OH realises that life would be better if I stayed at home

Reading that back makes me sound really lazy :rotfl: but my mum went back to work really quickly after having me and I grew up with childminders etc and hated it. I know why she did it - she was/still is the main earner as my dad does a low-paying job that he loves and also spent about 2-3 months of the year as a trekking guide in India and Nepal. I hardly ever saw my mum as a kid and would hate for my children to be the same.

in case my mum/dad reads this though, I always knew that I was loved and never felt abandoned - just wished that my mum was there when I got home from school rather than going to after-school care every night

lil_me

Same for me with returning to work, hence retraining and starting a degree to go into teaching, it's just not worth returning on the wages I was on, we'd actually be worse off, there was only one child minder would take my Autistic son on and for 2 hours a night she wanted £160 a week, that was without the youngest and school holidays etc when she said she would not be able to look after them! DP also grew up being passed from one relative to another and it's not something I would like to do, or have the available family to do it. I see many older ladies around here looking after grandchildren so the parents can both work and I see them struggle so much and they are tied to it. However much they say they don't mind, you can tell it's not exactly ideal!

Like I said when his mother 'mentioned' the fact I am not working, I do not and would not dump my children on family, including when they are ill, so I could work for a small amount of money, they are my kids and I will always be able to say I brought them up. I never asked my parents or my partners, or anyone else, to look after them.

moggins

Roz, I was going to write a long reply but I think the others have put it far better than I ever could.

I have two children (one with Aspergers) amd we worked out that even if I could get a job in school hours and managed to do 25 hours per week we would only end up £300 a year better off. Add to that all the time I spend looking for bargains, cooking food from scratch, mending clothes instead of throwing them away, growing our own food etc etc we would be a lot worse off in the long run.

We do own our own house but were lucky enough to buy it 7 years ago for £32,500. It needed a lot of work (still does really) but it had 3 huge bedrooms, a cellar and 110 foot back garden. It was worth looking past the surface of this rather grotty house to see the potential.

Miss_Cinnabon

Evening all, first chance to get on here as dh has a week off, went to tesco today to pick up our free digital photos, they look great:j

Had the last of the brisket tonight, it tasted even better today:D
More bread to go on tonight as we finished it at tea, mmm

Am doing really well on my diet, am so chuffed, i am hardly hungry at all, eating regular meals though and less snacking, evenings the worst for me! bought the rosemary conley gi diet on dvd, so will tackle that soon, lost weight before on her hip and thigh diet years ago, so will give this a shot:D

Kids back to school today, so was loving the peace today:D

Xmas decs put up into loft and dusted downstairs, am going to tackle upstairs tomorrow:rolleyes: Have been feeling tired and cold today, have been a bit grumpy today as dh keeps annoying me, he walked down with me and the kids this morn and i swear i was close to losing it with him:rotfl: he just knows how to wind me up!:mad:

Anyway hugs to all
Kyle

dlb

We too moved into a grotty horrible pit of a house, im sure crazychik will back me up on this, she helped me when we moved in, it was dirty smell and down right disgusting, but as it was the only 4 bedroomed council house we were likely to be offered we took it, and after alot of hard work it has paid off.
If you can see past the mess you can turn a house into a home.;

moggins

dlb wrote:

If you can see past the mess you can turn a house into a home.;

Plus you learn a lot of useful things in the process. I would never have learned how to plaster a wall if it hadn't been for this house or lay floorboards and carpets.

Quasar

Ohhhh hello everyone

Nothing fantastic to report - today I got soaked to my bones in the rain during a transport survey...:(

But... I was a good girl and brought my own sandwich, fruit and water, so saved myself a few quid at lunch. All I need to do now is make a habit of this when I'm not lunching out on expenses.

Tonight I'll be finishing off bits and pieces of vegs: I have broccoli, carrots and sweet potatoes. I'll put them all in a pot, boil them, and have them with my grilled tofu. :drool:

I'm still trying to decide whether a slow cooker is a good idea for me or not. I need to read up about them.

Have a good evening everyone!