Second Time Lucky

debtfreeoneday

Great savings made in August.. will you get adoption leave / pay at a good rate?

Don't resign until you have to, unless you are at risk of having to pay anything back?

Have you looked at tax credits etc?

September is nearly here, hope it's an early date for you.

Hope you have nice plans now for the BH weekend!

debtfreeoneday

Just checking in and making sure you are ok x

amycool

Aw thanks dfod - just been a busy bee of late. Tuesday was the last day of holiday for most of the kids round here so the library was insanely busy and we only had 2 staff plus a casual who had never been at our branch before! I doubt he'll want to come back. I needed a restful evening after that!

I've decided not to return to work as there are so many changes going on and I can't guarantee that they will be flexible, so I'll just get statutory adoption pay. It's 90% of my pay for 6 weeks and then £139.58 a week for 33 weeks. They take tax off that though - boo! It should hopefully make the transition to one wage less painful!

I just put it through a calculator and it's about £5500, which is nice, seeing as I won't be working. I'll resign once the money stops coming.

We won't be eligible for tax credits unfortunately as OH earns too much. There's a benefit advisor at work and she was talking about it. His travel costs are very high but obviously the dwp don't take that into account! We'll be okay though - just need to be a bit more careful.

We had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend thank you! Saturday we went to Derbyshire for some walks. Unfortunately when we opened our packed lunches the bread was mouldy so we ended up sharing a pub lunch and spent about £15. It was nice though. Sunday I took advantage of the ancestry free weekend and spent a solid 8 hours researching a few lines of the family tree. I got all the way back to the 1500s on one line! Monday we spent the day with the family, which was lovely. My nephew is 4 and is so funny with some of the phrases he comes out with. It's so hard saying goodbye though as he always looks distraught. I wish they lived a bit nearer and we could see them all of the time. I did try to convince my sister to buy somewhere near us but she said it's a horrible area and she'd never want to live here! :rotfl: So tactful. It isn't horrible - it's lovely. 70s shopping precincts may not be beautiful but they're very handy - much better than a street of expensive coffee shops and bars!

My washing is ready and the sky is black...what to do, what to do?!!

I need to sponsor a friend today for a walk, then sort out the photos for printing.

I spent £20 the other night. We needed a DVD-R to put the film we made on and The Works were the cheapest place, plus they had 25% off and about 20% cashback. It was £20 for free delivery so I ended up buying loads of wrapping paper, cards, craft stuff etc. We did need most of it.

Did I mention that I'm learning to hula hoop? It turns out the hoop I have is about half the diameter it needs to be for my height, which is why it's so hard. Good for fitness though as you have to spin it so much faster. We also worked out how to hula hoop on your leg, which is hilarious. OH kept doing it whilst I tried to watch GBBO.

Driving this afternoon. Please please please let me get though one lesson without doing something stupid.

amycool

I had a very bad driving lesson today that left me in tears all afternoon and I've made a decision about my lessons. I'm not giving up for good, but for now I am throwing in the towel. I have a lesson on Monday where I'll explain that I'm taking a break.

I know that financially it's stupid as it will take ages to catch up again, but for my emotional wellbeing, I need some time out. I just can't cope with being criticised constantly for 60 minutes every week and I don't feel like I'm making any progress at all. During any one hour I am too fast, too slow, too careful, not careful enough, not looking far enough ahead, looking too far ahead, etc etc etc. I'm sure it works for some people, but my fragile self-esteem cannot cope.

The plan is to just get lots of practice with OH in nice familiar areas until my confidence returns, and then hopefully try more difficult stuff. Obviously the new addition will make this tricky, but I think it'll be easier to just leave her with family for 30 minutes at a time at first and then increase to an hour eventually. Once I get more confident she can potentially come with us. The price of the learner insurance is actually less than having weekly lessons and I know it isn't the same as proper lessons, but I think I'm going to need lots and lots of hours of practise, preferably with someone who won't point out every fault. My OH actually thinks I'm quite a good driver. Then when I feel ready, I can book a block of proper lessons to check I am test ready.

Just one more lesson to get through, which I'm hoping will be okay as I'll know it's my last.

To cheer me up, OH bought me some bright orange gerberas and a fattening chocolate cheesecake. It made me cry again of course!

debtfreeoneday

I'm sorry to hear you had such a naff driving lesson, my opinion is that you need a different instructor, you are doing really well and a decent instructor will adapt to their students - we are all different!

If you get 12 months adoption leave, take it as you continue to accrue holiday and then when you resign you can claim a years' worth of holiday pay!

You'll see the tax reduce / rebate though if your earnings go low enough!

amycool

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear you had such a naff driving lesson, my opinion is that you need a different instructor, you are doing really well and a decent instructor will adapt to their students - we are all different!

If you get 12 months adoption leave, take it as you continue to accrue holiday and then when you resign you can claim a years' worth of holiday pay!

You'll see the tax reduce / rebate though if your earnings go low enough!

That's a good tip - I hadn't thought about holidays.

I had a great instructor before but she had to quit due to ill health. Hopefully I can find another like her! We went at a slow pace but I loved the lessons.

amycool

I have made a Gas and Electric decision. I used the energy switch thing on here and discovered that if I went to non-renewable energy I could be about £100 up in a year. However, I really believe in renewable energy and want to support it, even if the government don't, and my current supplier is brilliant. The website is great and I've had no problems at all. So I've decided to stick with them for another year. I have about £400 credit now too, so hopefully that will take us through winter without having to increase payments.

That's one decision made. Just got the car insurance and boiler service to decide on now.

debtfreeoneday

Out of interest can I ask who you are with for your energy?

Muser1

Amy you need a different driving school! I know exactly how you feel mne used to have me in tears and I dreaded each and every lesson.

My oh is a driving instructor and I would have loved him to be mine! All the girls fall in love with him because he is just so lovely and patient. He knows how to get the best out of each client. You are paying them and they shouldn't make you feel like they do.

amycool

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

Out of interest can I ask who you are with for your energy?

I'm with OVO. They do have some quite cheap tariffs but we pay a bit extra for 100% renewable. They also give money to charities, which I like. And you get 3% cashback on your credit balance. The only downside is that they set your payments quite high as they don't like anyone to be in the red, but I don't mind that as I know I'm getting interest back.