Snaggles's Debt Diary - Car Loan Challenge

beanielou

Sounds like a really great idea for your family Snaggles.
With the increase in finances due to tax credits you may well be surprised!
Would you consider going back any earlier as you will be leaving Natasha with your lovely other half?

Sea78

Snaggles - i think this sounds like a really good idea and you've obviously thought hard about it. When do you have to clear it with work?

Sea xxx

Snaggles

Thanks for the replies - I really hope I can make this work!

I don't want to go back to work any earlier if I can help it, and I have to admit, it's mainly because I will get SMP until January, and I sort of feel that this is the only time in my life when I will actually be paid to stay at home and bond with my children, so I really want to have the full 9 months.....but if money starts to be a problem, then yes, I would go back earlier.

As far as informing my employer, I have to give them a months notice of wanting to come back, but because I'm wanting to change my hours, the more notice I can give them, the better really. Stu's work situation looks as though it will be resolved by the end of August one way or another, as he has been told his depot is likely to close on the 24th, so once he is settled into a new job,I'll know exactly what hours I can commit to.

The other thing is, I would really like to write - I've already written some poems/short stories/song lyrics etc, and I would like to see if I have it in me to do anything more.....the thing is, how do you know if you're any good?? So I think if I wasn't so stressed out with work I could maybe pursue this???

There's a lot to think about, but I feel happier today than I have done in ages, realising I'm not necessarily trapped in my job forever.

Bunnyinthelights

Snaggles,
Why not email me a few of your stories/poems and I'll let you know what I think...not that I am somehting special but I read LOADS (and have a degree in English)

Bx

Snaggles

Oooh, thanks Bunny, I might take you up on that! I haven't got any finished stories typed up on the computer, but I have a few poems - I'll send them and see what you think. Probably just sentimental crap though, but I trust you to be honest...lol!

Edit - I've emailed you....gulp!!

ZTD

Well to cheer you up...

I saw this, and thought of you...

Snaggles

Lol Zed.....looks just like me!

How come everyone else gets your intelligent, articulate posts, and I just get a big old pair o'boobs???? :rotfl:

ZTD

Snaggles wrote: »

Lol Zed.....looks just like me!

How come everyone else gets your intelligent, articulate posts,

I did an intelligent post?! :shocked:

You jest - surely...

Snaggles wrote: »

and I just get a big old pair o'boobs???? :rotfl:

You're not called Voluptuous for nothing you know...

:kisses3:

ZTD

Snaggles wrote: »

Hellooooooo!! Sorry for not updating, I haven't had much news....lol.

:rolleyes: It's funny - but everyone says that...

Snaggles wrote: »

Anyway, just in case you were wondering (I'm sure you were :rolleyes:), we now have a shed! :T

But have you got enough rubbish to fill it? That's the important part. You can't have a shed without a half-built bicycle, half-a-dozen bricks and an unknown metal tool that was built in 1953 in order to help fill it up - it's against the laws of nature.

Snaggles wrote: »

I will take a photo when I can find my camera, but I've finally got the use of my kitchen back, so I've just celebrated by making a lovely quorn bolognaise, with loads of red wine in, and am now working my way through the rest of the bottle!

"I cook with wine. Some days I even put it in the food..."

Snaggles wrote: »

Anyway, I have made a bit of a decision today, after much soul searching. Basically I don't really like my job,

Why?

Snaggles wrote: »

but from a financial point of view I can't really leave. I have sharesaves that will, over the course of the next few years, start to make life much easier for us, and it's actually a great place to work - I just don't like the particular job I do.

Are there no other jobs where you are that you would fancy the look of? What about other branches - either closer or further?

Snaggles wrote: »

So....I'm going to cut my hours down to 16 hours per week :eek:. I'm going to see if they will let me do two evenings a week (5 hours each) and Saturday (6 hours). I think they will probably agree to this, because they are always short of people to work evenings.

The advantages will hopefully be:

I can spend more time with my family at the weekend (pre-Natasha I worked 9.5 hours on a Saturday, lunch time until late night).

We wont need any childcare at first.

If money gets tight, they are usually pretty good about letting you work more hours.

I will have more time to devote to Ryan, who I think will need me around more and more as he gets older, due to his behavioural difficulties.

During the day, I can have lots of time with Natasha, and on the evenings I'm working, Stu will be able to have a bit of time alone with the kids.

Be careful of this - there will be a tendency to "load" onto the evenings you're not working - especially when your kids get older. You and Stu don't want to become like "ships passing in the night". You're not only a mother - you're a wife too.

Snaggles wrote: »

Because I'll be free through the day, I can volunteer as a parent helper at school, to see if I like it. (I will need childcare for Natasha if I do this, but I think I would get an increase in tax credits which would help with this, and if I didn't like it, or it was too much of a strain on finances, I could give it up). I would really like to work with children, so this would be a possible way in.

Doesn't this mitigate against the advantages of cutting your hours down in the first place? i.e. not needing childcare?

Have you always had a "great urge" to work with children? Why haven't you before?

Do you really get more tax credits for volunteer work?

Burlesque_Babe

ZTD wrote: »

Well to cheer you up...

I saw this, and thought of you...

Good grief, she could take someone's eyes out with those!!
Saying that, I can't really talk