Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

beanielou

At least you know now what is happening going forward. I think that your HT is quite right. 

enthusiasticsaver

badmemory said:

Just another interesting NI tweak which may be of use to someone, particularly an early retiree.  If you look after grandchildren & both parents are already getting NI credits from employment, then you can have their child benefit credits.

I claimed the childcare credits for 2019/2020 from my DD for looking after my grandchildren as I retired 8 years early and need to make up 4 years to get full state pension as I was contracted out for much of my working career. It worked  very well and different people can claim each year so my DDs MIL claimed the previous year. One extra year  makes a difference of almost £4 a week increase on the pension.

milann

Interesting about the staffing and children levels in your school. I was in today and there have still not made any decisions. We are actually on holiday until the 8th as we have 2 weeks at Whit (it goes way back to the mill wakes weeks when everybody took 2 weeks and the machinery was overhauled) We still don’t know if the holidays will be honoured or not. Can’t complain if they’re not as we’ve been off a good while. It’s a case of watch this space.

HairyHandofDartmoor

milann said:

Interesting about the staffing and children levels in your school. I was in today and there have still not made any decisions. We are actually on holiday until the 8th as we have 2 weeks at Whit (it goes way back to the mill wakes weeks when everybody took 2 weeks and the machinery was overhauled) We still don’t know if the holidays will be honoured or not. Can’t complain if they’re not as we’ve been off a good while. It’s a case of watch this space.

Letters were emailed to all our parents today! It'll be interesting to see how they react. It depends partly on your building and facilities. We have a small building and no spare rooms that could be used as classrooms, so that's why the HT believes we can only accommodate 6-8 children per class safely. Our rota went on all throught the easter holidays, but the HT says she doesn't want anyone to have to work over the summer holiday 😁. As you say we have had a lot of time off with our current rota though so we can't really  complain 🙂.

Willowtree222

It will be interesting and I hope you do get some extra TA work from it. DD's school have emailed saying they only will take year 6 first and key workers children. She wants to get that right before adding another year group to it. x

HairyHandofDartmoor

Nicnak said:

It will be interesting and I hope you do get some extra TA work from it. DD's school have emailed saying they only will take year 6 first and key workers children. She wants to get that right before adding another year group to it. x

Sounds very sensible.

Willowtree222

Yes, it does.
I have no idea what my school are doing. We don't have any of the year groups, but have a lot of vulnerable children. Possibly get more? I have no idea. x

Willowtree222

Thank you as well for the information on pension credits for looking after grandchildren. My  mum has been looking after my DD and nephew and has been paying top up contributions. I just googled it, checked my complete years and she can have three/four years depending on my sister. Thank you for this. I have told her she needs to get this put in asap and I will sign it for her. 
x

[Deleted User]

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

We're allowed to go to beaches ⛱ or country walks 🌳 now in England, although I'm not sure I want to unless the toilets are open as I have a weak bladder! I'm hoping NT places may open soon as they have toilets and the gardens are not normally crowded as they're members only. They said they were going to start opening their car parks from Wednesday 🙂.  

It's very odd being allowed to go to supermarkets and get quite close to dozens of strangers, walk around the streets and have people go quite close to you, being at school chatting to my colleagues and supervising over a dozen childen (trying to keep a distance but school corridors are narrow). And yet we're not allowed to see more than one family member even if we're two meters apart. It's so illogical. Government logic seems different to the logic of normal humans 🤔.

Not sure how successful you'll be finding any toilets open, HHOD!  Even if NT places open it will only be the gardens, the houses will still be closed I expect.  If the toilets are outside somewhere you may be lucky but even then, if there are a lot of visitors I wouldn't risk them myself.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Delichon said:

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

We're allowed to go to beaches ⛱ or country walks 🌳 now in England, although I'm not sure I want to unless the toilets are open as I have a weak bladder! I'm hoping NT places may open soon as they have toilets and the gardens are not normally crowded as they're members only. They said they were going to start opening their car parks from Wednesday 🙂.  

It's very odd being allowed to go to supermarkets and get quite close to dozens of strangers, walk around the streets and have people go quite close to you, being at school chatting to my colleagues and supervising over a dozen childen (trying to keep a distance but school corridors are narrow). And yet we're not allowed to see more than one family member even if we're two meters apart. It's so illogical. Government logic seems different to the logic of normal humans 🤔.

Not sure how successful you'll be finding any toilets open, HHOD!  Even if NT places open it will only be the gardens, the houses will still be closed I expect.  If the toilets are outside somewhere you may be lucky but even then, if there are a lot of visitors I wouldn't risk them myself.

Some of the NT places near me have toilet facilities in the gardens. I think if I washed my hands thoroughly afterwards and didn't touch anything on the way out I'd feel okay about using them. I'm learning not to touch my face as I have to be very careful at school so I think it's a habit I'm breaking .