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

jwil

Have a lovely weekend and fingers crossed DH gets that extra work.

elizabethhull

Your 'secret' EF is very admirable - it would be so easy to spend up to what you have with no reserve at all.

Hping that everyone has the beautiful sunny day today, clear blue sky, cool but not cold - it just makes one feel better.

teafor2

Hi HHD I'd really make a point of occasionally not going in that early if you're not paid for it. Milann's experience is a classic example of not getting any better thought of for doing it, but somebody pulling their face when you don't.

The boy in your class sounds like somebody I was asked to look after for a week until somebody else could take over. I take my hat off to you and anybody else dealing with difficult children on a daily basis. As much as you can look back on the day and laugh about things, I was exhausted by the end of the week and glad to get back to my own job!

Is your DS part of the Uni Christmas evacuation plan? DD has been given her travelling dates but I'm not sure if it actually means her as she's not in halls and will be coming home by car? Hope you've had a restful weekend. xx

milann

Hope you’ve had a good day in work. We were restructured in the term after I started at this school and I’d had to have time off work to accompany dh to hospital appointments after a massive seizure so I was convinced I’d be going. All support staff and to have an interview - this was the term after I’d started. Anyway I suspect they already knew exactly who they wanted to relieve of their duties.....3 people went and the atmosphere was toxic....I’d overheard several conversations about some people only being there 5 minutes....should be last in first out. Don’t think I’d be so lucky if they were to do it again now 😱 So don’t be too worried you might be surprised 🤞👏👍

Willowtree222

Just caught up. You seem to be doing an amazing job with the child who needs the support. 
It's hard to get 5 minutes in a school, isn't it? Getting drinks on the go is sometimes all you get. Hope you recharged over the weekend x

HairyHandofDartmoor

beanielou said:

Have a relaxing weekend 😊

foxgloves said:

You defo deserve a restful weekend, HHoD. You've done very well to squirrel that extra money away while things are tight. A big 'well done' for that. I know you won't want to spend it, but you know it is there if you had to.
F x

Sun_Addict said:

I hope the school changes work out in your favour. Always a worry when things are being ‘restructured’.

tryingtodobetter said:

Hope you have a lovely relaxing weekend. 

Thanks all of you

HairyHandofDartmoor

jwil said:

Have a lovely weekend and fingers crossed DH gets that extra work.

elizabethhull said:

Your 'secret' EF is very admirable - it would be so easy to spend up to what you have with no reserve at all.

Hping that everyone has the beautiful sunny day today, clear blue sky, cool but not cold - it just makes one feel better.

Nicnak said:

Just caught up. You seem to be doing an amazing job with the child who needs the support. 
It's hard to get 5 minutes in a school, isn't it? Getting drinks on the go is sometimes all you get. Hope you recharged over the weekend x

Thanks all of you

HairyHandofDartmoor

teafor2 said:

Hi HHD I'd really make a point of occasionally not going in that early if you're not paid for it. Milann's experience is a classic example of not getting any better thought of for doing it, but somebody pulling their face when you don't.

The boy in your class sounds like somebody I was asked to look after for a week until somebody else could take over. I take my hat off to you and anybody else dealing with difficult children on a daily basis. As much as you can look back on the day and laugh about things, I was exhausted by the end of the week and glad to get back to my own job!

Is your DS part of the Uni Christmas evacuation plan? DD has been given her travelling dates but I'm not sure if it actually means her as she's not in halls and will be coming home by car? Hope you've had a restful weekend. xx

Thanks TF2 . It's tricky because I'm only doing cover and feel I have to go the extra mile if I want to be offered a TA job.

It is exhausting dealing with the difficult child, but I keep saying to myself it's good experience as I've never worked with a child like that before. Also if he wasn't difficult his TA wouldn't have gone part time due to stress, so it's thanks to him I'm working two extra days a week.

DS3 has a private landlord so the uni can't really control when he comes and goes. He only wants to come home for two weeks so we're planning on collecting him the day after I break up for Christmas and returning him just before I go back to school.

HairyHandofDartmoor

milann said:

Hope you’ve had a good day in work. We were restructured in the term after I started at this school and I’d had to have time off work to accompany dh to hospital appointments after a massive seizure so I was convinced I’d be going. All support staff and to have an interview - this was the term after I’d started. Anyway I suspect they already knew exactly who they wanted to relieve of their duties.....3 people went and the atmosphere was toxic....I’d overheard several conversations about some people only being there 5 minutes....should be last in first out. Don’t think I’d be so lucky if they were to do it again now 😱 So don’t be too worried you might be surprised 🤞👏👍

Thanks Milann . It's tricky for me because I don't have a TA job in the first place and I'm only doing cover. I am going to look out for other jobs now. I've been a bit scared to in the past, but my future is even more uncertain in this school now so I need to be brave and force myself to look for vaccancies (if there are any). I've got nothing to lose by looking.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Monday was okay in that nothing went wrong, but I felt very tired because of my cold and felt like I struggled to get through the day even though I was in the nice class. Yesterday morning was better as my cold was on the mend and I managed to get the difficult boy to do all his work.

I've been feeling a bit strange since the zoom meeting after work on Thursday 🙁. I feel like people at school seem to have got a bit cliquey and I feel like they're having discussions about the upcoming changes which I'm not involved in 😕. It may be because I'm only a cover TA and so I don't have a TA job to lose so they feel like they don't need to involve me in discussions. I am worried about losing my MTA job and the other MTAs are worried too, but I suppose the TAs and teachers don't think about that. Maybe I'm being oversensitive but I feel like I'm not enjoying being in school as much as I used to, so maybe there is a bit of an atmosphere and I'm not imagining it. It's probably not personal to me, it's just that I'm not in the same situation as them and that sets me apart. Maybe the lockdown and the constant rain we seem to be having isn't helping people's moods 😔.

It probably doesn't help my mood that we're down to our last £300 in the EF and so we're skint until I get paid and we can't afford to order any Christmas presents even though it's only six weeks away. Anyway we watched a soppy Christmas film last night to cheer us up and it did lighten my mood. I'm going to start putting up decorations this weekend  🎄.

I'm going to look for TA vaccancies as I have nothing to lose by looking. When I came to this school nearly three years ago I had no work experience and no relevant qualifiications. I now have over a year of TA cover experience and I have my TA qualifications, plus my experience of volunteering as a TA for two years and doing my lunch time job. I also have people I could ask for a reference. So I'm in a much better position to apply for jobs 🙂. 

Anyway I ought to start getting myself ready now as I need to leave at 11.25 at the latest for my lunchtime job. I'm in the difficult class this afternoon and I have to find time to do physical exercises with the tricky boy  plus the work he may not have done this morning.