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

HairyHandofDartmoor

Sunshine_girl2 said:

Glad to hear you will still have work to go to HH. Although I agree with the lockdown , the timing was awful for schools. My GKs were in school yesterday , luckily they understand why they can't go again. My DS just rolls his eyes and says Boris we can't do anything and he is the boss 😂. I am busy printing off jolly phonics worksheets for my DGD to do .
Enjoy your extra time off and keep safe . 

Thanks Sunshine . I only have my MTA job as far as I know so I'm going to lose two thirds of my income .

HairyHandofDartmoor

Fidelia said:

Must be so unsettling for school staff at the moment, my heart goes out to all of you who are involved in that line of work.  Good luck to your DH, HHoD, that some enjoyable and lucrative work comes in for him soon.  It must be a very unsettling situation for him too but then, self-employment often is at the best of times.  My late Dad ran his own business,  employing a few staff and with premises to pay for and I know what nightmares he went through during past recessions. We only discovered after he passed away that he'd released so much equity from the family home to pay his staff's wages and just generally stay afloat.  Some employees had been with him all their working lives and he felt so paternal towards them. DH was a mix of SE and a PT salaried job.  If the SE work dried up he could often 'up' his hours at the other job so we never really had to struggle too much on that score although we were never 'flush'.  He would rather have just been SE but needs must when we had a large young family. I always worked full time once our youngest started full-time school. Now DH is retired he's thankful that he stuck it out in the paid job that he didn't much enjoy because he gets a company  pension, even though not a full one, and is still able to do his SE bit knowing it isn't the end of the world financially if commissions are thin on the ground (which they currently are!).

Will your DS be able to stay at home longer than you all expected or will he be part of the phased return?  According to Michael Gove on TV this morning, I think he said students should stay put where they currently are.  Must be a massively unsettling time for students too especially as they're paying so much for very little in return..  Is your son in his final year? I've lost track of where he's up to. sorry.  Sending hugs to all your family, HH0D.  You're  coping so well with your usual cheerfulness and optimism xx 

Thanks Fidelia . I don't think DS3 is allowed to go back to uni until February but he can do his course online so it's not the end of the world. It is all very unsettling but we have to keep on keeping on.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Nicnak said:

Hope you're ok Hairy. 
We've been told that in my setting we're now also responsible for supervising the students testing themselves. Not looking forward to that one x

Thanks Nicnak . EEK to having to supervise testing!

HairyHandofDartmoor

mummytogirls said:

Glad to hear you feel safe in your job at school with less children HHOD. I think we got our letter out earlier than others last night as it went without a hitch. The system spent all morning crashing though, absolute nightmare!!!! xx

Thanks MTG . It's only my MTA role that is safe. I've got a feeling they'd have told me by know if they'd wanted me to do TA cover , but I'm going to ring them in the morning and ask.

I'm glad your letters were able to go out. I had an email at lunchtime about my MTA role so at least they were able to email staff, which was more than they could do last night!!!

beanielou

Hope you get at least some TA cover.

Sun_Addict

Fingers crossed you get some TA cover. Hopefully schools won't be closed for too long and you can get back to your normal working pattern. Still a pain though.

HairyHandofDartmoor

beanielou said:

Hope you get at least some TA cover.

Sun_Addict said:

Fingers crossed you get some TA cover. Hopefully schools won't be closed for too long and you can get back to your normal working pattern. Still a pain though.

Thanks both of you

HairyHandofDartmoor

I rang school this morning and they said if you love us then carry on doing what your were doing last term. So I'm keeping my TA cover 🎉🎉🎉👏👏👏 . I couldn't sleep last night I was so disturbed about it all so I wish I'd rung yesterday!

I should have asked how many children will be attending. I think the key worker criteria has widened so we may have more children than in the March lockdown. Also teachers have more pressure to put even better online learning in place, so they may need the TAs to do more teaching perhaps. I'm delighted anyway as I need the money 😁. Less children will mean less exposure to infection for me, so it's good all round. I'll have to get used to working in a mask all day which will feel uncomfortable at first but will hopefully give me some protection 😷.

I feel sad about the children who can't come, as the staff have worked hard to help some of them catch up with their learning and I've seen them make real progress in catching up. They may slip back a bit now, but the staff will work hard when they come back to help them catch up again. My school used funding from the government to hire a teacher for a year specifically to assess childen and then help them catch up with their phonics and literacy and I could see she was making a difference and real improvements in the children. I know the children will miss their friends too, but hopefully it will only be until half term.

If DH gets in some of the work he is hoping to then I want to try and save as much of my wages as possible. We live fairly frugally and lockdown will help with that! All this has shown me how insecure our financial situation is and we need a big EF to give us peace of mind.

DS2's birthday is coming up next week so we've ordered him some presents and I'll get a birthday cake in for him and perhaps a takeway that evening, but apart from that I want to economise like mad and save as much money as possible. I'll put most of my wages in our main EF and squirrel about £100 a month into my secret EF. It's not that I dont' trust DH, but if he knows we have another EF he may be less frugal, because frugal living is not easy. So if I have a secret EF he will feel poorer and will live more frugally. Then one day I can surprise him hoepfully 🙂. Or if anything should happen to DH it would give me a buffer for a while. 

I hope everyone in diaryland has a good Wednesday 🙂 .

foxgloves

Oh HHoD, I am so pleased you have got your TA cover role back. What a help that will be financially. I think living frugally defo has it's downsides, but if it enables saving, that is a good trade-off. Savings = a greater feeling of security, which has to be a bonus in these dreadfully uncertain times. I can really understand your reasoning regarding the secret savings pot. May it conrinue to grow. Even a little bit more, say £25 a month is £300 extra this time next year, either to throw at a domestic emergency, or hopefully to sit there untouched where it can continue to grow.
Fair play to you, m'dear, 
F x

elizabethhull

Great news about your TA work! They obviously DO appreciate you, even though you've sometimes not been sure.

My 'secret' savings not so secret as DH, previously an accountant specialising in tax, does my tax return and I have to declare all savings ! But knowing more than one marriage where the husband controls the access to money, I'm a big fan of people, especially women, maintaining their own emergency funds.