The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Jazee · 5 May 2019 at 10:53AM

Deeply ulp, thanks both for your comments .

I haven't asked about pay yet. I want to feel I'm doing this new role for all the right reasons and as you say, don't want to seem undignified.

We have the income from my part time job and the first thing I did this morning was to see how much DH needs to earn going forward to be able to have a decent but frugal life. 30 hours a week on £10 an hour should do it!

I have a huge stash of tea so I'll be ok. DH drinks to excess but that is because the job is so stressful- 70 hour weeks are not unusual and he just looks ill now- so I think he will try to knock that 9n the head.

Only an hour till I find out if he's gone ahead.

If so his last pay will be beginning of June.

DigForVictory · 5 May 2019 at 5:45PM

Googling council pay, you appear to be joining just as a 2% pay rise is in progress, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to ask a union rep to explain what these new scale points mean.

With luck you can then get a brief on when you’ll actually get paid - the new hire admin & all its attendant paperwork presents a good opportunity to say “I was thinking of switching my current account but don’t want to get it wrong - what day do we get paid on?”

Then there is the ever popular travel & subsistence - ask under what circumstances are you allowed to claim for your personal vehicle & on what form - you’ll probably get a weblink to an intranet page but you can usually look around from that.

Just take your own mug, teabags, milk & biscuits for the first day. Figure the tea club politics when you are not gasping for a brew! If this gets you a “thoroughly prepared” reputation, there are worse vices. Plus you can offer novel biscuits in recognition of useful info. Who you know (& which biscuits they have a soft spot for) will get you through all sorts of complexities.

DigForVictory · 7 May 2019 at 9:17PM

Here's a lopsided bit of prepping - sons asked what was I doing - "reading up on intestacy" "is what?" - brief explanation that if he goes under a bus tomorrow without a Will he dies intestate & we his parents get all his kit & all his savings.

If we've died, his brothers get it.

And if one of them goes under a bus, he and remaining brother inherit, But It Is All Better With A Will.

I think I have just made sure that he doesn't shove a brother under a bus for a few more years. He may even make a Will! How did he get out of school, not knowing what a Will is and what intestacy is?

jk0 · 7 May 2019 at 10:33PM

DigForVictory wrote: »

How did he get out of school, not knowing what a Will is and what intestacy is?

Probably thought it was a man born without testicles.

thriftwizard · 8 May 2019 at 8:13AM

Can't emphasise enough that a Will is a very sensible bit of prepping! If only to stop the nastiness that somehow comes out when people think they're entitled to a share of the "goodies" whether there actually are any or not! One of my neighbours is currently embroiled in a long-running dispute with a bunch of remote cousins who can't seem to grasp that big houses cost a lot of money to run, even when emptied for sale (and they don't sell quickly) and that several years in a (specialist) care home don't come cheap either. The only people getting rich are the lawyers; if her mother had left a will, it'd all have been done & dusted in a couple of months, and said cousins hadn't troubled themselves to come & see the old lady in decades.

DigForVictory · 8 May 2019 at 7:05PM

jk0 wrote: »

Probably thought it was a man born without testicles.

No, thanks to Game of Thrones they are disconcertingly clear on both elective & non-elective orchidectomies. Their translation of "born without testicles" is 'female'. The shrewder sons add "But be careful".

Can't imagine why they feel a warning is indicated.

herbily · 8 May 2019 at 9:02PM

Jazee wrote: »

I haven't asked about pay yet. I want to feel I'm doing this new role for all the right reasons and as you say, don't want to seem undignified.

If you're a councillor (congratulations, by the way) you should be able to find a section on your council's website that says "Member allowances" or something similar, councils are supposed to publish this. There's a base allowance, and then if you get asked to sit on any committees you may get extra for being on the committee. It really varies by council, but a search on the website should at least tell you what they paid last year.