Guess who got the Fathers Day Card.....

I have a naff one up and up boss - senior level not direct boss who is fab. Really silly chap and very sneaky. likes to use big silly words -sometimes out of context and just for effect. He is infuriating and the source of much stress to all. Sigh on the up side its great working at the land based industries campus - agricultural college type out in the kind of sticks!!!  Appears more remote than it is!! Lots of lambs abound in the fields lining the drive which is very pleasant.


Other than that - tried the sun dried tomato ladder bread yesterday - oh delicious and went well with the pizza we had.  Left overs for today's lunch! Popped to a friends after work with weeny girl so that we could have a brief catch up then home for quick tea and bed.  Biggles called round - 8pm ish. Weeny still up.


At nursery they were making fathers day cards. She decided at nursery that her card was for Biggles....  for Fathers day. SHE decided. I have no influence on this.  Funny - Her choice says a great deal.  The nursery workers explained that it was her choice and as they know I am single mum with a long term relationship also found it a bit amusing.  Biggles was most touched by weeny's gesture... something he didn't think he would ever receive/experience.
Bless them both.  Yes we are trying to extend the pack but being 1.5 years off 40 ...its not so easy.

Ho hum Camping prep tomorrow night before the big trip!!!  Dead excited. We have trialed the tent!!! All equipment present and correct just need clothes to pack and some gas


See soon!!

Pit Stop!!!

Am really enjoying this planning stage at work for the student advice and mentoring service. My boss is lovely and very encouraging. Also happy that I can help with the pastoral fire fighting -I can deal with homeless teenagers and other crisis that  occur from time to time. gammon round split with weeny girl for tea with baked spuds and veg. She has fallen asleep in her clothes again. So up early again tomorrow. 

My house is horrendous and really needs tidying, cleaning etc with this weekends jaunts I may get back in on Sunday and hopefully get time to clean it and have a rest before Tuesday and work again. I am collecting my dear old demented mother and sister ( not demented) from airport and depositing in new care home. This involves a trip to Edinburgh then Ayr then Fife then back to Northumberland.  I may have some time the weekend of the Royal Wedding!!!!  Prob friday for cleaning and barbecue - will buy patriotic crap for Weeny girl as she has been learning about weddings at nursery and wants me and Biggles to get spliced. Ha we have both been spliced before and once bitten lol!!!!
This evening I fully intend on watching all the crap TV I have bt visioned. And may eat some choc and finish off a bottle of wine.
 April it is not maybe May ................ sigh lol

Update and ponderings!!!

Work is fine - all good - will one day have three staff on term time contracts- Ha ha will be negotiating  a term time only contract or may be term time plus once the service is set up and working well.  Its fine so far. Benefits include local gov pension scheme, possible flexi when justifiable of course. I have a perm desk, access to a kitchen at lunch time and am miles away from the shops so no lunchtime spends ! I start at 9 finish at five - 1 hour or there abouts for lunch as and when needed. Will plan on taking less when project actually starts. I can then wrack up flexi to take during the holidays - hopefully anyway.

Was watching super scrimpers and apparently Child tax credit will only pay a max of £122.50 pw for child care - generally a decrease from 80% to 70%!!!!  My child care will be £145 pw so I need to add 22.50 per week to child care bill. That uses up child benefit and also  some of the child tax credit that I may get. If am lucky may have £10 extra to keep gorgeous one on!!!  Could be worse - might not get a thing and be stuck not even able to contemplate working! Thankful for small mercies.


I am undecided whether to focus on mortgage or pension ( once I sell the house) I am 38. I have a small child (3). I have a mortgage not due to be paid off till I am nearly 65 . Do I sell the sodding house, rent and focus on making extra pension payments??? I cannot do both on my poxy wage. It is still 7k less than my pre redundancy salary - I didn't top 30k shall we say. I am probably with maintenance making around 21k now with additional commuting costs so its very tight and I am still balancing on a high wire rather precariously. I am now hoping that the house will sell before the car goes splat. I still intend on applying for another PGCE for next year. Buy and rent maybe who knows.  Its rather depressing having your salary reduce by such an amount at 38 with out having the payoff of working less or actually needing less having paid off bills, debt etc

I get a bit jealous when I see peers moving on careerwise or getting paid more to do jobs much simpler than mine. Ie they are overpaid and work for the local authority - yes some people are over paid who work for LA's. Its phenomenal!!! Senior support assistant on 29k on a non pro rata term time contract!!!!  without any specific training  or any sort of qualification such as a foundation degree or level 3 qualification in learning support. Shocking really - am sorry they can work full time for that. An LSA does not take work home with them not enough to justify that salary! More than plenty teachers get with less responsibility.oh well suppose its special needs. hmmmmm

Back to full time work from tomorrow!!!

Ok I start my new temporary maybe permanent job tomorrow - I look forward to it!!! Today was horrible - rain and dull and cold till late afternoon. We spent the day inside - still tired from the weekends adventures - Weeny girl had an afternoon snooze as did I - we ventured forth at half four! Forgot about the bank and didn't get to town until after bank closing time so will have to try and fit  that one in again - oops. Also forgot the library books but did manage to take the glass to the bottle bank and  vacuum out the car as well as take Biggles stuff to the alterations place. Other than that accomplished zilch - no frantic cleaning of the house no ironing and cannot be bothered to start now - We did watch Harry Potter  2 from the sofa and have a leisurely lunch and the obligatory lie in this morning particularly so as the weather was pants pants pants!!!

Lunch was baked potatoes with cucumber, tomatoes, grated carrot and cheese coleslaw ( home made)  for me and plain cheese for weeny girl.  I have left over colesaw for to tomorrows lunch. Tea was lentil soup and homemade bread- Weeny girl got her 3-£1 sweets from the pound shop earlier so twix it was for pudding for her!The other evils are in the cupboard for another day (smarties and frutellas I think).


We will take  the Easter crafts to Mother Biggles house to do on Saturday. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we will be able to play outside in the garden. I do need to purchase Weeny girl some cheap summer sandals! I go for cheap - around £7 I think I paid last year as they only have to last the season! I do not buy Clarke's sandals just shoes- so we may fit in a small shopping trip in Sheffield.  I have an Easter bonnet for her to decorate and also some eggs - plastic ones.

Will be early to bed tonight and will not forget to charge my phone or set my alarm . Weeny girl needs to be at nursery for 8am sharp to enable me to get to work for 9am. I should make it with plenty time to spare. Its a trial run kind of although have travelled this way many a time before.

Food crops a sown!!

We got messy yesterday and have planted ( in pots due to the cat poo issues)  carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, kale, spinach, radishes. I hope to add tomatoes and potatoes and a few others to this if I can get my skates on and recycle the bags for life I have collected and acquire more compost. My garden is a cat toilet so everything is in bags/pots. We also popped in some sunflowers and some cheap pansy flower type things and heather. Hoping the red currant tree will be bountiful as well. I have rhubarb but its in the grown and very close to the car turd central so will give that a miss this year ( every year so far) Shame as its looks fab. I hack it to bits on a regular basis as it grows so so well.

Car had to have some work and then was serviced. I have paid the over payment from DWP. Only the loan to go and then the proper frugal plan can begin!!!  Save for christmas ( not that I spend a great deal anyway), pay off credit card, save for car expenses on going, save in general and  repay in small amounts the loan from la famille. 

Decorating house  but thats dead cheap as I only do magnolia and white. I have most of that in the house anyway. I do need some red step paint, wood stuff for the fence, outdoor white paint for wooden bits as well. Though I could just paint the white shed bits green lol might look a bit rank but it saves money.

Second last day at work today!!! New job Tuesday. Still a bit down about not doing PGCE but I kind of knew that it wouldn't be possible without selling the house and no sign of any interest let alone a potential sale.  Car needs a good clean and I have some recycling to do. I feel this may be a job for Monday! Recycle bottles and trip to the car wash. I do not have a hose or outside water source that I could use to wash the car which is a real pain. Its a pain watering plants outside filling up the watering can and trailing back and forth.I do put out buckets and containers to catch rain water - not that I am on  a meter but lazy and why not recycle water!!! 

I love spring and am glad I have planted. I stopped composting last year thinking that I would have sold the house by now. Sods Law!!! I really should do stuff to tempt fate more often. Maybe I need to get rid of all the baby things in the house..... lol  To plant a garden is to plan for tomorrow.

One down two to go!!

One day at work down!! Start new job next week on Tuesday! More than I thought but not quite 20k year. Am on 23.5k but pro rata for part time three days. I cannot wait!  Will have to do some tax credit wrangling and council tax and re calculate budget but ho hum such is life.  Lots to do tomorrow - regards the paying of bills. Tonight I have the joys of beef salad with chilli sauce ( sweet chilli dipping sauce) The weeny girl will go for tuna probably which we will recycle for lunch tomorrow. The European ironing mountain also beckons as does some planting of seeds. DO I invest in compost... probably yes. Only 2.25 a bag and I will spread it about a bit. Any tips on anti slug treatment much appreciated. I think you can use coffee grounds and remnants from a cafetierre not that I drink proper coffee.

Need to work on the budget tomorrow. Tax credits have decided that I am not entitled to the full amount for child care this month only £185 leaving a deficit of 200 to pay. Grrrrrr I will discuss my position with them tomorrow. Sneaky gov cuts!!! Will only pay a max of  70% of all child care which is pants. Basically I get nowt from any  WTC or CCT as it all goes towards child care. Am hoping that the new bill will be covered.  Up to £540 a month from next week. Eeek may have to eeek out some more!!!

Pink Cowboy boots and an over payment but not in a good way !!!

Good news or bad news first....??? hmmm
Ok when I was signing on they over paid me by £420. Boo - I have it and can pay it. Such is life- No arguing with HMRC/ benefits agency. Just puts debt plan back a bit.

As regards money I need to contact tax credits on April 1st ( fools day and contacting HMRC.... This has to be funny) change details for job, update claim to to be judged on what I am earning this year and take account of change in wages,hours and child care. Will wait with baited breath as per the outcome!!!

Have put notice in at work and start new job in a fortnight!!! Eeek back to full time!!!! but maybe in time If I do not go to uni I can wrangle 30 hours a week or term time only with a bit extra in order to do the job properly.

On a lighter note..........

Perusing the Whitley bay charity shops supposedly only for a look I came across my stockpiling kiddies clothes bargains - not breaching the £2.00 rule and all for 4-5yr olds (- I collect a year in advance)

Shirt dresses  for £1.25 each ( x2 ) one 'ecru/stone whatever' and one a wine purple colour, a funky M&S top for 50p and a brand new never been worn purple and lighter purple style dress for 50p. The best bargain of all were Dusky pink cowboy boots - brand new never been worn perfect size 8 for £1.00.

Dresses - Primarni - I wouldn't pay full price for Primarni, Funky Top M&S, Other Dress unknown!

She loves them to bits. I wouldn't ever have considered purchasing these full price as they are incredibly impractical and a silly design and colour for children's shoes but for £1.00!!!!!!! And she so does enjoy dressing up!!!  Mummy got a ring to make up for the stress of the repayment issue.

Dusky pink suede type cowboy boots!!! My ring - just plastic  and cheap tin but I like the chunky green /black swirly bits!

  Watching Scooby Doo!

Well even the RSPCA Charity shop is catching onto the vintage thing - More miserable children seen - a set of four at £4 each!  Not likely!!!  So not just fashion but home wares too are victim to the Charity shop book. Vix I do believe you will have a veritable miserable children antique collection in a few years- highly sort after and worth much more! 

XXX

Sleepy Thursdays and TGI Friday.........

Finished days at school - all went fine - have some research and finishing prep to do. Good news have been offered said job at the local FE college so have accepted and need to hand notice in on Monday!!!!!!!  whay hey - Money not great and I will be working full time again but at least when I come home I can focus on the small child properly rather than be stressed about targets, doing crappy admin that I should be able to do during work hours and not rely on my personal broadband connection!!! Its more money but still nothing close to the previous salary  or the hourly rate I am on working part time and I will be travelling everyday but  its not a horrendous target driven job and I am no longer Pauline from the League of Gentlemen!!!! yay No more ''Pens are our friends Mickey love''

Treated oneself to a a necklace and two flowery tops - no labels in them just liked them. All second hand!!!

Me and weeny  girl will be shed and gardening tomorrow and maybe some hand/finger/foot painting!!!

Fell asleep early yesterday - We went to bed early to snuggle! We are off to bed again now after the Friday ritual of  Doctor Who!  Biggles keeping the terrorists away this weekend monitoring the skies for threats and erratic plane type things. Thai curry tomorrow - love it and Sundays dinner on ... you guessed it Sunday all made with Lidl produce and cheapies!!! Ok not the green curry paste or coconut milk but they were bargains too!
PGCE interview next Wednesday see if I get in then see if I can do some financial wizardry and house renting to actually finance the damn thing!

Enjoy the weekend Bloggers!!!!

A much happier Eeek