I am singing the age old song "I'm so broke, I'm so broke, lalala brainstorm ideas please" <jazz hands>

[TwllBach]

I work 21 hours a week, the occasional stint of over time but it is a seasonal business so the period for over time is pretty much dead and gone now until May next year. I am accepting all over time that I can do, BUT

DS is 2. The only family we have nearby are his 70 year old GPs (my PIL) who have a flippant disregard for his food intolerances. They have had him pretty regularly over the summer as DP runs his own business and his busy season is then too. I would say 3 weeks out of 4, last night included, he comes home and ends up screaming through the night because of what I can only assume is stray gluten from his GPs (he has a gluten intolerance.)

DP often works away from home, which is incredibly inconvenient as I work two early morning shifts during the week. DP drops DS off at nursery those mornings as I have to leave for work at 6.45am and nursery opens at 8am. I have had to swap shifts numerous times already, including this week, because I have no way of getting DS to nursery if DP is working away. The lady I swap shifts with is getting a bit bored of doing so.

ANYWAY, I earn less than £200 a week and I honestly, honestly do not fritter my money. It goes on petrol, food (VERY expensive for a toddler with a gluten intolerance despite the fact that I cook all meals from scratch.) and bills. I still come out at a loss every week and it is unsustainable.

Realistically, there is no point in me getting a full time job because DS would have to be in full time nursery to accommodate DPs job and the short notice work that he can get away. I only contribute to half the bills atm, not towards DPs mortgage. I don't have regular subscriptions apart from to Spotify (£10 a month) and I use that every day so am loathe to cancel.

What I need is a job I can do from home as well as my current so I don't incur any childcare costs.... any ideas??

Any languages?

Post a new thread in 'the staffroom' about tutoring agencies and get on board with a good one that wil take skype tutors.

No... I did German to GCSE level but that was 15 years ago. I wonder if I could teach English as a second language via skype...

This might not answer your question but if I were in your shoes there’s no way DS would be going to those GPs again
Hope you find an answer to your money issues. You’ve got a good positive attitude and am sure you’ll figure it out.

You'll need decent equipment. If you pay for superfast broadband/good laptop/headphones it all might be reclaimable against tax. Not sure about that though.

Butterfly I would have to quit my job for that to happen, and as much as I want to, it just isn't possible. In Wales I can claim JSA without having to prove I am job hunting until DS is 2.5, but he is 2.5 in November so...

What has DP done about his parents?

Could you perhaps lie about the prepared food and say DP prepared it - have him phone them and go through the whole lunch box carefully, entreating his mum to please feed it to him as he has worked SO hard cooking and preparing it?

DP is pretty guilty of not being careful with gluten as well, eg buying fucking oat milk thinking DS can have it because it is from the 'Free From' section or giving him black pudding over a period of three days and being very upset when I pull him up over it because 'how am I supposed to know?' WELL YOU ASK!! Or check the ingredients. It's ridiculous, given that DP has a pretty scary allergy with an ingredient that is hidden away in lots of things - the sort of allergy that needs an epipen - and I have seen him be very forthright with his DM when he found it in the ingredients of something she had served up (something that was gluten free for DS, funnily enough) so he should be shit hot about things like this.

There is no point in my lying about prepared food etc. They don't really believe in food intolerances, they absolutely believe that there is some sort of god given grandparental rights and I think they secretly believe they are better parents than I am. The back story between PIL (particularly MIL) and I is for a whole other thread, but she and I don't really see eye to eye.

Having said that, DS loves his GPs and I am glad for him that he has some around, as mine were either dead or 200 miles away when I was his age, as my DM is 200 miles away from him. It's just a shame they can't get it right.

FWIW, I don't believe they are actively feeding him stuff with gluten in, I think they don't watch him closely enough and he picks up dog/cat biscuits or grabs one of their biscuits when they aren't looking.

Ok, really not selling your dp here... leaving him aside...

Frankly, you strike me as a person who undersells themselves. Please go to a tutoring agency at least for the first year, and let them do the selling. Use that time to work out how many subjects you can offer. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to tutor in German, at least at primary/prep level. I'd imagine English and maths would be your bread and butter though. I would read up on syllabi for prep school entrance at 7 maybe. Also, any SEN experience?

I did once tutor a girl (while I was training) who had come over from Russia and needed to learn English. She was only young, but it was great fun!

I currently have all sorts of threads Annandale about trying to feel better about myself etc so you aren't wrong about underselling.

I don't have any particular SEN experience outside of what an average class teacher would have, so a fair amount of hands on experience with children on the spectrum and children with speech and language delays, as there seemed to be a growing number of them coming up year on year. I spent most of my time as a nursery teacher though, so age definitely plays a factor in the speech department!

Do you have any skills that you could sell on something like PeoplePerHour?

If you have a degree you can tutor most things - I know several degree students who help GCSE students in their own subject.

You just get the syllabus & keep one step ahead of what the student needs to improve on. Not being deceitful, it's giving the student the time as much as anything, the 1:1 is invaluable in any subject to help make things click. You tell the parents your qualifications & whst you are prepared to offer & they accept on those terms. Set up a FB page offering your services & a few cards in shop windows - word will get out.
Not sure what the going rate is for tutoring round you but we paid £20ph for DD 10 years ago & she had a brilliant language tutor - all done via Skype, we bought the books she advised & payment was by paypal so easy to sort..

Is it £200 per week you need to cover or per month.?

Dory even an extra £10 a week would make a difference atm. I get paid weekly so at the end of the month when the bills come out it's always a huge shock to the system because I never learn and then I never quite make it back to the black before the end of the next month.

I only started back at work in March so it has been a bit of a rocky few months. The last few years have been similar, to be fair.

I'm not sure about PeoplePerHour, I'll check it out! I tried to get myself on Fiverr as I have done a bit of editing work before now, but I genuinely tried 5 times over a period of about a week, and it wouldn't load!

OK sounds like you need to do a budget plan too, it can really help.