Amazing April Austerity.

[CremeEggThief]

Hi All,
Taking the liberty of starting a new thread, as I went to post spends on the old one and it's full.

We had a lovely day out at the seaside and visited an old lighthouse as part of it. As we rely on public transport, that's always a big part of our days out spend.
£9.60 bus fares.
£9.60 train fares (with the family railcard).
£6 lunch from Sainsburys ( £3 meal deal each).
£4.50 entrance to the lighthouse.
£7.10 coffee, hot chocolate and cookies in a café afterwards.

Oh and DS needed a haircut, which I think was £6.50.

Fluffy, I've just downloaded Shoptize too now, you ought to be proud

NSD hopefully. Inset day here too.

Em my DH works in Canary Wharf and stays there a lot and is happy with it.

I lost you all.

2 work leaving do's this week, so not likely to be a very frugal week. Seem to have spent all the money I'd saved into categories in YNAB over the last month too. So will have to try and build those up again.

In better news, there's overtime at work this week and I've been offered extra hours permanently (probably).

Off to catch up with the rest of the thread now.

Fluffy yes the new house should be super economical, it is gas central heating but apparently has solar panels as well (I think all south facing new builds have to have them?) I only have the one storage heater on and turned that down to 3, don't think it is warm enough to turn it off completely yet.

That said the new house has an electric oven I think have always had gas ovens before so hoping that won't be mega expensive. My gas usage is really low, I think that only costs £8 a month but the electric at the moment is about £80 a month

I turned everything off last night and also decided I would only use the washing machine on the quicker, low temp cycle for a bit! Now am going back to work will be out of the flat more so won't be making so many cups of tea etc.

Dd went back to school today, felt a bit teary as lovely she is all better but I'm really going to miss her

girlie good luck for DD today at school! Bless her little heart .

I think you'll notice a huge drop in your gas / electric costs in the new house. We definitely did! In your new house you will have more efficient heating, hot water and all sorts! Even our water bills dropped because of eco showers and eco flushes.

Just think - you have less than a month left of silly high energy bills!

Apparently turning a microwave and oven off at the wall saves quite a bit because the digital clock is pricy to run. Was it fluffy who told me that?

Right so NSD here! But am drooling over houses on Rightmove.

Your new house should have two or three thermostats too. So you can switch on the living room heating separately. Our upstairs only. Or downstairs only (apart from the living room). It's really cool! Because at night we're all upstairs and during the day we're mostly in the living room so it works really really well!

Yes will love being able to control the heating, storage heaters are such a PITA! I don't mind the bedrooms being cold so would really only need the living room to be heated. Although am moving in the summer time so shouldn't need heating on anyway!

Really wanted macdonalds but drove past it and have come home for lunch. Just sitting in the car though as ds is asleep!

Shitty morning here. Sorry, it's another Cagliostro Rant (TM).

Popped into work today to see the manager, as DD had an activity nearby and I wanted to get the next meeting arranged. She wasn't there, so I spoke to one of the deputies. She was horrible. It totally took me by surprise, she said all these things about how I should just quit and stop dragging it out, and then with eyebrow raised said 'oh no but I suppose you don't want to because that would affect your BENEFITS wouldn't it.' When I said that I didn't want to quit because I want to give the redeployment a chance in case they can find me something, because I am well enough to work in a desk role, she said well there's no point as there aren't any jobs. Even when I said the departments/locations they are looking at, she just kept saying it's pointless as I wouldn't be able to do it.

I held it together but the moment I walked out of the office I couldn't help crying. Thankfully a couple of the lovely, always-have-my-back colleagues there were really kind and mentioned they've found her really hard work lately, so I'm trying not to take it personally, but I feel destroyed. She was (is!) my line manager as well, we used to really get on. I don't know what happened to change it.

I get that it must be really frustrating having my hours sitting there and they can't interview for them, they have to have relief staff in, but they seem to have forgotten that I am an actual person, not just a set of hours.

Can't stop crying.

Oh Cag that's absolutely horrendous! There's no excuse for that kind of nastiness.

Try not to take it personally. Easier said than done, I know.

Would makes people so horrid? xx

What not would*^

Cag, that's awful, really horrible. What a nasty person! Try not to take any notice of her, and be glad that soon, you won't have to have anything more to do with her.

Cag that's shit

Oh Cag she sounds vile poor you. I had someone (ex boss) ask me if I was on drugs once as I was 'walking funny' er, that'll just be the normal way I walk thanks.

Rant away cag that sounds awful. In all seriousness write down what you remember of the conversation now while it's fresh. You might not need to do anything with it but just in case make a record of it. What she has done is technically bullying and may be against DDA.

That's awful, Cag. I'd second the advice to write it down. E-mail it to yourself too so it has a date stamp too.

You might never need it but it will be there if you do.

Thank you all it's good to know that it's not just my perception of it IYSWIM, I never know what is ok and what isn't. Obviously DH is furious but he is biased ;)

Seriously though yes I will be bringing it up. Next time I see my manager in person I will mention what the deputy said, and see what her reaction is. I don't think it's very professional to tell someone to quit. :(

Topcashback have matched quidco

That rubbish Cag. Sorry to hear you've had to deal with that, after plucking up the courage to go in.

She cspunds like a right cow cag maybe she realises she is losing a great team member or is generally a cow!

We were going to a farm park 45mins away today as dh is working 2hrs away today so went at 7am n home at 8pm, ds1 has teacher day so half way there ds1 says I don't really like farms (he chosebout choice few things) so we went to country park near where we were which is free anyway I did buy both boys a wooden fairtrade animal each in sale in little shop for 65p each.

Cag What a cow, nobody wants to be off ill. I would write it all down, she acted totally unprofessionally.

Collie It sounds like the sort of riveting info I come out with

Girlie When you move in check the ovens manual, it should tell you the wattage. Electric costs roughly 3 times as much as gas. So it's kWh X unit rate for the oven. The panels should pay for the dw or wm to run. I got the halogen oven because the main oven was pricey to run, I took the racks out and put the halogen oven in the main oven for storage.

I don't know why our builders put an electric oven but gas hob. I had them take the gas hob out and put induction in.

Cag what a cow, hope you are o.kay now

Have just read the puberty thread and bought 3 books on the subject for dd she has just started developing a bit more and I feel we need to be a bit better prepared! £13 for the books.

Ooh girlie which books did you get. My DD is 9 this year and that thread freaked me out a bit as she is still innocent.

I need to have The Chat with DCs too I think Girlie I'm kind of dreading it! Which is daft as my mum was always totally open with me about it. I feel like I've left it too late for it not to be a big deal I have a nice book though, one of the usborne ones, and DD (8) has also been asking more about babies etc. Sooo it's time. [ulp]

Thank you so much everyone. I feel a bit better now, just have post-cry stinging eyes now! DH has gone to work, I'm so glad he's on a late shift as we had plenty of time for a hug and chat about it (although a somewhat muted version due to presence of DCs!).

The good thing (possibly) is that when I have the next meeting, the overall uber manager will be there too. So if I say it then, my manager hopefully can't ignore or minimise it (which has crossed my mind as a possibility TBH, since they are friends).

In other more positive news I just received the proof of the book I edited - looks so cool :o will have to arrange a time to show the author though, not so easy when we are a couple of counties apart - will see if I can maybe email it to mum instead (she introduced us in the first place) as she lives nearer.