So, I have started to apply for new jobs.

As I mentioned in my last post my work are not getting back to me about a flexible work request I submitted in August.  Well they did get back to me with a meeting date on the 22nd of November, then cancelled it and have not got back to me.  Considering my leave is due to turn into annual leave on the 14th of December this is cutting it really, really fine.  Although I'm not due to go back until late Jan after my leave.  I really don't want to go back five days a week, I couldn't imagine being away from Skint Junior for that amount of time each week.

So today I have started applying for new part-time jobs, specifically one doing senior admin at the University which I used to work at.  I loved it there, I loved the purpose of working towards peoples education.  The job I'm in at the moment is mainly concerned with I.T. sales.  And it's boring.  Oh so boring.  Quite like working with the geeks though, they're a lot of fun, particularly on works nights out.  But really I don't come home with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction because I have administered the sale of two software servicing contracts, I really don't.

And although the money is similar it would mean losing my bonus.  Which I don't always get and wouldn't be that big if I was part-time.

And really I'm not that motivated by money, perhaps this is why I'm skint?

Today we sat down for a serious conversation.

So last week my mother found a letter stuffed under a sofa seat which said that my husband had a CCJ.  This has prompted the 'serious conversation' of sitting down with the husband to discuss exactly which debts he has.

It's around £7100.00 all told that we have to worry about.  My folks have offered £2k towards them. So we've had to sit down and decide which debt to pay it against.  The repayments are quite high, about £80 a week and hopefully this will reduce them by £25 which is quite a lot of money to us.

This has been stressful, just discussing the debts - even though it is with potential to pay part back, just the thought of the debt makes every sinew tighten and my hackles rise.  Although it may not sound a lot we're not on a big income so it's an awful, awful amount of money to us, particularly when our outgoings and incomings are very similar with little room to economise.  These are also debts which have already been through the court process so any default could lead straight to bailiffs at our door.

It wouldn't be too bad but we are in a very uncertain situation at the moment with my work as they are messing me about with my flexible working request.  I put the request in August and didn't hear anything back until recently when they arranged a meeting for the 22nd November but now even that has been cancelled. I'm supposed to be finishing mat leave and going onto annual leave next month with a return in January next year.

However if they turn down my request which was for a 3 day working week I don't think I could bear to go back and leave the baby I have tried for 10 years for in a nursery 5 days a week and just see him at weekends.  This does raise the spectre that if I am not working for a while we may end up in a situation where we can't meet the payments and I hate to think of what would happen if we defaulted.

Anyway, trying to be positive and apply for some part time jobs, perhaps in something more rewarding than the job I have at the moment.

All this and it's poor Mr Skint's birthday today. It has not been particularly festive.

Such is being a skint Mum, but onwards and upwards, we will get through this, a lot less upbeat than yesterday though.

Sometimes I feel like a scummy mummy

I have been out today.  Softplay.  The council estate of baby activities.  In fairness it is not bad value, £2.00 for a coffee and biscuit which includes a song and signing session with babies and a play on the softplay bit which Skint Junior loves.

And it's an excuse for us to eat junk. Yes I know I shouldn't.  But we like it. And my excuse is that it's good for his motor skills.  Giving a baby cucumber sticks is all very well and good, but if you really want him building up some speed and working out how to agilely move his hand at a rapid speed from plate to mouth chips is the only way forward.  People who stick to carrots will still have their babies poking themselves in the eye with sticks months after clever little chip monsters have worked our where their gob is and the most efficient way to shovel fries into it at top speed. It's all about incentive innit.

Then he had a banana.  And we felt smug.

One of the mums I met up with had organised four little plastic pots which she takes everywhere with her always topped up with breadsticks, cucumber, tomatoes and plum.  We felt less smug and more scummy.

In fact the moment she whipped them out I was cack handedly trying to sort out a bottle of formula.  The ring of the bottle went flying across the floor, of course I couldn't find it so she had to point it out for me.  So she knew it had been on the floor.  And Skint Junior REALLY wanted that bottle.  So I'm left with a choice between a screaming unhappy thirsty baby or blatantly bunging a bottle which has had parts which have recently been sitting on a floor in a public area in my baby's gob.  I rubbed it on my jumper, muttered something about it being good for his immune system and went for it. He has not as yet shown any ill effects.

I have today picked out a birthday present for Mr Skint with that facility beloved of Skint Mums everywhere of credit.  This is usually A VERY BAD THING but I figure we have Christmas coming and I can use some of the present money to pay it off.  I've bought him a lovely t-shirt from Next.  Well it's quite lovely. It's alright. I hope he won't use it as a dishcloth.  And a jumper which I quite like but he probably won't wear.  I have inserted pictures so you can giggle at my poor taste/feel sorry for Mr Skint.

So I've come home, fed SJ something healthy and homemade from the Annabel Karmel book.  He ate nearly all of it and now the cat is finishing it off. (Separately from the baby, even I draw the line at cat/baby eating from a bowl at the same time).  I find the Annabel Karmel stuff is quite good because you can make loads of it and freeze so it works out quite economical but that's another blog.  Perhaps I will witter on about that tomorrow.  But there I do feed him some healthy stuff, perhaps I am not so scummy after all.

And I've watched Coronation Street and got quite angry about Marcus who is gay suddenly not being gay any more and being in love with Maria. I didn't think it' worked like that. Charlie Condou, who plays Marcus is a veteran gay campaigner and I'm rather surprised he agreed to do a story line like this.  It rather implies being gay is temporary or something that can be changed or 'cured' in a way which I'm not sure I feel comfortable with.

HA! There I had a left wing liberal political thought, even though I feed my baby chips that must make me a good person and not at all scummy.

And now I am off to eat some vegetable based .slop from a recipe of of Weight Watchers website. Again, healthy and unscummy, whilst also being a relatively cheap one to do consisting mostly of a can of beans, tomatoes and mushrooms and some spices to actually make it taste of something approaching pleasant.

But there is my day in a nutshell, I've even managed to convince myself I am not that scummy though any readers may disagree. In fact in honour of my non-scummyness I may share a Petit Filous with Skint Junior.  See, even got some French education in there, definitely not a scummy mummy at all.
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